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

[CarMichael Angelo]

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!



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.

Again, 7 main caps,....Inline cylinder orientation,.......turbocharger,........No nitrous.

I had a 2 bolt 460 with one of those girdles on it. It also had a buttload of nitrous. and most of the time,........ waay too much timing.
The engine never audibly rattled,......at least I never heard it. ( I couldn't have heard it if it did...4" bullets hanging off of the 3.5" collectors,...made it..........really loud).
When the engine "expired", after beating on it at the track every Saturday night all summer long....it finally died after subjecting the engine to 350 hp of nitrous off the line. Taking the engine apart revealed a split cylinder, and main caps that had been walking soo badly that there was metal transfer between the two mating surfaces.

All this to say that I think one of the side effects of a "V anything" is the unwanted harmonics that come as a result of opposing banks fighting each other trying to pull the crank one way or the other.
I think Cap walk is more likely to occur because of that, especially when using a power adder like nitrous, that hammers the hell out of the crank even if the tune is right.

I'll never use another v8,....I'm a banger convert.

 

[droopie85gt]

Again, 7 main caps,....Inline cylinder orientation,.......turbocharger,........No nitrous.

I had a 2 bolt 460 with one of those girdles on it. It also a buttload of nitrous. and most of the time,........ waay too much timing.
The engine never audibly rattled,......at least I never heard it. ( I couldn't have heard it if it did...4" bullets hanging off of the 3.5" collectors,...made it..........really loud).
When the engine "expired", after beating on it at the track every Saturday night all summer long....it finally died after subjecting the engine to 350 hp of nitrous off the line. Taking the engine apart revealed a split cylinder, and main caps that had been walking soo badly that there was metal transfer between the two mating surfaces.

Sounds like my kind of party! Too bad I missed it! I love looking at engine carnage!

 

[95BlueStallion]

Again, 7 main caps,....Inline cylinder orientation,.......turbocharger,........No nitrous.

I had a 2 bolt 460 with one of those girdles on it. It also had a buttload of nitrous. and most of the time,........ waay too much timing.
The engine never audibly rattled,......at least I never heard it. ( I couldn't have heard it if it did...4" bullets hanging off of the 3.5" collectors,...made it..........really loud).
When the engine "expired", after beating on it at the track every Saturday night all summer long....it finally died after subjecting the engine to 350 hp of nitrous off the line. Taking the engine apart revealed a split cylinder, and main caps that had been walking soo badly that there was metal transfer between the two mating surfaces.

All this to say that I think one of the side effects of a "V anything" is the unwanted harmonics that come as a result of opposing banks fighting each other trying to pull the crank one way or the other.
I think Cap walk is more likely to occur because of that, especially when using a power adder like nitrous, that hammers the hell out of the crank even if the tune is right.

I'll never use another v8,....I'm a banger convert.

Mike's next endevor after this engine expires:

 

[RaggedGT]

 

[CarMichael Angelo]

Mike's next endevor after this engine expires:

No, Iowa Nick. I keep saying that if I ever replace this engine...it'll be Full Aussie.
Barra....looks like 2jz,....but says FORD on the valve cover.

Think...6 Cylinder Coyote.

 

[95BlueStallion]

No, Iowa Nick. I keep saying that if I ever replace this engine...it'll be Full Aussie.
Barra....looks like 2jz,....but says FORD on the valve cover.

Think...6 Cylinder Coyote.

Shoot, just cancel the order on your rings, and get started with that. Surely someone will buy your 250 for their F150!

 

[Noobz347]

This guy was looking for one on another forum:

 

[CarMichael Angelo]

Well,...got my ass bit by the wife...
These were on the doorstep yesterday.

The invoice has big bold print that the price is a special " one time only " price. The guy at Cometic didn't tell me that he was making me a deal,..and regardless of that, the wife didn't care about any special one time only prices on any head gasket. She saw it as 141.00 spent on a car part in the middle of December,...7 days before Christmas.
When I bought the other custom stock gasket from Cometic, the only opportunity to buy a gasket like this one was from Cometic Australia. eBay AU listed the gasket somewhere in the 250.00 US range. That was the big deterrent to buying it back then,...especially considering I had already dumped way over that much in a failed custom copper version. The fact that there is big giant bold print in the invoice listing this gasket as a ONE TIME ONLY SPECIAL PRICE tells me that ol' dude up at Cometic probably quoted me cost....and at $122.00 before shipping,.....I got a deal.

That doesn't change the fact that I need a whole box of band aids for my chewed up bloody ass.
I'm junking my old school adjustable band style ring compressor, in favor of a much more high speed version.

