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05-07-08, 09:35 AM
Ford Racing 4.6L Aluminator Crate Engine - Alumination Determination
http://images.musclemustangfastfords.com/tech/mmfp_0806_alum_02_z+ford_racing_aluminator_crate_e ngine_install+.jpgAdding a power adder to a mod motor seems to be easy these days. Forced induction and nitrous kits are abundant in the marketplace and priced to fit anyone's budget. Out of the box, the manufacturer has perfected the fit, finish, and performance to be repeatable, reliable, and--much of the time--50-state legal. The companies ship a product that, when installed correctly, provides an increase in performance without the hassles of failure or too much difficulty during its installation. As with everything in our hobby, however, a little is good and more is better, and it's much too easy and tempting to up the boost and nitrous hit to levels far greater than the manufacturer has set in the kit.
The current crop of Three-Valve engines seems to be tough, and MM&FF has tortured its fair share of them over the past several years. However, when it comes to the Two-Valve market, the story changes, and the short-block seems quite a bit weaker. It's our opinion that roughly 420-430 rwhp is the safety limit for the venerable stock bottom of the Two-Valve engine series. It can go higher, but that's a stick of dynamite with the fuse lit. We've seen people make upward of 500 rwhp with stock short-blocks, but it's risky, in our opinion. This includes our in-house Project Ice Box, which made 520 rwhp before getting a 300ci stroker engine.
We cram the cylinders with additional fuel and air in order to create a more powerful combustion process. The weakest link is usually found under those hard loads--typically it's the powdered rods that fail first. The rods from Ford aren't the only things to worry about, though. "In addition to the rods, the pistons are weak links in Two-Valve engines," says Mike Dezotell of Dez Racing. The rods or pistons fail long before the crank and block could be a problem.
Over the past six months, we've used Keith Johnson's '00 Mustang GT for a series of tests. It began life as a relatively stock car with a ProCharger P1SC blower, exhaust mods, and a set of Anderson Ford Motorsport F-42 camshafts. In this trim, the car pounded out a respectable 441 rwhp and 413 rwtq. Our first tech article with his car consisted of adding a TFS intake manifold. The result was 454 rwhp and 415 rwtq.
A few months later, we added a set of Fox Lake-ported heads, and power shot up to 484 rwhp and 433 rwtq. The heads really woke up the car, but Dez restrained himself from getting too wild with the tune-up due to the fragile bottom end. Thanks to conservative tuning and a stout fuel system combo from Lethal Performance, Johnson drove the car with 485 rwhp for a few months before bringing it back to the shop for another round of modifications. We can't stress enough the importance of having adequate fuel (quantity and quality) and proper tuning, which guarantees longevity and reliability in a near-500-rwhp combination and stock bottom end.
In this issue, we're replacing the wimpy, stock short-block with Ford Racing Performance Parts' Aluminator--a tough and durable piece--in order to up the power to over 600 rwhp. The Aluminator is FRPP's recently released line of crate engines that are ready to ship and are reasonably priced. They're take-offs on the success of the Terminator engine from the '03-'04 Cobra. Essentially, these engines are similar to the Cobra bullets, but with the addition of the aluminum block rather than a cast-iron one. Despite the lighter-weight block and aluminum material, the Aluminator lineup is built to withstand massive amounts of horsepower, well in excess of what the average street car is looking to achieve.
The Aluminator begins with an aluminum block, saving approximately 65 pounds over cast-iron modular blocks, and is filled with heavy-duty parts. An '03-'04 Cobra steel crank is first to make its way into the aluminum foundation. Then FRPP's engine builders add a set of H-beam steel rods, and forged pistons are dropped into place. Engine displacement is standard 4.6-liter fare, which is 281 ci for those who prefer standard cubic-inch displacement measurement to the metric equivalent.
FRPP offers the Aluminator in many variations to suit the needs of the marketplace. We ordered the short-block version, which has two options--one for Cobra replacement and one for a cast-iron Two-Valve engine replacement. Thanks to our over anxious attitudes, we ordered the Four-Valve replacement engine rather than the Two-Valve one. It isn't a problem; the only difference is how the Two-Valve front engine cover is bolted on. If you make the same mistake as us, you can just get a few dowels to replace some bolts and call it a day. FRPP has a Four-Valve long-block (replacement Terminator piece) listed as being ready to ship, and you can even get an FRPP/Whipple 2.3L blower if you so choose. It's basically a mail-order 700-plus-horsepower combination that's durable and reliable. The Three-Valve-style Aluminator should be ready by the time you read this.
