EF 4.0L Build

[Anonymous]

Hey guys, just after some advice for my engine build. I'm building a motor for my EF it's a 94DA block so i'm pretty sure it'll have the 12CW crank which is the main reason I wanted to use it.

My ACL race series rebuild kit will arrive tomorrow i'm also getting a JP hi vol oil pump and getting the whole lot balanced, the stock rods will be shot peened/crack tested, aligned etc etc.

Now I don't know what to do about rod bolts as these seem to be one of the weak points in these motors, will BA rod bolts fit in? IF they do I could talk to Atomic Performance as they have custom ARP bolts to suit their BA 4.0L turbo motors, i've been trying to get in contact with them but haven't had much luck yet.

I'll be using a AU head with crow valve springs, custom cam to suit turbo, crow vernier gear and a bit of a port job.

Anyway, is there anything else anyone can recommend? The motor will be built for a mild (ish) turbo setup as I currently have a DEV5 kit with close to 170rwkw but it's starting to get boring now (Complete DEV5 kit will be up for sale soon too btw if anyone is interested)

How much power should this be able to handle?

Cheers!

 

[xctasy]

Enjoy the ride, the 4.0 is a standout engine, and there is so much great gear around, that its easy to get messed up in it all.

Even the stock pre BA internal components are marginal for 240 Kw at the flywheel, which is 240 hp at the back wheels with a 35% transmission loss form an auto, and about 255 hp with a T45 or T5 or 3550 5-speed. It would be a marginal, as Ford saw fit to upgrade the crank, rod oiling and opil supply and piston coating and compression for its 240 Kw BA XR6 Turbo, and at 270 Kw In the F6, it had even stronger rods.


On an auto Fairmont which has its transmission warmed up and is not slipping, and is driving a set of production 215 mm tyres, the factory flywheel kilowatts is the rear wheel horspower. I'd say that 240 Kw is safe with good factory 6.06" rods and pistons to equal to XR6 Turbo spec. Compression has to be 8.7:1, not 9.65:1. That's about 240 rear wheel horspower.


Modern EFI engines, and most of there dyno operators are charlatons and practice all sorts of rouses. Because of the lack of honest baseline dyno testing, the industries lack of easy conversions from Hp to Kw, and lb-ft to Nm, and km/h to RPM, the issues with tyre power consumption and the tendancy for operators to use third gear runs on a cold transmission for baseline, and then take flash readings after the alteration, I personally wouldn't even bother dyno tuning a combination unless they did a five point average, and produced a 2500 to 5500 rpm curve in hp and lb-ft.

I've seen dyno printouts, and they are not done to any standard, and are not worth the paper they are written on.

The is no way to calculate power with an EFI engine unless the whole engine, with all specs is placed into a Desktop Dyno system. Then the ignition and injection must be optimised to suit the combinination of ports, camshaft and valve sizes. The rockers varied from 1.9 to 2.0:1 rocker arm, and the whole AU engine is similar, but nowhere near the same as the EF and EL due to massive changes to the head gaskets, clamping and water galleries.


Because of the huge amount of developement time that has been put into the DEV 5 and other packages, you won't improve them unless you work with the supplier of the package. And they may not be the ideal ones for a turbo engine.

 

[Anonymous]

It may be too late now as you have ordered your ACL pistons but if you are going turbo I would suggest a decent set of rods and pistons. Spool imports to a cheapish H beam rod to suit the BA engine which is ideal when combined with a custom CP pistons.

I have a BA falcon rod at home they are very spindly looking thing even compared to an EF 4L rod but the rod bolts are the same. ARP do have a rod bolt available that will fit the metric sized rod bolts used from XF falcon right though to BA falcon.

Kyle at 6Boost.com can help with everything you need including rods CP pistons, ARP head main and rod studs. He also does the best turbo exhaust manifold around for the 4L.

Give him a call on 0410 730 598 He is based in Toowoomba Qld but sends manifold and parts all over the country including the likes af the Rajab VL commodore

 

[Anonymous]

Hey mate, I'm pretty familar with Kyle's work, i'm pretty much basing my motor on his old one from his EA, made 413rwkw with a basic ACL race series kit etc.

I've got the rebuild kit now, i'm selling the pistons and will be buying the EA version as they have a 11cc dish which will lower compression a bit as well.

Now a quick question, i'm used to dizzy motors, so with the EF there's a crank/cam (can't remember) angle sensor in the place of the dizzy to run the coil packs, I was wondering how you would set this back to TDC when re assembling the motor?

 

[wagon]

The 36-1 toothed wheel should be permanently attached to the back of the harmonic balancer - so, if the key is in the right spot you don't have to worry about the timing. They do, however, have an extra sensor where the dissy should be, I am unsure of the timing of that one.

 

[Anonymous]

Cool,

yeah the 11CC dish piston is the go with the ACL race series.

As for the Crank angle sensor a lot depends on the ECU you are using. if using stock then just put the balancer back on as mentioned above. if you go to something like an autronic you have to mess around and grind all but three of the teeth off the chopper wheel. microtech and motec etc should connect up to the existing sensor.

You can double check with the bottom end assembled and the head off. Get a dial gauge and set the engine up to TDC and compare the balancer marks to the timing cover marks.

The dummy dizzy running off the dummy cam on the side just gets a top dead centre reference signal. It should have some marks on it to allow it to be put back in correctly. Most workshops manuals have instructions to follow to get that right. You will have to put the engine to top dead centre #1 line up some marks and slot it into place.

 

[Anonymous]

Awesome, thanks heaps for your help guys! I'll update this thread as I make progress.

Cheers

 

[Anonymous]

Recieved the JP oil pump today

Crank and rods will be getting prepped this saturday, will post some pics up when I take some.

Cheers