A list of questions while I'm into it this far

[TNBrett]

Well, I guess it's time for some updates here. There has been a lot of ground covered, but I'm getting close to finished with it. I made the decision to have the block bored .030" over and install new pistons. I found a set of Mahle 224-3512 HAWR .030. Thats a set of 8 IDIT pistons with rings already installed. The machine shop needed to deck the block .004", I also had them polish the crankshaft, and they were able to leave it standard for mains and rods. They also found the crank was .004" out of straight to, and were able to straighten that back out. I was advised to leave the cam bearings alone, as well as piston pin bushings in the rods, so I did. While waiting on the machine shop, I worked on cleaning parts, and what odd tasks I could. One things was a speedy sleeve on the harmonic balancer.

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[TNBrett]

Continued...

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I usually add a little bit of sealant under the sleeves, you may see some squishing out in some of the pics. I'm going to try and do some of these posts when I have time and try and get caught up with where things are now.

 

[TNBrett]

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I decided to do a little bit of painting. Nothing fancy here just some high heat Rustoleum. I also replaced the inner shift boot on the ZF5.

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Old vs. new. I forgot to order a new gasket, so I just made my own.

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With everything lubed up (wd-40) it went together pretty easy.

 

[TNBrett]

I threw some paint on the turbo too.

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I didn’t catch this at first glance. I can’t remember what brand this thermostat was, but probably MotoRad. It never gave me any problems but it only had 15k miles on it. I promptly ordered a new Motorcraft one.

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This pic shows what was left of the exhaust valve seals on my original heads.

 

[TNBrett]

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assembly began once I got everything back from the machine shop. I went with Engine Tech bearings, and new lifters from them as well. The head gaskets are FelPro. I did do the 6.9 cooling mod. I used the witness marks of the passages on the old gaskets to locate the holes on the new gaskets. I made the holes the same size as the factory holes for the other passages. I just used a regular drill bit, but went slow and easy on a block of wood. Also nothing special on the paint here just some Duplicolor engine enamel.

 

[Big Bart]

Looks great!

 

[TNBrett]

There’s just a few things to mention at this point in the story.

I made notes during disassembly for which rods went with which cylinders so I could put them back in the same Spots.

The heads were reman from Allied machine which I’ve linked in other threads. I didn’t feel like they were cleaned very well when I got them. It felt like it could have been sand blasting grit. Anyway I disassembled the heads and cleaned them, lubed up the valves with assembly lube, and swapped out the cheap rubber seals with the FelPro ones from the head gasket set. All in all I’m satisfied with them.

Removing the coolant passage plugs from the block and the heads was more difficult than I anticipated. I used several techniques, none of which worked well, but I got them all out eventually.

My original plan was to run the IP and injectors that I had been running, that’s what’s on the engine in the pics above. To that end, I ordered an injector pop tester off eBay for less than $100. It seemed to work well enough. There was quite a bit of disparity between some of the injectors so I scavenged shims from another set I had and tried my best to get them as close as I could to one another. I think I ended up with all of them popping between 1650-1800psi. I leave this part of the story here for now, but there’s more to come.

When I went to install the engine, I chose to do the engine with the turbo installed and the new “custom” clutch on it, but did the transmission separate. It also got new motor mounts and transmission mount.

 

[TNBrett]

Looks great!

Thanks

 

[TNBrett]

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I decided that before I had the cooling system filled, it would be best to go ahead and get an intercooler system fabbed up. This was the first piece. It's made from a chunk of 5" sch 40 pipe, some plate, and a piece of 3" exhaust pipe. I figured if the tab for the bolt was inside, I wouldn't have to worry about it leaking there.

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The intercooler and 2.5" piping are all from Amazon. I've got about $300 in it. I had initially hoped to have the intercooler the other way around with the core down, but the Sway bar wouldn't let that happen. Overall, I'm very happy with how it ended up fitting.

 

[TNBrett]

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I wanted to keep the stock air filter housing, because there's just something I don't like about the BHAF setups. Also, in this pic you can see a nice split in the gromet for the check valve on the vacuum booster. More on that later too.

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I had to do a little bit of trimming on the core support obviously, but nothing too major. I also cut off most of the center brace on the core support, leaving just enogh to mount the hood latch. I trimmed just a tiny bit off of the fan shroud as well. The mounting brackets were just bent up from some flat bar, and small angle iron. The bottom attaches with the AC condenser, and the top is attached with some threaded inserts.

 

[Big Bart]

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TNBrett,

You can‘t fool us that easy. Cooler is a dead giveaway. This is your Friday night 32oz’er converter for your cup holder. BTW I have seen knock off purses, knock off watches, never seen a knock off Yeti cooler.

 

[Big Bart]

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TNBrett

Any concerns about engine cooling with two cooling systems restricting air flow and heating the air now before the radiator? The factory radiator is stout but wondering how much the intercooler will interfere. Perhaps they cancel each other out by sending cooler air into the combustion chamber.

In the Southwest lots of hot places that push cooling systems to their limit. So curious if it creates a cooling challenge in +100* temps.

 

[Big Bart]

There’s just a few things to mention at this point in the story.

My original plan was to run the IP and injectors that I had been running, that’s what’s on the engine in the pics above. To that end, I ordered an injector pop tester off eBay for less than $100. It seemed to work well enough. There was quite a bit of disparity between some of the injectors so I scavenged shims from another set I had and tried my best to get them as close as I could to one another. I think I ended up with all of them popping between 1650-1800psi. I leave this part of the story here for now, but there’s more to come.

When I went to install the engine, I chose to do the engine with the turbo installed and the new “custom” clutch on it, but did the transmission separate. It also got new motor mounts and transmission mount.

I have looked around a little for injector shim kits, lots of posts for PSD’s but I did not see any kits for IDI’s. Let me know if you find a good source.

If you have time I have been thinking when I do it I would put it as “IDI tech article“ for the membership. If you beat me to it no hard feelings.

 

[TNBrett]

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TNBrett

Any concerns about engine cooling with two cooling systems restricting air flow and heating the air now before the radiator? The factory radiator is stout but wondering how much the intercooler will interfere. Perhaps they cancel each other out by sending cooler air into the combustion chamber.

In the Southwest lots of hot places that push cooling systems to their limit. So curious if it creates a cooling challenge in +100* temps.

I don't know yet. I do plan on keeping an eye on it though. That's why my original preference was to have the core of the intercooler down lower. I'm planning on opening up some space in the front bumper for more air flow down the road too.

 

[snicklas]

Most factory cooling stacks are set up that way.

My 03 6.0 Excursion is: Grille, Trans, CAC, A/C, Rad, Fan

even my 11 F-150 EB is: Grille, CAC, Trans, A/C, Rad, Fan

That CAC is not as big on the EB as the 6.0. Ford was watching how airflow was in both. The CAC on the EB is mounted low and is right behind the large hole in the front bumper. The Trans, A/C and Rad get air, straight through the Grille on the F-150. The positioning of the CAC on the EB, is why some 11-15 F-150’s have the license plate centered on the bumper, and some are off to the drivers side. The ones off to the drivers side are the EB trucks, so the front plate doesn’t restrict air flow to the CAC.