2.0L Duratec Rebuild

[papak]

That looks pretty much as I remember it. I know that I sent them a couple of pictures of what I had and they took care of the rest. They were great to deal with.

[JohnCh]

I wasn’t able to devote much time to the engine last weekend, but did make a little progress and dealt with a couple of minor issues. With the proper o-ring/gasket for the now infamous oil pump to sump wedge connector in hand, the plan was to install the oil pump, assemble the sump, and seal up the bottom end. First problem was uncovered when attempting to attach the windage tray to the mains girdle. One of the key differences between the early Raceline sumps and the current generation is the windage tray was redesigned and now attaches to the sump baffle plate. In contrast, the original tray is secured in two planes: it bolts to the mains girdle via five M6 bolts, and to the wedge via an M5 bolt that goes through a tab bent 90 deg downward. The pictures below show my original sump bits when they arrived in 2004 and Raceline's current windage tray attached to the baffle plate (shamelessly stolen from their instructions.) Quite a different design.

 

 

 

During the initial install in 2004, I had to slightly elongate the hole in the tab to align it with the threaded hole in the wedge. Interestingly I had to do that again this time. It was only off by hundredth or two, but it was just enough that the bolt wasn’t perfectly perpendicular to the hole and consequently wouldn’t cleanly grab the threads. A few strokes with a file and things fit correctly, so out came the Loctite 270 and the windage tray was affixed. Temporarily. Yes, that’s foreshadowing…

 

 

Next step was test fitting the sump. Not expecting any issues, I was surprised to see that the oil pump side of the sump was standing about 0.02” proud of the front of the block. This should be flush to achieve a leak free seal of the front cover. Sliding the sump back and forth, it was clear it was hitting the front of the oil pump. Added to the issue above, it appears that that new oil pump casting differs from the original by a couple of thousands. Not a big deal for a normal installation, but unfortunately I don’t do normal.

 

In the first picture below, black Sharpie identifies where material had to be removed from the pump. Although it’s a simple fix with a file, it required removing the pump which in turn required removing the windage tray. The more astute among you will ask yourselves “hey, didn’t he just Loctite that in place??” Why yes, yes I did. And yes, the Loctite was starting to set. Fortunately it was early enough in that process that no heat was required to break the bolts free, but it had begun to harden and required chasing the remains off of the bolt and bolt hole threads to ensure reassembly and toque readings weren’t affected. Second photo shows the material removed and the oil pump installed.

 

 

 

With that problem fixed, it was time to seal the sump, but I really needed a beer, so pushed that off to next weekend.

 

-John

[JohnCh]

Internet crapped out at my house this morning which made work difficult given the lack of cell service on the property. While waiting for the muppets at the Internet provider to get me back online, I decided to head into the garage and affix the sump to the block. It's an easy job. What could go wrong? Yes, there I go again with the foreshadowing...

 

Raceline calls for torqueing the 11 fasteners to 15 ft-lb, whereas the Cosworth CSR 260 manual calls for 25 Nm (18.4 ft-lb). I compromised and set the torque wrench to 16 ft-lb, then laid out all the clean fasteners, did a quick practice run with the sealant to make sure I could put down a proper bead, wiped the mating surfaces with mineral spirits, and temporarily attached the front cover to ensure the sump would be properly aligned while torqueing it down. Then it was time. Other than the sealant can puking out a big slug of sealant after hitting an air pocket, things were going fine. Sump was placed on the block, and all the fasteners were snugged a little over finger tight. Then it was time for the torque wrench. Starting in the middle and working my way outward in a circle, I had one bolt left before the job was done. It's one of the two long bolts at the back of the block. Starting to apply torque, it snugged a slight amount -- perhaps reaching 5 lb-ft -- but kept turning without tightening further. Uh oh. Fearing the worst, I backed out the bolt and removed this from the threads.

