Project Procrastination....a B6 swap

[kumalaba]

nice updates & that head work looks good, cant wait to hear how it runs!

[blkfordsedan]

Progress has been slow, but steady. I got all the intake ports and the combustion chambers done, along with 1 exhaust port. The exhaust ports have proved to be much more labor intensive than the intake, due to the large amount of casting flash and port mis-match in the valve pockets. Also, there was a ton of carbon build-up in the exhaust ports. I spent all afternoon yesterday trying to clean the carbon out...just so I could see where I was grinding! The block, crank & rods/pistons are finished, so the goal is to finish the head this week. Hopefully, I can drop it off at the machine shop when I pick up the block & crank. Then I can assemble the shortblock while the head is being milled and the valves ground.

In addition to the above work, I also did some grinding on the oil return passages in the head. As cast, there is a lot of casting flash under the valve cover that seriously prohibits to free flow of oil back down into the crankcase. In addition, the oil drain-back holes in the head have some misalignment issues which results in several "shelfs" that impeed the oil return flow. By flipping the head over, you can get to the problem areas on the block side as well. I would recommend that anyone who has their head off for machine work or porting consider this as well. Below are some pics of what I'm talking about.

These pics show the return passages under the valve cover








These pics show the return passages from the block side of the head








This is the oil feed passage on the block side of the head. The oil is pumped up from the block via a small check valve. The oil must then enter this "pocket" on the bottom of the head where it is directed over to a head bolt hole. The oil then goes up around the head bolt and enters a small opening in the wall of the bolt hole, where it is fed up into the camshaft support saddles. This "pocket" (pictured) had a fair amount of flash as well. It was cleaned up, and the transition into the bolt hole was chamferred as well to allow free flow.


One of the cool things about these engines is the quality of parts used. The factory valves are of a "tulip" shape design, which is a nice feature. They also have a type of factory back-cut, which also helps flow.


Here you can get a better idea of how much material was taken off of the swirl dams around the Intake valve. The first picture shows the factory clearance between the dam and the head of the valve to be about .060". The second pic shows the same dam after some grinding. As you can see, the entire area around the valve has been opened up a fair amount and the new clearance between the valve head and dam is about .150".





Finally, here are a couple members of my "security staff". They love to lay out in the garage while I work and make sure I'm safe! The little white Chihuahua is "Pixie", and the old mutt wearing the coat is "Toby". Toby is very old and has a tumor in his liver. We were told he only had a couple weeks to live.......5 weeks ago. I'll be surprised if he makes it to Christmas, but for now, it's just nice to have him "hang out" with me!

[blkfordsedan]

As fate would have it, his health took a turn for the worst and we were forcd to put Toby down today. He was a wonderful, loving dog and I will miss his company...may you rest in peace my faithful friend.

[sc72]

Brian and family, Sorry for your loss.

[iceracerdude]

Sorry bout your dog, how long did yoiu have him?

[nitrofarm]

Sorry to hear that about your Dog my friend.

[blkfordsedan]

Thanks for all the good wishes on the loss of my dog. We rescued him from neglectful owner about 7 years ago. He was pretty old, but he had a better life the last 7 years than most dogs ever have.

Now for an update...
I picked up the block, crank, rods and pistons yesterday. I measured the FMS cam to determine the lift and duration. Lift @ the cam is .259" and duration is around 280*. Its hard to measure the rocker arm ratio, so I'll use a dial indicator once assembled. Also thinking about buying a degree wheel so I can figure out the valve timing events. For now, I'm going to concentrate on the intake and exhaust manifolds. Progress is slow but steady!

[blkfordsedan]

So......the head is at the machine shop getting a valve job, new guides installed and being milled. With any luck, I can start assembling the motor this weekend, although I still need to buy a ring compressor to fit <4.00" bore. Luckily, Harbor Freight is right across the street from my office!

