M42 turbo pt 1- it blew up!

[Loupoz]

We demand updates!

[Dissembler]

Have a few updates. My wife and I were in Iceland for the last 2 weeks taking our very belated honeymoon; got back last night. Was back at it today, made some progress. Disassembled the new engine, got the mls gasket and studs installed, gave everything a good clean. Got the VAC valve springs in and have started reassembling the engine.

Before I install the cams though, need some knowledge. VAC included two sets of shims with the valve springs. I've searched but cannot find any literature or installation guide from VAC. I'd contact VAC but I don't have 4 weeks to wait for them to get back to me...

They go underneath the lifters to limit the lash adjuster, correct? I haven't bolted the cams down but did put the lifters and cam tray together and everything seems to fit together nicely.

Any pics of how you reworked the m44 turbo manifold after it was flipped? I'm on the fence as to m5* cut and reworked from the flange or m44 reworked.

It did require a little bit of reworking, not shown is that right by the flange I had to slice the runners open so that I could bend the whole thing away from the valve cover. Then made the riser which is about 3" long. The turbo sits half a cm from the wheel well mostly because of the waste gate actuator. Will snap a few more pics for you once the engine is back in the car. Eventually I plan to make a new manifold that will move the turbo forward and lower.

[captain awesome]

Any pics of how you reworked the m44 turbo manifold after it was flipped? I'm on the fence as to m5* cut and reworked from the flange or m44 reworked.

[ejnight]

That's incredible! How did a stock M42 survive that?! I'm working on a much more modest build, but I'm also dropping the CR to around 9:1. What's your cooling system setup?

It did not survive! lol Cool story. Get it back out there.

[varg]

Maybe pre ignition, but you'd think with enough preignition to crack a piston/break a con rod into 3 pieces there would be signs of it elsewhere?

All it had to do is bend the rod and crack the piston, it can disassemble itself from there.

[Dissembler]

The engines I have are E30. If I could find a few M44s I would probably go that route because of of the knock sensors and the chain idler is replaced with a rail

[jwal]

OP, are you using only original early M42 parts or do you mix and match with e36 components?

I'm trying to build my motor with the best of both worlds, and I still haven't determined which platform would be best for cost effective tuning. I have one of every form of the M4x motors. E30 M42, E36 M42, and M44.

[Dissembler]

Preignition probably. No idea how loud your exhaust is but the appearance of the car screams "I'm really loud" and you even if you hear it you may be too late. Sure it's a fairly strong engine when everything is right but a couple of enormous cylinder pressure spikes due to preignition will crush that stock bottom end like nothing. Running hard on a track, big turbo, everything in the combustion chambers getting very hot, revving to 7,000rpm, not really a big surprise that it let go.

What was your injector duty cycle at full boost? 42lb seems too small to me. I was running 60lb injectors in my turbo M42, and pushing 18psi (T3/T04E 50 trim).

Surprisingly not as loud as you'd imagine. 3" exhaust, single borla muffler at the back that does quite a bit to quiet things down. Calabogie and Tremblant have very strict dba limits and I haven't had to add a second muffler to meet them.

Maybe pre ignition, but you'd think with enough preignition to crack a piston/break a con rod into 3 pieces there would be signs of it elsewhere?







I should add that white lines that look like cracks is actually dog hair lol. Have 2 huskies and that stuff gets everywhere even when they're no where around!

In other news, got another engine and am prepping it to go in



and finally got these away from UPS... stupid UPS. I ordered these back in end of february from VAC and they just arrived because the keepers were back ordered. Was supposed to have them in march and they were what I was waiting for before taking the car to they dyno. Got 1000cc injector clinic injectors and a FiTech surge tank/pump combo that will be going in too.

[Dissembler]

Sweet build, any more detail on the throttle body and where you got that adapter piece?

In works on my own turbo m42 (bottom mount)

Got the throttle body from the wreckers, its a 75mm unit that comes on all Ford 4.6Ls. The adapter is just something I made. I had 1/4" steel plate lying around. Traced the gaskets as a template to make flanges and used the plasma cutter to cut it out. Then took some 3" exhaust pipe, cut it open, welded it to the flanges than made pieces that filled in the gaps. Stock throttle cables works with it too, just have to cut a small slot for the end of it and I made a bracket to support the cable relative to the throttle body. There is a hole drilled in the throttle plate for idle which actually works nearly perfectly. I don't have an idle air controller and it idled around 950rpm.

[Dj Buttchug]

nice carnage op. for those interested in a Tb alternative m50 single plate body plugs right in and all you need is to fabricate an adapter.

[jwal]

I'm interested in that as well. I don't think the M42 TB is good for much past stock. Couldn't an M50/52 TB be used with an adapter?

[downforce22]

Sweet build, any more detail on the throttle body and where you got that adapter piece?

In works on my own turbo m42 (bottom mount)

[varg]

Preignition probably. No idea how loud your exhaust is but the appearance of the car screams "I'm really loud" and you even if you hear it you may be too late. Sure it's a fairly strong engine when everything is right but a couple of enormous cylinder pressure spikes due to preignition will crush that stock bottom end like nothing. Running hard on a track, big turbo, everything in the combustion chambers getting very hot, revving to 7,000rpm, not really a big surprise that it let go.

What was your injector duty cycle at full boost? 42lb seems too small to me. I was running 60lb injectors in my turbo M42, and pushing 18psi (T3/T04E 50 trim).

[Dissembler]

That's incredible! How did a stock M42 survive that?! I'm working on a much more modest build, but I'm also dropping the CR to around 9:1. What's your cooling system setup?

It is a stout little motor, I think if I'd gotten to the dyno before this happened it never would have happened at all but thems the breaks.

So the rad is an E36 mishimoto, I got rid of the stock oil filter, fitted a BAT motorsports take off plate. Remote mounted a pf16 type oil filter and have a 25000btu oil cooler. Everything is mounted as far forward as it can go and the setup is ducted right through the hood (see the big hole in the first pic with car)

[Dissembler]

Thanks for the props! I get a lot of people asking me what I have in it and they are always very surprised to learn its wee little four banger lol

When you say you revised the intake, are you talking about your pre-turbo inlet? Were you always recirculating the crank case breather to your turbo inlet like that in your previous setup too?

Crank breather was always like that. The changes to my intake were the new intercooler and bigger throttle body. The ebay intercooler only had 2" in/out, the new mishimoto has 2.5" in/out. Then the 3" throttle body has an area of 7" vs under 5" for the stock throttle body.

Holy crap two years running 17 psi on that GT3071R?!?! That's a pretty big turbo and a decent amount of air in that engine. I'm impressed it has lasted so long. I personally had detonation issues on my stock M42 with a small T25 turbo on track probably due to intake temperatures and too much ignition timing. But all that seemed to happen to my engine is probably a cracked piston ring, small detonation marks on the pistons, and lots of engine blow by.

So for the first bit of 2016, I only ran 8psi while I figured out VEMS and got the fuel and igniton tables sorted out. My ignition advance is very conservative, only 22deg IIRC. Once I got the engine running good after the first few times out I bumped the boost to 12psi. Winter 2017, I befriended someone who knows a lot more about tuning than I do. We turned the boost up to 17psi and corrected some issues with my maps. I didn't change much after that except play with the waste gate solenoid to get quicker spooling. In total I think I had about 70 or 80 hours of on-track time for 2017.

The engine has never knocked or misfired. I think one of the big factors in it running so well is that it stays very cool. Even on 35C (95F), intake temps would never get over 50C and coolant temps never over 95C. For reference, the s52 would regularly run around 115C.

I'll be able to post some more pictures of various things tomorrow