 

 

The bolt was barely more than finger tight, yet the threads from the block stripped right out. No idea what happened. Metal fatigue from prior installations? Damage from the machine shop (did they use that port to bolt down the block during any of the machining work)? Or just bad juju? Regardless, it happened. Fortunately I have the correct size Heli-Coil kit on hand and after thoroughly taping up the block, the hole was drilled, tapped, and the Heli-Coil installed. That was enough fun for today, so perhaps I'll try installing the sump again tomorrow.

 

-John

[Croc]

It's an easy job. What could go wrong?

 

 

Quite a few of the my male colleagues and team have said that very thing this week as they contemplated completing a home haircut. I think you came out of this better than they did.

 

:jester:

[Anker]

Looks to me like a Helicoil that was inserted by some dum-dum who didn't know that you have to put it into a threaded hole. He just shoved it up a drilled hole.

[Croc]

Looks to me like a Helicoil that was inserted by some dum-dum who didn't know that you have to put it into a threaded hole. He just shoved it up a drilled hole.

 

 

:rofl: I am waiting for that "dum-dum" to arrive on this thread... :jester:

[JohnCh]

I don't think that's it. The hole was not drilled, and the outside of that thread bundle is smooth, whereas the Heli-Coil has threads on both sides. I'd expect some of the ridges to remain. Also, the resistance when hand tightening that bolt was the same as the one next to it. If a Heli-Coil was put into an unthreaded hole, even if it was drilled to the correct size, it would squeeze down and create a smaller threaded opening for the bolt.

 

The other possibility is something happened to the engine before I bought it. It was purchased as a factory line take-off. Ford would remove engines for QA and then sell them to a handful of companies who would resell to customers. When the engine arrived it was clear that it had never been fired, but a corner of the coil pack mount at the back of the head was broken, so not pristine. Perhaps they over torqued the bolt in that hole on the assembly line and pulled it off, or perhaps did that during QA?

 

-John

[ashyers]

John,

You may want to check the starter mount bosses. If you need to borrow a drill guide and goodies to fix 'em contact me. Heavy cast iron blocks do have some advantages...

At least the main studs torqued up .

 

Andy

[JohnCh]

Thanks Andy. I think the issue is isolated to those threads, but I am being careful with every fastener I tighten.

 

Made more progress today. And experienced more frustration. The sump is now on and no threads were stripped in the process. Next up was the oil pump chain drive system. I didn't have a tool to hold the oil pump gear in place while torqueing the bolt and didn't have any metal stock on hand, so I fabricated something out of an old, unused metal wall track for an adjustable shelf system. Looked odd, worked great.

 

Had a bit of a WTF moment when installing the ARP head studs. Ford uses torx head bolts, but ARP uses studs with washers and 12-point flared nuts. Step 1 in the instructions is to install the 10 studs finger tight. When installed this way, nine of the studs were 3" above the deck and one was nearly 1/2" higher. My initial assumption was that port needed another pass with the thread chaser I fabricated from a used head bolt, but that was not the case. Long story short, after trying the chase in that port, then in others, and swapping studs between ports, no combination resulted in a stud in that port aligning with the others. Then came an ah-hah moment. Per my calipers, the diameter of the threads is about 4 thousands wider on the ARP studs then the Ford bolts. Apparently there was a tiny amount of gunk deep in the recesses of those threads that the chase couldn't quite reach and that was creating additional friction for the ARP studs. It only took a little more than finger tight torque to screw in that stud further, so I opted to do that until the height above the deck matched the others.

 

 

Next, the threads, washers, and nuts were lubed and the head was dropped in place. It was then I realized these were 12mm 12-point nuts, and my 12-point sockets start at 13mm. Sigh... Deciding to step out of my isolation bubble, I donned my hazmat suit, and braved the social distancing dance at my local Ace Hardware.

