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

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Fred
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Re: FreeEMS Powered '89 Ford Courier FE-DOHC Turbo (DSL bewa

Post by Fred »

Block pulled, crane lowered more, stand 4-wheeled, bracket half made up. https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 6611896320
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Re: FreeEMS Powered '89 Ford Courier FE-DOHC Turbo (DSL bewa

Post by Fred »

Good day on the job today! Worked on engine stuff basically all day except while eating and a minor bedroom clean up before heading out. Not sure on the exact figure, but maybe around 7 hours all up.
  1. Attached new battery charger to ute battery to test it
  2. Found and fitted strap for lifting engine off of stand
  3. Lifted engine off of stand and placed on the ground https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 3893265409
  4. Lifted dead block up and inserted into stand
  5. Leveled the block with ballast and marked locations to drill
  6. Got out and setup power tools and leads and so forth
  7. Pulled block out of stand, and pulled bracket off block.
  8. Drilled bracket 6 times for lock pin and handle
  9. Refitted bracket to dead block
  10. Reinserted dead block into stand, pinned horizontal, removed crane
  11. Rotated block 90 degrees for easy access to flywheel https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 3847105536
  12. Removed last three pistons and rods from dead block, at least one bent: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 0121606144
  13. Removed 3 main caps from dead block https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 0275903488
  14. Removed pilot bearing from dead crank
  15. Removed pressure plate and friction disk from flywheel
  16. Removed flywheel from dead crank
  17. Cleaned surface rust from flywheel with angle grinder https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 4294639616
  18. Removed rear main seal and housing from block
  19. Removed remaining two main caps from block
  20. Removed crank from block
  21. Removed oil squirters from block
  22. Removed bearings from block https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 9174024192
  23. Removed chain fittings from block
  24. Hooked into holy block with crane and removed from engine stand https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 9433092096
  25. Removed stand bracket from block
  26. Took photo of damaged bore: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 1756917760
  27. Dumped block with other scrap steel items
  28. Zinc primed the back of the block and edges, too: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 3745017856
  29. Lifted new engine back up into the air with crane
  30. Fitted bracket to the exhaust side of new engine
  31. Put the new engine onto the stand side mounted
  32. Removed the standard mount bracket from new engine
  33. Folded up crane and put it away https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 7955742721
  34. Cleaned the threads for the flywheel bolts
  35. Cleaned surface rust off the front of the flywheel too
  36. Cleaned pressure plate mounting surfaces
  37. Cleaned old locktight off of 6 flywheel bolts
  38. Used a chair and block of wood to hold a power bar and socket on the pulley
  39. Bolted up flywheel with three bolts dry
  40. Locktighted and torqued up other three bolts with torque wrench
  41. Removed first 3 and repeat with those
  42. Cleaned old locktight off of 6 pressure plate bolts
  43. Centred clutch disk and placed pressure plate on flywheel
  44. Same staged 3 3 torque up locktight sequence for pressure plate
  45. Wire brushed some surface rust from pressure plate
  46. Zinc primed pressure plate too https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 2039919616
  47. Cleared up all tools, locked up storage unit
  48. Moved new engine back into garage on its stand
Not a bad day, huh! :-)

Fred.
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Re: FreeEMS Powered '89 Ford Courier FE-DOHC Turbo (DSL bewa

Post by Fred »

Something to note:

Having the crane lowered means that if you drop a wheel into a hole/gutter/ditch it's MUCH easier to pull it out than it would be at full height because the wheel touches on an angled part below half of its height.

And things to do before insertion of engine:
  • CAS disk swap, maybe, CAS sensor/plug swap, maybe
  • Cam belt installed
  • Cam cover installed
  • Buy/install spark plugs
Most of which won't happen today, as it's pissing with rain and blowing a gale.

Fred.
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Re: FreeEMS Powered '89 Ford Courier FE-DOHC Turbo (DSL bewa

Post by Fred »

Cranking over with oil pressure and cylinder pressure making encouraging popping sounds! Getting close! :-D
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Fred's Truck goes to the Track! :-D

Post by Fred »

So on Thursday last week I tracked the truck...

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...at Hampton Downs here in Auckland! Great fun, and a LOT learned.

