Build Thread 1978 Mercury Cyclone. The pig is in the pen.

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#6,921
Davedacarpainter said:
It's cool that it didn't have any real major issues.

Ring gap though? Don't you just check that by slipping a ring into the bore? Maybe i'm oversimplifying
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Nope. That's the way it's done. I gotta talk to piston guy tomorrow and see what he says about what I found,( and didn't find) I'm sure he'll tell me what he wants to see for measurements on ring end gap, and whatever else.
You can see way more scuffing on th thrust side of the piston. That may be normal for a turbo engine. I'll ask him about flipping the piston around so the other side will get its fair share of thrust as well.
I'm considering a gap less ring set. Especially if the reason that three cylinders that were low were because of my poor ring gapping skills.
 
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#6,923
The piston guy was right.
I would see the problem with my naked eye. And I know now how to fix it.

I have to stop smoking crack.

With the #5 top ring pushed 1" down in the bore and squared up, measures............031"

It's supposed to be .025.
And that is only IF I go over 15 psi.
IF I keep this engine under 15 psi...
It's supposed to be .020.

It's also supposed to have a nice, square end surface that meets the other end surface...

Mine is all wonky, and un square.

I know what happened. It's simple. I messed up.


Clearly, the ring gapping process requires a very dedicated work ethic, and the right equipment to do it.
I thought I had the right equipment by buying one of those hand cranked ring filing wheels. I am certainly capable of doing tedious work...I built the entire ECU from a kit as a testimonial to that.

If only I hadn't smoked that crack pipe..:nonono:..What was I thinking?:nonono:

The good thing is that the same ring set is only 85.00 bucks for a six ring set, or 132.00 for a V8 set ( which leaves two complete sets should I not be able to resist the Siren call of the Crack pipe mistress.)

The six cylinder set isn't in stock, (I'd have to wait till the first week in January to get it.) the 8 cylinder set is. ( Go figure,....you 8 hole boys always get your cookies, ANND your milk at the same time)
I want to order a taper style ring compressor too,...getting the 6 cyl set leaves room in the budget to get that...

It's not like I'm going anywhere anyways, and there is a lot of reconfiguring to the existing stuff that I wanna do as well....Screw it,..I'm ordering the 6 banger set, and the ring compressor.
 
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#6,924
Stay away from crack....you'll go to jail....rehab is for people that eat, sniff, and smoke opiods....you could blame it on the epidemic.:O_o:

You built a custom engine but can't gap rings... I don't believe it. That's like a tire change guy that doesn't know how to reset a TPMS system. They kinda " go hand in hand ".

Glad you decided to go through this process. The monster is going to tear up the street when you're done.

No more worries, right ?
 
#6,925
90sickfox said:
Stay away from crack....you'll go to jail....rehab is for people that eat, sniff, and smoke opiods....you could blame it on the epidemic.:O_o:

You built a custom engine but can't gap rings... I don't believe it. That's like a tire change guy that doesn't know how to reset a TPMS system. They kinda " go hand in hand ".

Glad you decided to go through this process. The monster is going to tear up the street when you're done.

No more worries, right ?
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No, can't say that there aren't any more worries....I still have to gap 12 more "new" rings.
A dozen chances to phck up all over again.

I ordered the new ones from Summit. He called Total Seal to check on their estimated ship date, they told him that the product was in stock, and only needed to be boxed up, and shipped.
I had a Summit 25.00 gift card, a 25.00 Visa gift card from work,. The rings sold at 85 Bucks minus the fifty, free bucks I was able to use towards that purchase......That means 35 dollars for my new rings......Cha freakin Ching.

So,..that leaves the re-do's on the things I wanna do different....and a bunch of cleaning and re painting.
 
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#6,930
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#6,933
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So, the last of it is apart. Every bit looks just as good as the rods did.

7 mains boys,...count em. This is the main reason that this stock combo will be able to withstand exposure to almost quadruple the stock rated HP of 99 whopping ponies. (Try doing that with a 5.0 block) You literally can only blow them up by neglect, but I'm sure that 15 psi, and 6000 rpm will test those boundaries. I gotta admit, I hated to tear this thing apart, but seeing that everything is so nice inside completely removes my concerns about possible contamination from dirt, gasket material and metal shavings, ( The head was off 3 times before as it is) and puts my mind at ease about leaning on it as heavily this time around. It'll only be cleaner the second time around.
 
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#6,935
stangboy said:
Are there any companies out there that make bullets main caps for that block? Just thinking about more strength for more boost. :eek::eek::eek:
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No,...there is somebody in Australia building a main cap girdle for it, but the stock main caps have to be cut significantly to allow the thing to lay flat, and cutting them that much just don't make no sense.
 
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#6,937
HotFox said:
Looks Good! Did you not about run the thing out of oil at least once too?

Nice looking Crankshaft! Fully counter weighted!
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Yes,......now that you mention it I almost did. I had to have oil in the thing by the time I got it in my driveway, but if I had to go another block,....that might've been a different story:eek:.
 
#6,940
Although I know this was a pain in the ass, it's good to see how well this thing was holding up. Get the ring gap situmanated and you'll be good to go!

madmike1157 said:
No,...there is somebody in Australia building a main cap girdle for it, but the stock main caps have to be cut significantly to allow the thing to lay flat, and cutting them that much just don't make no sense.
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I have a Buick 455 sitting in my garage that has a girdle on it that is like that. You have to shave the caps so the girdle can lie flush and get a little preload on the caps. Most of the ones out there that sit on the stock caps of a 5.0 aren't really doing much. They are just locking all the main studs together, but sitting on the stock round cast caps, they aren't really doing a whole lot to lock them in place. The caps can still walk which is the killer.
 
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