92bird
Registered User
First off, this was NOT a supercoupe 3.8L block, it was a 1996 mustang/base t-bird 3.8L bottom end, with police taurus cylinder heads (approx 8.6:1 compression with these heads), as installed in my old '94 SC (sold to a good friend).
See the whole story here how it began: http://sccoa.com/forums/showthread.php?t=117545&highlight=police+package
The bottom end had 140k miles in regular 3.8L N/A duty, then was re-ringed and reassembled with new King bearings, etc.
It then survived another 41k miles in stockish SC duty format (early model cam, factory '94 blower with 89 pulley). The car lives mainly at high altitude in Denver, but saw about 20 trips to various sea level or near sea level locations. Never a missed a beat, was very reliable..
The new owner of the car installed an old school dr fred .520 cam (212/218 durations). It lasted another 5k miles until we added the following this past weekend: MPX blower, new eaton rotor pack, 85mm TB/MAF 15% od, MP FMIC, kooks long tubes and true dual exhaust, and some other schwag i'm forgetting. He was running 80lb injectors, and Aeromotive stealth pump on E85.
Got part throttle trims/KAMs dialed in, WOT timing was about 26 up top, AFR's in the mid-low 11's (E85, but on gasoline scale). Since we are at high altitude, I was going to give it some more timing but we never made it that far. It threw a rod through the block and oil pan on a 2-1 downshift on our 8th WOT run with this setup. Ran like a raped ape until it blew.
We completely expected this to eventually happen on this motor.. Those powdered metal rods just were never designed to take this kind of abuse. Again, read the other thread, this motor was intended to be a temporary replacement, but the new owner wanted to see what it would do.
Surprisingly the motor help up for a long time in stockish SC form. I would not hesitate to use this bottom end and police heads combo on a stockish SC for a replacement motor.
Teardown to come soon.
Jeramie
See the whole story here how it began: http://sccoa.com/forums/showthread.php?t=117545&highlight=police+package
The bottom end had 140k miles in regular 3.8L N/A duty, then was re-ringed and reassembled with new King bearings, etc.
It then survived another 41k miles in stockish SC duty format (early model cam, factory '94 blower with 89 pulley). The car lives mainly at high altitude in Denver, but saw about 20 trips to various sea level or near sea level locations. Never a missed a beat, was very reliable..
The new owner of the car installed an old school dr fred .520 cam (212/218 durations). It lasted another 5k miles until we added the following this past weekend: MPX blower, new eaton rotor pack, 85mm TB/MAF 15% od, MP FMIC, kooks long tubes and true dual exhaust, and some other schwag i'm forgetting. He was running 80lb injectors, and Aeromotive stealth pump on E85.
Got part throttle trims/KAMs dialed in, WOT timing was about 26 up top, AFR's in the mid-low 11's (E85, but on gasoline scale). Since we are at high altitude, I was going to give it some more timing but we never made it that far. It threw a rod through the block and oil pan on a 2-1 downshift on our 8th WOT run with this setup. Ran like a raped ape until it blew.
We completely expected this to eventually happen on this motor.. Those powdered metal rods just were never designed to take this kind of abuse. Again, read the other thread, this motor was intended to be a temporary replacement, but the new owner wanted to see what it would do.
Surprisingly the motor help up for a long time in stockish SC form. I would not hesitate to use this bottom end and police heads combo on a stockish SC for a replacement motor.
Teardown to come soon.
Jeramie