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Here are some notes on what went down:

That miss just after boost came on? 5800 default rev limiter. Raised to 7500 in hex editor. Also leaned out the top end of the pressure scale slightly. No other tune changes made.

The remaining miss was rev limiter pre-engaging at lower RPM than it should (above 7k, though) due to RPM "noise"/jitter. I didn't verify yet, but I suspect it's just stiff valve springs + slop in the drive causing it. Solution: Move away from the CAS setup, or tighten the drive tolerances to remove this play.

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Initial oil leaks were from around cam cover which I had simply forgotten to torque down after allowing glue to set with them slightly loose. All had rattled very loose. Broke one tightening them down, so need to pull and replace that.

Xylene makes a fine fuel/toluene substitute, but dissolves slick tyres rapidly making for amusing photographs and stains on concrete when you try to wash oil off of your slick (see later for cause). Need PTFE hoses in the ute to use this stuff and most other proper high octane fuels.

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A-frame towing is OK, but not very nice on tight windy roads where long A-frames and welded diffs can push the back of the tow car around in dodgy and entertaining/worrying ways. Smooth enough on the motorway, but jiggles both vehicles over undulations as the distance effectively changes.

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A-frame needs a retractable pneumatic castor wheel attached at the front so the towee can be driven slowly around with the bar still attached to assist in mount/unmount.

A-frame bolts with nylocks a pain to install/remove. Better to use some sort of robust split or spring clip arrangement as a retainer and a normal nut for tension.

Ute had a 0.9 bar radiator cap, could do with 1.1 bar upgrade of the OEM quality variety.

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I've been ummming and ahhhhing about whether to keep leafs, multilink, or IRS the back of the ute for ages. Even with the rear suspension TOTALLY wrong I was able to pull good lateral Gs around larger radius bends at higher speeds. This has ruled out the IRS setup and pushed me back toward a multilink or leaf setup. I suspect the leaf setup could be dialed in to function in a fairly performant way as it's not terrible as is. What this means is that I can get on with setting up the disk brake rear end that I have for the car, and then the 5-stud front setup that I badly need. Hooray.

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A while back I acquired front calipers for this thing. My first or second session scared me half to death at close to 200kph when the brakes were simply not working much at all. Shaky hands afterward. I was able to hit 200kph, drop back to 100kph, and hit 200kph before finally braking down again for the post-straight drop-away corner. With a better gearbox I'd probably have been dead. Brakes first, gearbox second. Getting on with the axle swap puts me closer to having a sweet brake setup.

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Number three headgasket failure producing much overflow out of radiator via bottle, and eventually much green alien blood everywhere. Kept boosting hard despite this :-o Could be down to my dodgy hack job head job, not having machined it. Could have lifted the head. Could have broken a head bolt. Could have pushed the fire ring out of the way from sheer pressure/fatigue after an hour's beating on a hot day. Other plugs looked sooty and non-detonated; xylene was doing its job. Possible remedies: get head machined, get studs/nuts and up the torque, get MLS HG.

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The lateral Gs that I achieved on the sweeper were also enough to cause some oil issues of the messy variety. My engine has 4 large drains from head to block, all on the right hand side of the setup... the sweeper was a right hand turn, I was pulling some Gs. Maybe around 3 litres of oil accumulated in the top end on the left side driven my those Gs. On straightening up before the oil had a chance to drain away it sloshed back under hard accel and went straight out my un-labyrinthed right hand 1/2" breather tube and into the small bottle behind the headlight, quickly overflowing from it and spreading oil all over the guard, anything on the guard, intake manifold, chassis, driver's floor area (!!), right front wheel, tyre, and brakes, etc etc. Oil f***ing everywhere! And coolant on the left where there was no oil! :-D

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So my plan here is many-fold:
  1. Machine the head for LHS drain back holes ah la Toyota 7M setup, for a start, then oil can't build up in bulk, ever.
  2. Better hose routing to catch cans
  3. Possibly move to centre-top mounted breathers to avoid capturing oil unnecessarily. Or put a labyrinth around the RHS outlet internally.
  4. Route catch can lower outlets back to sump above slosh tray and put a filter on the top (or route to venturi on exhaust), and keep them vertical and fill with stuff to filter/separate (currently just open top bottles...)
Definitely not keen to improve the gear ratio situation until I have proper brakes, tyres, and better suspension on the thing, though. It'd just kill me with bravery/stupidity.

