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The TICK build thread

56K views 253 replies 40 participants last post by  UnFocusedST 
#1 · (Edited)
I am starting my build thread approximately 1 year from the date of the incident. My car is a 2001 ZX3, and has been so named by family and friends as the "TICK".

1 year ago I went through my normal process of making sure my car would pass Utah safety and emissions. Part of this was to get the EGR working as it had been fine due to a Tune but visual inspections have increased in effectiveness and was forced to confront it last year. After hooking up the EGR some pipes were hot now where were not previously causing the 0 AWG wire ran for the starter and the alternator (routed through the intake runners and coincidentally had been resting against the metal tube between the EGR and the intake manifold). With the EGR hooked up and not realizing this about halfway to work the car lost power and started to have smoke come out from under the hood.

Pulled over and tried starting it again first thing and it would start but then instantly die unless the throttle was pushed in. Still smoking now more I opened the hood to see flames... was able to blow them out and disconnect power but damage had been done. My insurance has road side assistance but requires it to go to a dealer, the dealer was not sure what might have gone wrong (even after me telling them exactly what happened and what needed fixed).

After realizing that the dealership was not the way to go I was able to get it towed home. after doing compression tests it was evident that I may have had also a head gasket that had gone. Either way I found that this was a perfect time to do the rebuild that I have always wanted.

What is Currently Done:
Koni Sport suspension
SVT Front Brakes
SVT Exhaust Header (wrapped w/ SVT CAT & Flex)
Magnaflow 2.5" SS CAT Back (no resonator)
Focus-Sport Cool-Flo Intake (no longer ITG filter)
65mm Focus Cental TB
Focus-Sport Tune
Steada Short through shifter
F2 turn key transmission with 4.10 gear final drive
Focus Sport Aluminum Flywheel
Pro Luk Gold Clutch
VF engineering Rear "Dog bone" mount
Eibach sway bars (front and rear)
Focus Sport strut tower braces (front and rear)
MOOG tie rod ends (from a 2007) and sway bar end links

What I am doing now:
Eagle H-Beam Rods
JE 85.5mm 9.0:1 pistons
Clevite 77 P series Rod bearings
Sealed Power Main bearings
ARP Main and head studs
C-F-M High RPM Oil Pump
Adjustable Cam Gears
SVT high flow CAT from C-F-M (Street version) & larger flex pipe

What I will be doing:
After I get the car up and running with the built bottom end the top end will be addressed
Ford Racing head
Stage 2 CAMS
3" Trubends cat back exhaust
Quaife Limited Slip Diff
Stage 3 or 4 clutch

What I will do once I get $$ for Turbo install:
Get what ever is needed for a goal of 300-325 HP

All Pictures taken will be uploaded to Photobucket ( http://s603.photobucket.com/albums/tt117/Magus2727/Focus Rebuild/?start=all ) and select pictures will be direct linked to this build thread.


So to start this build out came the motor and the transmission.





After removing everything and taking as many pictures as I could so I could remember where everything was I realized even though I had graduated and working full time now, I did not have the increase in extra cash I was expecting for for most of 2011 I was cleaning the bolts one by one with a Dremmal and a SS wire wheel. Tax returns allowed the work to begin.



I was able to get JE Pistons and Eagle H-Beam rods from C-F-M and also then get the engine work done, high speed balance of the crank (along with a polish).



I have 85.5mm pistons for a 9.0:1 compression, figured that this was going to be the only time i was going to build this up so was going to do it right and go big or go home. [:)]





I am planing on going FI with this for a Turbo, but at the moment as its getting built as funds come in the goal is to get it up and running built for use of a turbo and then add the turbo approx 1 year down the road.

Over Memorial day weekend I was able to install ARP Mains



and get the crank shaft installed



i have approx 0.002" of radial clearance between the bearings (used Sealed Power bearings, Clevite no longer makes the P series).

I also did not like the look of the motor having the bad peeling black paint (is it paint?) so after cleaning the block further and in more detail I got the POR-15 engine enamel paint kit for a Ford Corporate Blue color. I also got that painted over Memorial Day weekend.





The pistons will be installed after triple checking the end gap again and clean everything up... I have a half jug of royal purple 5W-20 which I will be using to lube the pistons during install.




UPDATE 6/1/2012:

Pistons have been installed, Thats the last of the new parts I have. Next will be getting the bottom end put back together after I get the C-F-M oil pump once it comes back into stock...


