I agree Some people have had problems with girdle breaking or cracked around the head studs . Castings will always have little flaws throughout them .. start pushing serious power (3 x more than stock) and they will eventually appear .
Cryo treating the block casting could help, however there are not many companies in Australia providing this service. Partial filling of the water galleries with Devcon will also reinforce the cylinder walls however manufacturing core shift can be a problem so wall thickness determination is critical with ultrasonics or x-ray, especially oversize boring and power upgrades. Would possibly be a bigger problem with a stroker kit due to increased conrod angularity raising piston to bore side forces.
been through all that my whole engine is cryotreated except for heads looked at partial filling but doesn't fill high enough ..and any higher will cause cooling problems I've xrayed my blocks and the problem definitely is manufacturing core shift. sleeving is the other option but not a fan of that . .
Has anyone installed a wet sleeve and what size bore can you go out to with those? I believe the thinnest part of the bore walls is near to the deck of the block, is that true?
no it varies from top to bottom Here is a comparison of 2 blocks I've Xrayed comparing series 1 block and a series 2 block. across the top is the cylinder number running down are the points in the bore at which its xrayed 1,3,5 and 7 are 4 points opposite each other in the upper section of the bores 2,4,6 and 8 are the lower section. Thickness is in thou. There are no consistencies what so ever.
EP Racing in the USA claim this is a rare case, stating that Escort Racing have been running VG engines since 2000 and are running 90 mm bore engines making 1300 horsepower and more. Mitch suggests this is an isolated case. I guess there are no guarantees when building a high performance engine, despite taking all precautions with the build, break-in and engine use (racing, drags or just a daily drive). It is interesting that TOMEI MLS head gaskets are only available in 89mm and 90mm bore sizes, nothing smaller.
For Tomei it might not be feasible to make whole range of HG for 20 year old engines, so larger bore size can be used on smaller bores and its up to user if they will use it or not... When larger HG bore size is used on smaller bore sizes... that space arround the HG will soon enough fill up with carbon buildup and really ain't a big deal...
It isn't a common thing but you will never know how many blocks escort racing has gone through. I ran 89mm previously but went back to 88mm . I always run 89mm gaskets on a 88mm bore and a 90mm gasket on a 89mm bore . Its only .5mm bigger all round and allows for any slight expansion when gasket is torqued down as my pistons sit slightly above deck
Sorry for your engine. What bore size did you have? I was also wondering what power did/would you make with pump fuel and GTX2863R? Here's my car and wanted to compare with someone elses GTX2863R build: Wiseco 87.5mm Pistons Eagle Rods Ported and polished heads. 1mm Oversize Ferrea Valves +full Ferrea valvetrain JWT 400+ Cams BDE Intake and Exhaust adjustable Cam Gears (untouched timing for now) AMS Exhaust manifolds AMS Turbo intake and Intercooler Piping AMS 3" Downpipes ASH Spec Massive intercoolers 58mm Throttle Bodies GTX2863R turbos with .64 A/R Custom dual 3" exhaust AEM EMS 1 Rev Limit set @ 7800rpm 665whp (Mustang Dyno) @ 27psi on pump fuel with Liqui Moly octane booster (1 bottle per 30 liter). Have two different knock sensors. Both dead quiet I also have Water/Meth injection but using it didn't give any more power.
Oowww i knw you will. Your like me a sucker for punishment. You really should be done with it all and sleave it once and for all.
