Engine Builders come in

Anyone ever rebuilt a 5.0L engine using the stock forged pistons? i'm talking aboug a "basic" rebuild in which you change the piston rings, rod/main bearings and oviously gaskets but use the same rotating assembly. i know the cylinder must be checked and measured for how much its worn and the piston sides to find out if the clearance isnt too wide. the top of the cylinders would be reamed most likely. anyone done this before?
 
took the engine apart today, no ridge on the top of cylinder walls. crank shaft main and rod journals seem to bee good enough to not warrant any service to the crank. the block is going into the tank tomorrow, will sit there all day tomorrow till Thursday when i'll remove it and check for cracks on block, though from inspection with all the gunk on it doesnt look to be damaged. i'll keep you guys posted with this build. this is for all of those of us out there who dont have a budget for a stroker big cube build, but are the do it your self-ers and be thrifty, yet do it "right" and within a conservative budget.
 
You need to check the skirts on the pistons for wear and taper, also check the ring lands for wear or deformation also check the bore for taper...this will tell you if you can just hone it and re-ring and bearing the motor.
 
today i took the heads out of the hot tank, pressure steamed them and dried them with compressed air. i was going to just do a 3 angle valve job on them as they sat, but my instructor suggested i clean them with a wire brush, so i did and the results are amazing, you can actually see them (combustion chambers) as cast iron. i wirebrushed the whole "outside" of the head too and it looks like a glazed/clearcoated cast iron... looks real nice.

the only things i'm going to change are the valve stem seals. everything else looks good. After reading an article on home porting heads i'm going to give it a shot, i wasnt going to but what the heck, i'm looking to go as fast for as cheap(pretty contradictary but i'll try) i'm just gonna clean up the valve heads with some fine sand paper and do the 3 angle job on them and the valve seats at school. then once thats done i'll hopefully start on assembling the shortblock(finally got payed so i can get the cam/rod/crank bearings) Late Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. This weekend i'm going to focus on working the heads and hopefully i have enough time for the lower intake manifold(via Tmoss' web page) :banana:
 
I had a run in with the 4th camshaft bearing, it would just not work for me. it must have been a combination of both bad bearings and a slightly shifted 4th bearing bore because i slid the third different bearing, which i bought as a single from a local engine shop, and it was tight in there and didnot slide out like the otherone did. The only problem after that though is that the camshaft would still not go in smoothly, it was that damn 4th bearing again, so i went ahead and carefully shaved off some of the material off the bearing to make it turn in there, after an hour of "messaging" the inner part of the bearing it finally would spin with not much effort. after that i went ahead and put on the main upper bearings, then the crankshaft, and then plastigauged the clearance between the crank and main caps. most checked out at .002' and one at .0015' . i went ahead and torque down the bolts on the mains to 70ft lbs. in three even steps. i had to wrap it up for the day, over the weekend i'm going to finish cleaning the valves so that i can do the valve job on the heads and have them ready to put on the block so we can get the cam dialed in later next week. I'm going to try and put in the rods and lifters by late tuesday that way we can get the short block finished up by wednesday timed and all.
 
one thing that you didn't mention was honing the block. You will need to do this in order to get the new rings to seal. Having a glazed cylinder wall and new rings is asking for oil burning/low compression. The easiest way to do this would be to get a ball hone (one that has a bunch of honing balls on it) and use a drill in a up and down motion to get the proper cross hatch, or use a flat hone which will give you a more even wall as far as taper goes. Don't get crazy removing material or you will have to get it bored and honed and buy new pistons. Also check the ring to piston gap, should be only a couple thousandths of an inch. And as far as the cam bearing goes, check the bolt for the lifter "spider" to make sure that it doesn't bottom out on the cam bearing causing the cam to lock up!

Fred.
 
gearheadfred5.0 said:
one thing that you didn't mention was honing the block. You will need to do this in order to get the new rings to seal. Having a glazed cylinder wall and new rings is asking for oil burning/low compression. The easiest way to do this would be to get a ball hone (one that has a bunch of honing balls on it) and use a drill in a up and down motion to get the proper cross hatch, or use a flat hone which will give you a more even wall as far as taper goes. Don't get crazy removing material or you will have to get it bored and honed and buy new pistons. Also check the ring to piston gap, should be only a couple thousandths of an inch. And as far as the cam bearing goes, check the bolt for the lifter "spider" to make sure that it doesn't bottom out on the cam bearing causing the cam to lock up!

Fred.


yeah i had already honed the block, i removed everything because the block went into the hot tank. once it came out i dried it with compressed air and sprayed some wd40. as of today the crank is in, as well as the cam, next will be the pistons/rods and then the heads will go on to get it timed. by the way can anyone do a brief explanation on what "centerline" means when speaking about a camshaft? a guy told me to get it to between 112-114 centerline for my turbos. can anyone shed light onthis matter?

