Engine Build Thread - 427ci FE Big Block

[stephen]

good to see things back on track - never fails - deal with quality people and they always step up when needed ! - way to go guys !

- Stephen

[Bill_VA]

I'm amazed that you knew the piston was .062 too short, I never in a million years would've noticed that. Have you built a lot of engines before this? Do you have a good manual to follow?

[Fifty-Two]

Don't worry at all Bill - it's more obvious than you may think when seeing it in person.
Most every engine build (small block, big block, Ford, Chevy, etc.) targets a near zero deck height. So, when the piston is down in the cylinder bore as much as it was in this case, you could 100% tell something wasn't right.


As far as resources, I've been using several different ones throughout this whole build. Combined, they pretty much point out all the little nuances of the FE motor and how to build it properly:

#1 - First one on the list is Barry's Robotonick's "How to Build Max-Performance Ford FE Engines" book:http://www.amazon.com/Build-Max-Perf...dp/1934709158/

This one is extremely current (2010) and is a huge help in planning and executing the overall build - it walks through nearly every component decision in the build plan and gives a lot of great assembly advice.


#2 - Another suggestion is the Steve Christ book, "How To Rebuild Big-Block Ford Engines":www.amazon.com/How-Rebuild-BIG-BLOCK-FORD-ENGINES/dp/0895860708/ref=pd_sim_b_1

This is a much older book (1989), but covers every tiny detail in a rebuild; it fills in the few gaps that Barry's book doesn't document and serves as a solid step-by-step assembly guide.


As far as other resources, here is probably the best online FE build-up:

http://www.precisionenginetech.com/p...ord-fe-part-1/
http://www.precisionenginetech.com/p...ord-fe-part-2/
http://www.precisionenginetech.com/p...ord-fe-part-3/
http://www.precisionenginetech.com/p...ord-fe-part-4/
http://www.precisionenginetech.com/p...ect-fe-part-5/


And here are a couple additional quality online articles and build-ups:

http://www.carcraft.com/techarticles/ccrp_0808_ford_390_fe/index.html

http://www.webrodder.com/index.php?s...owStories&CID=

http://www.webrodder.com/index.php?search=fe+ford+-+hot+rod&page=showStories&CID=



- John

[Fifty-Two]

Sorry for the delay in posts and progress guys. I’m back at it now and moving right along.

The piston rings for this project are a set of Total Seal Conventional file-to-fit rings (for a 4.060-4.065” bore). This is a performance street oriented set of rings that offers a good compromise between friction, sealing, and long-term durability. The top ring is 1/16” ductile iron with a plasma moly face-coating, the middle ring is a 1/16” conventional cast iron ring, and the oil rings are a 3/16” standard tension 3-piece set.




Each ring needs to be custom fit (via filing/grinding) for each cylinder bore. By doing it this way, the ring gaps for every cylinder will match across the board, even if the bores themselves are very slightly different in size. To spec these out properly, a couple specialty tools are needed: a piston ring filing tool, and a ring placement/squaring tool. The ring filing tool I used to set all the gaps is from Summit Racing - www.summitracing.com/parts/SME-906000 - the diamond wheel made quick work of the process, and the adjustable stops helped keep the filed edge of the ring square to the wheel; and, by filing just one edge of the ring, it made it much easier to insure that the edges remained square to one another. Also of note is that the handle of the tool should be rotated counter-clockwise (the wheel should turn in towards the center of the ring) so that moly coating on the ring’s face will not be chipped off or damaged in any way.

For the top ring, the suggested gap for a performance street application is around 0.0045” for every inch of bore diameter. With a 4.060” cylinder bore, it works out that a gap of 0.019” is the target. For the next ring (the second ring), I chose to go with a slightly larger gap, which is a more modern approach and theory; the reasoning is that the larger gap in the second ring helps to elevate any residual pressure between it and the top (compression) ring – in theory, this allows the compression ring to do a better job of sealing the cylinder combustion area. The suggested spec straight out of Barry’s book is between 0.0050-0.0055” for every inch of bore diameter, and works out to a gap of 0.022” for these second rings. Finally, the oil ring set (the bottom rings) require just a minimum gap of 0.015” for each ring.

The whole process is a little tedious ... grind a little off one edge of the ring, double check to make sure the edges butt together square, wipe the ring clean, carefully insert it into the corresponding cylinder bore, use the ring squaring tool to slide the ring in the proper position, measure the ring’s end-gap with the feeler gauges, notice that you aren’t even remotely close yet, remove the ring from the bore, put it back on the grinding wheel and repeat. It’s always better to sneak up on the gap, removing just a little with the grinding wheel and taking the time to constantly re-measure the gap in the bore. The diamond wheel is fairly aggressive, so after a little practice, it becomes pretty easy to figure out how many turns of the wheel will yield a 0.001” reduction in gap. The first few rings take some time, but once you get the hang of it, the process speeds up considerably.

Photo showing a top-ring resting in the grinding wheel tool:




Photo showing the squaring tool placing a ring properly in the bore:




Photo showing the correct size feeler gauge barely standing up in the end gap:




After the ring is properly gapped, the edge that was ground on with the diamond wheel needs to be deburred. This was accomplished with a small fine-grit knife stone, to produce a very very very small edge break to clean up any burrs left behind from the grinding wheel.




Photo of each top-ring sized to its respective bore:




In the end, the top rings all were filed down to create gaps of 0.019” in their respective bores. The second rings also all got ground down to proper spec, 0.022”. And luckily, the oil rings were good to go right out of the box with no grinding necessary; the expander ring and the two rail rings all had more than the minimum 0.015” of clearance required when measured in the bores.

Next up ... Rod & Rod Bearing Blueprinting.

- John

[Fifty-Two]

Rods

The rod’s included with the SCAT stroker kit are their ProComp forged I-Beam design that match the dimensions of a BBC (Big Block Chevy) rod. They are forged from 4340 chromoly steel, and measure in at 6.700” long - which is slightly longer than the traditional Ford FE rod. This additional length provides better internal geometry for the rotating assembly as a whole. And as mentioned in previous posts, using these BBC spec rods provides several unique advantages: first, the smaller rod pin diameter creates the extra room inside the bottom-end of the block to allow for stroke lengths of 4.125” & 4.250” without any block clearancing required. The smaller bearing journal diameter is also more efficient by creating less friction and heat; plus, BBC rod bearings are more readily available in under/over-sizes (if needed to obtain the desired clearances).