Our installation and subsequent dyno testing took a few days. The engine was yanked, and the Fox Lake-ported heads, TFS intake, cam chains, cam gears, and front-engine dressing were removed and bolted on to the new short-block. A new set of AFM camshafts was added--F-72 cams to be exact. They carry a valve lift of 0.576 inch on both the intake and exhaust lobes. We sealed the powerplant with gaskets, an oil pan and oil-pump pick-up tube, as well as timing and valve covers that we sourced from Imperial Ford in Milford, Massachusetts.
Our first dyno runs after installing the Aluminator short-block were performed with an identical blower combo (P1SC with 3.2 blower pulley). Output jumped by 13 rwhp with the new cams--a nice improvement thanks to more aggressive lobes. Boost peaked at 11 psi; it was merely lightly breathing into the manifold. We decided it was time to swap over to the larger and more efficient D1SC unit from ProCharger. We added the company's new eight-rib pulley conversion as we swapped over the front-engine dressing to the new engine. All testing was accomplished using straight-up 93-octane gasoline from the fossil-fuel giant Exxon.
The D1SC offers both a larger inlet and outlet, as well as a different impeller, but it's based on the same housing as the P1SC, so the unit fits in the stock blower brackets. The AFM Power Pipe fit just fine, despite the larger inlet hole. Knowing the blower offers greater airflow, Dez chose a 3.50-inch blower pulley. It's slightly larger than the 3.20-inch pulley we used on the P1SC, meaning it will have slower impeller speed. Thanks to efficiency, the D1SC will move more air even though it's operating at a slower impeller rpm. Dez ran Johnson's Stang on his in-house DynoJet chassis dyno, and it produced an amazing 596 rwhp at 6,700 rpm. The Auto Meter boost gauge read a rather mild 14 psi--nearly 600 at the tires and the Aluminator was more than capable of holding that type of power. We essentially added 112 rwhp with the larger blower and larger AFM cams.
At this point, Dez concluded that more boost would be better. He added a smaller 3.40-inch pulley to increase blower speed, ultimately increasing boost. A few more runs were made, and the belt kept slipping. Dez felt he needed more time to sort out the idler pulleys, belt size, and the smaller 3.40-inch setup. Naturally, as with almost every other tech article, time was not on our side due to publishing deadlines. Dez slapped the 3.50-inch pulley back on, made some back-up pulls, and worked on the computer tune. A bit more timing--still within the safe range for pump-gas use--yielded 604 rwhp and 492 rwtq.
The Aluminator is one bad dude. We beat it up with countless dyno runs to back up our 600-plus rear-wheel-horsepower reading. "Aluminator engines are ready to ship, and our pricing is very competitive," says Jesse Kershaw of FRPP. He also informed us that the Aluminator is available in short-block form for all 4.6L modular engines and complete long-blocks as a Terminator crate engine. It's perfect for those with a project Stang converting to a Four-Valve combo, or for someone looking to replace the fragile bottom end of their modular-powered Mustang or Ford.
