Tear Down and Rebuild of My R400 Duratec Engine

[aerobod - near CYYC]

Spent a few hours this evening checking the timing and fine tuning the verniers to get it to within 0.5 degrees of the spec:

The engine is now ready for transfer to the engine crane and hopefully fitting back into the car next weekend:

[Chris SSR400]

4 hours ago, aerobod - near CYYC said:

Spent a few hours this evening checking the timing and fine tuning the verniers to get it to within 0.5 degrees of the spec:

The engine is now ready for transfer to the engine crane and hopefully fitting back into the car next weekend:

This feels like a monumental moment, throughly enjoyed reading all the updates. Look forward to it starting up.

[John Vine]

What a fascinating thread!  Well done, James.

Can we have some audio of the moment you fire it up?

JV

[aerobod - near CYYC]

5 hours ago, John Vine said:

What a fascinating thread!  Well done, James.

Can we have some audio of the moment you fire it up?

JV

I will try to remember to do a recording, John. At initial startup I have to totally focused on keeping it at 2500 to 3000RPM for the first 20mins to accomplish the cam and ring break-in. With the fuel map being an estimation scaled from the old R400 map I had fine tuned, it may be a bit of a struggle, but no time can be spent on adjustments until that key break-in phase has been completed and an oil change done.

Still have to fettle the throttle body fitment, likely construct a new throttle cable, check all sensor readings and wait for a suitably warm day to roll the car on to the driveway to do the startup. After the initial startup, a basic set of adjustments will be done, followed by 500km of varied road use with break-in oil while logging parameters to tune the fuel map. After that a second oil change to 5w50 synthetic before a rolling road session to fine tune the fuel and ignition maps.

[aerobod - near CYYC]

I decided to do a bit of a tidy-up with the engine wiring loom, giving the wires a scrub and additional tie wrapping where needed. I added a piece of flexible conduit to the exposed wires that run to the alternator and crankshaft sensor across the bottom of the timing cover:

[aerobod - near CYYC]

My son was coming over to help me install the engine, but he was pretty sick today and SWMBO said that I should do it on another day, as although he was still going to come over SWMBO put the kibosh on that.

I decided to go ahead anyway, with the most difficult task getting the engine on the stand out of the house and down the stairs into the garage. Using the engine crane as a second pair of hands to support the front of the stand worked well, taking the stand down one step at a time, then lowering the crane to level the stand with the next stair:

The flywheel and clutch was fitted, the crankshaft pulley holding tool made it easy to torque the ARP flywheel bolts to 130Nm without needing a flywheel locking tool:

I gave the bellhousing a bit of a clean and installed a new clutch release bearing:

Lowering the engine in was actually easier on my own than I thought it would be. It actually was easier joining the gearbox and engine than it was to separate them when I took the engine out. An engine leveller is essential for a single handed install, though, as jiggling opportunities to get things aligned are a lot more difficult without a second pair of hands:

I was happy I got everything connected and installed other than the exhaust, intake (including injectors and coils) and oil tank and oil lines. The next task is to fettle the throttle bodies. I’ve also got a 5” diameter slab of aluminium I’m going to machine into a larger diameter water pulley, so that I can turn it 9% slower than the standard pulley to alleviate any cavitation risk with the higher redline:

Edited March 17 by aerobod - near CYYC

[7 wonders of the world]

Quote

Nice one James, Duratecs slot in very easily, fire up time later today then.... 

 

[aerobod - near CYYC]

7 hours ago, 7 wonders of the world said:

Nice one James, Duratecs slot in very easily, fire up time later today then.... 

As usual with the Calgary weather, near record highs approaching 20C today and tomorrow, then Tuesday weather breaks and stays below freezing for a week with over 30cm of snow forecast, then stays near freezing for the rest of the month.

I’m planning on doing the startup and 500km running-in before the rolling road session in April, so will be waiting for the normal April big melt first.

I have my cheap 18.9 litre barrel of Shell Rotella 15w40 diesel oil with high ZDDP and 3 oil filters ready to go, once the weather cooperates!

Edited March 17 by aerobod - near CYYC

[7 wonders of the world]

Hi James

My only note of caution there is the map you will be on for running in although you are partially correcting yours from a Raceline map. 

You need to be able to use WOT to the Redline ASAP in order fully bed the rings... I realise opinions from different builders vary so please feel free to ignore this, but mine and all our clients race engines were always run on on the rollers in a controlled environment without risking over lean maps (or over rich) dips etc you can also monitor power levels pressures and temps too. I seen far too many engines ruined by being too gentle for prolonged periods 

I used Millers mineral CRO oil on Wednesday which will be changed before going out in her,  Though your mineral oil will be

Since the weather is likely to scupper your plans you may want to turn some spacers or make some adjustable tube runners, your harmonic calcs are spot on however proving these gains will also highlight any losses and comparison of torque graphs and profiles is quite enlightening.