The rods arrive fully machined and weight-matched from SCAT. The big-ends weigh in at 585g, small-ends at 252g, and overall weight is 837g. They have been magna-fluxed and shot-peened at SCAT to insure that the rods are indeed bulletproof for an application such as mine. For hardware, ARP 8740 12-pt bolts measuring 7/16” x 1.400” are used for clamping the rod caps down to their respective rods. This combination is vastly superior to reconditioned Ford rods and hardware, and should prove to be extremely reliable for the power output I am targeting.


~ Rod Blueprinting: The first thing to check was that the machine work on the big-end of the rods had been done correctly and that all bores were round and in-spec. Using the dial bore gauge, big-end bore measurements were taken on each rod – the first/main measurement was taken 90 degrees from the rod cap parting line, then a measurement 45 degrees in either direction from the first measurement. The first measurement would give the overall bore diameter, and the other two measurements would insure the bore was indeed round and true. Overall, the quality of the machine work was impeccable. Specs were very consistent from rod to rod and the bores themselves were perfectly round (variance of less than one-half of one ten-thousandths of an inch).

Final blueprint measurements came out to:
Rod Big-End #1 Average = 2.3250”
Rod Big-End #2 Average = 2.3250”
Rod Big-End #3 Average = 2.3250”
Rod Big-End #4 Average = 2.3250”
Rod Big-End #5 Average = 2.3250”
Rod Big-End #6 Average = 2.3250”
Rod Big-End #7 Average = 2.3250”
Rod Big-End #8 Average = 2.3250”

Max “Out-of-Round” Observed = 0.00005”





Rod Bearings

The main bearing set that came with the stroker package is Speed-Pro (Sealed Power) part # Z87200CH; these are a standard 2.200” BBC sized, competition bearing set made from a Super-Duty H-14 bearing material; this is the same competition bearing line used for the mains earlier in the build.

~ Rod Bearing Blueprinting: The oil clearances between crank journals and rod bearings were next to be checked. Again, this was accomplished by using a dial bore gauge and a micrometer.

Here’s the breakdown of how clearances were measured:

- All bearings were cleaned in an isopropyl alcohol bath to remove any traces of oil, dust, debris, etc.

- The bearing mating surfaces in the rods and caps were wiped clean with solvent to insure that there would be nothing to get between the bearings and their respective mating surfaces in the rod.

- Bearings were then installed into the rods and caps. Bearings marked “U” are installed in the rod (upper) side, and bearings marked “L” are installed in the cap (lower) side.

- The threads on the ARP rod cap bolts were lubricated with ARP’s Ultra Torque Fastener Assembly Lube, then tightened down in three steps to an ultimate torque value of 64 ft/lbs (matching the spec used during the machine-work done by SCAT).

- Just like what was done when measuring the bearing clearances on the mains in an earlier post, an outside micrometer (2-3”) was used to measure each rod pin crank journal diameter; the micrometer’s spindle was locked in place at that measurement and the micrometer was then secured into a soft-faced vise to hold it for the next step. The dial bore gauge was positioned between the micrometer’s anvils and zeroed out so that it baselined off of the actual OD of each journal. Now, the dial bore gauge is placed inside each rod’s big end, and directly reads the exact bearing clearance for that particular rod. All measurements were made 90 degrees from the bearings parting lines, as this is the spot where clearances will be the tightest; the closer you measure to the parting lines, the larger the actual bearing clearance is to form the oil wedge and keep the crank from catching a bearing edge (thus spinning a bearing).

- This process of torqueing each rod cap to spec, measuring the respective crank journal with the micrometer, zeroing the dial bore gauge to that micrometer, and measuring the bearing clearance was repeated for each of the eight rods. As with the mains, the bearing clearance I was targeting for the rods is 0.0028”, with anything in the range of 0.0025-0.0030” being within spec and acceptable.



- In order to achieve the bearing clearances I was after (due to the slight variances in rod journal diameters on the crankshaft), a few of the rods needed a single bearing shell swap-out to a 1X “undersize” bearing. “Undersize” bearings are slightly thicker than standard bearings and create a bore that is smaller in overall diameter, thus reducing the correlating bearing clearance. By keeping the standard-sized bearing shell in the cap side, and using a 1X undersized bearing shell in the rod side (the thicker bearing should be put on the side that gets more load) overall bearing clearances will be reduced by 0.0005”. This is a completely acceptable and very common practice in order to really “nail” the targeted bearing clearances. The only thing to note when mixing and matching standard/over/under bearings together, is to be sure to use the same bearing type (manufacturer, material, groove, etc) and don't mix shells in the same bore that are different in size by more than 0.001". It definitely takes a little more time and effort to do it this way, but the end results in power and durability are worth it.

Here's a good article explaining all of this in further detail:
http://www.carcraft.com/techarticles/ccrp_0805_high_performance_engines_bearing_clearan ce/engine_bearing_clearance_tips.html

Close-up photo of the backside of two bearing shells (one standard-size, one under-size):




Final blueprinted rod bearing clearances were as follows:
Rod #1 = 0.0028”
Rod #2 = 0.0029”
Rod #3 = 0.0026”
Rod #4 = 0.0028”
Rod #5 = 0.0028”
Rod #6 = 0.0027”
Rod #7 = 0.0026”
Rod #8 = 0.0028”


Next up ... Piston Prep & Blueprinting

- John

[Fifty-Two]

As mentioned in previous posts, in order to achieve the 427ci displacement for this project, a custom set of pistons had to be made to match up to the 4.060” bore and 4.125” stroke combo. Nowadays, custom piston work like this is actually not too expensive. The piston set that was chosen is from Diamond and is a dished set of forged 4032 aluminum alloy. This alloy is generally well suited for street use due to its high strength and long-term durability.

The overall piston specs for this particular application are as follows:




Piston Prep

There were a couple small things I wanted to address with the pistons before moving on. First up was to radius the sharp edges of the valve relief cutouts on the tops of the pistons. Sharp edges are not a good thing in the combustion chamber area – they create hot spots and can lead to pre-ignition. These edges were very slightly radiused using a fine-grit unified soft deburring wheel in a stand buffer. Very, very little material was removed (when weighed on a 0.1g scale before and after, there was and should be absolutely no change in weight), just enough to soften the edges of these valve pockets. After the radiusing work was done, I went ahead and polished the tops of all the pistons to help prevent potential carbon build-up. This step truly isn’t necessary, but I figured I would go ahead and do it since I already had the buffer out anyway – a cotton wheel with brown tripoli compound brought the piston tops up to a nice shine.

