Been busy blowing s**t up one thing after another. Got car regod and started retuning. Started off 14psi and worked up to 18psi with good results. Then added a little more duty cycle hit 20psi and bounced off the limiter a few times in 2nd then backed off and it lost a cyl with steam pouring out exhaust. Got it back and pulled head. Blown gasket in cyl 5 and 1 just pushed into galleries a little. Same timing as before. Thought it must just need less timing so I pulled 6degrees and began again on low boost working up slowly.

Was fine again till I went a little more on the boost controller stood on it in 2nd then as soon as boost came on hard it went bang and lost all power. I thought it had chucked a rod or snapped timing chain it was that loud. I had the headphones on listening for knock but it all happened so quick only heard a massive bang. Mic is right next to were headgasket blew out probably why it was so loud. Smoke was everywere. I pulled the plugs, covered in coolant. Trailered it home and pulled the head again to find this!





Seems motor was not happy at all with this tune. Afr in the mid 10s timing down to 10-12d and hit a peak of 19psi before it went bang. Damage is way worse than the last one that let go with 6d more timing same fuel tune/afr. Weird something is not right and im beginning to realsie i have NFI on e85 tuning. So ontop of damage to the headgasket the rod looks to be bent. It sits 3mm lower than the rest at tdc. Couldnt feel any free play in the bearing either.



The damage on the top of piston 3 is from the fire ring of headgasket blowing into cyl and bouncing around. Anyway chucked a gasket in to try go for broke seeing as this motor was rooted anyway. Comp on cyl 4 was 115psi rest were at 155psi. Then had spark issues appear and it wouldnt take more that 12psi without blowout issues. Thrashed it for a while till it sounded like it really had a dying cyl. Comp tested again and its down to 60psi, with oil only 80psi. Must have bent more lol. Dosnt make any funny noises and if i hadnt seen the piston sitting lower i would have guessed a dying piston.

So had a rummage through my parts pile and found a spare piston/rod to bang in it tomorrow ready for drags sat. No idea why the spark is playing up again even boosted the alt to charge 15volts no change. Hopefully its just the low comp on that cyl acting up.

So yes im sick of changing headgaskets but can do them in my sleep now

Sorry this will be a long post all filled with fail but geez ive learnt a lot and have sorted my tune issues so i guess its been worth it. So friday started at 6am and didnt finish till 1am working flat out. Yanked motor and box, ripped head off and measured how far piston was bent down, still 3mm. Pulled sump and piston 4, as the piston came out all the ring land fell away it was rooted, rod was bent but hard to tell by looking. Wacked another piston in and assembled it all with old bearing as it was still fine.

Took a trip to the upullit wreckers and got another tourque convertor as this one had picked up a little noise again. Put it in and bolted up trans. Motor went back in smoothly and bolted the rest up. Filled it with water and what do you know the damn metal heater pipe was leaking from around the water pump. Pulled it off to fit a new 'o' ring to find the pipe was rusted through were the 'o' ring sits. Bummer so i had to block off the heating system and weld a spare heater pipe shut as it was getting to late to pull manifold and replace pipe.

Then went to start it and in my rush i hadnt put the serp belt on properally and it came off and wrapped the belt around the balancer a zilllion times took 30mins just getting that out. Had a spare belt but it was a little short an squeeled like mad as alt charged on first start. Ran good and everything seemed ok so around 9pm went for a quick test drive, drove nice and smooth, quiet, so i gave it a stab in 2nd to about 5grand, pulled smooth. As i backed off it picked up a dirty knock, pulled over checked and it sounded like a spun bearing. I was p****d.

Got home and weighed up my options, too late to pull motor, i thought meh ill chop a hole in the sump to get at rod bearing. Sounded like it was coming from the back so i started there.


From that hole i could drop number 6 bearing, looked good. Couldnt get to number 5 but it had no freeplay and looked ok. Damn must be the front. Chopped an even bigger hole in the front.



