It's finally running!

Got the Ford 3.8L V6 running Sunday. Finally.

I got back from taking a friend flying at noon and finished up
buttoning it up.

Here's the background: This is a modified 3.8L V6 with a Northwest
Aero PSRU. The engine was completely rebuilt with the block baked,
bead blasted and scoured, then bored and honed to fit new 9 to 1
compression ration pistons from Wiseco. The crank was sent out to be
turned and new bearings were installed for the crank and con rods.

The heads were planed and I needed four new intake valves. New seals,
new guides, valves lapped in and 1 to 8 ratio roller rockers with new
lifters.

New cam per David Blanton's original specs. Regardless his
strangeness with horsepower claims, no one found fault with the
camshaft specs. No reason to, the design was spec'd out to one of the
premier camshaft engineers in Detroit and he got it right.

The cam was milled from a solid billet rather than regrinding the
original so the original, standard length pushrods could be re-used.

New stock Ford valve springs were used. I fabricated a test stand on
casters that I can drag into my Tacoma and drive it up into the woods
for testing away from civilization. I built it tall enough so that
the engine could run with the prop installed.

But it wouldn't run. I spent three weeks fooling with it trying to
get it running with no success. Finally someone asked if I had any
intake suction. That's the one test I had not done. Carb removed,
hand over intake opening, crank the engine and nothing. No vacuum at
all.

I used to be a certified auto mechanic and never misstimed an engine
in my life, but I'd misstimed this one. I pulled the timing chain
cover off and stared in disbelief. The camshaft was at least 5 teeth
away from where it should be.

So I reset it and double and triple checked that it REALLY was correct
now, scraped off the old gaskets, installed new and buttoned things
up. Cranked it with my hand across the intake manifold opening and it
tried to suck my hand through the opening. Even after I'd stopped
cranking, the suction remained. That was an encouraging sign.

By Sunday afternoon I was pouring in hot water (to make the engine a
little easier turning over) and ready to try it.

Starter switch to on, ignition on, fuel pump on, instruments on and
start! Row row row row row... nothing.

Flip the throttle in and out a few times: Row row row row... nothing.

Recheck timing by cranking the engine with the ignition off and finger
in the no. 1 spark plug hole till it blows my finger out indicating
it's on compression and then hand turn the engine to TDC and check
where the rotor in the distributer is pointing. Hmmm, it's actually
off some so I twist the distributer to align it better.

Try checking the timing using the timing light and no flashing. Could
that be the problem, no ignition? Recheck everything with a test
light, all is functioning properly, what's going on here? Oooops,
timing light clip has fallen off the battery. I re-attach it and
crank the engine and now the timing light is flashing properly. I can
now fine tune the distributer to get the timing at 8 degrees BTDC.
Obviously, the ignition is working.

Ready again, hearing protection on: Row row row... nothing, not a pop.

Ok, time for auxiliary starting fuel. Grab the acetylene torch and
crank up the acetylene and stick the tip into the carburator with the
butterfly valve half open to allow the gas in to the intake manifold.

Row row row row... **BAAAARRRRROOOOOOMMMMMM**BRAP BRAP BRAP, it's
running. I pulled the tip out and slammed the throttle shut and
darned if it didn't continue to run, albeit somewhat roughly, and very
VERY loudly.

I spent the next half hour fiddling with various adjustments and
finally got it running reasnably smoothly, at least at idle and up to
2,000 rpm. But man that thing is *L*O*U*D* loud, and mean sounding.
It sure doesn't sound like grandma's Plymouth.

I need to quiet that down or I won't be able to take it into the woods
and run it without upsetting folks for miles around.

Perhaps "Supertrapp" mufflers?

Anyway, it's running, the psru is tracking smoothly and this is a
milestone. It has a little leak of oil from the front crankshaft oil
seal, not sure what's going on with that yet but it isn't severe.

I also runs a bit rough when revved up past 3,000 but I'm not sure
what's happening there either, I haven't check to see if the timing is
advancing. That's another test yet to do.

So I'm fairly pleased right now. Next step is to bolt on the prop and
run the engine in and then do some long term testing at various power
settings. I spent a lot of time modifying the intake manifold per
Ford V6 STOL suggestions and specifications to have an engine that
will run smoothly at 4,800 rpm but that's with the prop installed. I
also custom fabricated the exhaust headers, making each tube exactly
40 inches long precisely to prevent a rough running hard to tune
engine. More testing to follow.

These tests need to be carefully documented so that the DAR can verify
that the engine has been tested. It's important for me too. ;-)

Corky Scott

Congrats to you Corky.

It is always an exciting time to hear a creation bark to life. And to
have the redrive tracking properly the first time is icing on the cake.

Ben

www.haaspowerair.com

Congratualtions Corky. I look forward to further postings. Mine has
about 10 hours on it. Runs well but I expect to have many more hours
on it before the airframe is finished. I can discuss some of my
problems and solutions if it would be helpful.

David

On 26 Apr 2005 13:09:39 -0700, "dwoolery" wrote:

Congratualtions Corky. I look forward to further postings. Mine has
about 10 hours on it. Runs well but I expect to have many more hours
on it before the airframe is finished. I can discuss some of my
problems and solutions if it would be helpful.

