Dreaming of one mean 4.0: The Build up - Creager's 1992 Sport

[Dre]

hope to do the same one of these days. I do have a spare 4.0 sitting in my garage. I might want to start tearing it apart sooner than I anticipated.

This write-up gave me so much information... till now I was not sure if I can do it myself... I see now that it's possible with plenty of patience... and money.
Job well done!

 

[Creager]

ahaha thank you very much Aldive, 410, 95offroad, Dre and Maximum!

Dre, You could probably do it cheaper then i did, i went overkill on pretty much everything. Getting the heads ported is going to be a bit pricey, i got a deal on that. If i were to build another sport with 38's on full widths or something, i would do the same thing to the 4.0. Same cam, maybe skip porting the heads for something that would see 100% offroad. But I really didnt loose much of a noticeable amount low-end.

410, I will definatly get you some pictures of the shaft. I tried to do it last night but my camera was dead =( I got rid of those blue couplers, their nice and red now =) Although i still have that blue oil breather tube until i find a suitable replacement.

95xoffroad, I've though about investing into some spacers to convert my rocker-shafts to be free-floating. It would definatly free up some high-end. Not sure if it would hurt torque anymore then i already have, but for $50 you cant go wrong. I was also looking into some overdrive/underdrive pullies, but I wanna see my dyno numbers before i consider the $350 for these.

Maximum, the 19pounders are the stockers, correct? After reading 410's post i was ready to buy all new injectors, haha. I cleaned up the stockers with laquor and put on new o-rings, hopefully thats good enough for now.

190hp at the wheels would be crazy, thats ~250hp at the crank! I'd be happy to see 170hp at the wheels (~225hp @ crank), considering its 120hp stock haha. I'm mad curious to what this thing is pushing to the ground. I called a place in charlotte, $60 for three runs, no way he could get me in this week at all! haha. We'll see!

 

[Ronin8002]

Yes, the 19# injectors are stock. The dyno will tell you if you need to upgrade, but if you were running dangerously lean you would probably know it by now, so I'd say you're safe for the time being.

 

[Creager]

haha yea, i'd say it was running rich if anything, but thats just me. So i guess I'm gonna make a dyno appointment for next week!

 

[r37ribution]

really excited to hear the #s your getting out of this rebuild

 

[inh]

congrats dude!! my truck still sits, with horrible compression on 2 cylinders.. probably going to swap in a low mileage motor and rebuild mine similar to yours when i get hte chance.. in the meantime my honda needs a rebuild. not sure if it bent a valve, or blew up a rod bearing, but its making a hellof a lot of noise!

 

[thunderhorse]

Creager
A parts list (pistons, heads ect) and cost brake down, would be great to see along with the dyno #
Congrats on a good job done

 

[sn0border88]

Creager
A parts list (pistons, heads ect) and cost brake down, would be great to see along with the dyno #
Congrats on a good job done

What ever you do, dont look on the very first page in the very first post.

 

[Dre]

cost brake down... want to see if it's worth it... if it's better than buying a crate motor...

 

[thunderhorse]

What ever you do, dont look on the very first page in the very first post.

That's what I get for just going to the first unread post.

 

[Dre]

That's what I get for just going to the first unread post.

That's just me then... reading every new post, never going back to the beginning.... oh well,

Around 3 big ones (excluding headers) is quite a bit... but when I go back and count all the pennies I have spent on my truck so far... it's not bad at all!

It's not what you spend... it's what you learn in the process... and simple thing of doing it yourself...

Engine rebuilt - $3295.00
SAS - $1595.00
Big a** tires - $799.00
Look on people's faces when you take it out of your garage - priceless!!!

 

[Creager]

Whew, sorry for the lack of updates in the past few weeks. I've gotton a little sick, and now school is a day away. Time is flying. Before i can get this on the dyno, i wanna get it past inspection =P That requires a new set of tires :thumbdwn: Im also getting this weird rattling around 4700rpm when the motor kicks down, i think i got a bolt loose or stripped out. I think i might know exactly where to look. Ill have to investigate later. Other then that its running GREAT!

Yeah 3500 bucks is pretty big, but well worth it IMO.

The main problem so far has been the gas mileage. After about 5 or 6 tanks ran through, ive got on average 14 miles per gallon. The fact the oxygen sensor is only reading one bank, is my main susepct.

So today I got an O2 sensor bung welded in, in the correct location. Im pretty sure with the 02 sensor in the wrong spot (reading only one header), the ECU would read that as the motor is leaning over and gas is needed for both banks. So in essese, it effectivly doubled the amount of gas getting into the cylinders... using creager logic i should see a 100% increase in gas mileage! 28 miles per gallon!!

After the fix it kind of seems like the Low-end power actually benefited from this, i cant put my finger on an explaination, but 1000 rpms definatly feels more reliable and bulldogish.