Removed pick up which was a b**ch sticking your hands up into a hot motor with sharp edges everywere. All 1-4 rod bearings again had no freeplay. Hmm, i could get to 2,3 and 4 so i checked them, all fine. At this point i had no idea what was knocking but concluded it cant be that bad so welded sump back together. Oh what a fun job, spent at least an hour welding away at the thin 1mm steel.

Put oil in it and found a billion leaks. Drain oil, weld and repeat till it was almost leak free, prob a drip every 5mins. Took it for a quick drive knock still there as loud as ever, definately a knock not a ticking noise. Got back and comp tested it all, 150 all round with the dodgy number 4 at 130. So by now it was 1am and hit the hay for a 6am start.
Got up, packed tools and stuff. Drove their knocking away then randomly stopped in an instant. What a ****! Guessing it was a lifter issue but sure didnt sound like it. All that messing around for nothing, but at least it was quiet. Got there and setup, bolted on et streets and passed scruiteneering no worries.

First pass was on 12psi, 14-18degrees the whole day unchanged. Launched on 8psi but felt flat off the line and through the gears 2.0 60ft, 12.4@114mph. Upped the boost to 14psi and had what seemed like spark issues. Tryed more boost 16psi and was still crap. Fixed the lean issue on the stall with the nitrous and cut a 1.8 60ft followed by missfiring. Then a 1.71 60ft on 10psi launch, felt awsome and made me remember why im doing all this again but again a s**t run. Next run took off in 2nd and was worse than ever.
By this time it was 5.30 and i had had it with the car and packed up headed home. On the way back i was messing around with it, with just the 6x60lbers and 8psi it was still missfiring, wound controller to 100% duty max boost and eased into it watching boost gauge was gay till about 12-14psi and then cleared out and pulled decent/clean put foot down more and at about 16psi it started lean popping out intake. Hmmm seemed to like it lean. Put one of the extra injectors back in and hit it again watching boost gauge. I was expecting a bang/mess but as i was around the corner from home and my day racing was done i didnt care. Well it missed till 16-18psi then pulled hard and clean. Set the duty to 18psi and hit it in 2nd straight to limiter wtf making awsome power. Thrashed it sensless for 10mins and no blow up.
I felt like getting out and kicking the crap out of the car. Why had it blown up before on this boost, same timing?? AH HA it had the 2nd extra inj on. Too rich = Bang. But it went bang with the same fuel setting, just the one extra inj with 10-12d timing. Not enough timing= even bigger bang. So ive learnt with this car E85 likes it lean 12-13afr and plenty of timing 18degrees on 18psi. Pity it took me a week to suss this out. Too "safe" isnt safe at all. Up untill now id heard this but assumed it was an unusual condition.
I decided to head back to the track as they were running till 10pm. Waited till grudge runs about 8pm and headed out. Burnout was a sure sign power was being made, no missing straight to limiter in 3rd. Staged and waited for car next to me to stage holding it at 1600rpm just off full throttle/nitrous coming on. As soon as ambers dropped i went WOT and launched on the green but with a 1 sec reaction. F**k BANG then limiter and car felt wierd, stood on it again and straight to limiter as i backed off it veired to the left so i new something was busted. Limped it down the track and had a look. Snapped axle. Checked data logs and no s**t it snapped left on full boost 18psi! And got to that in 1.5secs. Before running poorly it took 4 secs to hit 10psi even with nitrous.
So i packed up and limped home dissapointed but hey im happy to know cars showing awsome potential and next year when racings back on i can chase some 11s. Had i cut a 1.7 60ft on one of my 126mph runs it would have been a mid 11 for sure. When i got home gear oil was all over the tire so it may even be worse than just a snapped axle, sure was making some evil noises.

So no racing on now till next year. Need to replace my bastardised sump and fix the diff and its good to go again. Also need to work out some way of regulating boost on stall as it comes on way too fast. Prob wont work on it for a bit now kinda sick off looking at it haha.

