Jeff's 3.8 and 4.2 Projects.

Did you ever think about inverting the blower and using a water to air intercooler?

I didn't think about inverting the blower but afterwards I started thinking about all that space in there where I could stick an intercooler. Maybe next revision.
 
Personally I have no interest in an air-water intercooler. Too complex for an already cramped engine bay. The stock configuration is more efficient at cooling anyway.
 
Personally I have no interest in an air-water intercooler. Too complex for an already cramped engine bay. The stock configuration is more efficient at cooling anyway.

Was never very happy with the air to water IC I made up for my car and it added a ton of weight

Ken
 
A few pics from when I bought the shortblock. It was fun getting it downstairs to the basement, I don't currently have a garage. My universal weight machine assisted in getting it on to an engine stand. A couple of pics of it on the milling machine, I had a stubborn coolant drain plug that needed to be "persuaded" with an end mill to remove itself from the block.





 
Some of the work I did a while back to the split port heads. Milled a bit off the intake and exhaust faces and made the injector bungs for it.















 
Damn Mondays.............

Spent some time porting the split-port heads today, didn't go well. I got greedy with the carbide cutter and ground a nice hole into the intake port coolant jacket in the bowl area. Not like working on old cast iron heads like I'm used to.
I welded it up, but it's just too far gone to be trusted so I'm out $100 and about 16 hours of my time spent on it. At least on the bright side I can now cut it up in the bandsaw and get a much better look at the ports which I kind of wanted to do anyway, just not with this set of heads.

Which means that I am now left with some choices to make.

A. Buy another split-port head, modify the fuel injector locations to match the other head.

B. Shelve the split-port/M90 part of the project for now and use my existing set of SC heads and design/make a new lower intake manifold for it to use with my new upper plenum, the one with the cobra throttle body spot that says turbo on it.

C. Buy another set of split-port heads and another intake manifold. Make a new lower intake adapter that will work with a stock split-port setup and the M90. Basically Split-port/M90 project rev. 2.

A and B are the least expensive but C would be the most fun. Not sure which way the wind is going to blow on this, probably A or C.

:mad:
 
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I vote C. It may be more work now, but it would also be more marketable, and if something were to happen to a head, it wouldn’t be such a big deal to get another one.
 
Well I ended up going with "A" and picked up another split-port head for the project.

Since then I have been very busy making various engine building tools and fixtures so that I can do as much of the machining myself as possible. I resurfaced 2 sets of heads, the split-ports and a set of stock (for now) SC heads. Both sets were within a couple of thousands of an inch and probably would have been fine as is but I wanted a fresh sealing surface so I cut just a few thou off of them.

The deck on the block was bang on from the factory from left bank to right bank but was out 0.005" from the crank centerline so I cut 0.006" off the decks to make them correct. The block, fixture and cutter just barely fit in the milling machine.

Two of the biggest tool projects were making a block indexing fixture and a cylinder head fixture. As a bonus I am now very well equipped for working on 3.8 and 4.2 Ford V6 parts. I wish I had the gear for boring/honing and line-honing the block. The nearest place to me that can do it is about 4 hours away from me.

Here is a couple of photos of the completed fixture.



I didn't have a cutter large enough for the block and heads so I had to make one of them too. I used a carbide insert for the heads and a CBN Wiper insert for decking the block.



Machining the indexing plate.



Milling the heads.







Decking the block.




 
I finished making the replacement fuel injector bungs today on the mill. The mill cut the hex and did the bores. Turning them to size and cutting the threads was done in a previous operation on a manual lathe. I am hoping to get the replacement head on the mill to modify them for the injector bungs in the coming days if time allows.

 
I found the time to machine the head for the injector bungs today. I will thread them in and epoxy them this evening.



 
There was a bit of scoring on the oil pump mounting face on the timing cover so I cleaned up up by taking a small cut on the milling machine.

The reason for the odd looking before finish is that I had covered the opening with duct tape before I sandblasted it. I then used ear plugs to plug up the hole while machining it.

 
I started calling some automotive machine shops to see what it's going to cost to get the block done. The nearest shop is at least a 4 hour drive from me. Ugh, Cape Breton is rich in scenery buy poor in auto machine shops....
For any other SC enthusiasts on the east coast of Canada here is what the average prices are for getting a block done. All of the shops are pretty much within $50-$75 overall cost so it really comes down to who you like, location, reputation etc.
All prices are CAD. I am probably going to send it up to either A+J Automotive (aka Armstrong Engines) or Arsenault Cylinder Heads in Moncton when the time comes as both of these places are well known for good work.

Bore and hone: $260-$350

Clean and Magnaflux: $75-$100

Line Honing of the Mains: $150-250

Decking the block: Around $160 or so. One shop mentioned the cost and I didn't ask the others as I can deck my own block.

Also, none of the shops have a torque plate for a Ford 3.8/4.2 so I am glad I went ahead and made my own.
 
I decided to add bushings to the main caps to help prevent any cap walk. I seen SCU do it on their facebook page (lots of good info and ideas there) and though it was a good idea as the mill was free and I had the time. I am using the CNC mill to bore hole to allow for around a 0.075" wall thickness steel bushings around the studs. Align boring and or honing afterwards is mandatory for something like this.

Today I am machining the caps for the bushings. Tomorrow I will hopefully get the block done and make the bushings to fit them later this week or next week.



Big thanks to David at SCU for answering my questions on this subject and other things lately.
 
Awesome projects!

I always wondered what split port heads + M90 would do....sounds like that might be off the table now though.
 
Awesome projects!

I always wondered what split port heads + M90 would do....sounds like that might be off the table now though.

It might still happen yet but it is on the back burner somewhat at the moment. I too am very curious and it is not too far from completion so it will probably happen eventually. Hood clearance will be a problem with the current design for it making a cowl hood (or a 4.2 truck) probably mandatory for it. I might revisit the intake height and do some of it over. If nothing else when the time comes eventually it will at least make it on to a test stand to see how it does and what it would take to finish it. I could re-engineer it into a kit someday with a few changes, not really any time for that at the moment though.
 
Made up an engine rotation adapter as I did not have one. I made it to fit the 3.8/4.2 V6 with some extra room more slots or more holes if I ever need it to fit another engine. It can be used with a 1" socket or wrench.





 
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