The high-end didnt seem too affected. The gears seem to pull a little longer now?! Second gear was habitually pulling to 47-50 mph, before it would redline and the motor falls on its face (not to mention my face in the steering wheel). After the fix today i was pulling second all the way up to 50-53 before even shifting, there was no indication that the motor didnt like. I could of probably brought it straight to 55. I also noticed this with third, normally third is done at 73-75, i was able to shift it a little higher then so.

So with this fix, i noticed the Low-end became a little more blunt, the high-end wasnt effected, but the motor redlines higher? Thats weird, maybe i need to drive this thing around some more.

Lets just see if it makes some changes to my gas milage!

 

[sn0border88]

Maybe we will see "another" 30 MPG explorer?

I might belive you however.

 

[r37ribution]

So "the fix" was installing the O2 sensor?

Hows the 4700rpm problem now? gone?

verrry curious to see what your milage is now...

 

[Creager]

The fix was relocating the 02 sensor to the stock location. The Borla headers are designed for the 93-94 model, where there are multiple 02 sensors. My truck is equiped with one, which reads just before the cats where the two pipes come to one. I had this lone 02 sensor screwed into one of the locations for the 93-94 sensor, so i wasnt reading both sides of the motor.

Its still making the rattling noise ~4700, more like 4800. I cant really explain it. I can tell its not a problem with the motor interally, something simple is loose and making noise.

Ill be happy if i get over 15mpg =P Its definatly running different (maybe a little smoother) after relocating the oxygen sensor to the correct location.

 

[r37ribution]

so your ECU only has one input for an O2 sensor? Didn't know that about the earlier Xs.

Then there really isn't anything you can do about installing another O2 on the other header...other than upgrading your computer to a newer one?

 

[Josh]

I had to relocate my O2 sensor to the driver side header when I installed the BBK headers on mine. On the freeway I can get around 17 to 18. around town is more like 13 to 14. I others are reporting the same milage. I think this summer gas is crap.

 

[Creager]

I always thought the summer gas was the good stuff =) I dunno its all economics in the long run.

I thought about upgrading to OBD-2 in the future for the search of power volume 2. What a project that would be.

I havent been able to get a calculation for gas mileage after the 02 sensor fix, yet. I came out of class yesterday to find the inside of my rear tires covered with psychadelic brake oil. So once i wrap-up this first week of school, ima bust ass and fix those brakes, and attempt to figure out why my junk is rattling at 4700-4800rpm.

I might of been wrong about that rattling, it could be something internal. I was revving it today and i heard it backfire at the same RPM (but on kickdown), a backfire that actually sounded like it was comming out the intake. It may have been complelely coincidental, as the rattling doesnt sound like an engine type noise (and it happeneds on both revving up and kick-down at only one point of RPM), and the backfire only happened once... at kickdown. Its kind of close to tell, when it backfires normally the exhaust pipes hide the noise so you really cant hear it, and this is probably about the point where it would normally backfire. You cant tell me that a motor shooting an amount of raw gas into the exhaust isnt going to backfire a little bit. But, maybe my valve-springs arrent up to par and/or i could be leaning over. I dunno, best bet is probably to get on a dyno. I think i might get an extra set of spark plugs, get em real hot, and pull em, see what they look like. Otherwise i havent driven the monster in the past day, i wanna make sure everything is good before i return to confusing the hell out of imports on the highway.

 

[Josh]

Well if you are running the 422 cam, you should be running dual springs. Are you? The other day I had put the pedal to the floor and I got a backfire too, but I was doing around 50. Hasnt done it since though.

 

[Creager]

Yeah springs are comp cams dual springs

Sorry for the lack of updates, or the long-awaited dyno graph... its comming! School, then work, life's a *****!

So i wasn't able to figure out the rattling. Its not gotten any worse, nor am i worried about it too much anymore. I've begun to notice a series of pesudo-related 'rattling' at various engine speeds (shut off, idle, 4700rpm)... i am convinced i just need to 'shake-down' everything... retorque headers, valve covers, intakes, accessories... So when i finally get time to install my A/C and get a new fan clutch and thermostat, im going to retorque everything.

Otherwise it runs damn good

I want to figure out my under-hood temps. I think the borla headers are getting things a little hot under there. I noticed some detonation at high rpm (+4500rpm) in HIGH gear (4th or 5th). But it doesnt do it any other time, so im pretty sure its not a timing issue. I guess i could try some octane booster, but it dont hear it when the temps are less then 90+ degrees.

Best Miles per gallon so far has been 15mph =( Although, the engine started running cold (pretty sure the thermostat failed), which could explain the 15mpg. These symptoms are very simular to how it was before the rebuild... tempature gets low, gas mileage gets low... but all in all

...its still a 4.0, just hell of a lot meaner!