Fred.
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Re: FreeEMS Powered '89 Ford Courier FE-DOHC Turbo (DSL bewa

Post by Fred »

Dropped the remaining coolant out tonight and lubed up the dead bore so it survives until I can pull the head and clean it properly. Can't wait to pull it off and see the internal carnage. Ironic considering the entire DOHC swap was motivated by head/gasket issues in the old SOHC engine. If I'd just run it NA or at 8-12 PSI it'd have been fine. :-D
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Re: FreeEMS Powered '89 Ford Courier FE-DOHC Turbo (DSL bewa

Post by Fred »

Aside from the head mods and better headgasket, some other fixes are required, just noting them here for reference:

1) Starter sticks on (pull, lube up, reinstall)
2) Fuel pump relays positive side live always, change this to key triggered and ECU grounded (nearly had a major one night...)
3) Puma ECU must go, replacement is ready to roll, almost. Time for a better connector, too...
4) RPM was unstable at the track, resulting in premature rev limiting, new code that's about to be tested will cure this for all configurations.
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Re: FreeEMS Powered '89 Ford Courier FE-DOHC Turbo (DSL bewa

Post by adamw »

I suggest you should get the head hardness tested if you haven't already done so. I remember the SOHC FE heads were very prone to "going soft" so perhaps the DOHC suffers the same fate. Any big engine reconditioner should be able to do a basic hardness test. It should ideally be about 110BHN (new hardness) but probably would still work ok for this type of power level down to about 85BHN. If it is below about 80BHN it will never seal for long - the head bolts just sink into the pads and the fire ring sinks into the head surface leaving very little clamp.
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Re: FreeEMS Powered '89 Ford Courier FE-DOHC Turbo (DSL bewa

Post by Fred »

I have three heads, and need to modify one of them a fair bit, so yeah, I'll make sure the one I use is solid. This one has never been overheated AFAIK and has done quite a few miles under significant cylinder pressure load with no sealing issues. The main issue is probably that I never had the head machined, and it's on its third block now! :-D However I know of another guy who was pushing higher PSI and making a LOT of power and blew the firing ring out of the way on a good head/block setup with everything spot on. So yeah, it can happen :-D If you think about the materials in play, the head and block are thick solid metal, the pistin is, too. The rings are very hard, and pretty well supported. The firing ring is a friction fit between head and block with X clamp and zero backing support unless you count the soppy graphite substrate in there, which I don't. If you had to choose a weak link out of the available options (including the plug), it'd be the firing ring on a traditional HG setup.
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FreeEMS dev diary and its comments thread and my turbo truck!
n00bs, do NOT PM or email tech questions! Use the forum!
The ever growing list of FreeEMS success stories!
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Re: FreeEMS Powered '89 Ford Courier FE-DOHC Turbo (DSL bewa

Post by Fred »

The truck got tucked away in the back of the garage today. This is a good thing, not a bad thing, as it was previously occupying prime realestate that I can now leverage for other purposes. Like fixing any of the fleet in a dry happy place. Or keeping the Volvo out of the weather. Or building a steel topped table for working on gearboxes for the truck...

And the nose is still poking out into the main space enough to make it easy to work on, should I find motivation to pull the head and fix the thing.

Which I did, today. When I found out about a special drag racing day that is being held by a local club in early December! :-D

Plan:
  • Multi layer steel head gasket
  • ARP studs and nuts to hold the head down
  • Ideally some sort of soft sloppy slicks for the back (if I get some 16" 6 stud rims, it'd be ideal, then I could move the slicks to FD rims later for the 5 stud rear)
  • Ideally front 5 stud setup and brakes sorted out... and therefore:
  • Drag-style skinny fronts on it (mostly for looks)
  • Ideally two step limiter style "launch control"
We'll see how I go time wise, though. I'll probably fail to get there at all. Or get there on a stock gasket and bolts, or some such.

Fred.
DIYEFI.org - where Open Source means Open Source, and Free means Freedom
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FreeEMS dev diary and its comments thread and my turbo truck!
n00bs, do NOT PM or email tech questions! Use the forum!
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