Before & After: Note the fully-prepped piston on the right with the radius on the valve-reliefs and the final polish to the piston top.




All 8 pistons prepped and ready to go:




Piston Blueprinting

The first part of the blueprinting was to measure the piston diameters to insure that they were milled to spec and provide the proper clearance to the cylinder walls; a 4-5” micrometer was used to record the width of each piston, 90 degrees from the pin centerline, and 1.250” below the oil ring landing (as per spec from Diamond). This puts the measurement location near the bottom of the piston skirt, and since piston skirts have a taper machined into them, it is critical to take the measurements at the correct location. The dimensions for this set of pistons were absolutely spot-on and consistent from piston to piston – Diamond did a great job with the all the machine work.




Measuring piston diameter:




Blueprinted piston diameter specs were as follows:
Piston #1 = 4.0552”
Piston #2 = 4.0552”
Piston #3 = 4.0552”
Piston #4 = 4.0552”
Piston #5 = 4.0552”
Piston #6 = 4.0552”
Piston #7 = 4.0552”
Piston #8 = 4.0552”


Piston-to-Bore Clearances

After the piston diameters’ were measured, the piston-to-bore clearances needed to be checked. This was accomplished with the same methods used previously when checking bearing clearances (the micrometer and dial bore gauge method to directly measure bore clearances). The target piston-to-bore clearance spec for this application is 0.0040”, and truthfully, anything in the ballpark will do – the bores are actually slightly out of round as measured currently since the heads are not bolted down, so a reasonably close measurement is ok. When the machine work was done earlier, torque plates were used to simulate the distortions that the heads and head bolts impart on the block, thus creating perfectly round cylinders when the heads are attached; but, when the heads aren’t bolted up to the block, the bores will always read slightly out of round.

Blueprinted piston-to-bore clearance specs on the 8 cylinders ranged from approximately 0.0040” – 0.0045”.


Next up ... Rotating Assembly Balance

- John

[Fifty-Two]

The pistons, rods, and piston pins all come in weight matched sets from the manufacturer, but there is always room for a little improvement since the weight tolerances that they spec aren’t as tight as they can be. So the next step was to blueprint all of the rotating assembly weights (pistons, rods, rings, etc) on my digital scale - the good news is that everything came in very close to spec. Since the scale I used is extremely precise though (it measures down to 0.1g), very small variances between components could be noted.

For example, the eight pistons weighed in at 522.2g +/- 1.5g each, the eight rods weighed in at 837.3g +/- 1.5g each, and the eight piston pins weighed in at 142.0g +/- 0.1g each. These are generally acceptable tolerances and could have been left as is (usually, rotating assemblies and components are balanced down to around a total of +/- 1gram), but since the time had already been spent to blueprint and double-check all of the weights, it only takes a bit more time to improve the overall rotating assembly balance and insure the final tolerances are tight.

Making up these small component variances was accomplished by mixing and matching component pairings (i.e. the heaviest piston with the lightest pin and the lightest rod “small end”) to insure that both the “rotating” and “reciprocating” totals were within just tenth’s of grams across all eight cylinders. If no attention is paid to which components get matched up together, tolerance stacking can occur; randomly, a heavy piston might end up getting paired with a heavy rod and a heavy piston pin; when that happens, one particular cylinder’s components could end up being several grams heavier than the other cylinders (conversely, some cylinder component sets could end up being lighter by several grams), thus causing an imbalance to a portion of the rotating assembly. By making sure that each cylinder set (1 cylinder), journal set (2 cylinders on a shared rod journal), and crank-half set (4 cylinders that make up either the front or back half of the crank) are as close as possible in weight, the overall bottom-end balance will end up spot on. By paying close attention to all of these things, the end result for this project was a balance within a couple tenths of a gram for all these different sets.

As far as the crank, it had already been internally balanced by Survival to match the component specs previously mentioned. Here are the balance card specs for the crank:




With everything balanced and checking out, it's time to start bolting it together.

Next up … Bottom-End Assembly.

- John

[Bill_VA]

With an engine built to such meticulous tolerances, what do you think redline will be?

Thanks for posting these updates, it amazing to watch this.

[Fifty-Two]

Thanks Bill!

Redline will be limited by the lifter package more than anything. Since I'll be running a set of hydraulic rollers, 6200rpm is the safe place to cut things off. Thats really the one and only downside to hydraulic rollers - peak RPM; the valvetrain starts to get overwhelmed trying to keep those big lifters in check over 6200rpm. For a street motor though, 6200 or so is just about perfect in my book.

[Tpa65cpe]

WOW!! It sure is nice to see somone take pride in their work! Great attention to detail is the only way to build an engine that will last. My father was a mechanic fo over 50 yrs and when I was growing up this was one of the things that he taught me. This is definatly going to be something that you can be proud of Sir!! Good luck and please keep us all posted here especally me (I already have a huge grin,drool comeing out of the corner of mouth,and left eye twitch) will be watching for more updates!!

[Fifty-Two]

With the blueprinting work done, the next order of business was to do a final clean and prep of all the bottom-end components, getting them ready for assembly. The pistons, rings, piston pins, retainers, rods, rod caps, and rod bolts were all scrubbed down in hot soapy water and blown dry; the rods, caps, pins, and rings then got a light spray of WD40 to eliminate corrosion potential. The rod bearings got a wash in an alcohol bath to remove any contaminants. After everything was clean and ready to go, the parts all got laid out and organized on the assembly table.




Assembling the Pistons to the Rods:

- First step was to insert the spirolox retainers into one side of each piston. These spirolox are devilish little things, and take a little while to get used to; once you get the hang of them though, things move along quickly. The trick to getting them installed is to first pull each one apart slightly (it will end up looking like a spring) – this will allow you to get one end started in the piston retainer groove, then slowly work and wind it the rest of the way into the groove, fully seating it. The piston set in this build requires a dual set of these retainers, which means that the retaining groove in the piston is cut wide enough to accommodate two of these spirolox on each side of the piston pin – these dual locks provides a little extra security in keeping everything in place.