Emerald make adjustable tube runners be we made some up with plastic tubes for a friends on 48's a couple of years back very easy to change on the rollers. 

If it doesn't stop raining here soon I will be converting my car to a hovercraft... 

 

Edited March 17 by 7 wonders of the world

[aerobod - near CYYC]

Hi Neil,

I will be adjusting the fuel map on the road using my wideband system in the first few km after the cam 20min bedding that Raceline specifies. Then it will be used at full throttle with lots of closed throttle on the overrun up to 2/3 of the redline to adjust the fuel maps, then on to the rollers for max revs once the 2nd stage fuel map adjustments have happened.

[aerobod - near CYYC]

Main job for today was to use the swarf generator to create a new water pump pulley:

Started with a 5” diameter bar of 6061-T6, decided to make the pulley 117.5mm in diameter to give 12% under drive compared with the standard 105mm one. Made it 28.5mm thick to give the same 25mm inset to the pump mounting flange with a 3.5mm thick face:

Plenty of clearance for the increased pulley size:

The standard belt length still works with the tensioner close to its maximum anticlockwise rotation and the alternator on it’s inner top mounting hole, requiring the belt to be slipped on to the water pump pulley last:

[7 wonders of the world]

11 hours ago, aerobod - near CYYC said:

 

Happy water pump .. 

[Tiddy7]

what's the second set of grooves driving from the crank pulley? , I machined my pulley down and saved about half a kilo

[7 wonders of the world]

Air con in its OEM fitment as tintops run dual serpentine belts to service all the ancillary loads

[aerobod - near CYYC]

4 hours ago, Tiddy7 said:

what's the second set of grooves driving from the crank pulley? , I machined my pulley down and saved about half a kilo

I was thinking about machining the pulley down or using a lighter one, but with the standard cast crankshaft revving to R500 speeds, there is a risk of harmonics causing damage if the harmonic balancer is changed or eliminated.

[aerobod - near CYYC]

On the subject of the harmonic balancer, for anyone using this thread for some hints on rebuilding their Duratec, I think there is a big issue if using an ARP bolt. ARP quote a torque of 190Nm for their bolt with molybdenum lubricant (https://tech.arp-bolts.com/instructions/251-2501.pdf), the lubricant adds about 25% clamping load over using just the corrosion inhibitor coated standard Ford bolt, or 238Nm of equivalent torque. When I tightened the standard Ford stretch bolt to 100Nm plus 90 degrees, it needed about 450Nm of torque. Using the ARP bolt could lead to a totally inadequate clamping force of only about 50% of the specification.

I’m glad Raceline talked me out of using the ARP bolt, with their experience being that the standard bolt when tightened to spec with the friction washers is good for any of their engine builds up to the 280bhp version.

[Tiddy7]

I never had any issues with vibration with a slimmed down pulley, but I never went above 8k revs 

[aerobod - near CYYC]

I thought it was going to be easier than expected to fit the throttle linkage to the throttle bodies. I mounted it underneath the body pair on #1&2 cylinders:

With the top radiator hose tie wrapped against the side of the engine bay where it passes the link, there is just a few mm of clearance. Unfortunately in that position, there is no room for the air filter backing plate, as the hose can’t go lower by putting it under the diagonal brace in front of the oil tank.

The next possible position is above the throttle body, but any straightforward mounting is not possible due to interference with the fuel rail. I think I have found a position just under the fuel rail if I angle the linkage just right, but I will need to fabricate a fairly complex bracket to hold it using either the fuel rail or manifold bolts (with increased length).

As originally expected, it is one of the most awkward fettling tasks to tackle. Bits of aluminium to be cut and milled this weekend, hopefully I have enough pieces of scrap laying around to avoid going to Metal Supermarkets, as it is always a zoo there on Sat and closes early, too….