Photo Gallery: Ford Racing 4.6L Aluminator Crate Engine - Alumination Determination - Muscle Mustangs & Fast Fords Magazine (http://www.musclemustangfastfords.com/tech/mmfp_0806_ford_racing_aluminator_crate_engine_inst all)
http://images.musclemustangfastfords.com/tech/mmfp_0806_alum_02_s+ford_racing_aluminator_crate_e ngine_install+.jpghttp://images.musclemustangfastfords.com/tech/mmfp_0806_alum_03_s+ford_racing_aluminator_crate_e ngine_install+.jpghttp://images.musclemustangfastfords.com/tech/mmfp_0806_alum_04_s+ford_racing_aluminator_crate_e ngine_install+.jpghttp://images.musclemustangfastfords.com/tech/mmfp_0806_alum_05_s+ford_racing_aluminator_crate_e ngine_install+.jpghttp://images.musclemustangfastfords.com/tech/mmfp_0806_alum_06_s+ford_racing_aluminator_crate_e ngine_install+.jpg
Read More (http://www.musclemustangfastfords.com/tech/mmfp_0806_ford_racing_aluminator_crate_engine_inst all) | Digg It (http://digg.com/submit?phase=2&url=http://www.musclemustangfastfords.com/tech/mmfp_0806_ford_racing_aluminator_crate_engine_inst all&title=Ford Racing 4.6L Aluminator Crate Engine - Alumination Determination) | Add to del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us/post?url=2&url=http://www.musclemustangfastfords.com/tech/mmfp_0806_ford_racing_aluminator_crate_engine_inst all&title=Ford Racing 4.6L Aluminator Crate Engine - Alumination Determination)
Complete Story... (http://www.musclemustangfastfords.com/tech/mmfp_0806_ford_racing_aluminator_crate_engine_inst all)
http://images.musclemustangfastfords.com/tech/mmfp_0806_alum_02_z+ford_racing_aluminator_crate_e ngine_install+.jpgAdding a power adder to a mod motor seems to be easy these days. Forced induction and nitrous kits are abundant in the marketplace and priced to fit anyone's budget. Out of the box, the manufacturer has perfected the fit, finish, and performance to be repeatable, reliable, and--much of the time--50-state legal. The companies ship a product that, when installed correctly, provides an increase in performance without the hassles of failure or too much difficulty during its installation. As with everything in our hobby, however, a little is good and more is better, and it's much too easy and tempting to up the boost and nitrous hit to levels far greater than the manufacturer has set in the kit.
The current crop of Three-Valve engines seems to be tough, and MM&FF has tortured its fair share of them over the past several years. However, when it comes to the Two-Valve market, the story changes, and the short-block seems quite a bit weaker. It's our opinion that roughly 420-430 rwhp is the safety limit for the venerable stock bottom of the Two-Valve engine series. It can go higher, but that's a stick of dynamite with the fuse lit. We've seen people make upward of 500 rwhp with stock short-blocks, but it's risky, in our opinion. This includes our in-house Project Ice Box, which made 520 rwhp before getting a 300ci stroker engine.
We cram the cylinders with additional fuel and air in order to create a more powerful combustion process. The weakest link is usually found under those hard loads--typically it's the powdered rods that fail first. The rods from Ford aren't the only things to worry about, though. "In addition to the rods, the pistons are weak links in Two-Valve engines," says Mike Dezotell of Dez Racing. The rods or pistons fail long before the crank and block could be a problem.
Over the past six months, we've used Keith Johnson's '00 Mustang GT for a series of tests. It began life as a relatively stock car with a ProCharger P1SC blower, exhaust mods, and a set of Anderson Ford Motorsport F-42 camshafts. In this trim, the car pounded out a respectable 441 rwhp and 413 rwtq. Our first tech article with his car consisted of adding a TFS intake manifold. The result was 454 rwhp and 415 rwtq.
A few months later, we added a set of Fox Lake-ported heads, and power shot up to 484 rwhp and 433 rwtq. The heads really woke up the car, but Dez restrained himself from getting too wild with the tune-up due to the fragile bottom end. Thanks to conservative tuning and a stout fuel system combo from Lethal Performance, Johnson drove the car with 485 rwhp for a few months before bringing it back to the shop for another round of modifications. We can't stress enough the importance of having adequate fuel (quantity and quality) and proper tuning, which guarantees longevity and reliability in a near-500-rwhp combination and stock bottom end.
In this issue, we're replacing the wimpy, stock short-block with Ford Racing Performance Parts' Aluminator--a tough and durable piece--in order to up the power to over 600 rwhp. The Aluminator is FRPP's recently released line of crate engines that are ready to ship and are reasonably priced. They're take-offs on the success of the Terminator engine from the '03-'04 Cobra. Essentially, these engines are similar to the Cobra bullets, but with the addition of the aluminum block rather than a cast-iron one. Despite the lighter-weight block and aluminum material, the Aluminator lineup is built to withstand massive amounts of horsepower, well in excess of what the average street car is looking to achieve.
The Aluminator begins with an aluminum block, saving approximately 65 pounds over cast-iron modular blocks, and is filled with heavy-duty parts. An '03-'04 Cobra steel crank is first to make its way into the aluminum foundation. Then FRPP's engine builders add a set of H-beam steel rods, and forged pistons are dropped into place. Engine displacement is standard 4.6-liter fare, which is 281 ci for those who prefer standard cubic-inch displacement measurement to the metric equivalent.