This photo shows what a spirolox initially looks like (bottom), and then what it looks like after prepping it for install (top):




- The FE family of engines luckily use fully floating piston pins, meaning no special ovens and pin presses are needed to complete the assembly. The pins (a set of 0.145” wall tool steel pins from Trend) simply needed a quick coating of assembly lube (Max Tuff) before being slid into the pistons and through the rod’s “small end”, and finally seating up against the spirolox retainers installed earlier. The only thing to double-check here was that the pins slide in smoothly with no excess play.







- One thing that had to be kept in mind when assembling everything was to insure that the pistons remained orientated correctly to their respective rods. The valve relief cutouts in the piston should be at the top, and the chamfer of the rod’s “big end” must face the proper direction in order to clear the crank journal radius. Bad things can happen if an oversight happens here and a rod gets installed facing the wrong direction.

- With the pins in, and the rods and pistons joined together, the second set of spirolox could be installed in each piston. The same procedure as before was used to install the other dual set of retainers to fully lock the pin inside the piston.

Photo shows the groove in the piston for the dual spirolox retainers:




Photo shows both spirolox fully installed:




Pistons and rods are mated up, ready for the next step:

[Fifty-Two]

Installing Piston Rings & Rod Bearings:

- As shown in an earlier post, the Total Seal ring set had been custom gapped for each respective cylinder; it was critical that each set remained in the proper location throughout this whole process.

- The oil ring set were the first rings to be installed – these are the 3 rings (1 expander ring and 2 rail rings) that sit in the bottom groove of each piston and are primarily responsible for oil scraping and control. These rings install very easily by hand and there is no need to use any tools for the install. The only thing that needed to be checked after install was that ends of the expander rings butted up against each other and did not overlap.

- The “second” ring went onto each piston next, and a ring expander was used to appropriately install these rings; this tool allows installation of the rings without over-expansion, breakage, or scarring of the piston sides.




- The “top” ring went on last, again with the aid of a ring expander tool.

- With all the rings installed, the next step was to check the ring land side clearances – this is the clearance between the rings and their corresponding grooves the pistons. Total Seal specifies a clearance of 0.0015-0.0030”. Feeler gauges were used to insure the proper clearance; everything came out perfectly in spec on this build.

- The last step was to insure the correct ring gap orientation amongst the rings on each piston. Every ring manufacturer has a specific way they want the different gaps orientated on the piston, and Total Seal included a diagram showing the correct procedure for their rings.




- Rod bearings went in next. The bearing surfaces on each rod and cap were first wiped clean one last time with alcohol to insure nothing would sit between the rod/cap and the bearing shell itself. Critical care was kept to insure that the matched (standard or undersized) bearings stayed with the corresponding rod/cap so that the bearing clearances remained where they were set in the blueprinting process. Also of quick note, FE rod bearings are designed and stamped with “upper” shells (rod) and “lower” shells (cap), so those orientations were noted and kept during the assembly as well.


Final Installation of Piston & Rod Assemblies:

With each cylinder’s sub-assembly together and ready for install, it was time for each to go into the block for good. The install was done two cylinders at a time – each set of cylinders that share a rod journal went in together: 1&5, 2&6, 3&7, 4&8.

- Each crankshaft rod journal got a coating of assembly lube (Max Tuff), as did each bearing shell in the rods and caps.

- Next, the piston skirts and rings were thoroughly lubed with engine oil (Brad Penn Break-In Oil, SAE30) before being slid into the ring compressor. For this build, a 4.060” tapered compressor was used - www.summitracing.com/parts/SME-904060 - this type of ring compressor is worth every penny and makes the install a breeze. The piston assemblies were each carefully installed into the block and tapped all the way down, fully seated against the crankshaft rod journals.

- With a pair of piston assemblies in, the block was rotated around (bottom-side up) to give access to install the rod caps. The caps were installed, followed by the rod bolts, which had been coated with ARP Ultra Torque Fastener Assembly Lube (both on the threads and under the head). With all of the assembly/disassembly that had been done earlier during the blueprinting phase, these bolts had been cycled several times already by this point; this means that the bolt threads have had a chance to burnish in correctly which insures the proper clamp up is achieved from the fastener.

- A feeler gauge was placed between paired rod caps to provide lateral support (the feeler gauge removes any rod side clearance) during the final tightening of the rod bolts. Final torque was achieved in three progressive steps: 20 ft/lbs, 40 ft/lbs, and finally 64 ft/lbs.




- After each set of rods were torqued down, the crank was rotated around to check for any excessive drag or possible interference. After everything checked out ok, the other 3 pairs of piston assemblies went in with the same set of procedures shown above.




- The final step was to check rod side clearance. For a performance application like this, recommended clearance is between 0.018-0.028”. Using feeler gauges, all four rod side clearances on this project blueprinted out at 0.022-0.024”.


Additional photos of the pistons, rods, and rings here: http://s628.photobucket.com/albums/u...Rods - Pistons - Rings


Next up … Timing Set Install & Degreeing the Camshaft.

- John

[skullandbones]

Hey Fiftytwo,
I have only recently started to appreciate the 427 since I was a "diehard" big block Chevy guy. I saw a real big block at the Barrett Jackson auction in a Cobra CSX car. He was a dealer from CA and an engine builder who did all his own work. This was the sweetest sounding 427 I have ever heard. But the real impressive thing was that it did not vibrate at all!!! So I hope you do a video of yours when you get it running. I like these engine threads better than the other build aspects. I really liked your work on the casting. I think I will do that on my next engine. That's great work and very clear detailed pics. Thanks a lot, WEK.

[Fifty-Two]

Now that the bottom end install is complete, it was time to move onto the top-end and valve-train components. To insure that the valve opening and closing events occur when they are supposed to, the camshaft needed to be “degreed” through a simple measurement process. There are a couple different ways to degree a cam, but for this build I used the “Intake Centerline Method” – Comp Cams does a good job of describing it in this article: COMP Cams® Top 10 Tech FAQs - CPG Nation Forum

With the timing set positioned in the straight-up “0” keyway on the crank, the first step was to find top-dead center for the #1 cylinder. The photo below shows the dial indicator setup on the #1 piston so that the crank could be rotated around to position that cylinder at TDC. Once that was accomplished, the degree wheel was attached to the crank and a pointer (made simply from a coat hanger) was positioned at the TDC mark on the wheel; this sets the proper orientation for the rest of the procedure.




