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

[Creager]

oh no worries dude, i like the input.

my throttle body came off kind of varnished, but only in the front part, before the butterfly.

 

[Ronin8002]

My lower intake was NASTY when I took it off to port it. It wasn't too hard to clean up though. I thought about cleaning the upper (mine was varnished too) but didn't think I'd be able to get it as clean due to the length of the runners so I just tried to pretend that I didn't see it .

 

[Creager]

haha

ill atleast get mine hotbathed, that will get most everything

i shouldnt have these polished heads hot-bathed, should i? due to the risk of etching.

 

[Ronin8002]

Not sure. Were they very dirty in the pics? If it's just the combustion chambers that are dirty you can clean them up with a wire brush head for a drill....I bought my heads used and that's all I had to do.

When you get those heads also check to see if the bolt holes for the rocker arms (located over top of the intake ports) extend all the way thru the metal into the port, i.e., you can look down thru the bolt hole and see into the intake port. Not a big deal if that's the case, but make sure when you assemble your rocker arms to the heads that you put some liquid teflon sealant on the rocker arm bolts. If you don't you'll find that oil will get sucked into the intake ports and get burned in the motor (it happened to me on my ported heads and it took me forever to figure out why i was using oil).

 

[Creager]

damn good info maximum,

OKINAWNA JAPAN? What happened to NORTH CAROLINA?! haha

They weremt that dirty, gimmie a sec ill post some pics of em

 

[Creager]

1) Lower intake

2) heads side by side

3) here is a closeup of one of the intake ports

Hes shipping tomorrow! hehe

im hopping for 200hp at the crank

 

[Rhett]

Shoot that's pretty clean if you ask me!

 

[Ronin8002]

Heck yeah they're pretty clean. Are they the early style heads or 95+ style? I think you're going to be very happy with the results when it's all done.

Yes, I left north carolina a few months ago and I'm here in Okinawa for a few years courtesy of the USMC....you might have noticed the odd times I post on here since it's a 13/14 hour time difference (depending on daylight savings). It's a nice place...it was 75 degrees the other day and I went snorkeling/spearfishing in the ocean. I miss working on my 4.0 though....American vehicles are a bit hard to come by in Japan and you can't bring them with you over here. I did recently buy a nice fast little car.... a Nissan 180SX DOHC turbo. Only has 4 cylinders and 2.0 liters, but I'm pushing around 17PSI of boost so that helps Now that I've seen what turbos are capable of I am seriously considering doing some kind of turbo 4.0 project when I return.

 

[Creager]

hell yeah, good luck to that maximum.

haha, i guess they are pretty clean. They are the 93TM heads, so if i want the 10:1 compression, i need the SOHC pistons. Thats still up in the air, im hoping clevite sells SOHC pistons for roughly the same price as their OHV pistons ($23), well see, i'd be happy either way. At this point, its time to get the ball rollin. He also sold me the 422 cam and smithbros 5.525" pushrods for $260

This weekend hopefully ill have the engine comparetment cleaned out and painted.

 

[Slaughter1600]

Where did you find all the prices on your list i am also interested in a rebuild. Also what year sohc pistons will work in my 1991? any modifications to make them work?

 

[Ronin8002]

Any year SOHC pistons will work without having to modify. You can even use SOHC rods....they are the same as OHV rods.

 

[Creager]

Where did you find all the prices on your list i am also interested in a rebuild. Also what year sohc pistons will work in my 1991? any modifications to make them work?

The prices for the cam and valve springs i got from summitracing, was there a specific item you had a question about? the pistons and bearings i got priced locally, so that can vary. The ported heads i bought online, but thats something you dont see but every so often.

 

[Creager]

Heres my newest price set

$720 : stage 3 heads/422 Cam/Pushrods purchased from a private seller
$400 : BBK/BBorla Headers & Y-pipe www.borla.com
$100 : Lifters ebay
$75 : Cloyes Timing set www.rockauto.com
$225 : Clevite Moly Piston Rings, Clevite Bearings Advanced Auto had the best prices
CB-723-P = Rod bearings
MS-860-P = Main bearings
SH-1441-S = Cam bearings
$225 : Clevite SOHC Pistons Federal Mogul and Clevite about the same price
$150 : Transfercase overhaul kit and Chain
$90 : KKN Filter
$150 : New MAF & IAC


$2135

$500 MachineWork, Balance, Overbore, mangaflux heads and crank.

Price is comming down from its original $3000 estimate. If i could only find out which S&B Powerstack filter KKN uses, i can drop the prices down by like $60. But my price-sheet is also subject to the machine shop, $500 was a rough, over-the-phone estimate.

