Videos of running, driving and launching

 I got the new engine together and installed then took it for a little drive. Everything was looking good so I bolted the fenders on and tested components by launching the car hard at 3000 rpm. The sparks coming off the tires are from bits of metal shavings stuck in the slicks. Also, this T5 transmission always grinds going into reverse but I later found out that shifting into 5th before going into reverse cures the grindage.

Video of first start up of new engine

Video of first drive

Video of first hard launch

Video of second hard launch

Video of third hard launch

Video of fourth hard launch

Epic Fail

I installed the fuel rail and  hooked up the wiring to the injectors and was bolting on the upper intake manifold when disaster struck. The book calls for 34 Nm torque on the intake bolts and my 3/8" clicker torque wrench has the gradients etched into the shaft (10,20,30, etc) and smaller gradients (1,2,3 etc) in the part that twists around. The top gradient in the shaft is 29 Nm so I turned the handle up to that, then added 5 more to get 34 Nm, the recommended torque. The wrench definitely clicked but then I felt a pop, the pictures explain the rest.

So, the intake is junk and it's cast aluminum that is difficult to weld.

Pushrods and rocker arms

On a small block Ford, getting the right pushrod length is critical to engine longevity. since I changed the heads, I needed to re-check pushrod length.  I neglected to take pictures of a lot of the process but will try to explain it properly without them. I began by disassembling one of the hydraulic lifters and placing washers inside to simulate the lifter being in the pumped up position while the engine was running. Then I cut a stock pushrod in half, drilled and tapped it for a small threaded rod and made it's length adjustable. I could have purchased an adjustable pushrod but then I would have had to order it, pay $35 and wait several weeks for it to arrive.

Adjustable pushrod

I took a Sharpie and made the top of the valve stem black, then installed the pushrod and the roller rockers according to the manufacturers instructions. After turning the engine over four full rotations, a line would be worn in the Sharpie ink. By adjusting the length of the pushrod and repeating the process, I could determine what length I needed to get the rocker arm pushing down directly in the middle of the valve stem. Once I had that, I could measure the pushrod and order the length I needed.

I ordered these Manley 6.5" pushrods from Kens Kustom Machine

And installed all the pushrods and rockers per Comp Cams instructions.

Porting the GT40 Intake

The GT40 intake manifold was available on 5.0 powered Ford Explorers, and it didn't take long for Mustang guys to figure out that it makes more power than the Mustang intake. It was a cheap improvement for my stock Mustang 5.0 but with the new heads and cam, it wasn't enough. I looked at some aftermarket intake manifolds and they are all so expensive. Then I stumbled upon a guy who claims to port GT40 intakes to make the same or more power than aftermarket intakes, with dozens of dyno graphs to prove it. His method of porting is written up here: How to port GT40 intake

I followed the directions and here are some pictures:

I took an intake gasket and glued it onto a new head

Then I used a die grinder to open the gasket up to match the port shape and size

I transfered the shape to the intake manifold

And opened it up with the die grinder. I did a bunch more smoothing out of the port after this picture was taken

Before

After

Bushings and balljoints

With the engine out, it was easier to replace the suspension bushings and ball joints.

The old upper control arm bushings were rubber and falling apart

The new ones are polyurethane and considerably harder, which should be better for handling

 

 

The old rubber lower control arm bushing

And the new one

Here is the lower control arm in place. There is a single shaft that goes through both ends of the inside lower control arm and the shaft on each side of the car was seized in place. It took a lot of heat and hammering to get them out. On the original Jag, the shaft slid in from the engine side but I reversed that so I can remove the lower control arm with the engine still in.

The old ball joint is on the right and it was adjusted by changing shims. The ball is actually in very good shape but I replaced them with a sealed until like the one on the left, which weighs less, too.

Shiny new parts

The weight (in lbs) of one iron head and rocker arms

The weight of one aluminum head with rocker arms

Side by side

1.8" intake/1.45" exhaust valve on iron head, 2.02" intake/1.6" exhaust on aluminum head

The caliper is set to the width of the exhaust port on the iron head, look at the difference!

The caliper is set to the width of the intake port on the iron head, big difference!

The aluminum flywheel is 11 lbs lighter than the stock iron one

Comp Cams steel roller rocker arms

Crane XE282HR roller cam. It's an aggressive cam typically used in street driven stroker small block Fords. I am using it because, in theory, it will not have so much torque that it becomes difficult to drive, but will have a lot of power at the top of the rpm range.

Turning up the power

One thing led to another and I decided to get more power into the car. I have two 5.0 engines and each has it's pluses and it's minuses. The engine in the car has a roller cam but has a lot of mileage and is not suitable for big valve heads because the pistons do not have valve reliefs. The other engine came out of a truck and therefore does not have a roller cam but it was rebuilt recently and was supposed to have ported/polished heads and good pistons. I took the truck engine apart to see what I had and here are the pictures of what I found:

The bad news is that it has a flat tappet cam but the great news is that the block is machined for a roller cam. I ordered a Comp Cams XE282HR hydraulic roller cam to slide in it's place. It's an aggressive cam but this is a race car and there won't be much idling.

Those are pretty small valves and a large combustion chamber-in other words, low flow and compression ratio. I ordered a set of ProComp aluminum heads with big valves, stiff springs and a 60cc combustion chambers.

The pistons are .030 over hyperutectic with valve reliefs. These are a pretty good quality pieces and will handle big valves and decent horsepower

The intake ports didn't look to be ported and were smaller than the intake gaskets

The exhaust ports had one small bump ground away but as you can see, are a lot smaller than the exhaust gasket holes.