The next step was to lube and install the lifters for the #1 cylinder. The dial indicator was then repositioned to measure the movement of the intake lifter as the cam lobe ran it up and down. The crank was rotated until max lift was achieved for that intake lobe, and the indicator was then zeroed out at that max lift point. Because cam lobes can be asymmetrical, the point of max lift may not truly be the intake lobe’s centerline. For this reason, measurements need to be taken at 0.050” before and after that maximum lift location. The readings on the degree wheel at those two spots are then averaged together to find the true intake centerline.




Following this method, the intake centerline measured at 112.5 degrees. Since the cam card that came with the camshaft specifies a 108 degree ICL, the cam will need to be advanced about 4 degrees to achieve the desired timing events. This was accomplished by removing the timing chain set and reinstalling the crank gear in the 4 degrees advanced keyway; this will in turn advance the camshaft 4 degrees.






With the cam advanced approximately 4 degrees, the entire ICL measurement procedure was then repeated in order to verify that the cam was properly setup. This time, the ICL measurements came in at 109 degrees, which is as close as it will get given that advance/retard adjustments can only be made in 2 degree increments with the timing set keyways.

Now with all the “degreeing” complete, the cam bolt was removed to receive a dab of Red Loctite (#263, which has good tolerance to oil and long-term heat exposure) for final install. The ARP bolt and the 1/4” thick chrome-moly washer from Survival were reinstalled torqued to a final spec of 55 ft/lbs.




Next up … Front Cover, Balancer, and Oil Filter Adapter Install.

- John

[Fifty-Two]

Timing Cover

The timing cover is an original FoMoCo cast aluminum piece I picked up off ebay. After bead blasting to remove the old paint and bring it down to bare metal, this is what it looked like:




The factory “as-cast” finish leaves a little to be desired with some heavy casting flash around the edges. A few minutes with a die grinder and small flap wheel cleaned that all up and made for a nice looking piece. Here are a couple photos after all the flash was removed:






For the backside of the cover, I spent a couple minutes polishing it up with a small scotch-brite wheel in a die grinder. The smoothed surface should aid a little in helping shed oil back down to the pan.

Before:



After:



Finally, the cover was prepped for paint. The same prep process that was used on the block, was also used for the timing cover – a soap and water scrub and dry, followed by the POR “Prep & Clean” solution to etch the surface, followed by a final solvent wipe down. Two brushed coats of POR15 went on next as a basecoat, followed by five light sprayed coats of Eastwood’s “Underhood Black - Semi Gloss”.

Cover prepped for paint:

[Fifty-Two]

After painting, the front seal (part of the Fel-Pro completion gasket set) was installed from the backside of the cover with a block of wood and a deadblow hammer.






The original style Ford timing cover hardware was indented hex flange bolts (four of the 5/16”-18 x 3/4" bolts, three of the 3/8”-16 x 3/4” bolts, and one long non flanged regular hex 3/8”-16 x 2-3/4” bolt). To match that look, I decided to source stainless steel versions of all of these bolts from Totally Stainless. The flanges ended up being a little too wide for this application, so I turned them down a little so that they would fit properly on the cover. This was done simply by chucking up the bolt (wrapped in tape to protect the threads) in a cordless drill, and spinning the outside flange against a metal file, then against some 220 grit sandpaper; it took just a little over a minute to do each one. The before is on the right, and the after is on the left:





Damper Spacer

The damper spacer for this build is a steel repro part; it received the same prep and paint procedure as the timing cover did.

Damper spacer prepped for paint:




Oil Slinger

The oil slinger is NOS Ford part I picked up on ebay. It slides on the crank before the timing cover is installed and rests against the crankshaft timing gear; it will be sandwiched between the damper spacer and timing gear once everything is installed and tightened down. Note the proper orientation with the concave side facing the block:

[Fifty-Two]

Front Cover Install

- The timing cover gasket was prepped with Permatex High Tack Gasket Adhesive on both sides, before being fitted to the timing cover itself.

- The crank key was tapped down into place and the crankshaft snout received a liberal coating of anti-sieze to insure an easy disassembly years down the road.

- The front seal was lubed with a little grease and the damper spacer was slid in from the front-side of the cover. This spacer will be used as a locator for the front cover during the install – otherwise the cover can be installed in the wrong position, causing an oil leak at this front seal.

- With the cover in position, all the bolts were installed with Permatex Teflon Thread Sealant because several of these bolts holes are open to oil in the block. With the bolts finger tight, the cover was carefully situated so that the spacer was as perfectly centered as possible; the easiest way is to feel for drag as the spacer is slid in and out of the front cover seal. Once everything was aligned, the bolts were tightened down to a final torque spec of 10-12 ft/lbs.





Damper Install

The damper chosen for the project is from Professional Products (Part #80009); it’s a 7.5” damper with a 6-5/8” pulley - these specs are meant to replicate the original Ford 427 damper. The damper also comes with a timing pointer designed to mount on the factory Ford timing cover. This pointer, as well as the pulley, were both removed to later be bead blasted and painted the same matching semi-gloss under-hood black as the other surrounding components.

The damper is a press-fit design and is a simple install with the proper tool (these can be rented for free from places like Autozone, etc). With the damper inner hub and crank snout both coated with anti-sieze, the damper was pressed on and fully seated up against the damper spacer.







Remote Oil Filter Block Adapter

There are several ways to mount the oil filter on an FE – for this project, a remote oil filter location was chosen to replicate the original 427 S/C setup. The cast aluminum block adapter comes from Trans Dapt (Part #1015 - Bypass Adapter) and has 3 ports (in, out, oil temp/pressure sensor). Since the oil galley orifices on the side of the block were opened up and enlarged earlier in the build, the adapter needs a little work as well to match these larger block orifices. The lower orifice (the oil exiting from the block) matches up well to the adapter already, but the upper orafice (oil returning to the block) needs some work. The easiest way to accomplish this was to first match the gasket openings to the block orifices; a little trim work was needed with an X-Acto knife until the gasket openings were large enough and matched the block.




Then, the gasket was laid over the block adapter, and the new port outlines were transferred to the aluminum. The aluminum cuts easily so I just enlarged the port opening in the adapter with a set of small files.

