Fred's FreeEMS Powered 89 Ford Courier w/ Holset fed FE-DOHC

[Nick_nl]

That is some real carnige What kind of oil pump does is have ?

[Fred]

Did you mean carnage? Oil pump is a normal modern around-crank variety. I forget the tech name for them. Why do you ask about the oil pump? They only tend to give trouble above 8500 or 9000 or so.

[Nick_nl]

Sorry, my spell checker doesn't catch them all.
Well, I have been reading about engine tuning for some time and often they mention that the oil pressure has to go up if the RPM's go up to. Actually the flow has to increase to generate pressure. Did the oil pressure drop before the engine got damaged ? The easy way would be to use thicker oil.

[Fred]

First engine:

2.0, strong rods good for ~400hp for 3 - 12 months REAL driving, or years of mild driving with bursts of madness. Eventually will fatigue and fail if abused for long periods. My rods didn't fail, my bearings did. My fault, doing donuts at 2am, WOT, 18psi, ~400hp, 1st gear (thought it was third), low oil level (but not quantity, holds about 7 but only had about 4, too much went to the head, all of it got too hot (no cooler), big ends suffered. I then ignored the damage and raped it again, at which point the hammering killed the rod bolt and all hell broke loose. 100% my fault.

Second engine:

1.8, weak rods good for ~250hp (didn't know they were weak at the time), weak pistons. Making ~450hp, lasted about a week, folded rod and tore apart piston. Fault of driver/owner/engine builder/weak 1.8 bottom end.

Oil pump was not at fault in either case.

Standard RPM limit for engine is 7300 IIRC. Was spinning 2.0 to 7500 and 1.8 to less than 8000 (very short stroke, so no major strain).

F8 stroke is 77mm as is the 4AGE, and later ones have weak pencil rods and redline at 8000 too.

Fred.

[Nick_nl]

Ok, indeed the pump isn't the problem. Are there aftermaket blocks available for this type of engine ? Like the Dart SHP engine for the chevy SBC ? With a good crank and rod piston combination it should be able to live. Yet 450 bhp from a 2 liter is a whole lot of power

[Fred]

Only 400 on the 2 litre, more on the 1.8 due to the fuel and tune ;-)

The block is rock-solid. The 2.0 is solid enough. The 1.8 has the short stroke that I oh so love. Future plan is to put nice rods and pistons in the 1.8 and leave the rest as is.

In the mean time, once I'm back with the truck, I'll put a 9:1 compression 2.0 in it and run that on 98 RON with maybe 12 or 15PSI until the 1.8 is ready.

Fred.

[Fred]

This might be (one of) my new connector pin out(s)! Or similar. Only 26 pins is tough, did I forget anything?

[Nige]

This might be (one of) my new connector pin out(s)! Or similar. Only 26 pins is tough, did I forget anything?

Use a 34Way Connector for a few more. I can't remember the brand off top of my head... AMP I think.

[Fred]

Yes, they're AMP. I might use a 34 in parallel, or something else random. I have my reasons for the above choice :-)

[Fred]

TODO list drawn up! 50 items on it... only 6 of those are wishlist material. Doh. Still, gotta start somewhere.