Need repair manaul, have to pull head and replace bent valves

[PapaJim13]

Sorry about the continuing troubles, everyone makes mistakes.
I bet the first drive in years was wonderful besides the oil.

 

[RAAM]

I have made a few over the years, the worst being paying supposedly great shops to build turbos, roll cages, etc, every single one ended in a mess, two blow engines, cages I had to cut out and rebuild or major repairs, etc...So I bought the gear and learned to do DIY it and all came out great, took my time and did it right.

First time doing a head on a modern engine, VVT, etc....and I did it right except one seal, I guess I should be happy about it, I am actually happy it was not worse

It was great to drive it again after sitting so long, I wish I had not modded it so extensively now though and kept some of the stock parts as I would redo it into a much simpler setup for less maintenance, etc...Once I get it finished it will have to park outside, maintain it where I am not supposed to work on cars, etc...full time in an RV spot, a wonderful one, makes things a bit more complicated. That is why I am likely to go ahead and sell it and get something like a 2015 Mazda3 hatch, 2.5L, manual box, do a few simple things to it, etc....

Thanks
Rick

 

[PapaJim13]

Rick, If I had the cash I'd try to be first in line to buy your beautiful machine. I love the build and am sorry to hear you'll be parting ways soon.

Nothin' better than good ol DIY to get shit done right.

 

[RAAM]

Thank you very much for the kind words. As easy to see it was not built to get looked at or even heard, it was built to go and do it well in all aspects and it did and will again. There are parts some might consider missing but they were left off as only served the purpose of talking about them and profit for those making them. When the head of the Ford shop at MMP racetrack, over 50 race cars to deal with, building customer cars, drove my car, had it on a lift and had all the shop guys check it out, he loved it. Only chassis brace was a single sq tube across the front sub frame and two bolts holding it on. It also served as the rear mount for the undertray, mount for duct the help get air out of the engine bay and was a bit of an wickerbill. Also stock sway bar up front just adjustable end links to take out any bias or dial it in. Ride height set for optimal geometry/weight transfer. Camber setup front to back to balance out more front camber as needed, all drawn out in full scale and plotted carefully.

It did have a sunroof which I really did not want but needed due to being a multipurpose car and had to haul around two big dogs in the back and parked at times when we were traveling and shopping.

CF hood was to balance out front to rear weight, not for looks though the vents help a bit with heat exhaust. I wanted to paint it the car color, my wife wanted it CF, sun faded it, needs serious buff and cleared, painted, or wrapped.

Wheels were picked to be as light as I could afford, strong, best offset that would fit and support the best tires I could run properly. If I had stayed longer before going full time RVing I would of designed custom control arms and likely uprights to really get the geometry even better but it handles incredibly well as is, hard to work out but it would help with torque steer done right, I might of needed a suspension engineer to help on that

 

[RAAM]

New cam seals did not fit! Bought at dealer and have since verified the part number as correct. They fit in the head but I could not get the sprockets to go on and tried many times, part way and stop, a few times knocking the spring tensioner of the seals but lips were not damaged. I got the exhaust one on finally but was afraid the seal might be damaged so pulled it off and it looked OK but I could not get the intake cam seal in at all.

Finally a gave up, went to O-Rielly and ordered Fel-Pro seals which they ordered and arrived within 3 hours. To hot to go back yesterday, started at 7AM today, pulled Ford seals, Fel-Pro went right in and sprockets easy to install.

Now the engine has a new head gasket, valve seals, cam seals and bolts, crank bolt, cleaned valves and ports, valves lapped, basically a rebuild head as everything else was fine.

Compression reads 160-161 across all cylinders

I will put the rest together in the morning and test it again, once all good then will start a new tune.

Rick

 

[RAAM]

Forgot to post yesterdays results...new day now, just finished for the day as waiting on a couple of parts and a tool.
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Got it started again, finally, seems no more leaking seal, yeah!

Water leak from sight tube but knew it would, parts came in just now, will install in the AM.