David

Thanks for the offer David. I have a couple of wierd things happening
that I have to work through, plus some modifications of the test stand
before I can begin in earnest.

There is a small oil leak around the front oil seal. Not sure what's
going on with that but I had to remove the timing chain cover to fix
my boo boo with timing the camshaft and the oil pan gasket broke when
I did this. I used a lot of blue RTV to reinstall, but I did not drop
the oil pan to either remove or reinstall so there might be a problem
there that won't be fixed unless I remove the oil pan and replace the
gasket. I didn't want to do that because all the oil pan bolts are
safety wired. I wired them when I could rotate the engine upside down
and work in comfort. Can't do that now...

I'm using a used Modine oil cooler which gets the heater hoses routed
to it. It bolts on top of the oil filter housing and the oil filter
bolts on top of it. I'll have to remove the cooler and see why it's
leaking.

I installed baffles in the tailpipes to reduce the extraordinarily
loud bark of the exhaust last night. That seems to have ameliorated
the noise somewhat, but Daisy the lab took off when I started it last
night anyway...

I also need to reinstall the leaning block and see if the engine will
rev to 3,000 and beyond without stumbling.

Finally, I now have the proper sized bolts from IVO for the prop. I
need to install the prop and then step into a new consciousness to run
the engine with the prop. Till now it's just been a loud engine and I
can walk around it and make adjustments as necessary. With the prop
installed, things will be different, the prop could cut pieces of me
off if I walk into it. The prop will also attempt to pull the test
stand into the woods so all engine running will have to be conducted
with the stand chained down.

Corky Scott

"Corky Scott" wrote

With the prop
installed, things will be different, the prop could cut pieces of me
off if I walk into it.

Might I suggest that you made something like a rail, to be a slight physical
barrier between you and the prop? It doesn't need to be anything more than
a visual reminder, like a 2 x 4 strapped across the back of the truck, but
that should be enough of a visual reminder to help, if things start to go
wrong.

I too, add my congrats to getting to this milestone. Keep us informed.
--
Jim in NC

On Wed, 27 Apr 2005 16:16:13 -0400, "Morgans"
wrote:

Might I suggest that you made something like a rail, to be a slight physical
barrier between you and the prop? It doesn't need to be anything more than
a visual reminder, like a 2 x 4 strapped across the back of the truck, but
that should be enough of a visual reminder to help, if things start to go
wrong.

I too, add my congrats to getting to this milestone. Keep us informed.

That's a good idea Jim, I sure have enough lumber laying around to rig
something up.

Corky Scott

Dave,

Since I don't seem to have the time to get the next issue of the
newsletter out, why don't you talk some here about the trials and
tribulations (if any) of getting your engine going.

dwoolery wrote:

Congratualtions Corky. I look forward to further postings. Mine has
about 10 hours on it. Runs well but I expect to have many more hours
on it before the airframe is finished. I can discuss some of my
problems and solutions if it would be helpful.

David

--
Bruce A. Frank, Editor "Ford 3.8/4.2L Engine and V-6 STOL
Homebuilt Aircraft Newsletter"
| Publishing interesting material|
| on all aspects of alternative |
| engines and homebuilt aircraft.|
*------------------------------**----*
\(-o-)/ AIRCRAFT PROJECTS CO.
\___/ Manufacturing parts & pieces
/ \ for homebuilt aircraft,
0 0 TIG welding

While trying to find the time to finish mine.

Hi Bruce,

Good to hear from you. As I mentioned above my engine has about 10
hours on it. For a quick review, it is out of an '84 T'Bird and has
forged pistons, reground cam, new lifters and push rods, Beecher
underdrive pulleys, Blanton redrive, modified water pump (larger
impeller and backing plate), Holley 350cfm carb, Ford sandwich oil
cooler, short exhaust stubs and the expansion tank you welded for me.
It is hung on the airframe so I can start it up and run it whenever I
go out to the airport, which isn't too much lately. Initially my goal
was to get it running and keep it cool. I hung a radiator out of a 3.0
Taurus vertically about a foot under the motor. I mounted the fan from
the same car behind the radiator. Coolant temps were Ok but oil temp
kept climbing. Then I hung a copper/brass radiator from a 280Z
horizontally under the motor with the fan on top pulling through the
radiator and blowing on the engine. I also mounted a stacked plate oil
cooler under the radiator so the fan could pull through it. On hot
days coolant temps stayed at 185, pressure was less than 10 and oil
temps stayed a few degrees above coolant. Everything was perfect.
Then I changed it. I installed a new aluminum radiator in the tail
with a larger fan. The stacked plate oil cooler just hangs up front
with a computer fan pulling air through it. I also installed a sensor
and relay to control the cooling fan. The coolant temp is still fine
but the oil cooler needs more air through it and the coolant pressure
is all over the place. Spark plugs look good except #5. It is silver
gray. I'm putting in some Bosch platinum +4 plugs this weekend. If
anyone wants pictures let me know.

David