Right you are sir... I wouldn't dream of doing all this without painting the block.

Interestingly this block was black already.. and EL blocks were not painted by defaut.. makes me think this engine was a rebuild as it still has some small areas of crosshatching on the bores and I can't find a thing that doesn't look new.. and like I said, the block was black. I suspect that the EL wagon this was pulled from had not had it's new engine long before someone rammed it up the rear and wrote it off. (pretty happy as I got the whole thing for 150 back when I was just looking for a head.)

Anway, block was scrubbed to within an inch of its life and repainted.. all the brass welch plugs are in and every gasket surface is spotless and ready to be reassembled.







I am also putting the modified EA-D air con bracket and the engine mount I trimmed the corner off of so the charger fits so it's less work to do once she has gone over the pits to get the engine number updated and Manual written on the rego papers.

I have two new shiny genuine ford MLS gaskets here and I'm wondering if I could put both in to lower the compression somewhat. I suspect that I'm going to have too much compression to run much boost on petrol (which is ok cos I plan to run GAS mostly but still.... the compression will be high as the engine is nearly new, has MLS gasket instead of composite and the XR head has been milled at least twice in its life... Has anyone run two MLS gaskets to lower compression before?

I hope to have the engine finished tomorrow and start attaching it to the gearbox ready for the swap. Gonna paint the engine bay in Shockwave blue while I have it out. (the whole car will eventually be that colour)

cheers

Frank

Looks great!

Cheers

ToranaGuy

Open the chambers in the head a little?

Yeah, that was my thought too.. unfortunately I'm on time constraints.. have to have the car drivable by thursday... and that includes the Manual change over. thats why I was wondering about the MLS gaskets.. perhaps if I have ping issues I can get a thick copper gasket made up.

I'm fairly sure ACL do a couple of thickness copper head gaskits for the SOHC I6 ford engine. Worth checking out.

Cheers

ToranaGuy

Hey guys,

I've been looking at this snippet:


Of this file:
http://www.infrastructure.gov.au/roads/ ... 011_v3.pdf


That seems to be saying that I can do it easy (LA1 is much easier than LA3) if I put a non standard boosted engine in rather than add boost to the existing engine.

Interesting question, is:
What was the most powerful engine ever offered in an EL? would that be the EL GT with 200kW ?? (geeze, that's pretty crap by todays standards isn't it?)

I know ford did make a supercharged EL, but did they ever register it?
Does anyone know if any kits using the M90 on an i6 have been ADR certified?

cheers

Frank

If you can run your stock ECU, you may not have to get an emissions test done, as technically the car is still compliant in that regards. This will limit your power & boost levels tho.

There were a few ADR compliant turbo E series car's built and registered, AIT and another mob come to mind. Knowing there were boosted car's adr'd means it can be done.

Do you have an engineer you have been consulting on this project?

Cheers

ToranaGuy

Hi Toranaguy,

I work at a uni so I've consulted with the engineers there quite a bit (they build cars and hovercraft and other things as projects) I do need to make a more formal arrangement with a engineer specialising in car modifications though.

As for the ECU, I have a high volume fuel pump and rising rate reg... If I match that with TD magna injectors and one of TI's chips, I should be able to get a workable setup with a decent improvement going.. I'm now thinking of I go for 220rwkw I might get away with the easiest standard of licensing.

I was never going for maximium power anyway otherwise I'd have followed the turbo route everyone else has.. I want maximium torque, driveability which I'd use all the time rather than maximium power at high RPM that I'd hardly ever use.. so if I can get to 220kw I'd be pretty happy with that I guess.

im not sure about wa, but in nsw the engineering part had nothing to do with how much power it was putting out, the main concerns were engine capacity didnt exceed 15% of factory fitted engines, braking abilities with the modifications and the car had to comply will all the adr's that were on the car from factory.. which ment emissions, ride hight, noise and wheel track ect..

Are the WA rules anything like the eastern states when it comes to these things?

Cheers

ToranaGuy

Hi Troyman,

Thats good to know. I was only going from what is in that government PDF that is dated: VERSION 2.0 JANUARY 2011.

I think it might be federal rather than state, but I'd guess that most of the engineers and licensing folk are still going by older regs based on engine size alone. (If you read that PDF, its the first time that they've made a real effort to differentiate engine size from power, meaning the biggest NA engine you can fit and the biggest boosted engine you can fit, are considerably different.

Did you have to make many brake mods in order to get passed?

FYI, from reading transport.wa.gov.au it looks like WA is pulling into line with Federal standards, they refer back to fed gov documentation for nearly everything. In particular VSB14.

http://www.transport.wa.gov.au/licensin ... .asp#21152

although i did get mine engineered in june 09, so things can change..
originally when mine was engineered for the supercharger, the engineer did a stopping/brake test, and passed it with the factory brakes..
but when i went back to re engineer it for the turbo he was very very iffy about passing it withought a brake upgrade, lucky for me he had previously engineered it for the supercharger so he let it go as i had upgraded to slotted rotors front and rear..

it does depend on the engineer you go to, some are fair and some are strict..


ohh yea, its really good to you havnt abandoned it as alot of people seem to do.lol..

I take forever, but I don't really ever give up.. I still have a 351 XC sundowner van in the shed that I've slowly been welding up... I've been working on that for well over a decade on and off..

In my defense I've gotten married and had 3 children in that time so I've not had time to be as active as I would like... My boat and trailer are desperate for attention too.

As far as the brakes go.. I have slotted and dimpled rotors on the front and ABS... since my requirements are lower than yours thats probably enough wouldn't you say?


Incidently, I used to click on the "latest posts" link all the time, but can't find it anymore, is it still around anywhere?

OK, the engine is done. As you can see, I got alittle overzealous with the hydromar around the timing cover and water pump. (better to have it and not need it...........)



All that remains is to get it out of the engine stand and wack in a spigot bearing, change out the rear main seal while I'm there and then wack the manual flywheel and clutch/pressure plate.

Any tips for that bit? I've never played with a T5 before now so I'm hoping it's as simple as it looks. The book doesn't show anything unusual so I'm guessing not.

In regards to fitting the clutch & flywheel? Only tip I really have is to fit a new shim under the clutch fork, where the pivot bolt is. If you have a clutch alignment tool it will be really easy. If the engine has never had a manual gearbox, installing the spigot is too easy, just tap it into place.

Engine is looking real good man!

Cheers

ToranaGuy