86CP Engine Rebuild

[J. Caraco]

4-1/2 yrs ago engine made tapping/knocking noise when I was going home after work. Thought it was a bad HLA. Replaced all 8, no change. "I'll deal with it in the spring" I said. 4+ years later...........
Drove it to the shop last week. Mechanic called Sat. "Pistons 1 & 4 "MELTED"!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh well. Better to spend the money and rebuild it ALL and drive it vs sitting in the garage and using it as a poorly shaped shelf.
Heads fine, I'll replace or regrind the A-237, maybe rebuild the turbo, old unknown bigger one, block should be OK. Well after boring 30 over as the walls are not so great looking with melted pistons.:( Now to see what's the best approach for me and the way I drive and what power I'm looking for. 300HP would be nice, but I'm not really looking for any certain numbers, just good power across a somewhat broad rpm range.

Wish me luck!

[J. Caraco]

2 months later most parts finally on their way here! Forged rods, Forged pistons, E2277 cam, etc. Hopefully I'll get the car back in 3-4 weeks!

[svono50]

That is a good update, congrats! What rods/pistons did you end up going with? Interested in knowing how that Essy stick runs as well as compared to the A-237.

[J. Caraco]

Well almost one full yr later after buying the Essy alum head on sale last Oct, much head work, then new intake, PIMP etc, etc. this is what it ended up.

je pistons, crower rods, Essy aluminum head, ported, essy #E2277, gutted upper and ported lower, 60mm throttle body, Forced4 FMIC, Rods header, 3" Motion Dyn down pipe, 60 lb injector, PIMP, Turbonetics water-cooled ball-bearing T3 with a Super 60 compressor wheel and a F1-49 turbine wheel. The turbine 0.48 A/R.
305 HP & 275 TQ at the WHEELS!!!!!!!!!!! on Mustang dyno on a 90 deg, humid day. I have the dyno sheets. How do I post them? Problem now is it's dead under 4K rpm. On the dyno at least. I still haven't driven the car myself.

[MikeFleming]

305 HP & 275 TQ at the WHEELS!!!!!!!!!!! on Mustang dyno on a 90 deg, humid day. I have the dyno sheets. How do I post them? Problem now is it's dead under 4K rpm. With the work you've done, you should be easily 50HP higher. Some more tuning.

I had the same issue with the 2277 - nothing below 3800/4000 RPM. Then it would pull until the needle on the tach ran out of room.

If you have the jpg files of the dyno charts, you can attach them. otherwise you'll need to scan them into a graphics form. See if the dyno shop can export/save/email them to you as jpg of pdf files. Lastly hold the printed sheets next to your car and have someone take pics.

[J. Caraco]

86278628

Here's pdf's of the dyno run's

[Mike S]

You can try advancing the cam timing to move the power and torque lower in the rpm band.

[SVOC]

Mike have you documented, how much the power band moves RPM range, for each 2* of cam adjustment either advance/retard?

[J. Caraco]

You can try advancing the cam timing to move the power and torque lower in the rpm band.

Already did. Moves a few hundred rpm's at best. I'd like 1500-2000 lower vs 4K once it STARTS any real boost now. Will try more preload on the waste gate to see what that does. As I'll have maybe 2 months before it gets put away for the winter
I'll suffer for now! It's been 6 years since I drove it last.

[MikeFleming]

Already did. Moves a few hundred rpm's at best. I'd like 1500-2000 lower vs 4K once it STARTS any real boost now. Sorry, but you can't get there from here.

You'll only ever be able to see 300-500 RPM max torque peak movement by changing the cam timing in these engines through it's full range (+/- a tooth). Definitely only FINE tuning.

Keep in mind that today's advanced variable cam TC engines, such as the EVO X 4B11-T, move torque peak less than 1000 RPM with a 7500 RPM red line using an 30 degree (crank degrees) range for intake and exhaust cams, independently of each other.

In the Ford 2.3 OHC engine, valve lift and relationship (angles) between intake and exhaust lobes are always fixed.

Spool-up RPM is directly related to the torque peak.

You might get the 2277 to make some power at 3800, but it will NEVER make acceptable power at 2500. Wrong cam for that.

[J. Caraco]

Mike: I understand.

He did some more tuning today. 330/330 at the wheels on the low reading Mustang Dyno. I don't know WHERE in the curve yet. He feels that's close to 415 @ the crank!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm now officially a member of 400HP club! Blew right thru 300HP!

I'll need to drive it for a while then decide the next step unless this new tune gets me some better low end. I have no feel for it, "me no drive it yet"!

Oh and the mechanic loves Wes at Stinger for his great customer support, questions and overall attitude.