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Man O War 1991 Ford Mustang GT Engine - Hooligan's Last Stand - Tech
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On the deck surface, it's... On the deck surface, it's interesting to note the recessed head bolt bosses. This allows the head bolts (or studs) to grab the block closer to the main saddles to prevent distortion on the 0.600-inch-thick decks and within the cylinder bores when everything is torqued down. Also, there is an oil galley that needs to be plugged before anything else. After it was installed, we had to grind it down because the head hovers right above (no part of the head gasket sits here.) Anytime your car blows up, you instinctively open the hood, thinking it's nothing major. At first, you'll look at a few hose clamps and maybe check a few wires, hoping it's a simple repair. So when we noticed the distributor was loose, we asked ourselves, "I wonder why the water pump is leaking?" It would normally stop there, but we quickly followed up with, "Why are the intake manifold bolts loose?" After spewing coolant and oil out of the front half of the engine, we already knew it was a broken block. So, instead of trying to avoid it, we admitted to ourselves that our cheap way out of using a stock block for our 10-second buildup finally caught up to us. It said "Peace Out" while we were still expecting to hang with all our homies. Nowadays, there are plenty of ways to build up a Ford Windsor without using a single part from Ford (not counting Ford Racing Performance Parts). The aftermarket is so huge that you can literally build and run a Ford 302- or 351-based engine with components sourced from an online catalog. It was certainly hard to choose which way to go, but in the end, we went with a World Products' Man O' War block. Why? Well, we're sticklers for the newest in foundry and manufacturing processes, and this block was particularly interesting for many reasons. So, instead of rambling off its press release, we'll talk about some things that are not listed and that you may not know about. The Man O' War's deck readily... The Man O' War's deck readily accepts conventional Ford heads with the traditional bolt pattern with 10 bolts. It also accommodates 16-bolt heads that are a part of World's own line of race-ready Man O' War 10-degree heads. No shortage of clamping force there! World uses CNC-machining from start to finish on all of its engine-component castings. This eliminates issues with stacked tolerances, which is when you go from one machine to the next. For instance, if each tool used to machine the block is off by just one-ten-thousandth (0.0001) of an inch, by the time you're done, all the tolerances are added up and stacked together for a poorly machined chunk of high-nickel cast iron. CNC-machining the block in one station eliminates this. Another thing that World does is to make sure all castings will accept a huge stroker crank with just about any aftermarket rod swinging from its hip. It may not matter for you 347 or 408 guys, but once you put in some serious amounts of arm into that crankcase (up to 371 inches for an 8.200 block and 470 inches for the taller 9.500 version), you're talking some serious room that the original Windsor blueprints simply did not take into consideration. Because the World block is a proprietary design, it has many key features put into it from the very moment the CAD engineer started his/her first rendering. Our steel Scat stroker crank... Our steel Scat stroker crank that was part of the Summit Racing 347 kit was still in perfect shape. After a thorough cleaning, we placed it in the main saddles with new bearings. Because the main caps use steel dowels to align them to the block, there is no way to skew main cap No. 3 to adjust crankshaft endplay. Luckily, the Clevite bearings we bought were machined just as nicely as the block, and we found endplay to be a favorable 0.003 inch. So now you know a bit about the block, but what does it all mean? Well, it means we can go racing again with the added confidence that our block will never be the source of our next breakdown. We'll probably step it up a notch with more boost and maybe some more cam. But one thing at a time-we want to first get the car running back to its former glory. All we had to do was transplant our engine internals from the busted short-block and pop it into our 4.030-bore Man O' War (PN 087110-4030.) Two things should be noted about the Man O' War block:-head-bolt size and hydraulic roller cams. If you intend to reuse your old head bolts, you'd best forget it. Aside from utilizing 11/42-inch threads, it has deeper bosses than any factory Ford block, so you'll require longer studs or bolts. For the exact part number you'll need, you should contact World about the head you'll be using so you get the right one. Secondly, for those intending to use the factory-style hydraulic roller camshaft setup, you'll have to modify the lifter alignment bars to clear bosses that are cast into the block. These are minor details, but worth noting. After putting our new engine back together, we took it out for a quick run. Hooligan lives again, and hopefully it'll still be around for future testing. Thanks to our new reinforced engine, we can now step it up several notches in our quest for more power and speed.  