FTO AUSTRALIA

Any update on the engine build?

New year, any updates yo!

Hi folks.

A small update since a couple of you have been asking.

The engine was put back together earlier this month and into the car.
Managed to fire her up (managed to make it to the workshop when he did), though it took some doing.
The higher compression was making the starter motor work a fair bit harder and the engine wasn't dialed in yet.

Anyways, David was working on getting the idle stable under 1000 rpm with the new throttle body when he found a problem.
He found oil in the exhaust and has isolated that it was one of the cylinders in the rear bank.

Compression tests on the cylinder were fine, so the top rings weren't compromised, so it's probably an issue with the oil control rings.
In any case, it means that the rear bank head need to be removed to confirm what the issue is.

It'll take a couple of weeks to get new ones if it's the case.

So yeah, two steps forward, one step back.
The nature of these things.

Ah bummer. But at least it's getting closer. Curious about the twin TB setup and the whole thing in general in terms of final gains.

don't suppose you'll disclose the price tag thus far?

Heh so am I.

Interesting thing about the larger TB, because the surface area is so large, it's actually harder to tune at idle because cracking open the throttle just a little allows a lot more air in.
That added with the compression bump, the engine just wants to rev, could hear it when she fired up (I know how subjective that statement is =P).

Re: Cost.

It's a path that not many people will want to go down, well not as extreme as I'm pushing it.
To give you a taste, the parts alone for the engine were around $10k.

That's not counting the ECU to run it all (Elite 2500) nor the labour around the engine and the manifold to get it to a clean state, oh and assembly =)
I'm also bumping up the front brakes and fixing up my coil-overs.

So yeah, a big job and investment.
But I've had her since '99 and she's treated me well, even though I may not have in return =)

If I wanted an easier NA path, I would have a Honda =P

That's a bit of a fiddle then.

Well I'll be excited to see how it ends up, even if the greater likelihood is that I won't end up trying to go for something full on N/A (if I choose between that and turbo/supercharging). Definitely won't have 10k just to throw at the engine lol. Would probably be too impatient to wait that long to save it anyway.

Yeah, but with a Honda you won't get the throaty roar of a V6 at 8k redline.

*laughs* yeah, can't wait to hear it at what on a dyno.

Mind you, I did go extreme with my build. You could do something smaller, but it won't be bang for buck that a turbo gives.

Heck all the manufacturers are going turbo small engines to meet emissions standards.

I also had a bit of, well the engine's already open, let's see what else we can do.

Bit of a fun rabbit hole with that mindset

Still stayed within reason though. ITB would have been interesting

Will be screaming on the dyno haha.

I think I'd be more tempted if the cams themselves weren't $2200. I mean, that's the price you pay for someone having done some R&D (if limited) on an engine without much support, but it's still steep as soon as you're starting.

I'm waiting for Clint to finish his Triple TB setup in the Elise. But after seeing that fabbing part of it cost 1k as well, kinda put me off again.

Yeah. Economics are difficult. Only way to get things cheaper is by volume.
Don't know if people would be up for a group buy

Anyways, good news on my build, the rings are fine.

Turns out some of the welds in my both heads were shoddy, pinholes in the welds allowing oil through to the cylinders.

Being sent back out to to get them redone. Frustrating as it was the only item outsourced but better than shot rings.

Haha, given we can't get a GB started for a couple hundred $$$ for UAS intakes, I don't see the chances as being too high!

At least you know what it is.

What was welded at the heads out of curiosity?

I'm assuming it's around the valve seats as we're going slightly oversized with the valves.

I'll find out when I get the chance.

When the cylinder heads were ported we found a "Thin" spot on the two outside ports just below the valve spring retainer base. When they were ported the grinder "Popped" through into this thin spot.

The problem is that when they were welded by an outside firm (We can't weld anything that small) they left a pinhole which was enough to suck some oil through.

We are getting that area re welded and building up the strength more by welding further around it and then will recheck it for leaks. An annoyance for sure but in the overall scheme of things, a minor issue.

The joys of pushing the boundaries of these engines - I am not sure if anyone has ported these heads to the same degree of which we have done. Something we now know for future customers - benefits of specialisation

Dave are you able to supply figures of what these heads are able to flow stock and after you ported them?

We didn't put them on a flow bench, they were hand ported only by a long time professional. The majority of work was in fitting the custom oversize valves and modified valve seats to ensure the heads flowed really well at high rpm's. Around a 40% increase in flow rates.

I would say the porting work in the chambers is around 15% of the overall airflow improvements, 85% is the valves and valve seat modifications.

Updates?

Hey. Been a while.

We got the heads back a couple of weeks ago, but discovered a mis aligned valve guide.

David's in the process of getting that sorted out this week.

Hopefully we'll be running again next week.


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Update the car is up and running (Finally) and has had a break in tune done on the dyno.

The dyno graph shows a comparison to a fully tuned FTO vehicle with our headers / exhaust and a haltech PS2000 ECU.

The tune is on the low rpm camshafts only and rpm limited to 8300 for the time being, but you can already see that it is making more horsepower as well as the power / torque is either the same or higher at the lower rpm levels, meaning we haven't lost any low rpm drive ability.

Ignition timing is very low which is expected on teh 98 fuel with the 14+ compression ratio in the engine. So far max is around 12 - 14 degrees timing.

Needless to say pretty excited, once we engage he high rpm cams with some E85 fuel, this vehicle is going to be a monster.

The 305cc injectors look like they are going to be too small for the E85 though so next time back going to need some 350 - 400cc injectors I believe.

Should be on the road by the end of the week with some updated photos with a writeup on our website. 1000km later, we will get it back and finish off the tuning.

Will keep everyone up to date.

That is pretty impressive considering only the low cams were engaged.
When will the proper tune come?

Interested to see the final results.