[cobar]

I had trouble with the upper hose as well.  My set up is a little different than yours as I'm not using the submarine mount for the water temp sensor, the throttle linkage is on #3&4, and I'm using a different belt tensioner setup, but it might give you some alternate ideas.  The key for me was using a convoluted hose and printing a bracket to hold it in position.  Pictures and a few details are in this post:  https://usa7s.net/ips/topic/13992-520r-sv-build-has-commenced/?do=findComment&comment=134367

[aerobod - near CYYC]

2 hours ago, cobar said:

I had trouble with the upper hose as well.  My set up is a little different than yours as I'm not using the submarine mount for the water temp sensor, the throttle linkage is on #3&4, and I'm using a different belt tensioner setup, but it might give you some alternate ideas.  The key for me was using a convoluted hose and printing a bracket to hold it in position.  Pictures and a few details are in this post:  https://usa7s.net/ips/topic/13992-520r-sv-build-has-commenced/?do=findComment&comment=134367

Thanks for the info John. I have kept the in-head injectors and rail, so have more space than you did on top of the Jenveys, but will have to tilt the top of the linkage to the outside of the car. My S3 chassis and other pipes and cables crowd the space too much under #3&4. On top of #3&4 may work, but on top of #1&2 have only a 180 degree bend in the throttle cable (it clears above the belt tensioner), compared with needing a 360 degree loop if I have the cable enter from the firewall end:

[cobar]

I had to place the throttle cable in a large figure 8 to run the linkage in the back but it's worked well thus far.  The lack of space in that area was certainly challenging, and it's even more so with your closer-to-stock setup.  Looking forward to seeing your final solution. 

[aerobod - near CYYC]

Another rebuild project is my garage laptop that is needed for Easimap, I need a reliable machine for the upcoming rolling road session. Last weekend I decided that the 10-year old cheap Asus laptop is no longer doing the job well with a screen that has a black failure area, a hard drive with increasing errors and general slow running. I found a refurbished Thinkpad T14 laptop with a 3-month warranty that at $525 (£305) is about 1/3 of the new price, having a 12-core CPU, 16GB of RAM and 512GB SSD and Windows 11 Pro. The laptop looks brand new and was likely a corporate lease return that sat somewhere during it’s corporate life with little use,

It has enough RAM to run VirtualBox well, so I backed up Windows 11, installed Fedora 39 on it, then reinstalled Windows 11 in as a virtual machine. Messing around with Secure Boot and TPM took a couple of evenings to get the device drivers to load properly and I still have a weeks worth of evenings to do clean installs of all my car related software besides Easimap:

Edited March 21 by aerobod - near CYYC

[7 wonders of the world]

On 18/03/2024 at 15:17, aerobod - near CYYC said:

 

ARP Bolt yes I use the OEM version single use but about £8 each.. Though my crank is keyed for security and convenience. 

Throttle linkage mine is on top over number 3 & 4 with the cable coming in from the bulkhead side I found the underside option too busy although I have since moved my top hose to the exhaust side now too. 

If you need photos let me know ASAP as I am away after tomorrow night for a few days

 

[rgrigsby]

With the water hose that goes under the TB's, it might be worth putting an extra layer around the parts where it is contacting a chassis tube or metalwork, I have the same setup and over time the vibrations wore through the water hose! 

Premier Power used a piece of cut up old water hose and wrapped that around to protect it.

[aerobod - near CYYC]

A bit of fiddling around with cardboard templates and some careful measurement this weekend, but a successful creation of a new throttle linkage mount.

I milled a few components to create the mount:

The finished components and extra bolts to assemble:

The components assembled with the Jenvey CLS1 linkage before fitting to the engine. The lower mounting bolt attaches to the Jenvey top manifold bolt between cylinders 1&2 (using a 40mm bolt instead of the standard 25mm one). The upper mounting bolt is 30mm long to replace the 20mm long fuel rail mounting bolt:

The mounting faceplate has notches to clear the idle air bleed screws:

Before the fuel rail is fitted, washers of the same thickness as the fuel rail mount are used to align the mount with the manifold bolt and tighten it, before removing the fuel rail part of the mount to fit the fuel rail:

 

With the fuel rail fitted, all the mount bolts can be tightened and the clearance of the linkage checked and adjusted. The spherical joint on the cable quadrant in the centre can be seen clearing the fuel rail by about 5mm, as it is moved to full throttle:

Next issue to tackle is the upper radiator hose getting in the way of the air filter backing plate:

It was an easy fix by removing about 40mm from the hose length at the radiator end and tie wrapping the hose to various chassis points and other hoses and looms to prevent any vibration and chaffing:

There is now enough clearance for the air filter backing plate:

Another little issue that I wanted to rectify was the throttle pedal cable attachment. I’ve already had a snapped throttle cable due to the standard bodged saw cut and hole in the end of the pedal that stresses the cable end due to it not pivoting freely. I machined a pair of clamps to retain the nipple, but allow it to pivot. The clamp is bolted through the pedal shaft end that is cut off 8mm below the normal cable hole. The hole in the pedal shaft is drilled at 22.5 degrees from the car centreline, to match the angle that the throttle cable enters the pedal box:

The cable can now pivot freely at the pedal end, although I need to fit a lower profile nut and bolt to avoid contact with the steering shaft at full throttle, than the standard M5 bolt I mocked up the clamp with: