Ninka

No I have not discussed the finer details with Simon yet, other than to express that I did not want the harsh shifting which was unavoidable in the 4 speed to get it to hold, and most of the reason for the change to the ZF. I will be spending the time to discuss this with Simon while he does the tuning.

A few good squirts where possible mixed with just normal city and country driving (trying to hang on to my points on a double demerit point holiday season). I plan to change oil and filter to synthetic at about 2500k's (currently running Castrol Magnatec) and she's going into see Simon from XFT on Friday 21st, for new tune and editing of the ZF transmission.

Just remove coil packs and spark plugs, and if you like, fuse for fuel pump (though not strictly necessary) and crank engine to read compression. You will need a good compression tester which will reach the plug threads, as they are quite deep in the head. I have never had any problems cranking without the coil packs.

Thanks Steve, good to see you active here again :biglaugh: Engine is now over 1000k's and still as quiet as it was when first started

Having done this a few times - Hear, hear The list of things to check is looong, and you have to be ready to scrap items which are not up to scratch, for whatever reason. From memory, I think Atomic only use about 60% of blocks they look at, as others suffer from one problem or another, and wall thickness inconsistencies is one of them.

You win..................... THE TOO MUCH TIME ON MY HANDS AWARD lol

Well, you missed the milky oil bit in your first post, quite a critical bit on information..... There are only really a few places where water can enter the oil, and first suspects would be head gasket, warped head, or if you run a Ford oil cooler, maybe it has split and allowed water into the oil. Most likely you have had water enter from the head, and there is a good chance that you have lost compression on cylinder 1, either due to compression leak through head gasket (best case) or a broken ring land due to some kind of over pressure, possibly due to water in the cylinder. The turbo blowing is hardly a surprise if you have had a lot of water in the oil, as it will turn to steam in the bearing housing, displacing any oil in there, and probably 'gas locking' due to rapid expansion of steam, overcoming the oil pressure. My 2c worth

I did the engine build myself, and can say with 100% certainty that the piston did not get damaged or dropped during the installation. In any case, it would have been pretty difficult to only damage the ring lands below the top ring. A faulty piston casting is a possibility, and I really had little interest in exploring that avenue, as it is not as if Ford would give me a new piston, given the modified state of my engine, but as with all high silicon (sand) aluminium, strength is unpredictable, as silicon distribution can be a bit uneven. The good thing about this type of damage is that it does not destroy the engine, but only drops compression on the affected cylinder. Doesn't change the fact that engine has to be rebuilt though Finally, ring gaps were XR6T factory standard, as these pistons and rings came as part of a complete short engine, where I just replaced the con rods before assembling and fitting to my car. All pistons were marked before removing, and fitted back to the exact same bore they came from. I was running around 300 rwkw and was heading down the strip when this happened, causing a careful limp home......

I don't want to be pretentious, but I think what my mate Ralph Wiggum meant to suggest, was an FG F6 bottom end, which has Mahle pistons, and WILL make 300+ kw safely.

I don't want to start a slanging match here, but your quoted 450 rwkw with stock pistons, IS BY NO MEANS A CERTAINTY I fitted a brand new short BF engine to my 'T' and used strong rods, resulting in the ring lands between top and second ring, and second and oil scraper rings breaking on cyl 5, necessitating another engine rebuild. Car was running less than 300 rwkw at the time this happened, and tune was safe as houses, with no pinging, as tuned by Simon from XFT. See pictures for what can happen with stock pistons..... As you can see from the condition of the pistons, these were near new, with less than 5k's on them.

No nothing wrong, except slight piston 'rattle' from the Mahle pistons, at idle to 1800rpm. Engine has been reliably running 365 rwkw (in an auto) since I built it.

Well, I am now heading for 750k's on my new engine, and (stops for a second, and thinks about what I am about to say.......) I AM HAPPY WITH MY ENGINE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN YEARS :biglaugh: Thumbs up to Atomic for supplying me all the bits and pieces, incl. a good checked and honed block, as well as the Cosworth pistons, they are awesome so far.

Could also be your tune. Boost mapping needs to be accurate and if that is not the case, then your engine will shut down the boost, only for it to return again after a second or two. Especially seems to happen in the lower RPM ranges.

