The (replacement) engine for the silver car is ready to drop in.
(http://www.turbochuck.com/images/Tbird/2.3T%20Refresh/longblock5_07.JPG)
Nothing fancy at all....I just want it running. The shortblock aside and the $100 I need to spend on a couple more pieces for the 3" exhaust, I have nothing into this aside from a few gaskets and paint. I loves me some Ford grey.
I left a few things off to aide in the install, but since the engine in the car is down to the shortblock and motor mounts, pulling it will be cake.
I still need to do the rear main seal, but I'll do that when I swap the flywheel, etc and it's off the stand.
A little shot of the turbo outlet...
(http://www.turbochuck.com/images/Tbird/2.3T%20Refresh/turbocolonoscopy.JPG)
what happened to the motor that was in the silver car?
Looking good Chuck! How's the 6 swap motor coming?
This
(http://www.turbochuck.com/images/Tbird/2.3T%20Refresh/Dead%20%234.JPG)
It's on the list. I have a g/f with a little girl and trying to make sure things are sorted for that first. The 3.3L X-Flow is going to take a little work and $$. Trying to get daily-drivers and the '83 sorted and driving again so I don't have to worry about those. Once I get an I6 longblock together I'll take the car down again, but until then...it needs to be driven.
Sweet. Those 2.3T engines look great in Ford gray. You have to stop working on that car. Every time I see it I want to go out and pick up a 83-84 TC:D
I managed to crush/fracture my fingers. Are we talking 300 I6?
I only sed a knuckle or two :hick:
Nope...3.3L = 200ci, and X-Flow = Aussie AL head
looks great
I second that, nice work Chuck.
Great work old boy.I like the Ford grey as well.
is that the buick inlet on the turbo? I've got the same setup on mine so I could use my cold air intake
I see nothings. :(
Then you lose :evilgrin:
The pics are there. If not go to my website and look under the images (not the gallery) in the Tbird folder under "2.3T refresh".
Ha! They showed up FTW!!!!11!one
Very interesting pcv routing. :D
Nice work
P.S. Are those flat tops in the old engine?
I figure that will help with crankcase vacuum ;)
Yes, the old engine had flat-tops. They didn't kill it though...the Total Seal rings did.... I liked the higher compression personally. The replacement block has the std pistons, but the head's been shaved a bit.
Hmmm.... Is that Buick compressor a bolt-on upgrade or do you need to change the wheel as well?
The whole cold side is Buick. It's not an "optimal" upgrade, but one nonetheless.
Also among the work the past few days has been on the '80 XR-7. Mostly underhood stuff. I'd forgotten how much I hate working on 5.0's....:punchballs: I need to replace the t-stat...what a PITA. I basically have to remove half of the on the front of the engine just to get to it. I guess I can clean some things up though. I figure the smog pump is supposed to have a pulley on it ;)..so I guess that's not working and just in the way. I need to get the alternator out of the way also...so I might as well throw the 3G on there.... It's going to become my beater/back-up car for the time being, so the emphasis is on getting it running/stopping and back together. The bigger plans will have to wait. I'll cover more details in that existing thread.
Right on! It makes me feel all fuzzy inside to see someone building a 2.3T instead of replacing it. :)
Well remember...the silver car was
originally a 5.0 car ;)
The 2.3T will be replaced in this car eventually though...
A little comeupance, then? ;)
Next up, a flathead Ford in a Rocket Olds!
Nahhh, but a 460 with nitrous would sure be mean in that '86 Chivvie ;)
Well, it's not
that cold in hell. :hick:
When my dad raced at a local track in his Pinto, that thing ran with a 2.3. After over 10 years of abuse, that engine is STILL racing along. They're good engines. I'll stick with my 5.0 since I'm more of a V8 brute power kinda guy. But down the road, I wouldnt mind takin an 87-88TC and sprucing it up some.
I'm likin the freshly built engine, though, lookin nice!
that aint freshly built. thats what we call a DUPONT overhaul :hick:
lookin good chuck. im waitin for some impressions of that JY hybrid. as ive got parts here ready to assemble one and install after my initial shakedown on the car.
Haha ok, I'll rephrase. The DUPONT Overhauled engine is looking great! :D
Well if the car had been running on all 4 cylinders (instead of about 3.2) I would have had a better feel for it. I need to rework the MS tune now as well....no wonder I was contantly chasing it around :p.
exactly why im still waitin :beatyoass:
:D
Oh thanks god, not another blue engine. Grey or black or unpainted is the only way to go in my opinion.
I still prefer orange. ;P
The blue irks me. The shortblock was blue when I picked it up.. :toilet:
I can't leave them bare....can't stand looking at the rust...
Meh I like Ford blue:hick:
i have a chance of getting a cobra block... in purple.:yuck:
Well today was productive. I started with the engine as seen previously in the thread and a car with basically a shortblock left in it and a trans.
I got some parts swapped. I'm going to test out my new dual durometer bushings as well
(http://www.turbochuck.com/images/Tbird/2.3T%20Refresh/engine%205_07_3.JPG)
This is how things sat as of 4:00PM
(http://www.turbochuck.com/images/Tbird/2.3T%20Refresh/engine%205_07_1.JPG)
(http://www.turbochuck.com/images/Tbird/2.3T%20Refresh/engine%205_07_2.JPG)
Basically all I need is oil/filter and coolant. Then a quick prime of the oil system and I drop in the distributor and set timing.
Everything else is all buttoned up. The only thing not done is the exhaust. I need a couple more pieces to build it, so it will probably be started initially w/ just the downpipe.
