Update 15 Oct 06: New setup is a carb and Victor Jr Manifold, EFI is history.

Desktop Dyno put the carb combo at 537 HP.

 11 Dec  05 Engine Teardown

Don't forget the two upper intake bolts under the nameplate, the screws holding the nameplate were badly corroded and I had to drill the heads off them to get the name plate off.

No sludge here, just a little varnish. The engine had 71,000 miles on it. The cross hatching is still clearly visible on the cylinder walls. I almost hate to rebuild it -- almost.

Use a puller to remove the balancer, remove the center bolt, remove its washer, then reinsert the bolt without the washer so the puller bears against the bolt head and not the crank. The balancer will slide off over the bolt. That way, you won't bugger up the end of the crank, especially if you are going to reuse it.

The timing chain is not stretched much either.

We pre-fit the main stud girdle and oil pump pickup. A little metal had to be ground off the girdle to clear the oil pump. Some folks swear by a girdle while some think it has no effect, but it won't hurt either. If you install one, be sure the top of the main bearing caps do NOT hit the girdle, you may have to sand the caps a little.

Here's the lower cylinder walls before the block was clearanced for the stroker crank

The flywheel and block shield gets mounted so we we only have to put it in the engine stand once.

Here's the lower cylinder walls after clearancing for the stroker, not much material had to be removed.  

We had to readjust the pickup a little, the instructions for the Quality Roadsters oil pan call for 1/2" of clearance. The oil pan crank scraper also had to be massaged to clear the girdle.

I'll have to make brackets for the alternator and Escort fuel pump. I was hoping to only fab one set of brackets.  I purchased a Summit bracket and was planning on making a matching PS bracket, but the alternator bracket won't work with the '95 cover.

Update: I decided to swap out the timing cover and water pump for older model year stuff; fabricating the brackets will be a bear with the '95 set up. There is just nor enough space in the front of the engine for the accessories. I anticipated a problem here, which is the reason I assembled the front of the engine so soon!

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I also checked for spring coil binding by inserting a paper clip between the coils when the valves were full open, no problems, plenty of clearance. Used the same paperclip to check for clearance between the rocker arm slot and stud, so it does not bind at the extreme edge of travel.

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The distributor is a Mallory # 7970404. Its a little smaller than the standard EFI distributors which will give a little more space for the fuel system.

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The engine is finally finished, there may be some changes in the hoses and details later on, but for now, its ready to go in the car.

I also mounted the coil close to the distributor. The plug wires are Accel Extreme 9003, Spiral Core, 8mm Vari-Angle Boot plug wires. 1000 degree temperature rating at the boot and 600 at the wire. Tough enough to take the heat of the headers.

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I test fit the headers, good thing too, because a little bit of the flange had to be ground off to clear the small ledge on the AFR heads.

Note the sun umbrella, 90 + today.

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Using a Summit Universal dual core radiator, its made by Northern Radiator -- the same company that makes the radiators for Tri-States, but only $150. The cap hits the frame, bummer. I'll take it to to a welding shop and see if they can cut off the filler neck and patch the hole.

The over flow tank is from eBay and the CSR T-Filler from Jegs. 

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Here we primed the oiling system with a drill and priming tool. We pushed the car outside, bled the fuel system and it started on the fist try - amazing!  Did not run worth a crap, but it started.

We ran into several problems.... it overheated before we could add more water and the bottom radiator hose blew off.  Its also running very rich probably because the computer still thinks its a stock engine.

The Tweecer adjustments to the ECC cured the overheating (running to rich) but overall the engine still does not run very well -- now it has a problem backfiring thru the left exhaust pipe -- have to keep diagnosing, fixing and Tweecering.

Note that this is one emission control that does not rob horsepower, when the valve opens and the mixture richens, the computer thru the O2 sensors will lean it out if needed.

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I actually like the look much better than the modern looking EFI. I choose the Edelbrock carb for its ease of tuning. Its pretty simple and it comes with instructions.

Winter projects include a new Pertronix vacuum advance distributor and a new fire suppression system, the old bottle (actually the gauge) popped because of the heat, maybe behind the headers was not such a good idea after all.

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