I'll keep this thread alive, for in the end i hope to have a running turboed mustang for a cost of no more than 3500 including car(which is in great shape too :nice: ) i'll post pictures once i'm done.
 
i just started digging into my home ported heads project here are some links to get you started:

www.workmonster.com
http://hometown.aol.com/valakoraceheads/indexhtmlvalakoraceheads.html
www.diyporting.com
http://www.chevyhiperformance.com/techarticles/95518/
www.fordmuscle.com has a good forum under home porting that is super helpful

as well as tmoss's site on porting the lower is invaluable!!

they also have a real good article that is worth the 8$ to read
you can find the standard abrasives step by step guide online also if you look

there are guys putting down some good HP numbers on home ported stock heads, i dont know anything besides whats above but just look at it like its fun and as long as you dont do anything studid it seems pretty hard to screw up the ford E7TE heads,

also i bellieve mustang and fast fords had a "redneck rebuild" section a few issues ago that was sort of helpful.. maybe look it up.

good luck, and be sure to let us know how the project goes, i'm looking on doing a ghetto rebuild in the future at some time and its nice to watch someone else do it


BTW: i got all my tools and parts for dirt cheap on ebay and at harbor freight total bill is less than 100$ for grinder,speed controller and 3 carbide bits!
 
Allforspeed said:
i just started digging into my home ported heads project here are some links to get you started:

www.workmonster.com
http://hometown.aol.com/valakoraceheads/indexhtmlvalakoraceheads.html
www.diyporting.com
http://www.chevyhiperformance.com/techarticles/95518/
www.fordmuscle.com has a good forum under home porting that is super helpful

as well as tmoss's site on porting the lower is invaluable!!

they also have a real good article that is worth the 8$ to read
you can find the standard abrasives step by step guide online also if you look

there are guys putting down some good HP numbers on home ported stock heads, i dont know anything besides whats above but just look at it like its fun and as long as you dont do anything studid it seems pretty hard to screw up the ford E7TE heads,

also i bellieve mustang and fast fords had a "redneck rebuild" section a few issues ago that was sort of helpful.. maybe look it up.

good luck, and be sure to let us know how the project goes, i'm looking on doing a ghetto rebuild in the future at some time and its nice to watch someone else do it


BTW: i got all my tools and parts for dirt cheap on ebay and at harbor freight total bill is less than 100$ for grinder,speed controller and 3 carbide bits!
its not a ghetto rebuild, its a budget build :D
anyway thanks a lot for the links, I was going to port the stock heads but i didnt find any carbide burrs around here(well at home depot, parts stores,harbor freight). I still want to work the heads for there is a lot to be had if done right. the thing is i would have to do the porting before the valve job and i will only be able to do the valve job next week for my class is coming to an end for the semester. i may endup just doing the valve job on them and only working the entrance ports and not the valve side for ovious reasons. what i'm looking to get out of this project: going as fast for as little, going 11s, and hopefully 10s with high boost and drag suspension, while keeping the car looking stock(from outside) and just the mandatory roll cage. no money is going into asthetics, all of it is for making it faster(i like your sn by the way :nice: ) well thanks once again, and if anybody has any links/input post it, if it doesnt help me it'll help somone who is looking to do a lot with little.



:flag:
 
Today i picked up moly "pro power" ( If i'm not mistaken) moly rings for the motor. they were 100 bucks. kind of a bit much for the budget, but its better to have a bit more insurance with these considering i'll be running forced induction. the reason why they were that much is because i got them at a local machine shop and not a big chain auto parts store. tomorrow(tuesday) i'm gonna work on getting the heads done and hopefully i can put in the pistons/rods in too so i can start getting it timed.
 
the shortblock is complete, it takes 15ft lbs of tourque to get the hole assembly turning. i'm assuming thats normal. the heads are done as far as doing the angle jobs on them,its now time to assemble them. the question i have is how do you get the stem seals to stay without moving up(as the valve is pushed down) the valve stem? i finished two sides, then thought about it since they're real tight on there, so i bolted the heads on to the block, turned it, and sure enough they came up as the valve came up(or the lifter/pushrod comes down). i bought the felpro pieces, the intake side has a metal piece that goes around the sea, i'm thinking this might get crimped arund the stem guide, but the exhaust ones dont have anything, and i cant think of a way to make them stay without tying some wire around them. anyone know?
 
15ftlbs is very low for a stock internal, ring package motor. I see that kind of tq on a low tension ring set-up with larger clearances usually. What are the clearances?

I assume you are talking about the valve seals? oil the valves and then slide the seals all the way down, they fit right over the guides. What type of exhaust seal did you buy, what material?
 
Rick 91GT said:
15ftlbs is very low for a stock internal, ring package motor. I see that kind of tq on a low tension ring set-up with larger clearances usually. What are the clearances?

I assume you are talking about the valve seals? oil the valves and then slide the seals all the way down, they fit right over the guides. What type of exhaust seal did you buy, what material?

the clearance for the mains checked in at .002 for most and 0015 for one with plastigauge. This was done using fresh motor oil on the maincap bolts and torquing them down to 70ft lbs of final tourque. I used clevite 77 bearings all around and moly rings.

I bought the Autozone ones, Felpro part number SS72562. they're black and are considerably wider than the intake ones wich are blue and are the ones taht came with a headgasket set i purchased months ago for another 5.0L motor. the exhaust seals are polyacrylate. The intake seals fit well on the guides, but the exhaust ones are wider.
 
I had bought them too when i did my heads in school also last year. the intake ones pressed on but the exhaust just chilled there lol All they really do is act like a mini umbrella so the oil doesnt go down the valve guides and get burned in the combustion chamber. Although i no they make the same style of the intake seal (positive type seal i think theyre called) for the exhaust too. Well mine runs fine with those seals just chilling there. It does burn oil lol but thats from the blowby on my rings. Im also starting a "budget build." Good luck with urs