Honey Badger's Completely Off-the-Rails Race Car Build and Track Adventure Thread

[honeybadger]

Thanks for the input how long do you hope this motor will last ideally.

Hoping for 60-80 hours out of this one-so hopefully 2-3 years.

how long did it take for Tim to finish your motor?

wondering what to expect for mine.

A hair under 5 months including shipping - bit longer than normal due to parts delays.

Im digging the stacks on the one left year

Agreed. Stacks would be awesome on a coyote!

What was the RGR fiasco? thinking of using them for my build

Story time - they did the heads first time around. Got the heads back and was less than impressed at the work - some issues with things not being de-burred and their porting wasn't very thorough. When I spoke to them about it, they said that the CNC program doesn't always touch every wall because it the actual port size might not need every part touched to meet the size of the CNC-porting program (I'm probably misusing terminology here, but hopefully you get the idea). To me, that just sounds lazy and either things weren't setup correctly when the program was run or it's not porting enough. I also never got any paper work of what valves, springs, retainers, etc. were used and no flow numbers on delivery.

They tried to make it right and Justin at JPC was accommodating - his shop paid to ship them back to RGR and have them de-burred. His customer service was great.

But then the engine burned oil. They claimed it was the piston rings. I found oil pooling on top of the valves in the intake runners, so no idea how that's possible. When I sent Tim at MPR my long block, he said that when he pulled 12 h/g vacuum on the heads, oil leaked through the valve guides. Turns out the valves stems were slightly undersized for the guides. He also felt like they used the wrong springs, which is why I eventually had piston to valve contact.

Here's some info on the heads when I got them back. https://www.mustang6g.com/forums/threads/gt350-engine-refresh-time.115139/post-2504402

Ultimately, I was unimpressed and the work caused a lot of heartache.

 

[shogun32]

I also never got any paper work of what valves, springs, retainers, etc. were used and no flow numbers on delivery.

that alone is despicable.

The CNC porting however is totally plausible. Depending on the path the cutter takes and the variances in the original casting, the cutter 'missing' spots is to be expected. Now whether or not said porting path yields optimal flow is a whole different conversation.

 

[honeybadger]

that alone is despicable.

The CNC porting however is totally plausible. Depending on the path the cutter takes and the variances in the original casting, the cutter 'missing' spots is to be expected. Now whether or not said porting path yields optimal flow is a whole different conversation.

I was pretty disappointed that their program wasn't aggressive enough to get every bit, though. I mean, the OEM heads are CNC ported from the factory. Every other top CNC-porting shop I've seen has better results. I know Tim gets 30-40 more CFM out of them than the number RGR sent me a week after I got my heads back. RPG also does great porting.

 

[honeybadger]

Oh ya. I don’t make empty threats against myself

 

[Vettel-ish]

Kevin is back in the game!!!

 

[honeybadger]

Made a few tweaks to prep before dropping the engine back in the car.

First, I swapped out the UPR billet valve cover to AN fitting for my peterson breather. It just never sealed the way I wanted with the AL GT500 covers. Worked great on the plastic ones, weirdly. Could be the heavier duty hose I'm using now just added stress. Either way, I had an aluminum bung welded on to both covers. Nice and stable now.

Second, by far the most time-consuming part to installing/removing the motor was the damn exhaust removal. The ARH system uses all slip joints and they can be a REAL pain to break loose due to the extreme heat cycles. Added some v-bands at the collectors that should make it as easy as pie. Nice!

Hopefully we'll be starting tomorrow or Saturday. Fingers crossed!

 

[tracktardicus]

Boner time.

 

[honeybadger]

Motor is in the car and ready to go. Unfortunately I’m without a base tune since the tuner backed out last minute due to the VCT deletes.

Well, at least I’m ready once I figure out next steps.

 

[BeastAR]

Awesome updates! Sucks to hear about the tuner.... So because you deleted VCT, he doesn't want to tune the motor anymore?

Covers look great installed, btw.

 

[honeybadger]

Awesome updates! Sucks to hear about the tuner.... So because you deleted VCT, he doesn't want to tune the motor anymore?

Covers look great installed, btw.

Correct. It was a pretty head scratching situation (putting it nicely). We had been speaking for 2 months about it and they backed out last minute. I’m pretty frustrated.

But we’ll get it taken care of one or another.

 

[honeybadger]

Well, some good news. Rob at Palm Beach Dyno is on board, so hopefully we'll get moving again. Looks like in addition to the nGauge going away, everyone is moving away from SCT as well. Got a new HP Tuners RTD coming. As always, going to be nice and stress free right up until COTA

 

[BeastAR]

Glad you got this resolved. Can wait to see some picture of you competing again...

 

[honeybadger]

Oh yeah. Finally! About 2 mins into the first start.

Headphones will really help hear how deep that tone really is. Those new high compression pistons have a serious bark to them

 

[Lorne34]

Reminds me of this scene... maybe years from now your car will be the last of the V8 Interceptors!...
I know who to call when my engine needs to be redone!.

 

[dpAtlanta]

Your were spot on about the headphones.... that sounds awesome, and it's only idling ...!!!!!