After file-fitting the new...  After file-fitting the new rings, we lubed up the hydraulic roller lifters and slid them into the Man O' War block.  The alignment "dogbones" for...  The alignment "dogbones" for each pair of lifters required some clearance in order to clear a boss that was cast into the block for the added inboard head bolt bosses. We used a bench grinder, but you can get similar results with a pneumatic die grinder. Either way, grind slowly as the lifter retainer can distort from excessive heat.  The lifter retainer "spider"...  The lifter retainer "spider" will need to be drilled out at its two mounting points. That's because instead of the 11/44-inch thread size, these are upped to 51/416-inch threads. We used some leftovers from an old oil-pan stud kit.  For maximum durability, we...  For maximum durability, we installed a Summit Racing roller camshaft block protector kit (PN SUM-G1794). This is always a worthwhile upgrade for even a stock Mustang, and at $62, it's cheap insurance. Our mild TFS cam (275/279, 0.499/0.520) was reused after we used some emery cloth to polish the journals that were slightly scored when the oil pump broke in the old engine.  The Man O' War block readily...  The Man O' War block readily accepts all timing chains and gears that were designed for stock Fords. This is great for budget-minded folks who want to reuse timing equipment. The factory timing cover can also be reused.  When our old engine let go,...  When our old engine let go, it took a few pistons with it, so we simply ordered new TFS forged, low-compression pistons that we originally installed with our Summit Racing 347 stroker kit. Here, we slide them into our nicely machined bores with a tapered ring compressor.  With the rods in place, we...  With the rods in place, we torqued the rod bolts to 63 ft-lb, as recommended. Because World Products anticipates the use of stroker kits in all of its engines, the crankcase comes already clearanced for just about any rod/stroke combination by any manufacturer. Our 3.400-stoke crank and Eagle H-beam rod combo had plenty of room to spare.  With our new standard-volume...  With our new standard-volume oil pump and oil-pan pickup tube in place, we were ready to drop on the oil pan. It should be noted that the oil pan required slight massaging to clear main cam No. 5 (the rearmost one) as there was slight interference. A few raps of a ball-peen hammer and we were all set.  With the bottom end buttoned...  With the bottom end buttoned up, it was time to pay attention to the topside of things. The new ARP head studs were bottomed out into the block and were lubed up to accept the TFS Twisted Wedge heads and Cometic gaskets.  The heads were torqued down...  The heads were torqued down to 100 ft-lb, and the valvetrain was reinstalled.  The Man O' War block allows...  The Man O' War block allows you to use any Windsor intake manifold. This meant we could reinstall our TFS Street Heat intake.  When trying to reinstall the...  When trying to reinstall the engine mounts, we noticed interference by the rearward mounting ears on both sides. This is because of the extra head bolt bosses that are cast into the block. With our bench grinder, we had to notch the mounts as shown.  Our engine combo had run out...  Our engine combo had run out of meter, so this was a good time to upgrade to a Pro-M Univer. Since we couldn't find one new, we went ahead and bought this one used from the Internet.  Once up and running at Mustang...  Once up and running at Mustang Magic, tuning expert Joe Lauzardo decided to tinker a little bit with the EEC IV. We were looking for some more power by upping the timing a bit.  After several tries, Lauzardo...  After several tries, Lauzardo told us that based on our cam and top-half combo, he felt that the 480 rwhp that we mustered was about all it would make at 15 pounds of boost. With that, we decided to leave it be and bring it back to the track.  With no gain in power, we...  With no gain in power, we didn't expect a gain in performance at the dragstrip. But as you can see, Hooligan is back on the track and running 10.30s once again. While most articles about engine builds tell you how to go faster, this one tells you how to go fast longer.
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Mustang Magic
160 Brook Ave
Deer Park
NY
11729
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World Products
Ronkonkoma
NY
6-31/-981-1918
www.worldcastings.com
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Trick Flow Specialties
1248 Southeast Ave.
Tallmadge
OH
44278
330-630-1555
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