Quote Originally Posted by Tim Kurcz View Post
Ok Sam,

So much for my history with "R" plugs. It's off to the parts store for some B9HS NGK's. After only an hour's time on the water today, another BR9HS failed (this time with carbon traces) - along with the head gasket. I'm hoping there is no additional damage: Thankfully the pistons look fine!

Last fall, after about 3 hours total operation, the #2 cylinder fire ring blew on the intake side immediately adjacent to the starboard most head bolt. Replacing the gasket at the river, it was immediately difficult to start, but performed well once lit. It was the #2 plug that had the loose ceramic..........

Today, after about a total of 2 hours operation (less than 1 hour on the new plugs), the #1 cylinder fire ring blew, this time on the exhast side adjacent to the port most stud. Yes, the head was studded after last years breach. The question is: Which failed first?

Unfortunately, this time the head was damaged and will require a .010" cleanup cut. Unless the block is damaged, I will make repairs and secure B9HS plugs this week for a follow up test next weekend. Regardless, This winter the head will be oringed.

Thanks again to all that responded. Images tomorrow night.

Tim


As we all know, there is much difference in 2 and 4 stroke engines, and of course a lot of difference between a 2.3 liter Ford 4 banger and what you are playing with.

That said, perhaps an experience I had in the early 80's would be of some help in figuring out how to solve this problem, but I definately think based on my experience with the Ford four you are on the right track.

The 2.3 liter Ford in stock form, without a lot of mods, was really never meant to be run with an overly high compression ratio, either the result of the head just being pulled down tight on a naturally aspirated engine, or forced induction, either by super charging or turbo charging. For that reason when Ford came out with a turbocharged version in the 80 model to compete with some of the BMW's and other factory hot rod's (this also led to a much better version of the motor and car called the Mustang SVO in '84) they tried to keep it simple with a "suckthru" turbo/carb setup which increased the HP about 25-30 over stock. The turbo was limited on boost it could achieve by a mechanical waste gate arrangement. I purchased one for Eileen to drive (and me to play with as her 455 Grand Priz was a gas hog) but quickly found out that it was still lacking what I was used to so found a little more HP was available in a boost kit with alcohol/water injection from an after market supplier.

Standard boost was about2-3 lbs and the kit would allow waste gate adjustment all the way up to about 6-8 lbs depending on how brave you were and how big your pocket book was. Long story short I was replacing head gaskets almost every week until I got smart and went to a better head gasket and O'ringd the block and got some better head bolts so as to be able to hold the increased boost.

I seem to remember from previous posts about this engine that you do have water injection to help alleviate detonation, so possibly the O rings will do the job for you. With the changes mentioned above I was able to go to 6lbs of boost before I had other problems with detonation that caused piston damage, so hopefully this will solve the problems. The O'rings continued to keep the head gasket problems to nothing though. The head gasket I settled on was a very thin soft steel that was able to "form itself" to any imperfections in the mating surface for water/coolant sealing, but the O'rings did the serious sealing compression wise, and the better head bolts also did their part, as the first couple of times we had a problems we did not replace them, and found out they had been stretched past yield and were no good for reuse so they were replaced with a better quality bolt.

I really have enjoyed your posts about both this engine and the 666. Keep up the good work, and above all keep posting about your engine building adventures.