Before port matching:



After port matching:



To install the adapter to the block, the gasket got a coating of Permatex High Tack Gasket Adhesive on both sides and was carefully positioned onto the adapter (the adapter had received a soap and water scrub prior to this to clean out any filings/debris). The adapter then was mated to the block and bolted down with some stainless steel 5/16”-18 hex-head hardware and AN5 washers. The bolts all received Blue Loctite and were torqued to a final spec of 12 ft/lbs.




Next up ... Cylinder Heads.

- John

[C6ZZ]

Wow! Thanks for sharing this with us. I am in awe. I rebuilt my 289 about 25 years ago & am surprised it still runs after viewing your work. I look forward to the updates.
Andrew

[Fifty-Two]

If this motor runs strong for the next 25 years like yours is doing, I'll be one happy camper!

- John

[Fifty-Two]

Cylinder Head Preparation

The cylinder heads selected for the project are a set of Edelbrock cast aluminum heads (Part #60069). Key specs are as follows: 72cc combustion chamber, medium-riser port design, 2.09” intake valves, and 1.66” exhaust valves. Out of the box and without additional port work, these heads are widely recognized as being able to handle 450+ hp. When it comes to flow, they are truly a quantum leap over most production Ford FE iron heads (in addition to being much lighter as a result of the aluminum construction). These heads come from Edelbrock with a single valve spring and damper set-up. To better handle the weight of the hydraulic roller lifters and allow for the anticipated redline of 6200, the valve springs were swapped out and upgraded to a set of dual springs by Barry at Survival; they should do a better job of controlling valve-train harmonics and keeping everything where its supposed to be at higher RPM’s.

Additionally, to keep with the theme of an original S/C style motor and replicate the look of factory cast iron Ford heads, the Edelbrock logos were milled off the ends of each cylinder head and the heads will be painted semi-gloss black to mimic the appearance of the cast iron forbearers.

The first part of the preparation work was to scuff down the machined ends of the cylinder heads to provide better paint adhesion to these smooth flat areas. Next was a thorough soap and water cleaning of the heads to flush out any possible contaminants as well as prep the outer surface for paint. This was followed quickly by a blow dry with compressed air. The springs and seats were immediately given a quick coat of WD-40 to prevent any flash rust. Next up was the tedious task of masking off every surface not receiving paint on each of the heads. Final paint prep consisted of a solvent wipedown to remove anything left over on the surfaces to be painted.

For paint, the same products used on the block were also used here – two brushed coats of POR15 (with about an hour between of flash time), followed by a three sprayed topcoats (two light coats and a final medium coat) of Duplicolor semi-gloss back ceramic engine enamel, allowing about 10 min flash time between each of these topcoats.

Next up was to install the four head locating dowels into the block – Pioneer part #PF-485 (these are for a Ford FE or 460 block). Since the dowel holes had been chamfered earlier during the block prep work, the install was very easy. The split side was angled in first to get them started, then tapped all the way down with a deadblow hammer.





Blueprinting

Two things needed to be checked before final install of the heads: Piston-to-Valve Clearance, Measurement for Pushrod Length. To accomplish these tasks with hydraulic lifters, special consideration must be taken. To get accurate results, the valve springs for the #1 cylinder need to be removed and temporarily replaced with lightweight “check” springs. Otherwise, the heavy spring-rate of the normal valve springs will compress the hydraulic portion of the lifter when the engine is rotated over to check clearances – this will result in inaccurate measurements because full lift at the rocker and the valve will not be achieved.

Check Springs Installed:





Piston-to-Valve Clearance

This is an important clearance to check in any engine. The last thing we want is a piston coming into contact with a valve and making a mess of broken parts. On a reasonable cam like the one in this build (under .600” lift), its unlikely that there will be anything to worry about, but just to be safe it still needs to be checked. To do this, a couple of small balls of modeling clay were packed into the valve pockets on the #1 piston.




A little oil was squirted on top of the clay to help keep the valves from sticking to the clay when the engine was rotated over. Next up was to temporarily install the passenger-side head gasket and cylinder head, being careful not to bump the clay out of position. The head was then bolted down to the block, but just to about 20 ft/lbs – there is no need to fully torque the fasteners for this step. Next, the passenger rocker assembly had to be fully mocked up and temporarily installed onto the head (more on the rocker selection later in the build write-up). After that, an oiled lifter was dropped into the block for the #1 cylinder. The last step was to take a couple adjustable pushrod length checkers (they came with the rocker set) and put them between the respective rockers and lifters for the intake and exhaust valves. The adjustable pushrods were screwed out to lengthen them to provide zero-lash on the lifters.




With everything mocked up for the #1 cylinder, the engine was rotated over a couple of time to let the valvetrain cycle through and leave impressions in the clay. The rockers, pushrods, lifters, and head were then all removed to check the clay. As expected, there was plenty of clearance for this motor. There should be a minimum of 0.100” of vertical clearance, and in this build there was well over 0.300”; the valves barely even left a mark in the clay in fact, so all was good.





Pushrod Length Measurement

Since this build is using so many non-OE components (hydraulic roller lifters, Edelbrock heads, aftermarket rockers, etc) and the block has been decked, there is no way that any stock length Ford pushrod will fit - custom length pushrods must be made. There are already several good write-ups out there on making these measurements (www.precisionenginetech.com/project-engine-builds/2009/09/17/project-ford-fe-part-4/), so I won’t go into detail here. Just remember that separate measurements for both the intake and exhaust pushrods will need to be made.




Final BOC (Bottom of Cup) measurements came in at 8.540” for the intake pushrods, and 8.565” for the exhaust pushrods. These measurements were called into Trend and a custom set of 0.080” wall chrome-moly pushrods were ordered with a 3/8” ball on one end and a 3/8” cup on the other end.

With all of the measuring and blueprinting done, the temporary light-weight check springs from the #1 cylinder were removed and the real springs were reinstalled back into the head so that everything was ready to go.

[Fifty-Two]

Cylinder Head Final Installation

- The cylinder head deck on the block was wiped down one last time with acetone to insure it was completely clean and free of oil. The same wipe down was done on the cylinder head mating surfaces as well.