Since I can't afford a proper tube header at this point, I decided to make the best of what I have. The factory B6 manifold is a very good design (as far as factory cast manifolds go). The primary runners are paired up properly and although not as long as a tube header, they are a big improvement over the "log" style manifold on the B3. The primaries on the B6 unit are 1.25" diameter and remain seperated all the way to a kind of "psudo" collector at the discharge. What really stands out to me as a detrement is the small 1.75" ID manifold outlet size and the very small 1.5" inside diameter of the factory head pipe (not to mension the size mismatch and the flow restriction it creates). As a general rule, the outlet area size of a collector should be between 1.4 and 1.7 times smaller than the total sum of the primary tube area that feeds it. Since the primary runners are approx 1.25" diameter, then the area of each primary is approx. 1.227 sq. inches and the total primary area is 4.908 sq. inches. The outlet size of the collector (or head pipe in this case) should be between 1.92" ID and 2.11" ID. With this in mind, I purchased a 2-1/4"OD mandrel bent 90* elbow from Speedway Motors. Since my brother has a fully equipped shop, I sent my manifold, old head pipe and the new 90* elbow home with him. He cut the flange off the old head pipe and used a hole saw to bore a new hole in the flange that would match the 2.15" ID of the new elbow. He then used the manifold and support bracket as a jig to weld the new 2-1/4"OD elbow on to the original flange...and he did an excellent job! below are some pics he sent me, one of which shows a comparison between the original pipe and the new one. As soon as I pick them back up, I'll probably break out the die grinder and do some "massaging" to the outlet of the manifold. I think I can open it up to match the larger ID of the new head pipe.

[blkfordsedan]

Figure it's time for some type of update....

Progress has been pretty slow, due to budget reasons, but some has been made. The headwork has been completed now, but I decided to have the head milled for the second time. The first time, in spite of my request, NAPA only took off about .0045" and used the old grinding stone method. I measured the volume of the combustion chambers afterwards (cc'd them), and the result was an average of between 38.5 and 39cc's. The piston dish measures 5cc's. I also did a mock-up on the short block to measure the deck clearance @ TDC. The result was only .003"....so decking the block did not make any sense. I checked the block for warpage with a machinist's straight edge and feeler gauges, and the block was only out by <.0015". I then did the compression math, using the following inputs:

Chamber Vol = 38.75cc
Piston Vol = 5cc
Gasket = 3.149" bore X .057" compressed
Bore = 3.0708"
Stroke = 3.291"
Deck Clearance = .003"

The calculated static compression is only 8.78:1 :eeeeeek:. It would appear that when I relieved the Intake valves, the change in volume made a bigger difference than I expected, LOL. Assuming the factory compression was 9.0:1, that would indicate that the stock chamber volume was probably around 37cc's. Based on the looks of the chambers, 1.5cc to 2cc increase looks feasible. I forgot that on a small displacement engine with small chambers, every "cc" makes a much bigger difference than on a 5.8L smallblock with 60cc chambers! I refuse to build an engine under 9:1 compression....and I would prefer to be in the 9.5:1 range considering the increased overlap of the FMS cam. The solution was a "double play". I decided to have the head milled another .015" to decrease the chamber volume and also have a mirror finish to allow use of a MLS head gasket. I took the head to another shop that had up-to-date equipment and had it re-milled. It cost me another $40, but it will be well worth it. The MLS gasket has a thickness of only .040" and the second milling netted a chamber volume of 37cc's ***(FWIW- every .010" of milling measures to be about .9cc to 1.0cc on a stock 1st Gen B6 chamber). All chambers were within about 1/4cc of each other . When I re-calculate the compression using the .040" thick gasket and 37cc chambers, I get...........9.42:1 :p.

***Had I not touched the chambers in terms of valve relief, and only milled the head .020", the chambers would have ended up at around 35cc's. Using the factory pistons and a stock composite head gasket (like Felpro), the compression would have been 9.38:1. It's possible there were different pistons used on the ATX version of the B6, but mine had 5cc dish and the only new replacements I could find were 5cc dish as well. This goes to show the significant effect head gasket thickness has on compression. Since the gasket effects the entire bore diameter...and not just a fraction of it.

Here are some crappy cell phone pics...

[festyfreak39]

ughhh your doing everything so properly. This engine is just begging for a turbo.

[blkfordsedan]

I'm accepting donations...

[blkfordsedan]

Wow!.......

