project #099 -- Destination silly fast

[t70]

Here's a shot of the engine in plastic.. patiently awaiting it's additional parts and a place in it's natural home..

I'm not sure if you all have seen my rear car cover.. but I spent a night sewing it up a year or so ago.. It has prevented many many scratches, chips etc.. you can even rest all your tools on the side of the car now..

[t70]

I received my Thrust bearings and finally got to install them and torque up my crankshaft finally. Here's a shot of the torque process...

And my favorite torque wrench.. I love this thing. It is so much more accurate than a standard "click type" wrench

I also decided to chase every thread in the block..

And then.. I got bored and went to the neighbors place and spent 6 hours (at least) polishing the intake for his Fox Body Mustang GT

Before...

After

And finally.. I have my JE forged v8 pistons available for purchase now. They were in the engine for 2000 miles.

Make me an offer

[Bibs]

Pop 'em in the classifieds Mark

[t70]

Well.. I got a little more done. Managed to get my chain tensioned with my handy tool I had custom made by a friend of mine:

And.. The same friend managed to make me a keyed setup for the bottom cam-belt gears:

And he made me some egr block off plates and a delete kit for the Secondary Air injection. I will post pics of those when I get them mounted on the heads etc..

[t70]

Well. My cousin came down this weekend and we decided to polish some more bits. We polished the coolant pipes and the intercooler reservoir. After that.. we got ambitious.. and decided to polish the valve covers. They aren't totally done yet, but here's an idea of what they will look like:

And.. during the process... we had a little accident with the grinder....

[Bibs]

[ramjet]

That's way past a little accident Mark!

 

I've always thought it odd that we look at all these bits for engines and go Ooh and Aah and then we hide 'em away inside the engine.

[t70]

Yeah.. it was a bit of a whoopsy. He was using my dremel with the snake attachment to get the finer details while I was using the grinder. The dremel was about to fall off the bench and he reached to grab it as I was making a pass with the grinder.. Ouch! Anyhow.. as for the shiny bits.. The valve cover is plenty visible. Though.. I suppose if you are referring to the car with the engine bay closed.. it's not.

[t70]

Well.. some more waiting.. so that means more polishing... I thought I had polished to a nice shine before.. but no... here's the before and after:

Its still not really done.. I haven't got all the paint off yet... but it's getting there.

[t70]

Man.. I need to get some real parts back.. this polishing is getting obsessive.

[Bibs]

It is very shiny though! No more blood?

[t70]

hehe.. no more blood. And... likely only about 5-10 more hours of polishing and sanding to go

[ramjet]

I actually meant all the shiny pistons and conrods etc from Acme Go-Faster Parts etc that we all drool over and then they get hidden away inside the block.

[t70]

Ahhhh.. Now I gotcha. yeah.. that is disappointing.. but, I guess that's why we have threads like this, so that we can show people after.. here's how pretty the stuff was that goes inside.. lol

[ramjet]

Why can't someone make a block out of see through metal or perspex or something?

[t70]

Actually.. there was a discovery in the 1990's that was in popular science called "air steel".. I can't find it on google.. but I do remember it. It was the strength of steel, and it looked like smokey air. It was as light as air and it was as strong as steel. I am surprised it never went anywhere, but it seemed like it was going to be the ultimate material for engines... too bad it never went anywhere...

[oneshot]

I read an article some time ago about Loughborough University doing some work on engines and they had a see through engine. They had an industrial partner at the time

 

Here you go

 

Optical engine

[garry_ludwar@hotmail.com]

So since I'm not around anymore to sacrifice flesh and blood to the car gods you have resorted to attacking your own family just to provide offerings

[Alex Carter]

What the tool for on the front plate mark chain tensioning ?

[t70]

What the tool for on the front plate mark chain tensioning ?

Yup.. I had it made by a friend.

Works like a charm.

Here's the latest progress pics..

The Carillo rods do not come with a torque spec, but they do come with a stretch spec. So, in order to determine the torque necessary on the bolts, I had to measure each bolt's stretch on each rod.. here's a pic of that process:

Once that was done, I went to Home Depot and bought a hole saw that matched the outside diameter of the liners, so that they could sit in a wooden jig to fit my rings and pre-fit the pistons in. Why do it this way? Well.. I still need to seal my liners into the block and the head should be put on fairly quickly after the liners are set in. So, to reduce time pressure, if I install the pistons into the liners first, then put the liners in the block, I don't have to worry about the time it would take to get the pistons in. So.. here's the setup:

And.. here's the pistons in the liners -- I have Ziploc bags over them to keep the dust out:

And finally... I did some more polishing.. one of my valve covers is now completely polished.

[t70]

Well.. I finally got my heads back from the machine shop. I still need the bearings to be finished, but, so far, I am actually making some progress. However, I am going to check all my bores to ensure they are absolutely perfect before I put the heads on.

I also made a decision... I decided that the red engine just wasn't going to work for the polished look... so.. I went black:

And.. this means that I have to polish all the intercooler piping as well...

[t70]

Well... today was productive.. We managed to get the liners installed and the heads on today. So, basically, all I am missing at the moment is one o-ring for the water pump (got the wrong o-ring twice) and the rod bearings.

Here's some more of the update:

Basically, we had to clean the liners for about 10 minutes each with clean paper towels and brake cleaner. This was an enormous pain in the ass. Also, we had to do the same to each liner bore. The nice thing is that the pistons were already in the liners. The Pistons also had to be oriented the correct way. The pistons have a high thrust and a low thrust side to them and if it was to be done wrong... it would be catastrophic.

Here are some pics:

Liner sealant done. Little bit of excess so I know it's sealed.

Here's the liners installed:

And here's the head gasket on..

And.. finally, I wrapped it all up as I wait for the bearings.

[M3S2k]

work is looking awesome Mark.  Can't wait to hear how she goes once she's all together again!

[t70]

Thanks Steve!

Well folks. I've come to a bit of an issue.. the oil squirters are not lining up with the new piston design. The project will be on hold for a little while as I design a new oil squirting system.

[Alex Carter]

Please explain how it works and why what's the method of the tension .