- The head gaskets are FelPro #1020 performance gaskets. The gaskets were checked for cleanliness, then placed onto each deck surface making sure that the orientation was correct (they are marked with a “front” to insure proper orientation on the deck). The dowel pins installed earlier insure correct alignment of everything.

- Next, one of the heads was mated up to the block and seated down onto the dowels.

- Head bolts are an aftermarket set of ARP alloy 6-pt black-oxide bolts (Part #155-3601). The threads on the bolts (as well as both sides of the corresponding ARP washers) were liberally lubricated with ARP’s Ultra Torque Fastener Assembly Lube and were run down finger tight.

- The head bolts were then torqued down in sequence to a first step of 65 ft/lbs. Then, torqued down in sequence to a second step of 95 ft/lbs in one sweeping motion. This spec matches the specs used during the machine work on the block. Making sure to match these torque specs is what will yield the roundest possible cylinder bores.

Cylinder Head Torque Sequence:


- The other cylinder head was then installed in the same manner as the first. All bolts were again torqued in sequence in two steps (65 ft/lbs, then 95 ft/lbs).

- After all the cylinder head bolts were torqued down, I let everything sit for about an hour. Following Barry R’s recommendation on how to best install these Fel-Pro head gaskets, I then did a cold re-torque of all the head bolts. For this procedure, the head bolts were all loosened back off (in reverse order of the install) and then retorqued in the same manner as before: in sequence to a first step of 65 ft/lb, then again in sequence to a second step of 95 ft/lbs in one sweeping motion. This cold re-torque process lets the Fel-Pro head gaskets take a full seat and insures the best possible seal is made between the two components.

Photos of the Installed Cylinder Heads:
















Additional photos of the cylinder heads here: http://s628.photobucket.com/albums/u...ylinder Heads/


Next up … Oil Pump & Oil Pan Install.

- John

[Don]

Hey Fifty-Two,

I will suspect you are already aware of this, but I will say it for the benefit of others. Most camshafts have about 4 degs of advance already built into the grind (like the specs you posted). I noticed that you had advanced the camshaft an additional 4 degs at the timing gear. Not sure if this was an oversight or that you actually wanted a total of 8 degs advance on your cam timing. At least that is how I understand it, I may be wrong, but just checking. Love this thread!!!

Cheers,
Don

[Fifty-Two]

Hey Don,
I thought the same as you did, but I double-checked with Comp Cams before I made the move to advance it 4 degrees. They informed me that the cam was spec'd and ground without the 4 degrees of advance built into the grind; this was actually verified when I degreed the camshaft in the block as well.
In order to achieve the desired cam timing for this build, the cam did indeed need to be advanced those 4 degrees to get as close as possible to the desired 108 degree ICL.
Hope that makes sense.

- John

[Fifty-Two]

Oil Pump

The oil pump selected is a blueprinted, high volume, 1/4" drive Melling M-57HV pump from Doug at Precision Oil Pumps. Doug’s blueprinting process consists of the following: a new Melling pump is disassembled, all passages have casting flash removed, corners are radiused and blended, housings & gears are de-burred and cleaned, gears are sprayed with a moly-coating and oven cured, clearances are checked and adjusted on reassembly (Gear to Housing, Mesh, Gear to Cover-Plate), relief-valve is de-burred then cleaned and re-installed with new hardware, cover plate is vibratory polished then cleaned and fastened with safety-wired aircraft bolts, and finally the pump is bench tested to insure proper function. Since the oil pump is truly the heart of any engine, the couple extra bucks spent on a blueprinted pump is cheap insurance to keep everything inside a performance oriented motor lubricated and happy for a long time. And going with a high-volume pump is a fairly standard upgrade on an FE - it will help insure the bearings and key components don't starve for oil.





Oil Pump Driveshaft

For the oil pump driveshaft, I again went with an upgraded piece from Precision Oil Pumps (part #POP-57BD) – this driveshaft is a CNC machined piece of 4130 chrome-moly heat-treated billet steel. This is considered a “must” upgrade on most any FE, as the stock pump driveshaft is prone to twisting itself into a barber-pole if the conditions are right.








Prep & Install

The pump and driveshaft were briefly mocked up and bolted down to the block. The only thing that needed to be checked was the depth of the tinnerman washer on the driveshaft. It needed to be repositioned so that there was full engagement with the pump and no interference with the block. This washer helps keep the driveshaft engaged with the oil pump when the distributor is lifted out. With the depth properly set, the pump assembly was unbolted and ready for prep and final install.

The one additional bit of prep that needed to be done was to trim and open up the pump-to-block gasket to match the full diameter of the pump’s output orifice.




The block mating surface and the pump mating surface were then wiped down with acetone to remove any oil or contaminants.

Next, the pump-to-block gasket got a VERY thin (translucent) layer of black silicone sealant on both sides to insure a full seal between the components. With the gasket in place on the pump, the pump assembly (pump + driveshaft) was set into place on the block. It was then bolted down with two 3/8”-16 x 1.25” Grade-8 bolts and AN6 washers. Red Loctite (#263) was used and the bolts were torqued down to a final spec of 25 ft/lbs.

[Fifty-Two]

Oil Pan

The oil pan I went with is a reproduction of the steel 427 S/C roadrace pan (originally made by Aviaid) – it is a high-capacity, low profile, full kickout pan with several built in oil control features to keep the pickup surrounded by oil continuously (no worries of high-G oil starvation). This particular repro is made by Armando Oil Pans (Armando used to make the pans for Aviaid years back, but left to start his own company – his work is top notch). His pans are made to order, so I asked him to make one small change to better accommodate fitting this pan in a FFR – the oil temp bung was relocated from the front of the pan, to the driver side kickout portion of the pan. The FFR front crossmember is too close to the front of the pan to utilize a front-mounted temp probe, so moving it to the side is the best option. Other than that, everything else was done like the originals: integrated baffles and trap doors to prevent oil slosh, center mounted custom pickup, external tubes for the dipstick and “puke can” return line, matching windage tray, zinc coating, etc. The whole assembly is a beautiful piece of craftsmanship.

[Fifty-Two]

Oil Pump Pickup Clearance

To check the clearance of the pickup against the bottom of the pan, everything needed to be briefly mocked up. This pan requires two oil pan gaskets because of the separate windage tray; the gaskets selected are a pair of Milodon Premium Crush-Proof Pan Gaskets (Part #40450) – they are a nice thick gasket with great sealing properties.