 

[Captain AirTime]

Having read through this whole thread, seeing your budget, and your goals, I don't understand one thing:

Why don't you get a SOHC motor with its full harness, probably $1500-2000 with very low miles (broken in), unless you have a good source and find it much cheaper. Stock output is much better than your stated goal of 180-200 crank HP. Probably still better even if you did the EEC-IV on it. Now that they are getting wrecked in Mustangs as well as Rangers and Exploders, I think availability should be pretty good. Adding $500-$1000 to that in headers etc should put you so far beyond anything you can do with a $5000 OHV motor that its just silly, and all you have to do is swap the pan (AFAIK), bot it down, and wire it up.

I like the idea of building the motor you've got, but is it really practical,economically? If you can spend the $, A 5.0L is a far better candidate to haul around a heavy pig like the Exploder. I'm just starting on a B2 porject that will be stripped right down for light weight, and the SOHC has rapidly come to the top of the list of motivational candidates, simply because they are plentiful, and make decent power from the factory (and bolt in ) I'm pretty sure I'll end up going this route over the turbo4 that I have sitting here waiting for a home. Damn, passed over again.

Anyway, looks like you're well on your way into this OHV project, so are you going to dyno and post results when its finished? I'm curious how it will turn out. My OHV Exploder is undre powered, and I've often considered a simple cam etc swap, but wondered if it was worth the hassle without head work and quality headers.

 

[thetad45]

All looks very cool!

Just wanted to let u know I'm as excited following you build as you must be doing it, can't wait to get some extra cash myself!

 

[Creager]

I considered the SOHC swap as well as the 5.0 swap, but it all came down to the fact I already had plans to rebuild the OHV. I've had parts sitting in the garage waiting for this since last November.

I did find low mileage 5.0 motor for $750, but that was just for the motor. Junkyards are impractical for something like this, unless you can find a superb deal. I would have needed a full truck from auction to make a 5.0 swap practical, but still I would have been spending around $5000-$6000. With the OHV rebuild ill be spending less then $3k, and my 5-speed tranny has less then 15k miles on it. In the long run it would defiantly be more worth while to have the 5.0, but the OHV build up isn’t going to be that far off. But what it really comes down to, I simply didn’t come into this prepared to do a 5.0 swap. With the OHV I should still get decent gas mileage. Although with 10:1 compression I'm going to have to run 93, so well see haha

Dyno? Defiantly I will be using the ported heads with (probably) Borla headers. The 10:1 compression and the overlap cam should defiantly make things interesting.

I’m making a guesstimate that my HP numbers might look more like 210-220 at the crank. I searched on RPS for gains from the 10:1 compression; this setup I’m going for is actually pretty common. One guy over there said I should see a 20hp gain from the higher compression, (with the 422 cam and ported heads.) One guy is running a 14.90 second 1/4 miles with my exact setup (naturally aspirated), except he’s in a ranger. But I don’t think ill be dragging a lifted 2door... hehe well... maybe once

Well its time for me to get back to work, I hope to have this motor built by the end of next week.

 

[Creager]

Just wanted to let u know I'm as excited following you build as you must be doing it, can't wait to get some extra cash myself!

haha thanks man, im very excited. To this point, ive only read so many positive accounts for this set up, seems to be very satisfying. Well see!!

 

[Creager]

A little update for today...

Things are moving slow as always. The Heads/Intake cam/pushrods came in the mail yesterday.

I checked the intake runners to see if the holes from the rocker arms push through, they dont! So we're good there. And the ol' rumor that 91-92 heads are cast alumium instead of iron is false, ford used both =) My ported heads are cast iron, while my factory heads are cast aluminum. They are both 90TM. I think the block is even aluminum, i mean, it scratches up like a aluminum, but im probably wrong on that one.

I took the heads into the machine shop today to get magnafluxed for cracks. Right off the bat, the guy found a ding on the deck of one of the heads. He also stated he could tell that it wasn't that long since these heads were last machined. The ding will mill off fine, im just worried that it might change my pushrod length. Since i already have 5.525" pushrods in the garage, which i came with the cam i bought from Jeremy on RPS.

The guy at the machine shop said it wont, since it will be such a small change, but im still worried about it He was pretty knowlegeable, he knew they were 4.0 heads right outta the bag. He said he'll be surprized if they are not cracked, since hes 'never seen a 4.0 not'

I finally got my engine stand today, if i werent leaving for Wilmington tonight i would definatly get more work done (since im on spring break in the middle of winter!) Ill be back thursday, so no biggy. Once i get the short block ready, i'ma try to get tons of pictures, aswell as a brief write up on whats going on down there.

heres some eye candy for yall of how things look around the Creager household.



1) From the top:

2) Ported head

3) Makin' a mess

4) Out with the old:

 

[Creager]

More...

 

[410Fortune]

Ah looks like a good weekend in the shop to me Nothing like starting fresh.

Those SOHC pistons will give you a HIGH compression ratio will they not?
Okay for pump gas???