Diff is all repaired. Turned into a big job though. The snapped axle didn't snap clean, it took out the LH carrier bearing and destroyed the centre, messed up the spline in the locker and destroyed the lh wheel bearing. Was not easy getting the centre out with the snapped piece of axle poking out. Put another centre in with mini-spool and 2 new axles. The rh axle was twisted too. Gears are still 3.08. I will be doing axle checks frequently don't want to go through all that again.

Added a screamer pipe today for some laughs cant wait to see how it sounds. The drags are not on till next year so going to have a bash at a burnout comp at speedway city. Cars going hard as at the moment. Plenum makes good mid/top end power but without the bbms longer runners/butterflys off boost driving has lost power. Once its got a few psi in, it comes good.

Its doing identical 7.7sec 100-200 times with 4psi less boost same tune which im happy with. Boost curve has been dropping slowly by 4psi from 5000rpm to limiter. I moved gate line from hot to cold piping guessing cooler is becoming a slight restriction at these power levels. Either that or I need a stiffer gate spring still only using a 6psi spring.

I love seeing the diary of a grass roots racer. Top stuff.

With your AFR's are they scaled AFR's or true AFR's. I remember reading somewhere that AFR gauges typically display the AFR for petrol regardless of what fuel is being run because they actually read lambda but the gauge is calibrated for petrol.

Cheers mate, using normal petrol afrs so target afrs end up the same on e85. My old wideband was just faulty.

Drove this around a heap today. Screamer pipe sounds tuff as I love it, loud as F**k and feels like its added 100hp haha. I reckon moving the gates ref line has sorted the boost drop off too. Hard to say for sure as it was turning tyres to the limiter so not as much load but data logs looked good and power is as good as its ever been. Left shifter in 3rd on one roll on wont do that again fryed 2nd then changed into 3rd and baked them to the limiter all out of shape trying to keep the boat straight, wasn't expecting that haha.

Now the weathers warmed up again my cold starts are s**t and it runs rich as for about 30secs wouldn't even come on boost today till it warmed up again, spluttering rich. I seem to remember there being a cold start adder table that should sort it with some mucking around.

Also got a turbine heat shield made from a stainless pot which should help s**t from melting. I hooked up my air temp sensor too. Today was 30deg and cruising temps were around that. Temps drop down to 10degrees under boost the e85 from extra injector must be doing this as im not running any water/meth inj at the moment.

Went to the skids sat night, did alright at the start but overheated within 20secs temp gauge buried in the red then power dropped off. I assumed it was just because it was mega hot but driving it today boost is down to 14psi max lol and peak boost recorded on boost controller was 16psi for the skid. Most likely a boost leak some were, one of the hoses off the cooler looks suss as.

Any way was on the limiter in 3rd prity much straight away was funny looking down seeing the speedo bounce around past 220kph. Didn't go out again as no point with it running hot. Killed a set of 50-75% tread tyres down to the wire in 30secs which ive never done before. Once it cooled down it took about 3l of water and drove it home again which is always a bonus and surprised a few people I reckon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mI-XK2FvoA

So made up a boost leak tester today that plugs the entry to the turbo and pressurises the system. Funny how many leaks I had at first it would only hold 6psi. Found big leak from cooler hot side piping, throttle idle solenoid poured out so I blanked it off, booster line, all the stock vac lines in the junction block, data logger map sensor, intake fitting and also blank off fittings in cooler piping. Sorted them out and put in a 1bar waste gate spring too. Any one with a turbo car this is well worth doing id say most cars will have a leak some were.