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Running really rough, not sure why yet but I have had the injectors out three times, seals are here but waiting on install tool, hope that is it. I also noted oil from the cam seal that was leaking made its way down to the crank position sensor so I will take it off and clean and test it in the AM as well.

And take a look at the plugs if still not right, swap the coils around, had one bad one the other day but had 4 low mileage ones on hand so it was a fast and easy fix.

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Sure a lot of work to replace a cam seal, drain transaxle, pull axle, put in crank locking pin, jack up engine, remove overflow tank so have to drain some of the water out, pull motor mounts on that side, pull alternator, and of course accessory belt, pulley, tensioner, cam belt cover, tensioner and they want you to pull the crank pulley as well but I did not want to buy another new bolt so marked the belt, pulley and engine, it worked out easily enough. Install cam and pulley locking tool, pull the timing belt pull the the cam pulleys and seals.

BUT first, do these things as well before pulling the pulleys off.

Pull wiring hoses and coil packs, insulator, fuel pump and injectors, vacuum pump, valve cover....then scrape, very carefully, the liquid seal material from head and parts....lock the cams with the tool.

Replace seals, hoping they actually fit, then reverse the order above keeping things nice and clean and using proper seal as required.

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How many mile maintenance is this scheduled for?

Rick

 

[RAAM]

OK, update. Been fun and not so fun....Ordered new cam seals, did not fit, factory part, I tried everything I could think of and just not going to work. They fit on the head fine but could not get the VT units on, finally got one on, pulled it off to see if seal was OK, it was but could not get it back on again. Ordered FelPro seals, went right on. I more than double checked the factory seal part number as well....

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Got it all together, comp looked great, fired it up, ran like crap, barely running, what the hell!

Comp check #1 very low....

Took quite some time off, frustrated to say the least and been pushing myself in the heat, not bad when fighting stage 3 kidney disease, which I am going to be, am beating, no meds as they are only band aids at best and I researched the heck out of it.

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Tore it down to double check the crank pulley alignment, cam to crank alignment, all good. Ordered new injector seals, which I had forgotten all about, will put it back together tomorrow enough to comp check it, pretty sure that is the issue as not able to comprehend anything else unless a valved turned and not sealing now...which I sure hope is not the case...

I expect to do a comp tomorrow after installing new injector seals.

Wish me luck!!

Rick

 

[PapaJim13]

Good luck Rick, sounds like a headache on top of a headache.

 

[RAAM]

Thanks!
Comp check went well, went back and did it again, then again, just to be absolutely sure....might of been the injector seal on #1 but sure seems like it could not loose that much compression, at least good now.

Going to put it back together enough to start the engine, hopefully, this AM before to hot.

Rick

 

[RAAM]

ALMOST DONE! Drove it home today to get it out of storage as need to use the space to clear out our full time RV so I can rebuild the whole interior, adding 1.5" highest grade foam insulation, engineered wood flooring on walls and ceiling and some of the floor, cork flooring on the rest, my winter project.

I had the car nearly done a few months back but washing machine died, again, only used parts available, bit the bullet and after many hours of wiring, plumbing, carpentry, new gas line, etc...now have a full size front load washer and dryer installed and my wife loves them

Since I had to deal with the wall, wiring and plumbing, etc I ended up finishing off the half bath which now has the engineered flooring all over, recessed LED lighting, Brazilian soapstone counter top and back splash, fossil sink, rebuilt high end RV toilet, high grade faucet, Anderson window, high end wood blind....she loves it as well as I do also.

These projects take several times more time than working on a house, trying to fit everything in and save all the space we can, super insulated and quality finish work....

ST is running great, needs some cleanup and minor tweaks, new tune due to engine swap....then going to list it for sale most likely as just do not need such a highly modded car, if our life style had not changed so much I would gladly keep it. Not many other cars on my wish list, I want something that drives well and reliable as have limited space and time to work on cars, sure miss my 4 car garage with a lift! (I do not miss the big house, RV suits me much better)

Rick

Selling then buying a 2015 Mazda3 S 3.5 manual hatch to leave mostly stock. FWD is fine, I have an AWD V8 4runner for when it snows to much.