WTS vortech v1 s-trim and short or longblock 347 stroker!

chrisman242 · Noob Joined: Apr 01, 2011 Posts: 81

347's are fine if they are built properly. granted this setup was not meant to take on long road trips and be used as a DD... but for tooling around town and making a few passes now and then, 347's are great! there are a lot of factors that could have caused the compression drop and cause blow by. running low boost, 10.5:1 CR, can be done but it NEEDS an awesome tune to do it "safely". Not by any means am saying its the most safe and conservative way to spend money, but it can be done. its a lot more risk than going with high boost and low CR setup.... i took a risk and now im paying for it.

one thing that im leaning towards is the fact that we had the wrong spark plugs in the car from day 1. when the motor was broke in and in N/A forum it did not show any symptoms of ignition malfunction and ran strong with short plugs. (motor was in a 89 fox hatch and had about 400 brake in miles on it before it was pulled back out) then when i dropped it in the 94 and put the vortech to it it with low boost and it made 403 rwhp with a SMOOTH torque curve all the way to 4500 rpm and then it started to die out due to poor ignition. (my tuner explained it to me as the boost was blowing the spark out) he then pulled a plug and told me i needed to run a smaller gap on a specific NGK colder heat range plug, get a stronger coil, and get a MSD6AL box along with some nice ford racing wires. he did not catch my mistake when he looked at the plugs i had in it. (plugs to short for alum heads) so when it went back on the dyno with the exact parts i was recommended to get it made 473 rwhp with a conservative tune (retarded timing, rich AF) on low boost. But the torque curve looked like a heartbeat in the lower RPM range until 3000RPM ish and then smoothed out and climbed. when i asked my tuner on this he said it was air turbulence in my intake manifold from the sn95 style throttle body and vortech intake tube, then he said it was my cam. at this point the motor had no detonation or spark knock and showed no signs of problems at first, but after driving it home and tooling around for a few night drives it did not feel like a 473 hp car to me. and the power kicked on abruptly around 3g rpm like the graph showed.

after a closer look at the before and after dyno sheets i knew something was wrong. and if it was "turbulence or cam" the first dyno graph would have similar characteristics. the ONLY thing different was the recommended ignition parts. so i started researching and found out my plugs where wrong!. again i called my tuner and asked him about my plugs and to look at the graphs.. he proceeded to call me stupid for street racing over the phone in front of 2 other customers at his shop and said the plug depth would not make a noticeable difference. at this point i got mad after the insult.. i did not paying him 600+ dollars for life advice, i was paying him for a professional service to tune my car and the dyno time. but thats off topic. i went ahead and ordered the same NGK plug but with a longer reach (the right plug for the head) and after installing them it was 100% noticeable difference!. the car felt great for about 10 roll on WOT pulls on the highway over about 3 or 4 days until i noticed smoke in the engine bay and a dead cylinder sounding rumble when cruising. after investigating i found that i had some extreme blow by symptoms such as blown lower intake manifold seals, front and back. (the oil was dripping out the back and burning off) my dipstick popped up with oil residue on my exhaust headers and wires. and a exhaust leak noise at idol that can not be found anywhere on my exhaust pipes. also it was blowing smoke out my valve cover vents in sync with the exhaust leak. after a compression test i found that all my plugs where pitch black and full of carbon. #3 cylinder held 90 psi when all others held aprox 150 160 psi. after squirting oil into number 3 and retesting compression it held 110 PSI.

i talked to national speeds head tuner randy about my problem. he informed me that running a car to rich can be harmful to the rings and that my short reach plugs where not igniting properly when they are deep in the spark plug hole not exposed to the combustion chamber.

i talked to Tom, one of the owners of DSS racing, he said that all the extra unburnt fuel causes "cylinder wash" and is probably what did my rings in so soon. he also explained to me how 347's naturally put a beating on rings due to the long stroke and side wall pressures the longer rods create. also how the piston is shorter and can bind in a seance in the cylinder if the tolerances are not spot on. this can cause the edges of the rings to round off and cause premature failure of rings.

now lets add all these factors together,
wrong plugs + 347 characteristics + high comp + boost + crazy amounts of soot and carbon in the cylinders from rich tune = one upset mustang owner Sad

but its the risk i took when i put this all together.

only thing i can do now is take it to a shop and have it rebuilt with there stamp of approval. i do not want to sell anyone junk! this motor would be good for a N/A setup and will not disappoint the bang for the buck on it.

stang910 · Posted: Wed Sep 14, 2011 5:00 am Post subject:

Thanks for the better explanation.

stang910 · Posted: Wed Sep 14, 2011 6:17 pm Post subject:

This might help you out

http://www.horsepowerjunkies.com/forums/showthread.php?t=120128

chrisman242 · Noob Joined: Apr 01, 2011 Posts: 81

thanks for the link! im talkin to him now

chrisman242 · Noob Joined: Apr 01, 2011 Posts: 81

hey all just an update, still got everything, been busy with my newborn baby! anyways the motor is down to the shortblock and open to anyone to come inspect. everything looks okay and as i can see it needs a hone and new rings with rebuild and should be good to go. heads are in great shape too. (pending sale on the heads)

i got a whole slew of extra parts im selling to, i'll have a full list of parts coming soon.

please make offers Smile

Joey · Posted: Sun Dec 18, 2011 3:43 pm Post subject:

Pitbull · Posted: Sun Dec 18, 2011 5:26 pm Post subject:

Put what on my Saleen. I have AFR 225 heads that have been worked on it now. What I want, he doesn't have. lol

SpeedJunky · Laying Rubber Joined: Jan 17, 2009 Posts: 1380

I thought minimum for posting buy/sell/trade ads was 50 posts

Joey · Posted: Mon Dec 19, 2011 9:08 am Post subject:

He had this for sale long ago. Before that was in affect. Kinda grandfathered in.
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chrisman242 · Noob Joined: Apr 01, 2011 Posts: 81

the only thing that saleen needs is the open road! that car is strong!

Pitbull · Posted: Mon Dec 19, 2011 6:29 pm Post subject:

Stop kissin up, Chris. lol

chrisman242 · Noob Joined: Apr 01, 2011 Posts: 81

i got it down to the shortblock right now for anyone to come inspect!!!

Stroked_Monster · Joined: Jan 11, 2012 Posts: 11 Location: Jacksonville

I want that super charger kit PM ME !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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1997 Cobra Mustang
She has some bolt ons!!


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