Has made a good difference power is strong as, blazes tyres at 100k roll ons like mad straight into 3rd on limiter. No idea of how fast it is traction isn't there but should be quick when it hooks. Boost is 19 dropping to 18psi. Swapped from the 1600cc to an 1800cc 7th injector as it was initially gripping up in 3rd, more fuel solved that haha. Drags wont be back till march they reckon the time is going to go slow, keen for more racing

Today I made up a quick spool plate to effectively halve the turbine A/R by blocking one side of the twin scroll. I had thought it would help spool a bit but totally kill mid-top end full boost power. Results were amazing. Spool is improved majorly, even at half throttle in 2nd I was seeing 18psi @ 2700rpm (with crazy lean afrs) and low-mid power is way higher/earlier. That's a 1000rpm improvement. Top end power is noticeably down but not by as much as id thought maybe 20-30ish rwkw peak power but the curve would be so much fatter. Without the quick spool plate it would bounce off the limiter at 5900rpm in 3rd doing 100kay roll ons. With the spool plate fitted it still spins into 3rd but holds around 5000rpm which suggests that's were peak power is or were power falls off.

Id say for below 10-15psi the quick spool plate is worth fitting depending on application with this setup. Above that the turbine gets a bit restrictive for higher boost. A quick spool valve that changes over from one side to both would be ideal giving awesome low down and top end. Bloody thing comes up on the stall like a dream too, quick as, wouldn't even need spray.

The tune would need addressing as boost is in so much earlier the low-midrange will be lean as. Mine was out to 17afr at 2700rpm. Comparing logs full boost is in 1.5secs sooner too. Interesting stuff.

Took the spool plate out again getting this prepped for the drags. Took a mate for a boot on the weekend and the fukin thing was well down on power still fast but wouldn't even bake 2nd to the limiter and no 3rd gear wheel spin. Hadn't changed anything so put it down to the hot weather. It did get me thinking that last time cam timing was done I was in a rush so figured id check it to be sure.

With rocker cover removed cam timing was in a weird position, hard to explain but maybe half to 3/4 of a tooth above the rocker cover face on the head. Looked like it might be closer if the cam gear spun around one tooth. Set it up and now the line sat just down a few mm below the machined rocker cover face. Hmm didn't look right either but I thought may as well try it anyway as chain is likely stretched. Started up and first thing I noticed was it was lumpy as **** idling at 8-10in hg lol definitely wrong but went for a drive for a laugh. Driving it was immediately noticeable it came into boost quicker not like the spool plate but still felt way different. From a standing start it baked 1-3 although not to the limiter in 3rd like before it felt like an improvement as 2nd now went straight to limiter.

Just to be sure I put cam timing back to how it was and tested again. Same as before felt bit weak. Noticed peak boost down to 17psi wound extra few % duty cycle and wham peels to the limiter once again 20psi, that extra few pound make all the difference might be bit too rich on lower boost.

So if I get time ill go back to one tooth retarded and try again now boost is back to normal. Getting sick of this old ebc seen better days often gives fuked boost curves with just the spring its always perfect, have a 2nd spring for it too add.

So here's a log showing difference, only change was cam timing moved one tooth. As you can see it comes on sooner, 0.75secs sooner from 7psi onwards. Dotted lines old cam timing.

And one from before, quick spool plate vrs no plate. Done in 1st gear without stalling up off the line. 1.25 second improvement to full boost and 2400rpm quicker to full boost! 2nd gear with less wheelspin/more load sees 19psi @2700rpm, 3rd (1:1) would be lower rpm again.

Stuck a 2nd spring in the gate makes 20-21 off the spring now and boost curves are back to normal. Making some good power now standing on it at 140 in 3rd it still gets a heap of wheel spin and pulls like a mofo. Lining up some dyno time for it next week.

This is my favorite thread on fordmods. I've learned heaps too which is always good.

If you were in Perth I'd give you my two spare EL engines just to see then used for this. I also have two spare diff's.. Then you could stop repairing stuff and just replace them. I'm also impressed with your attitude.. A blown head gasket normally means a week of mild depression for me before I man up and get it done, but you don't stress about it at all.

Chopping the bottom out of your sump to check the big ends had me chuckling.. The sort of thing we'd do back on the farm...

Awesome thread..

Thanks man, glad you've got a bit out of it. Too bad im over here I would love free motors, lucky they seem to hang together prity well. Head gaskets don't phase me done so many of them its only a 4-5hr job can do it in my sleep. Easier than replacing pistons.