I'm waiting for parts to complete the trans swap so I thought I would start this thread to keep a diary of the build process for my 6.7L engine.

The block is away being bored ATM.

I picked the rods up from Norman last week. The pin bushes have been replaced for Chev 0.927" pins, for the KB Chev 305 pistons.


The rod on the left is out of one of Normans race V12's and is spun to 7500rpm. I don't plan on taking this much off my rods. My rod on the Right is 930g and the lightened rod is 837g.



Today I started lightening the con rods. Milling the rod caps.








I'll take a little more off this rod but need to wait untill my new scales arrive. But this is close.

 

Warjon, please keep the pics coming. I'm really interested in what you end up with

 

You have my full attention. Can't wait for more.

 

warron i like that pin bush with cross oil relief, good idea , is that one of Norms idea?


YES, lighten any thing you think is doable without sacrificing strength, it will pay off when up and running, instant engine response!

i have not YET, seen any one knife edging a V12 crankshaft?

also would be nice to steel shotpeen the rods for tighter surface tension, reducing possible stress cracks.


question; does KB pistons relate to Kieth Black of California racing engines??

 

warrjon, subscribed and looking forward to this. Please continue, and in as much detail as you can. This promises to be a great build

 

The X oil relief was there in the stock rods. The guy who did pin bushes does all the Aussie V8 Supercar rods.

Yes Keith Black Hypereutectic.

 

This will be a long slow process as I have a lot projects on the go, so be patient I expect the engine to be ready by Xmas.

I'lll post as much detail of the build as I go.

Project plan
1. Complete 4L60e conversion. (almost done)
- Fabricate dipstick mount
- Fabricate trans dust cover.
- Mount oil cooler and run braided lines.
- Cap off in rad cooler.
- Wire power to TCU and install new fuse block.
- Road test and program TCU

2. Convert existing 5.3L to Megasquirt.
- Replace engine bay wiring harness.
- Megasquirt requires modifying for 6 ignition outputs.
- Plan is to use existing front crank sensor with 36-1 trigger.
- Modify GM 3800 coil modules, remove GM electronics and install BIP373 coil drivers, MS2 will drive these directly.
- MS2 will be installed in old 6CU case and use existing wiring harness.

3. 6.7L build will happen along the way

 

.

as you say; a lot of small time consuming projects, seems i forget what is done , but reading your list brings back thoughts about it!

" ALL things in time"

Ron

 

Yes, I'm semi retired and only work 2 days a week, so I schedule 3 days a week for the car. My biggest challenge is living 300km from a major city, and 40km from town. I really need to be organised so I have everything I need to complete a job.

 

Balanced the rods to within ±0.5. My biggest hurdle was repeatability, the best I could get with the end weighting was ±1.0g So actual tolerance was ±1.5g




This was the first pass, rods are all end balanced at 220g.

 

I spoke to Norman yesterday and my block is now bored ready for the 95mm liners.

I ran a micrometer over all the valves and out of 24 there was 3 in tolerance but only just. All were worn elliptical with the worst 0.002" (0.05mm) under tolerance and very elliptical. So I have ordered a new set of valves. These will be sent to HPC for ceramic coating.

Heads are at my local shop to be bead blasted. I will pick them up and re-shape the chambers myself, before returning the heads to the shop to have the seats recut and heads planed flat.

New fuel injectors arrived today. I ordered 2 sets of Ford Denso injectors, these are off an Jaguar X Type V6 and have a 12 hole nozzle which provides very fine atomization.

 

A MegaSquirt (MS2) in a old Jaguar 6CU case will run the whole shooting match, this way it'll plug into the original harness through the car. I will have to custom make the engine harness, the new injectors use USCAR connector not the EV1. I will not need the Jaguar injector power resistors so this wiring will be used for the Distributorless ignition wiring.

I have had to significantly modify the MS2 so it will directly drive 6 coils and use the original Marelli VR sensor on the FRONT of the crank. I am also having a custom 36-1 trigger wheel laser cut to fit in the OEM position on the damper where the Marelli 3 tooth wheel is now.

I bought 2 GM DIS modules (off an Aussie VX V6 Commodore), these will have the electronics removed and 3 BIP373 ignition drivers added to each module.

Plan is to get the MS2 running on my original engine. Fuel only to get the VE table tuned, then I'll remove the Marelli and install the distibutorless system.



2 of these will run the engine 1 for each bank, or maybe I will split them not sure yet.



Inside the module base, all this will be gutted and replaced with 3 BIP373's

 

warron , will you need different injector elec. plugs also?

or you will make a new injector harness while you install the MS system?

 

I edited the post to add the info, you beat me to it.

I'll make new harness, my harness is shot anyway. These injectors use the USCAR connector. I haven't tied them in the 6.0L fuel rail yet but I expect they will fit, if not I'll make a new fuel rail.

 

This is neat stuff warren! I hope it all works as planned... I hope you'll be doing a dynorun

What plans do you habe for the heads? Are you keeping the May swirl chamber/inlet or will you alter/modify it? According to the experts, the pre HE flat type heads are supposed to be the dogs ***** when it comes to heads... Or are you using exactly these?

 

I need to Dyno the car to properly map the ignition. The MS2 has a great autotune feature that works with a Wideband O2 sensor. You set the AFR table and enable Autotune and the MS2 tunes the VE table as you drive.

But the ignition table needs to be setup correctly. The MS2 has the facility for a knock sensor, I might add this later if I can get it work reliably.

The flat heads are the easiest to get power from. I will be using the stock 6.0L heads. With the increase in capacity I need to increase chamber volume by about 8cc ( to keep CR at 11:1) this will be taken from the head. Head work will not be drastic just a smoothing and blending.

The plan is to de-shroud the Intake valve. Believe it or not this is shrouded worse than the exhaust valve (in the 6.0L head) especially at low lift. Then profile the chamber to aid mixture suspension. Unfortunately its all a compromise. Good low to midrange power needs lots of swirl to keep the mixture Homogeneous, this swirl can be detrimental to peak power.

Anyway my plan is to build for good midrange and let peak power be what it end up.

 

Yep the injectors fit in the 6.0L fuel rail, although the injectors are shorter than the V12 ones.

 

Why use the GM coils? Ford and Chrysler coils are "dumb" and don't need to have any circuitry removed. For my MS conversion on a 1966 S Type I used a single coil pack from a 2005 Ford Taurus.

That pack works well, and can give a big spark. I tested it with some stripped end plug wires and I was able to get it jump a nearly 3/4" gap. Quite the spark!

 

I didn't find the autotune to be that useful. It would get me within 20% of where I wanted to be, but there was still a great deal of analysing datalogs and tweaking by hand. I found I could get superior results by having a friend in the car with me making changes as I drove on the laptop. There was a lot of tuning time to get a result I considered acceptable, but not great.

I did find the AEM wideband sensor much superior to the Innovate LC-1. No calibrations needed for a start!

 

Cost and availability is the only reason. I can get these from any wrecker for $40.

Isn't the Ford Taurus EDIS