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1986 Ford Mustang SVO-ND Part Deux
If you haven't read about this project car before,
I suggest a little background reading to be found here.
If you are here to read about the experiments with the Garrett
GT37v EVRT turbo, you can find out about them here.
The SVO-ND began as basic transportation. Of course,
it is impossible for me to leave well enough alone. The last
engine in the car was a 5.700" 'long-rod' engine, which
really did not meet my expectations for a street engine. It made
great power very high in the RPM band, but was very unfriendly
in day to day driving. As I was beginning the build up of that
engine, I also began building up another engine that would replace
it. (Yes, I am sick, and need help) That engine was to be another
2.3L long-rod engine, with a modified Volvo B234F 16 valve cylinder
head on top. There's lot of information out there about this
swap. The problem is that there are only two or three cars out
there running with the swap. Never afraid to break a car, I embarked
on this project, ready to bust all engine components (and my
budget).
I learned a tremendous amount about the characteristics
of a long-rod engine, and about running high compression (8.9:1)
with a turbocharger on the street. I found out that both were
a bad combination, as the octane found at the pump just would
not keep up with the massive detonation potential of the high
compression and longer rods. To compound this issue, my family
and I moved (again) from the panhandle of Florida to the mountains
of northern New Mexico. This posed three major problems to running
this last engine. First, the fuel octane available dropped from
93 to 90 (ouch). Second, there is no humidity in the air. In
most cases, tuners don't like humidity, I love it. I'll gladly
lose 4-5hp in exchange for detonation suppression, any day of
the week. However, the summers are now much more bearable. An
thirdly, I now live at roughly 7000 feet elevation. This does
wonders for your low end power and torque. Even the higher compression
of this latest engine was not enough to overcome it. Throw on
top of that the fact that it knocked so easily, and I had a bad
combination for what I needed.
Enter the new engine. I can't report on how well this
is going to run, yet. But I can tell you that a lot of thought
has gone into it. The new engine will use the B234F cylinder
head, but will be put on a late model (small journal) Ford 'Lima'
block. Displacement is 2.5L with 5.500" Crower rods and
custom forged Diamond pistons. I also have a windage tray under
the crank. The crank was modified to accept a roller pilot bearing
to use the T-56 6 speed transmission. I had a tremendous amount
of trouble with the bronze bushings. Other than that, the short
block was actually pretty easy and straightforward.
Now, before we begin, we better at least mock-up this
setup. So, in 2003, I did just that. Here is a pic of a B234F
head on top of a rather greasy 2.3L N/A short block.
It fits way *too* well. You would almost think that
Ford and Volvo collaborated on this one. The bores are almost
on center (off just by thousandths), and the head bolt holes
all align. Where this don't work out too well is in the rear
of the head, as shown below.
Yes, that's bare, open block. Not good, but it can
be 'fixed'. Go on to the next page for more.
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