If you've never used one of these type of ring compressors before, once you do, you'll never use that stupid old school style again. Once you get this thing set right, the piston literally slides into the hole. For me, this is especially important considering that my rings are only 1/16" thick. And they were a big pain in the ass the first time around. As soon as that oil ring got past the compressor, it expanded and fought me. It happened everytime the next ring slipped past. I didn't know if I damaged the rings installing them, ( clearly I didn't ) but thinking that I may have, weighed considerably in my justification for the tear down this time.

The rings should show up next,...and that will be another cage fight....but it'll be much closer to Christmas then....
Hopefully she'll be deeply immersed in the "Goodwill towards men" part of the Christmas message.

All that I'll need to reassemble will be a pan, and timing chain cover gasket. In the grand scheme of things, about 300.00 to fix the thing, and cure it of the blow by. ( totally dependent on how careless I am with the ring filer)
This time around, I'm gapping them at .022. That should be good to 15 psi.

Which should be about......400 WHP ....and about 550 ft lbs of torque...which with a good set of Drag radials...
Should make for a 11.50 1/4 Mile Monster.

 

[droopie85gt]

Ship that stuff to work or a UPS store. Wear Camo, which being in 'bama should be available in your local Kroger. Get some smoke grenades, or at least some diamonds.

You gonna have that up and running by New Year's?

 

[CarMichael Angelo]

Ship that stuff to work or a UPS store. Wear Camo, which being in 'bama should be available in your local Kroger. Get some smoke grenades, or at least some diamonds.

You gonna have that up and running by New Year's?

I don't know,..maybe...I'll be off for a week,...but it is Christmas after all....I'm sure that there'll be some expectations that I actually be sociable....As inconsiderate of my time that that sounds..

 

[95BlueStallion]

Man do I get that wife struggle, lol. LRS wont ship to my work, only my confirmed address on Paypal, which is my home. Anything bought elsewhere now delivers to my office.

 

[droopie85gt]

Man do I get that wife struggle, lol. LRS wont ship to my work, only my confirmed address on Paypal, which is my home. Anything bought elsewhere now delivers to my office.

I don't remember it being hard to do but I have my office as a verified paypal address!! I've got a line on some AFR185 heads local that I am #1 trying to get and #2 trying to figure out if I just stick them in the garage by the engine stand if she is aware enough to ask what and where those came from!

 

[CarMichael Angelo]

I don't remember it being hard to do but I have my office as a verified paypal address!! I've got a line on some AFR185 heads local that I am #1 trying to get and #2 trying to figure out if I just stick them in the garage by the engine stand if she is aware enough to ask what and where those came from!

You know what they say....better to ask for forgiveness....especially during the holidays....its the reason for the season.

 

[General karthief]

I just randomly buy crap for her once in a while. Got her some of them alumaflowers for christmas, thanks RacEoHolic330
She don't say much more than 'car part?'.
Lucky me.

 

[Noobz347]

I just randomly buy crap for her once in a while. Got her some of them alumaflowers for christmas, thanks RacEoHolic330
She don't say much more than 'car part?'.
Lucky me.

You taught her the wrong words.

 

[xecute]

Spare the rod, spoil the block.

This is my work mate Peters AIT Turbo equiped 1984 Ford Fairlane 255 hp, 405 lb-ft 12 pound boost Turbo engine after the Auxilary Callayway Microfuler failed to deliver the extra fuel to the two Blue Ford injectors upstream of the T03 60 turbo. Those were I think CFi injectors, worth 180 hp of extra fuel on a 1984 or 1985 5.0 liter Ford V8.

The conrods always take the brunt of the lean fuel or too much boost problem.

On a Callaway Corvette, the system was enough to ensure the fuel delivery was safe.

Here is the auxilary system, made by the same guys who did the Grand National and SVO Mustang after market computers. Works just fine untill the fuel pump stops providing enough pressure.

Have someone machine up a CNC machined 115 deep plate, use the two head gaskets you have, and find some forged 2.5 HSO Taurus conrods, the tough as goats knees E63E-B1A.

They are basically 6.06" AU Barra type conrods, but made in the USA 12 years earlier for 1986 4 cylinder Hertz Renta Sables and "Tauri"

You'll need to find some new pushrods, or some simple lash caps to re position the correct wipe area. Either way, it'll will help you with making sure you never have to go in again for a long time.

The D8 conrods you have are the only long term risk, Ford downgraded them from the quite reasonable 1969 forged 5.885" C9 rods every US 250 had till about 1978. Cast conrods can survive, but they are a risk long term.

 

[xecute]

The US 250 crank isn't fully counterweighed,Cylinders 2 and 5 on all US small sixes have no bob weights.