The one small modification that needed to be made was the gasket to block interference that occurs at the #5 main cap when using ARP bolts; these bolts have heads that are taller than stock (which is why the washers underneath were left out for this particular cap during bottom-end assembly earlier). Even with that though, the heads still stick up very slightly higher than the pan rail; the easy fix for this is to cut two small notches in the gaskets over those two bolt heads.




After the gasket trimming, the bolt heads now sit below the windage tray:




With a gasket and the windage tray mocked up, the next step was to bolt the pickup to the oil pump (and to the support hardware on the windage tray itself). One quick thing to check for at this point, is that the rotating assembly clears the windage tray without any interference. This can be a problem with longer than stock strokes. The engine was rotated over a couple times to insure that everything had room. In some cases, the tray may need to be ground slightly to clear a rod or two – for this build though, everything cleared without any issues at all. A ball of clay was then set on top of the pickup to act as the super high-tech measuring device.




The second gasket was left off during this mockup and the pan was set down on top of everything to squish the clay down and provide the actual clearance between the bottom of the pickup and the bottom of the oil pan; too much clearance and the pickup could starve for oil, too little and the pickup could get blocked against the bottom of the pan. With the pan pulled back off, the clearance could now be read directly in the clay. The desired clearance is between 3/8”-1/2”; this build measured in at about 7/16”, which is dead on.

[Fifty-Two]

Oil Pan Final Install

There was a little prep that needed to be done on the pan to get it ready for install. Some time had to be spent flattening and tweaking the pan rails to get them perfectly level and flat; the few minutes spent with a hammer, dolly, and soft-faced pliers will help insure a better seal and hopefully a leak-free pan. Next up was to wash the pan out with mineral spirits – first, to clean out of any remaining contaminants; second, to help check for any leaks in the pan itself. With the pan blown dry, the rails received a last quick wipe down with acetone to make sure the mating surface was oil free. The same acetone wipe down was done to the pan rails on the block as well to get rid of residual oil contamination resulting from the bottom-end assembly.

With the prep work out of the way, the assembly could begin. A thin layer of Motorcraft TA-31 grey silicone sealant was spread out on the block mating surface to match where the gasket meets up to the block. Additionally, a small dab of silicone was placed in 4 key spots on the block – the two areas at the front where the timing cover mates to the block, and the two areas at the rear where the #5 main cap mates to the block.







To help aid in the assembly of the multiple gaskets and components, a few 5/16”-18 studs were screwed into the pan bolt holes to act as alignment studs. The first gasket was then slid down over the alignment studs and settled onto the block. Next, a thin layer of the TA-31 grey silicone sealant was spread out on top of this gasket. The windage tray went on next and was mated down onto the block. At this point, the pickup itself can finally be installed - it had been thoroughly cleaned with mineral spirits and blown dry earlier as well. The pump-to-pickup gasket was coated with a VERY thin (translucent) layer of black silicone sealant on both sides to insure a full seal between the components. The pickup was then bolted to the pump with 5/16”-18 Grade-8 bolts and AN-5 washers. Red Loctite (#263) was used and the bolts were torqued down to a final spec of 15 ft/lbs. Additionally, the nyloc nut that clamps the pickup to the windage tray stud was snugged down – this helps insure that the pickup clearance stays where it should.




Next, another thin layer of Motorcraft TA-31 went on – this time on the windage tray mating surface so that the second gasket could then be placed on top of it. One final thin layer of TA-31 went on this second gasket and will seal against the pan itself. The pan went on last and the alignment studs were removed.

For hardware, I went with stainless steel 5/16”-18 indented hex-head bolts and stainless lock washers. This replicates the original hardware, but in stainless rather than just regular zinc plated steel. I tossed all the hardware ahead of time into a vibratory tumbler to give a nice dull uniform look to the bolts. The bolts got threaded in with Blue Loctite (#243) and were slowly cinched down in an alternating pattern of about 3-4 steps. Final torque specs were around 10 ft/lbs – it’s near impossible to get a torque wrench on most of these fasteners because of the pan’s kick-out, so the majority of the bolts were tightened down by feel to provide an equal clamping load.












Additional photos of the oil pump & oil pan install here: Oil Pump & Oil Pan Photos


Next up … Intake Manifold.

- John

[JakeMandell]

Thank you so much for all the effort you have put into this Thread! Are there any updates since 2012?

[Fifty-Two]

Unfortunately no update yet. Been swamped with work and life stuff for quite a while. Hoping to have some time to get back on the project in the near future. =)

- John

[Pike]

Have you figure out where the bottom of the pan will sit relative to the bottom rail of the chassis even if it's estimated? Sorry if you've already answered this somewhere. Also, can't wait to see the write up on the head valvetrain!!!

[Fifty-Two]

From everything i have seen and heard from others using the Aviaid-style pan, it sits plenty high enough to be above the bottom of the chassis rails on our Factory Five cars; no clearance issues and no danger of hitting the pan on a speed bump before the chassis rails take the brunt. Since it has a full kickout for nearly the entire length of the pan, it is a fairly low profile overall piece. Wish I had exact measurements for you though ...

- John

[sh0x]

Unfortunately no update yet. Been swamped with work and life stuff for quite a while. Hoping to have some time to get back on the project in the near future. =)

Great engine build thread! Thanks for sharing all the details. I hope all is well and you've find time to finish the project.

[Fifty-Two]

Thanks! Its amazing what a kid will do to your free time!!! =)
Still here and planning on getting it all finished in the near future. I will definitely finish what I started on here with this build thread.

John

[Raceral]

Everytime I look at this thread, I get a tingle up my leg

[Avalanche325]

I haven't done anything with Ford big blocks, so I have a question. I see in the list that there is a high volume oil pump. Those are generally steered away from on SBFs. SBCs need them. Is it common to go high volume on a BBF?

Looks like a fun build you have going on.

[Fifty-Two]

I haven't done anything with Ford big blocks, so I have a question. I see in the list that there is a high volume oil pump. Those are generally steered away from on SBFs. SBCs need them. Is it common to go high volume on a BBF?

On the FE series of Ford big blocks, a high volume pump is usually recommended in a performance build since the stock oiling system as a whole is rather underwhelming (especially in regard to a lack of main bearing priority in the "top-oiler blocks).
Hope that helps! =)

John