 

Deep well 12-pt socket in hand, it was finally time to attach the head. Ford calls for tightening the head bolts in 5 steps: 5 lb-ft, 11 lb-ft, 33 lb-ft rotate 90 deg, and finally rotate another 90 deg. ARP, however, states to torque to 60 lb-ft in three equal steps. I decided to err on the side of caution and do a blend: 5 > 11 > 20 > 40 > 60. The first two passes were done with my small torque wrench which tops out at 18 lb-ft, then the medium torque wrench was pulled out for pass three. While tightening the first nut it was quickly clear that I had gone a bit past 20 lb-ft without a click, so I rotated that nut back to a little under 11 lb-ft and retorqued it to that level. Testing the medium torque wrench on a nut and bolt in the vise, it took a lot of torque to reach the 20 lb-ft reading. Going to 30 lb-ft seemed closer to double that figure, and when attempting 40 lb-ft, the bolt snapped. Okay, that's not going to work. A new medium range torque wrench is on order. The delays continue...

 

-John

[coffee break]

I thought I heard an "aaaarrrrgggghhhh" today. Keep on posting photos of clean and shiny motor parts. :drool:

[JohnCh]

It looks like the torque wrench is delayed. It left Fresno, CA on Monday and was supposed to arrive here today. Checking tracking, it was in Sacramento on Tuesday (good), hung around Sacramento until yesterday (less good), arrived in Troutdale, OR today at lunchtime (good-ish) and is now in transit to Westminster, CO (what???) I'm not great with geography, but even I know that's not on the way to Seattle. Tracking now says it will arrive tomorrow, but the CO mention doesn't inspire confidence. Time for a Martini.

 

-John

[panamericano]

Fear not! After it gets to Chicago, it MAY turn back west. Unless it goes to Atlanta.

[JohnCh]

FedEx has updated the tracking. It still shows it arrived in Troutdale yesterday around noon, and was in transit to Westminster shortly after, but they have now added that it left Troutdale last night (timestamped more than 8 hours after the In transit to Westminster timestamp) and arrived at my local hub early this morning. If that's true, I should have the head torqued this afternoon.

 

-John

[JohnCh]

Head is torqued, cams are installed, and the chain drive assembly with new mechanical chain tensioner is in place. The factory Duratec uses a hydraulic tensioner, which works fine, but can have issues in high rpm engines that result in over tensioning or broken teeth on the plastic ratcheting mechanism. The fix is a simple modification that replaces the plastic ratchet with a threaded metal stop.

 

 

I ran into a slight issue when attempting to time the cams. Kent uses their own adjustable cam gears that aren't interchangeable with the factory set. For some reason the tolerances between my old gears and new DTEC20 cams are much tighter than with the old DTEC10 cams. They're more of a press fit than a slip fit which means they aren't really adjustable, but I tried anyway until running out of both patience and time. I'll remove the timing chain and cam gears tomorrow, take some measurements, and figure out if lightly sanding the coating might free up enough room. If not, I'll call Kent on Monday.

 

 

-John

[JohnCh]

I removed the timing chain and exhaust side gear from the engine, and put the gear on a DTEC10 cam to make sure my memory of fit was correct. Surprisingly it was. Although tight, the gear was easy to rotate on the cam end by hand. In contrast, the gears are a tight enough fit on the new DTEC20 cams that a gear puller is required to remove them. The calipers showed the problem. The nose of the cam end that forms the stop for the bolt and sticks through the face of the gear (see left side of photo) is .006" wider than the nose on the old cams. Just enough to cause a problem. I think I'll hold off any attempts to enlarge the hole in each gear until I can speak with Kent Cams tomorrow.

 

 

-John

[xcarguy]

John, for the next guy that walks this path...the manual is this thread. Been interesting following. :cheers:

[JohnCh]

Thanks Shane. I must admit I never intended for the thread to become this interesting, or to last this long. :banghead:

 

-John

[JohnCh]

After unsuccessfully trying to reach Kent's technical department for the past hour (I'm sorry, no one is currently available to take your call), I had an epiphany and did a search. Yep, today is also a holiday in the UK. Do we have a Bollocks emoticon?

 

Edited to add the new Bollocks emoticon

 

-John

[xcarguy]

After unsuccessfully trying to reach Kent's technical department for the past hour (I'm sorry, no one is currently available to take your call), I had an epiphany and did a search. Yep, today is also a holiday in the UK. Do we have a Bollocks emoticon?

 

-John

 

Will this work.......:jester:

 

[coffee break]

Is that a "Big Hairy ???"