Bf Mk2.5 Home Build - 309Rwkw On 15Psi

[Skids4kids]

Take a spare tailshaft if loading it up using a stock item.

Also think about fitting tailshaft loops...saves the tank and exhaust plus wont damage the track.

Re-breakages....that cant be answered but id expect it and have plans in place.

[IT15ON]

Thanks to the ANZACs, I finally had a Saturday off work. Couple this with the Friday off got me a 3 day weekend. So of course it was time for a trip home for more car progress. The valvesprings have been sitting there waiting to go in and the time arrived. After discussing with Tim, a timing kit was also bought and there ready to go, and the front main seal needed doing while at it. I escaped the Newcastle weather and we got into it Friday night.

The usual parts came out to gain access and the rocker cover was removed.

Sometimes things need a little persuasion to come apart....

It looked pretty clean under there which was nice. Regular oil changes and a good flogging now and then keep the cobwebs out!

A lot of parts had to come off to get to where we needed, bagging up various bolts and dowels with a description on them made things a lot easier when re assembling later.

The timing cover was also removed, the tensioner still had a lot of adjustment left in it, but there was a touch of slack in the chain and we thought it'll be worth getting this job done while at it.

I haven't had the cams out of my daily drive before and had a tight deadline, so it started to feel serious when we got to this point. We noted which pieces go where - labelling intake and exhaust sides, along with noting the factory punched out indicators/half moons, so it can all go back together as ford intended.

When releasing the cams all bolts were undone half turn at a time, so that the pressure across the length of a cam was even as possible at all times. Not sure the best way to describe this but much like doing up wheel nuts!

Bags were piling up at this point, and now business time. The Atomic tool was brought out.

Edited 27/04/15 10:19 AM by IT15ON

[JETURBO]

Love doing valvesprings !

[Ralph Wiggum]

My lower back hates doing them.

[JETURBO]

Pftttt mount the f*cker

( I has sore back also lol )

Lay in the engine bay FTW

[IT15ON]

The tool was perfect for the job as you would expect. There was a minor issue, the supplied pipe for filling cylinder with air had an unusual fitting on the end, which didn't fit the compressor hose. Tim's shed provided some other fittings which he then used to make an adapter up, and we were back in business. The air is used to keep valve from falling down while the spring is removed.

With the compressor turned up to max we crossed our fingers and applied pressure to compress the first spring. The magnet is then used to remove the collets before the spring can be extracted. We also decided to block the oil drains with a rag just in case anything was dropped, as it is a fiddly job.

Slow motion action shots for your viewing pleasure

The old and the new, side by side.

The new spring was fitted, and collets placed back in. This was done by hand, mainly done by feel. The oil helps them to stick to fingers, and they will slot into place with some fiddling, and compression of the spring to just the right level. Took a nervous first try but got pretty easy in the end.

The finished product:

Now, repeat 23 more times! It is good to learn the feel of the job, because the last two have to be done pretty much blind. I had the feel worked out by the end, and we stuck my phone in against the firewall to take a photo before releasing the spring just to triple check everything was aligned properly.

The actual fitting of the springs wasn't a bad job at all. Most of the time was taken in accessing and then re-fitting all the other bits and pieces!

More to come after dinner.....!

[IT15ON]

My lower back hates doing them.

Lower back and the back of my knees especially..... feels like I've been doing shed time!

[Ralph Wiggum]

The Last set I did was a bare head on the bench......soooooo gooot

[IT15ON]

Most of the parts were there ready to go, but we ended up needing a couple of loose ends, coolant, RTV and bulk degreaser. We took Tim's car to a store which promised to have a lot of spare parts

Now to put it all back together. The new tensioner and timing chain were fitted. Tim showed me how easy it is to get the chain lined up, you learn something new every day!

Lots of cleaning followed. The timing cover, rocker cover, sump etc were all stripped of any remaining gasket and all oil was removed. Hopefully I will be able to see the (lack of) leaks after we finish. The front main seal was fitted and all the fun of re fitting parts with wet RTV on them was next.

An idea came up, we have a white rocker cover sitting around which is off another engine, currently unassembled. I spent more time trying to decide between white and red than I did cleaning it, but finally settled. May as well do a change now and use it right? Might not be to some peoples taste, but it is neat and tidy, took no extra time or effort, and I'm happy with the look. See how I go with keeping it clean...

After a test drive I was happy, the car felt great and was pulling nice and smooth all the way to 6,000rpm. I wasn't expecting any noticeable change in the drive from this work, with no change to tune, but the car does seem a little happier especially up top. You have to know the car well to notice it but I think there is an improvement up high, not in much power as such just feel. Maybe it's all in my head though...

It's great to be working on the car in a country area where a road test is really a good chance to see what the car has got. Quiet back roads where there is no traffic are hard to find where I live.

One more issue was still driving me up the wall. The blow off valve was still a pain, it was set to soft but you would hear compressor surge with light driving and 2,000rpm. So all the way to work, rattlesnake noise. My girlfriend always laughs at me, and I am attracting attention when not wanting to.

The stock BOV was re fitted just to see how it would help. The aftermarket BOV had a hard spring, and the stock one was definitely lighter even pushing it by hand. Sure enough, as soon as I drove 100m up the road I was happy. I can now use a heap more throttle in town and actually enjoy the power a lot more often, without fear. The car is driven to and from work 6 days a week in Newcastle traffic, so this lack of noise makes me a lot happier. There is still decent spool sound, but you can get off it if necessary almost silently, rather than screaming to everyone in the block that you were just got off the throttle. I was having nightmares of seeing HWP and not being able to get off it for fear of noise, but now it's safe. It still makes a decent noise when you're going hard, but town use is heaps better.

So I now have a lot more "usable power" because I'm not afraid of using more than 1/6th throttle during my daily commute! I made a quick trip back to Newcastle on Sunday night and didn't let much traffic slow me down.

Thanks again to Tim for all his help. Next step will be more drag and dyno action...

[sonny184501]

Great write up mate, especially interesting to me as I too have an ex police BF MK 2.5, Mine is getting dropped off tonight for it's tune tomorrow, so I am waiting in sweet anticipation lol. I have Walbro in tank pump, dual 2.5" cat back X-Force, 100 cell cat, standard dump, flapper mod done, turbo smart 7 psi actuator. K & N filter with F6 snorkle, ebay intercooler with plazmaman stage 2 upgraded cooler pipework, valve springs done, Tuner will fit the 60lb injectors before the tune tomorrow. I am hoping for 300 rwkw.