Now you guys see why this is called "project procrastination", LOL. Time for some kind of update. The summer has been very busy with travel for work and forming a new Bluegrass/Country/Blues band. Learning to play guitar has also seemed to infiltrate my spare time. Very addicting!
Obviously, I've also been busy working on the oil pump and exhaust manifold, as well as measuring and recording the specs of both the FMS Competition (street) cam and the stock B3/B6 HLA cam. For reference, here are the links to those threads;

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42331&highlight=FMS+cam+specs

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/showthread.php?t=44229&highlight=oil+pump+blueprinting

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/showthread.php?t=44544&highlight=B6+exhaust+manifold

With the cooler weather, the kid going back to school and a little luck, I should be able to start assembly of the engine in the next few weeks. May even take a few days off from work to get it done. I still have a few parts I need to purchase yet, namely a MLS head gasket, a new set of HLA's, an oil pressure gauge kit and a Speedi-Sleeve for the rear main. I'm still contemplating an upgraded pressure plate to use with the stock Exedy clutch disc and thinking about getting the flywheel lightened. We'll see how the funds shake out. I may end up using the stock Rock Auto head gasket just to save some money. That would drop my compression down from 9.4:1 to the factory 9:1, but I need to get this thing going so I can quit using the Mustang as a DD.
Hope to have some new pics of progress to post as early as this weekend.

[blkfordsedan]

In spite of having a "gig" to play on Saturday night, I managed to get a little bit more done on the B6. I rolled the block outside and got out the die grinder, just to see what damage I could do.

First up was the oil feed hole from the oil pump outlet. I used a factory gasket as a template. Even in stock form, the hole in the gasket is actually smaller than both the outlet in the pump and the hole in the block. I used an exact-o knife to enlarge the hole in the gasket, then matched the pump outlet to the block. I used the die grinder to enlage the hole in the block so it is slightly larger than the outlet of the pump. Below is a pic of the hole in the block (before any grinding was done).


Next, the oil return passages in the block were cleaned up. There are 3 return passages...one large oval shaped hole (circled) and two small round holes (arrows). The round holes are pretty good in stock form. However, the large oval shaped hole has a large amount of casting flash protruding into it which can effect the return of oil to the pan at higher RPM. I used the die grinder to clean all the flash out and make a nice smooth opening.


Since I had the grinder out and was having sooooo much fun chewing up and spitting out cast iron, I couldn't help but to also grind off the casting line flash from the main bearing support webs. For those unfamiliar, sharp edges and casting flash can be the starting point for cracks to develop. Most engine builders will grind off all the casting flash from the entire block (inside and outside), round off all sharp corners, grind and polish the sides of the connecting rods beams, etc.. For low HP/RPM street driven engines (like a B6, B8, B6T or even a BP), this is not really necessary.....but I just couldn't resist.

I also started on modding the stock B6 intake as well, but I'm not quite done with it yet. When I finish (hopefully this week) I'll post some more pics.
I did find some old pics of my office at work, when I was mapping the FMS cam. I thought I would post them as well, since I was on photobucket anyway. More updates to come..

[blkfordsedan]

Almost done with the mods to the Intake manifold. Started out as just wanting to gasket match the upper & lower manifolds, but like everything else, I got more involved .

The manifold runners look pretty good and are plenty large enough in stock form. I decided to spend a little time (like 8hrs) smoothing out the finish in the runners and some mild re-shaping of the runner openings in the plenum. Ideally, the runner openings in the plenum should have a nice, smooth bell-shaped curve to them. They are actually pretty good, except for the area between the center two runners. This area had an almost squared-off and flat shape to it...probably due to the fact that the runners are very close to each other and casting limitations. I used my trusty Dremel tool with the "stinger" attachment, a few choice carbide shaping bits and a 1" diameter 120 grit flapper wheel to reshape this are into a more acceptable form. (See pic of finished shape circled below).


I also spent some time grinding an smoothing the back angled wall of the plenum that directs the airflow from the throttle body toward the runners. There were several areas that had a fair amount of casting irregularities that could possibly hurt the air flow. The area just above the runner openings was also semi-polished/smoothed.


The actual runners also recieved a fair amount of smoothing out. I did both the upper and lower intake runners using an 80 grit and 120 grit flapper wheel. The "stinger" attachment actually allowed me to reach in from both ends of the lower intake and work on all but about the center 1/2" of each runner. I plan on devising some way to reach this area by hand (using a stick and sandpaper or something).





The final step will be polishing the inside of the runners and the back wall of the plenum to an almost mirror finish. I'll post more (and better pics) when I get it finished.

[kumalaba]

everything looks great & you should get 500k out of it!