FRPP offers the Aluminator in many variations to suit the needs of the marketplace. We ordered the short-block version, which has two options--one for Cobra replacement and one for a cast-iron Two-Valve engine replacement. Thanks to our over anxious attitudes, we ordered the Four-Valve replacement engine rather than the Two-Valve one. It isn't a problem; the only difference is how the Two-Valve front engine cover is bolted on. If you make the same mistake as us, you can just get a few dowels to replace some bolts and call it a day. FRPP has a Four-Valve long-block (replacement Terminator piece) listed as being ready to ship, and you can even get an FRPP/Whipple 2.3L blower if you so choose. It's basically a mail-order 700-plus-horsepower combination that's durable and reliable. The Three-Valve-style Aluminator should be ready by the time you read this.
Our installation and subsequent dyno testing took a few days. The engine was yanked, and the Fox Lake-ported heads, TFS intake, cam chains, cam gears, and front-engine dressing were removed and bolted on to the new short-block. A new set of AFM camshafts was added--F-72 cams to be exact. They carry a valve lift of 0.576 inch on both the intake and exhaust lobes. We sealed the powerplant with gaskets, an oil pan and oil-pump pick-up tube, as well as timing and valve covers that we sourced from Imperial Ford in Milford, Massachusetts.
Our first dyno runs after installing the Aluminator short-block were performed with an identical blower combo (P1SC with 3.2 blower pulley). Output jumped by 13 rwhp with the new cams--a nice improvement thanks to more aggressive lobes. Boost peaked at 11 psi; it was merely lightly breathing into the manifold. We decided it was time to swap over to the larger and more efficient D1SC unit from ProCharger. We added the company's new eight-rib pulley conversion as we swapped over the front-engine dressing to the new engine. All testing was accomplished using straight-up 93-octane gasoline from the fossil-fuel giant Exxon.
The D1SC offers both a larger inlet and outlet, as well as a different impeller, but it's based on the same housing as the P1SC, so the unit fits in the stock blower brackets. The AFM Power Pipe fit just fine, despite the larger inlet hole. Knowing the blower offers greater airflow, Dez chose a 3.50-inch blower pulley. It's slightly larger than the 3.20-inch pulley we used on the P1SC, meaning it will have slower impeller speed. Thanks to efficiency, the D1SC will move more air even though it's operating at a slower impeller rpm. Dez ran Johnson's Stang on his in-house DynoJet chassis dyno, and it produced an amazing 596 rwhp at 6,700 rpm. The Auto Meter boost gauge read a rather mild 14 psi--nearly 600 at the tires and the Aluminator was more than capable of holding that type of power. We essentially added 112 rwhp with the larger blower and larger AFM cams.
At this point, Dez concluded that more boost would be better. He added a smaller 3.40-inch pulley to increase blower speed, ultimately increasing boost. A few more runs were made, and the belt kept slipping. Dez felt he needed more time to sort out the idler pulleys, belt size, and the smaller 3.40-inch setup. Naturally, as with almost every other tech article, time was not on our side due to publishing deadlines. Dez slapped the 3.50-inch pulley back on, made some back-up pulls, and worked on the computer tune. A bit more timing--still within the safe range for pump-gas use--yielded 604 rwhp and 492 rwtq.
The Aluminator is one bad dude. We beat it up with countless dyno runs to back up our 600-plus rear-wheel-horsepower reading. "Aluminator engines are ready to ship, and our pricing is very competitive," says Jesse Kershaw of FRPP. He also informed us that the Aluminator is available in short-block form for all 4.6L modular engines and complete long-blocks as a Terminator crate engine. It's perfect for those with a project Stang converting to a Four-Valve combo, or for someone looking to replace the fragile bottom end of their modular-powered Mustang or Ford.
Photo Gallery: Ford Racing 4.6L Aluminator Crate Engine - Alumination Determination - Muscle Mustangs & Fast Fords Magazine (http://www.musclemustangfastfords.com/tech/mmfp_0806_ford_racing_aluminator_crate_engine_inst all)
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Complete Story... (http://www.musclemustangfastfords.com/tech/mmfp_0806_ford_racing_aluminator_crate_engine_inst all)