Look close and see the picture below and compare to the 12 couterweight 1994 to 1997.5 crank.

its like all six cylinder 240/300/4.9 and 144/170/200/250 cranks, only fully counterweight crank was the 1994-1997.5 EF Falcon 4.0 liter OHC engine.

After 1997.5, Ford then downgraded back to 8 counterweights for the last four months of the Falcon 4.0 EFII, the AU 1998-2002 Intech SOHC, and later Barra Twin Cam.

The EF crank was the only time Ford copied the Chevy 230/250 and Holden XT5 12 counter weight crank, and Aston Martins consulting engineers quickly reverted to a lighter 8 counterweight crank to improve rev range without hurting durablity. They went up a main bearing size to 2.65" at the same time, so the overall crank weight on 1997-1/2 to 2016 engines was greater than the 12 bob EF crank.

Put simply, the US 250 crank is very, very strong.

From what I've seen, the front crank spigot thickness increase Dearborns engineers put in adds a he|| of a lot of mass to part that vibrates on big six cylinder engines. It simplified the parts of the bigger six cylinder engines, although the old timing chain was still a total disaster, and everything you did to make the SBF timing chain work is what Ford should have done in 1969.

The Aussie engines never got the US 250 1.375" spigot, they stayed the tiny 1.248" diameter. On both continents, Ford was working the cost benefit formula....I recon the Dearborn guys got it largley right, the Geelong fellas were stuck with using the tiny 200 parts, and all that extra work was probably because they didn't have a super good harmonic balancer on the front end of the Aussie 250 engines.

Thankfully, the US 250 is all 240/300 and standard Ford V8 at the front. Good company to be in.

 

[General karthief]

You taught her the wrong words.

When I tell her 'none of yo bidness' she will say 'bit me'
I bought her some windshield wipers a couple days ago, she's happy

 

[Noobz347]

When I tell her 'none of yo bidness' she will say 'bit me'
I bought her some windshield wipers a couple days ago, she's happy

She still play with them?

 

[CarMichael Angelo]

The US 250 crank isn't fully counterweighed,Cylinders 2 and 5 on all US small sixes have no bob weights.

Look close and see the picture below and compare to the 12 couterweight 1994 to 1997.5 crank.

its like all six cylinder 240/300/4.9 and 144/170/200/250 cranks, only fully counterweight crank was the 1994-1997.5 EF Falcon 4.0 liter OHC engine.

After 1997.5, Ford then downgraded back to 8 counterweights for the last four months of the Falcon 4.0 EFII, the AU 1998-2002 Intech SOHC, and later Barra Twin Cam.

The EF crank was the only time Ford copied the Chevy 230/250 and Holden XT5 12 counter weight crank, and Aston Martins consulting engineers quickly reverted to a lighter 8 counterweight crank to improve rev range without hurting durablity. They went up a main bearing size to 2.65" at the same time, so the overall crank weight on 1997-1/2 to 2016 engines was greater than the 12 bob EF crank.

Put simply, the US 250 crank is very, very strong.

From what I've seen, the front crank spigot thickness increase Dearborns engineers put in adds a he|| of a lot of mass to part that vibrates on big six cylinder engines. It simplified the parts of the bigger six cylinder engines, although the old timing chain was still a total disaster, and everything you did to make the SBF timing chain work is what Ford should have done in 1969.

The Aussie engines never got the US 250 1.375" spigot, they stayed the tiny 1.248" diameter. On both continents, Ford was working the cost benefit formula....I recon the Dearborn guys got it largley right, the Geelong fellas were stuck with using the tiny 200 parts, and all that extra work was probably because they didn't have a super good harmonic balancer on the front end of the Aussie 250 engines.

Thankfully, the US 250 is all 240/300 and standard Ford V8 at the front. Good company to be in.

The "wish list" has always had these rods in there.
https://www.ebay.com/p/Performance-...lcon-4l-6-Cylinder-EB-Ed-El-EF-Xr6/1744242217
520.00 US,....rated to 1000 hp. Direct fit,..no modding nothin, except maybe the balance.
If I was ever to change the existing rod, it won't be another from stock source.
The truth is I'll never change them.
I just have to cool the hell out, and practice what I preach. The quest for more power in my case will ultimately yield a similar opening in my block if I keep pushing the limits of the "weak link" conn rods. Connecting rods typically fail from excessive RPM...As long as I don't hammer the rods with detonation, most properly prepped rods will take a butt load of compressive load before giving up the ghost.
Soo,...excessive RPM,....( in my case anything north of 6000), and excessive compressive loads..( again, in my case we'll say anything over 15 psi) will be an open invite to the ghost of Christmas future, so he can take me on a journey into tomorrow land to see the funeral for the Monster engine... With the engraving on the headstone reading:

" Here lies the little engine that could.......Right up until it couldn't"