1. Home 14.
 July 10th
2. Motor Installation 15.
 Aug 5th (almost done!)
3. Painting the Interior 16.
 October 2nd
4. Rewiring the Gauges 17.
 November 4th
5. Test Drive! 18.
 January 1st
6. Intercooler Fabrication 19.
 February 15th
7. June 18th 20.
 July 14th
8. June 23rd 21.
 October 23rd
9. January 26th Latest Update>>> 22.
 January 7th 2003
10. February 6th
 
11.
 April 25th
 
12.
 May 2nd

13.
 June 2nd
Junk Page



Well, it's another month (or two) and here I am still loving my hobby. Four Banger is looking good and I have just bought some Weld Wheels to replace the nasty 10 hole stockers. I was compounding the paint and got all the way around and stopped at the front fender. I'll finish it soon. Nice wheels huh? Image quality is kinda lacking lately. The digital cam I've used for years is getting old. I can't wait to get a video camera so I can get some video of this thing. Can you say IN CAR CAM? hehe
Side View

I have been making many plans for a new fuel system and have started work on a new (old) ENGINE!!! This one is going to be a monster. I have brought my spare engine up to my new house and have started to strip it down. Although it was in perfect shape and ran great, I had to sacrifice it to the HP gods. The new block is going to be bored, decked and freshened up.
New Engine

I took the turbo and cylinder head off and am planning on selling them. Also planning on selling the crank rods and forged turbo pistons. All i'm going to need is the block. Thanks to my new job, I'm now able to buy things! Imagine that! hehe. I want to stroke this motor out to about 2600cc's. I plan to use an aluminum flywheel and "good" rods. I also want to weld in some oil pan baffles to help keep the oil in the pan and not on the crank.


I've pretty much lost my mind with this car. It's been so fun and the motor has run for so long, I figured that I would do things 100 times better,, well, at least try for 100 times more HP! So this is my latest project. I am going to fit a Volvo 16 valve twin cam, aluminum head to my Ford 2.3 turbo block. Sound crazy enough? Good. This head has 4 valves per cylinder and it's spark plug is in the center of the combustion chamber. (Hemi) This thing is gona be bad to the bone. It will however, take some machining and some moderate aluminum welding. This head isn't a bolt on kinda thing. But the head bolts line up and the cylinders are pretty close to the Ford 2.3 design. It's GOING to work! I promise you. I just have to stay away from the "Naysayers"! (they really bring ya down if you let em)
I bought the head and all the accessories from a real cool dude. Thanks William! You rule.
Here's a pic of the new head. The "Volvo" will be removed from the valve cover with a mill.
New Cylinder Head


Here is the lower part of the new Volvo head mounted on my new block. Head bolts are in and I am assessing what has to be done to further my project. You can see the cam tower in the distance on the left hand side of the pic.
Base cylinder head mounted on new block

The exhaust ports on the Volvo head are killer. I do have some porting to do to this head, but my main concern is getting it to seal all the oil and water passages up first. It's so cool to look at this engine now with 16 valves sticking out of it. LOL,, drool.
All 16 valves!


Here you can see the upper section of the cylinder head placed in position. Twin cam 16 valve hemi head, here I come!!!
Cam tower installed


Here's the front view with no cam gears on.
Front view

Here is the head with everything on it except the belt tensioners. The tensioners are going to be the least of my problems.
Cam Pulleys and Valve cover on


Mounted

Well here is my nightmare/dream. LOL. It looks like it belongs on that block. Im going to have fun doing this one. It might cost a little cash to get the welding done and I know I'll have to buy new valves and springs. But for the amount of money that Esslinger is charging for their cylinder head, I could have someone build me a custom block!!! Those people are SICK! $2,500 to $5,000 dollars for a SINGLE cylinder head for the Ford 2.3!!! Are people really expected to buy it from them???
Well I say hell no! I'm gona make this Volvo head work and I'm going to save a ton of money doing it this way. This is the way of the hot rodder. Granted, you can't find everything you need in the junkyard, but of the things that you can find and make work, there in lurks the art of the craftsman.
Side view of everything on

Well, wish me luck. I know I'm going to need it. I know in my heart that this is going to work. I just have to have patience. After I get out of debt, which should be next month, I'm purchasing a Tec3 fuel injection computer for FourBanger. I've been wanting one for years and now I can afford it. I hope to learn how to use it on my current combo. When I get this project done, I should be a jedi master of tuning. LOL, I hope!

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