Progress Thread Darkfader's 93 Gt Progress - Back to work

Been a long couple months. My torn down, bare block went to the machine shop one week before Christmas. The told me it would be completed in 3-4 weeks. Well, 4 months later they called and said it was finished. Not a huge deal, I didn’t want to rush them and I have been super busy working 3 jobs and going to Paramedic school. The block is back in my possession after being hot tanked, bored .030 over, main bore/align/hone, lifter valley drains chamfered, and cam bearings and freeze plugs. I masked and painted the block a nice gloss Ford blue and now I’m ready to fit the bottom end and assess what needs to be clearanced for the rod/cylinder wall fitment. Haven’t touched the rest of the car since winter and still debating what to do with the engine bay. I want it clean and in fresh paint. I feel like I should just dive in and get started. Still considering the water blast of the whole car, but I’d need to be ready to get it into primer immediately after.

I ordered some measuring tools this week so I can feel good about main and rod bearing clearances. The plan is to fit the bottom end to measure deck clearance so I can be certain of my choice in heads. As long as everything checks out I’ll go with the TFS 11R 190’s and a custom ground cam from Ed Curtis, and I’ve been recommended the Holley Systemax II for the intake. I’m fine with all this as long as it works well together and suits a spirited-twisties driver. I need a lot of measurements before that cam can even be ordered though so I’m still so far away which sucks, but the excitement is building.

Somewhat budget level precision tools, but the mics were zeroed to the standards right out of the box, so hopefully these serve me well for one Ford stroker build and eventually one Chevy 409 refresh.

I had a few minutes to tinker today. I have several concerns. First I’m not sure I trust my “budget precision measuring” tools. Lol. I know better. I’ve double checked everything I’ve done so far and this is just a mock up anyway. Buuuuutttt, I can’t stand the thought of trusting all this work to plasti-gauge. Although I measured with that also. Plasti-gauge says .0015 on all mains. Great. Bore gauge was less. Like half that. Could be user error. I’m certainly not finalizing anything without some expert confirmation. Luckily my neighbor has nicer tools and has offered to double check my work for me. Honestly this is the first engine I’ve put together and scrutinized every measurement. Too much money involved here to just slap the kit in and “let it eat”.

Next, I’m only going by the FSM for the .0015” main clearance. There’s no documentation with the stroker kit saying what they want for mains clearance. Is that in fact what I want? I don’t want to assume anything, but you’d think the kit would be packaged to work together properly.

Ringed a single piston using a .016” end gap from an equation for N/A street application. Found TDC with a dial gauge and measured deck clearance using a straight edge and feeler gauge. Came up with .011” deck clearance. The pistons are -11cc, of course a 3.250 stroke, 5.4 rod, .047” compressed gasket and 4.100” gasket bore, all plugged into the equation using the 11R 190 56cc C.C., I come up with a CR of about 9.54:1.

Whew, if you read all that, thanks.

Next concern, I don’t see how the hell I can put that twisted wedge head on these pistons. Is that common to have a deck clearance of .011”. Obviously I’ll be checking P-V relation but I don’t want to waste any time or money here. I was told by LMR, the TW 170’s worked with the scat kit. I’m sure a bunch of people have done this, I just need reassurance before I pull the trigger on the 11R 190’s.

Sorry for the novel, but I want to be thorough here. Someone please talk me down off the ledge. Lol

My last thing is how much room should I have between rod cap bolts and cylinder skirt?

Messed around a bit this evening and got half the pistons in the holes. Fit to file rings take some time. This is all a trial assembly to basically mark skirts for clearances needed for the rod cap bolts and I’ll most like leave it together to check PTV once the heads and cam get here.

CarMichael Angelo said:

Your number system is wrong. the number one piston is located on the front passenger side, and 2,3,4 go down the left bank ( as you look at it from the front) and 5,6,7,8 are front to back on the driver side.

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Yea good catch. I numbered them according to the Icon piston documentation. I realized that was incorrect late last night as I was questioning it myself. I’ll wipe the sharpie off and fix that today. Thanks!

Bottom end is mocked and I sent the custom cam form to FTI today. Hopefully I filled it out properly. Slow progress is better than no progress I suppose.

Thanks Blake! It’s going slow at this point but I’m plugging along, reading a lot to prepare myself for final assembly. So much has to happen. I’m back in school too(only had a 14 day break) so I’m working on it every chance I get, which isn’t a lot.

Yea, some of us would also like an amazing bright white paint job too! Hahahahaha

I can’t wait for the day I check out stangnet and all of our cars are perfectly clean high horsepower monsters!

:w00t. Placed the order and sent the monies to FTI for the cam.

11R 190’s and Ford Motorsport timing chain kit arrived today. Man, these heads are sexy in person.

1.6 rockers and a new set of lifters should be here Tuesday. I’m still shopping cam-degree kits. Not sure what I want there. I have some time before the cam is done I’d imagine. Then I need to figure pushrod length. Not even sure where to start on that either. Exciting times ahead!

A few tools needed for degree-ing the cam came in. The only thing I didn’t order was the piston stop.



I’m a little unclear on that part of the measurement. Can’t I find TDC with the dial gauge and magnet base like I did when measuring deck clearance?? Like this:

Is there a certain depth the bolt head needs to be, or is this just a a piece to make the piston stop at the same spot both directions when turning the crank clockwise and counterclockwise? Thanks