PICs of motor tear down

[MikesMerc]

As some of you know, I'm in the process of having Lidio put together a new beefed up short block with forged internals. The motor is done and is going into the car now. The original short block was removed last week and sat untouched until yesterday.

A few folks asked for some pics of the tear down and were interested in seeing how things looked after being heavily abused for 14,000 miles. The Trilogy kit went on the Marauder when it had only 900 miles on it 2 years ago. I never ran the stock pulley and the kit debuted with the 3.2 pulley and 10.5 PSI. Over the next 2 years I moved from the 3.2 to the 3.0 pulley, then to the 2.8 pulley making 13.5 psi last spring. Last August I put an 80 shot of NOS on it as well. Power numbers with the spray were over 530 HP and over 570 ft-lbs at the rear wheels. That's pretty heavy on a stock block.

Below are a few pics of the driver's side head, and the 7 & 8 cylinders. As I couldn't be there myself, I asked Lid to take a few shots for me and focus on the notorious 7/8 holes. What I found was kind of surprising. They looked perfect. Aside from a little extra build up from the leaded Turbo Blue I was running with the NOS passes, things looked particularly good.

http://www.mercurymarauder.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=87 06&stc=1&d=1140747299

http://www.mercurymarauder.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=87 07&stc=1&d=1140747299


http://www.mercurymarauder.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=87 08&stc=1&d=1140747351


I was making some serious power and things were holding up quite well. The short block was in perfect condtion. Although I still feel good about stepping up with forged internals for safety and longevity, I feel as though I might have gotten away longer with the stock shortblock. As they say, its all in the tune!

[MI2QWK4U]

Thats an excellent post Mike. Very informative indeed. You have been pushing yours harder than I have lately. I was making 520 rwhp without NOS before backing it down to where it stands now at 512 rwhp. Seeing the pictures just reinforces what Lidio has preached for years, its all in the tune. I do feel better about leaving mine alone for a while. Nothing wrong with pushing it hard with the right tune and fuel. Gonna be a fun year!

[Fast4Door]

... Nothing wrong with pushing it hard with the right tune and fuel...

You got that right. No need to re-invent the wheel.

[Rider90]

Looks very clean. I guess there was no room for carbon build up with 500+ rwhp :D

[Marauder386]

Hmmm...now I see what to expect...will definitely be able to crack into the low 500's for HP..."aynt skeerd"...:burnout:

:coolman:

[Tallboy]

Looks like she was tuned and running perfectly.

How much total "down-time" do you expect for a project such as this?

[MikesMerc]

How much total "down-time" do you expect for a project such as this?

About two weeks. Lid had the short block ready to go before I dropped off the car, so that was a time saver. On the other hand we had to wait about 4 days to send the cam covers out for powder coating. So the project idled until yesterday. Getting the motor and trans back in and all up to snuff will take until Saturday...maybe Monday. Then Lid will fire it up, put a few miles on it, change the oil, and turn it over to me for break in. I'm hoping to pick it up Tuesday or Wednesday.

If we didn't have to wait for the cam covers, this would have been less than 10 days start to finish.

[sailsmen]

Looks good thanks Mike!:)

[DEFYANT]

Looks great! Nice pics!

I am going to work towards improving the cooling with an oil cooler and maybe the head cooing mod if the trans ever comes out.

[MikesMerc]

I'm thinking of an oil cooler myself. But its not slated at this point in time. Jerry has a racing radiator in the works that includes an oil cooler. I'll be keeping an eye on his progress with that peice.

As far as the head cooling....I dunno. Of the motors we have gone through here (Lidio, Jerry, and now mine) none seem to exhibit any problems as a result of head cooling issues. And all of these cars were beaten....HARD. Faced with this personal hands on experience, I'm just not convinced its a real issue. Not saying its a bad idea for others. I'm just not sure its needed.

[Motorhead350]

Thanks thats actually helpful to me too.

[bigslim]

Seeing that I am not at the power level that some of you guys are at I feel good knowing that I should get many miles out of my car. It is nice knowing that I have such a safe tune to keep it running good for a long while.

[mpearce]

I'm very impressed with how clean that looks Mike. What you motor city guys call "Turbo Blue"...is that the 100 octane? I know you mentioned that what you were using was leaded...but our 100 octane isn't blue. The only thing blue around here is my wifes fuel for her Buick. She uses C-16. Or, 117 octane (leaded). Is that what you're using with the NOS?

-Mat

[MikesMerc]

What you motor city guys call "Turbo Blue"...is that the 100 octane? I know you mentioned that what you were using was leaded...but our 100 octane isn't blue. The only thing blue around here is my wifes fuel for her Buick. She uses C-16. Or, 117 octane (leaded). Is that what you're using with the NOS?


Mat-

Turbo Blue is a leaded 110 octane race gas. This is what I mentioned that was leaded and leaves a bit of residue in the motor. I run this only at the track, and only when I run the NOS. The lead lowers the possibility of detonation (by acting like a "richener"), but the main detonation prevention is the octane itself at 110.

The 100 unleaded we run is CAM II. I run this at the track if I don't plan on using NOS, and I run it on the street almost exculsively.

I use a switch chip for the following:
93 octane limp home mode
100 octane performance tune for street n strip (CAM II)
110 octane without NOS (Turbo Blue runs w/o NOS)
110 octane with NOS (Turbo Blue runs with NOS)

[G-Man]

Hey Mike,

Thanks for the pic's. It's good to see that you didn't have any of the notorious issues with heat either. Looks like a good oil cooler and water pump will work fine.