I can't drive it yet anyway, it's being help captive in the drive by the '80 XR-7 at the moment. I need to at least get that running and the brakes working. If it didn't have a small hill on my driveway I'd not be as concerned about the brakes, but since I do...I need to have them working.
Also, before I got started this morning I had as mentioned just a shortblock in the car. I glanced over at the X-Flow head and decided to snap a pic :p
(http://www.turbochuck.com/images/Tbird/2.3T%20Refresh/X-Flow%20Teaser.JPG)
Gee, and all I did was put a mini-starter in today.
Well I just kind of got rolling. I didn't think I'd have everything all together today. I figured I'd at least get the engine set back in and maybe the trans and driveshaft back in.
It was just kind of "Well I go ahead and do this" and "While I'm under here I'll do this", and the next thing I knew, it was together.
Cool, looks awesome.
Looks good Chuck...................love the grey
:rollin: :rollin: :rollin:
Well if I don't have any way to stop...I'll wind up smashing my neighbors' cars across the street ;)
i guess that wouldnt be an approved way to stop at the bottom of the "small" hill. :evilgrin:
Well if I had the manual trans in it now it wouldn't be too big a deal, but that's not quite ready yet.
Well, I had the car running Sat for a short bit.
Notice I said "a short bit". I got it all together and fired it up and it was running, but did not sound right at all. It wasn't blowing any smoke or making any odd sounds, but it just wasn't right.
I also had an oil problem for a bit. As the car was running, I noticed a drip from the behind the crank pulley. I'm thinking "SOB front seal" or even the oil pan. Well as the car ran more, I noticed oil was getting on the timing belt. So I took the front cover off and looked around.
:dunce: I had prepared the block for a TFI to DIS conversion once it was running again, and had drilled the block for the crank sensor bracket. Once of the threaded holes was open to the crankcase..d'oh. I had forgotten to plug it. I rand a short bolt with sealant on it in there and cleaned the oil off and the oil loss stopped.
Back to the other issue. I did a quick diagnostic by pulling plug wires to see if all holes were firing. 2 and 3 weren't, or at least not completely. They had spark and fuel. I knew I should have had the head resurfaced.... There was a questionable low spot between 2 & 3 when I was putting it together.
So I took the head back off and stripped it down. I'll be taking it to the machine shop at some point this next week. After I get a new headgasket and some new valve seals I'll button it all back up.
Just more frustrations (along wth everything else that has transpired this weekend), but it should be running again soon.
glad to hear it (was) runnin. notes progress at least. wont be long now...
dern those pesky extra holes in the block :punchballs:
Well the weekend didn't pan out on getting the car running. I got the head from the machine shop before the weekend, but the other parts (head gasket, valve seals, etc) didn't show up by Fri, so it looks like it will be a few days yet until it's running again.
Sometimes you just dont think it'll ever end. Hell, the oil pan that has given us so much shiznit on dad's 383 is STILL leaking. I never knew it was possible for a company to make such a terrible oil pan, much less have the audacity to sell it as a quality $200 part and then give horrendous customer service. But in the end, it's worth it! Oh and uh...we need pics :D ....oh wait, you have a few of the engine. Um...maybe a video then? haha
Sounds like Chuck has been hanging out with Sleeper.
"Ill get the motor set in *starts it up the next day*"
OK, well another delay.
Got the cam bearings yesterday and I wound up with the "oil control" type (the ones that pump the oil to the top of the cam bearing journal where all the force is instead of at the bottom), and to use them the through holes on the top of the cam towers need to be plugged or the oil will just squirt out the top. So I had to get a tap and some plugs. I SHOULD be able to get this back together this weekend, but I have to run to Columbus, OH Sat AM and I'm sure there will be quality time with the g/f and her little girl on Sun. We'll see.
It's good that you're keeping your priorities straight. It'll get done, good luck!
Well I wound up getting it back together and all is well.
There was a bit of an "issue" however.
I got it buttoned up and it STILL was running odd, and #2 and #3 cylinders were not combusting properly. I knew the head was ok and flat now, so I got concerned that I had gotten sold a bum block. So I pulled the plugs and installed my compressor fitting to see if either cylinder was "leaking". Nope, all were the same and no stray air was leaking out.
It was then I had that "D'OH!" moment. I questioned myself on the rotation of the dist...for some reason when I put it together I had CCW on the brain, but never double-checked. Well that is wrong....it's CW. #2 and #3 are opposite each other in the firing order. So I swapped the plug wires and lo and behold.....firing on all 4 cylinders. :hick:
That is most likely the issue from a couple weeks ago as well...however, the head needed to be resurfaced anyway (they took .020" off it!) so it was good I took it apart.
It needs the exhaust completed, but it's up and running again and sounds happy.
woohoo! :D
Yeah....it was one of those brain fade moments. I double-checked my manual and was "Derrrrr.... you dumb-ass".
The throttle is nice and crisp now, and I can finally get the tune dialed in. I understand now why it was so hard to get the injector pulsewidth , etc dialed in before.
It's a load off my mind to finally know it's running again. It may not get out of the drive until the end of the month, but I know there won't be a problem when I can. :D
good to hear man! funny that one lil thing can bite you in the ass sometimes, eh?
but hey, like you said, now you KNOW its ready to go.
Hey 2 running in one weekend! Yay for us!
Good job Chuck, and I had to check the manual too when I stuck the wires on (been a loooong time). ;)
It's always funny when stupid things like that get ya. But glad to hear it's runnin like a champ now! Good job :) .
one guy on a mustang board i frequent had a severe idling issue when he changed his intake manifold. took him over a month to find out he forgot to hook the vaccum line up to the pcv valve!
i think we all have our "blonde" moments.