Stock head gasket is good

New engine is now in, so I will try to make it to this one

OK finally time to report some progress.... Yes the bolts did finally turn up, and the engine could be completed. Monday this week was the day to start the 'heart transplant' on my girl, and as expected she was a little apprehensive, it's major surgery after all Doing this on my own, it's pretty much a 3 day job, with day 1 being spent on disassembly/disconnection of the engine from the car, which in broad terms involves: 1) Removing all electrical connections 2) Removing all intake and exhaust piping 3) Removing front bumper assy. incl. under tray 4) Removing Intercooler 5) Unbolting aircon. condenser from radiator 6) removal of cooling fans & radiator with associated hoses and expansion tank 7) Remove starter motor Unbolting torque converter from flex plate, engine and trans. cooler from transmission and engine mounts from cross member 9) Lift engine out Day 2 is pretty much spent moving all the external bits and pieces from engine 1 to engine 2, as well as tidying up a few issues I wanted to improve, as well as lifting the new engine into the car. Day 3 I spent doing all of day 1's activities pretty much in reverse, and in the process obviously fitting new Iridium plugs (gapped to . new oil filter (pre-filled with oil) and new coolant. Before starting the engine, I put my big charger on the car, and ran the starter motor for quite a long time, to ensure the oil was as close to all bearing surfaces as possible, before starting the engine for the first time. This process also serves to get a bit of fuel through the injectors, as they are firing while engine is cranking. After fitting the plugs and everything else needed, I held my breath and cranked the engine which started immediately, with oil pressure also present virtually immediately, so a great result. Well I know it's early day yet, and there is some running in to be done (as I am writing this, I have done just over 100k's) BUT the sound of this engine is absolutely amazing, with NO mechanical noise whatsoever, and I would almost swear that it is as quiet, if not quieter than a stock unit (well maybe except from the deep rumble emanating from my 2 x 2 1/2" exhaust) :sungum: Driving the car the difference is noticeable, with less NVH somehow, and definitely more vacuum at off throttle downhill running, and at full throttle, well the tyres squeal and SHE SINGS. So far very happy with this build, and the lessons learnt over quite a few attempts at this now, have certainly taught me a lot about what makes a nice sounding engine, and one which is almost unbreakable at the power levels I run. Pictures attached.

Ohh :ooops: now a 1992 BA XR6T, that would be REALLY rare - Well spotted, it's a 2002 model of course, originally with 4sp Auto, factory leather interior and premium sound with colour screen, but since then modded a bit

Well. I'm very similar in my objectives to 45T-XR, as I am the original owner of one of the first 'T's' from 1992, and she's not driven often, but I like to keep her clean and in good condition, AND to have a very fast car that to the untrained person sounds almost stock, well except for the bellow coming from my Dual 2 1/2" quad tipped exhaust system :sungum: Just wish those bloody SS bolts would turn up soon

Mate, for now I am planning to stick with the original turbo set-up, as this is doing pretty well at the moment. I may change to an FG exhaust manifold and dump, as they seem to flow better than BA/BF style manifolds (I currently have 4" SMB dump & 5" Cat), but all depends... For now I am waiting for some nice SS Cap Screws for the front and top covers, and as soon as they arrive, I will start planning the engine swap with current engine. What are you hoping to achieve?

You right mate, sorry for the confusion, I obviously meant big end of the conrod

Do a compression test, that should tell you if the rods have a major bend in them like Luke suggests, but with the amount of water you found, that sounds likely. Whatever you do, DO NOT DRIVE your car, as rods will be extremely weak if bent, and you may at best completely destroy your engine, as worst set it on fire with oil squrting onto your exhaust from a big hole in your block and/or sump. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it sounds serious....

The wagon is a V8, and driven mostly by my wife, so think about it for a second, a woman in charge of a wagon with a 600hp Turbo engine Here's a pic of the wagon after the face transplant a couple of years ago - Never liked the AU look, but much better as an AUBA Fairmont, if nothing else, it's reasonably unique over here in the west..

Well, as I have been posting retrospectively to the actual engine build, here are pictures of the finished engine on my engine stand. On the last picture, the heavier flexplate can be seen, well not really a flexplate, more like a flywheel for the auto, as it's so much thicker than the flimsy factory unit. Just need to find the time to do the changeover with engine currently in my car, and then start thinking about what to do with that, as it has a lot of goodies in it as well. Them projects keep being dreamt up

Hey Newl, long time no see. Well, I guess any job worth doing, is worth doing properly.... I am hoping this will be the last engine for my car, and the results will be as expected.

I just looked at the photos, and realise that the last photo probably needs a little explanation (maybe I am a bit too close to this ) Anyway, what you are looking at, is the inverted engine, looking down at the bottom of the Cosworth piston, with the 998kw Atomic rod visible in the centre of the picture. The writing in pencil on the bottom of the piston, is from when I matched size of piston to bore.