Ring End Gaps:

Piston #1 -- Piston #2 -- Piston #3 -- Piston #4​
Top Comp Ring ------ 0.016" ---- 0.015" ---- 0.015" ---- 0.016"
Bottom Comp Ring --- 0.018" ---- 0.018" ---- 0.017" ---- 0.018"
Top Oil Ring --------- 0.018" ---- 0.018" ---- 0.018" ---- 0.020"
Bottom Oil Ring ------ 0.020" ---- 0.020" ---- 0.020" ---- 0.020"









 
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#2 ·
Saved For Updates
 
#3 ·
Saved For Updates 2
 
#6 ·
Its a cervinis front bumper... it needs to be completely replaced high curbs and college driving have not been happy to it...
 
#10 ·
Ha.. I plan on 350HP max (for now...) i don't think I will need billet mains any time soon.

For the windage tray do you usually also apply a bead of black RTV or is the gasket sufficient?
 
#12 ·
How many versions of the zetec block castings were there??? Just the normal and the SVT? I am finding it fairly difficult to locate some of the smaller small parts like the righjt size freeze plugs (my block only has a total of 2 expansion plugs, the SVT Zetec bloc appears to have 6...). The oil pick up gasket that came in the Fel-Pro lower gasket kit is no where close to the right gasket.

Wonder if I have a rouge block or not.
 
#15 ·
Name that gasket

I got the Fel-Pro lower gasket kit from C-F-M I have already installed the rear main (along with its gasket)



I have also identified in the above image (from right to left) the PCV/oil seperator gasket, oil pick up gasket, front main seal, oil pump gasket.

I have not gotten to the point on using the other 4 gaskets. I am guessing that the large paper gasket is for the water pump. This remains the large black and small brown rubber o-rings and the ridged white plastic o-ring.

Also in regards to the oil pick up. Right now there is a soft green gasket recessed in the top of the tube, this is the gasket I was expecting in the kit... do I remove this gasket and use only the full paper gasket?

Thanks!!
 
#16 ·
Well made some progress this weekend. Got some sensors installed on the block, got the second freeze plug installed, have the rear main seal on. I also worked on the SVT exhaust Manifold and cut off the tabs for the heat shield and ground them down.



The big hole is from removing this pipe...



Trust an exhaust shop to weld in a pipe for an EGR and have it stick in the exhaust runner 1" and be a huge obstruction. I am going to get a piece of 1/8" stainless steel stock bar and heat it up cherry red and bend it to a nice little patch. Then take it to a weld shop who knows what there doing put a patch on and then put on a EGR bung taken from a stock manifold. Like the picture I found below...

 
#17 ·
Did some work this weekend and did a fit check of the EGR tubes that picked up last week.

Painted the Exhaust to EGR valve tube in high temp black paint after prep. And painted the coil pack / bracket using POR-15.





However have one problem... the EGR tube does not quite fit as I thought it would with the SVT header. Guess the header still comes further out which pushes out the tube it self.



Should I cut the tab off the EGR tube? Sucks that I painted and did the fit check after it was all painted and now might cut a tab off...
 
#20 ·
dont cut the tab. if anything go thethe hardware store and get a stainless sleeve and a long enough bolt that will fit for now. when it come time for the intake manifold you may ahve to adjust things again for the egr tube.
 
#21 ·
Thanks for the suggestion, i was thinking of doing that, not sure what you mean by "when it comes time for the intake manifold" I had everything all mocked up, basically reassembled the whole top end of the motor for the fit check... are you referring to if I remove the factory intake and go with an aftermarket? Will pick that stuff up when I am at the hardware store finding the correct fitting for the EGR bung. I thought that it would be good to keep as any attachment even with a sleeve would provide some heat sinking, also don't want to worry about touching up the paint.
 
#23 ·
Yes... long story short I hate Utah emissions and wish I was back in Michigan. I need the EGR to work a few days out if the year were I will remove the block off plate and tune to stock and let the computer know there is EGR get it ODB2 tested and then convert it back...
 
#24 ·
Ah I understand. I was planning on doing the same thing but tried passing with out it and it worked. I guess I'm one of the lucky ones who can pass with a tune. Guess it's much better you thinking ahead about it than finding out later you need to add a egr once it's all installed.
 
#25 ·
Well guess this is as good of a place as any to say why... Don't read if you don't like novels...

Got the car from Boston had it in Michigan, no emissions or safety inspections of any kind. Was going to school out west and it came down to either paying out of state tuition or transfer over to Utah plates and all and become a resident... so to save over $20k a year i switched over.

First year it was a pass as they only do safety and emission inspections on a every other model year for the first 6 or so years so first year was fine. second year ran into problems and tried resetting the computer but no dice. got a xCal2 and a tune from FocusSport.

Worked fine till what now 3 years ago... now needing inspection every year on safety and emissions i went into a shop that I did not have problems with before. However they though my car was a new model and a Duatec which i guess has two cats on it. and since mine only had a single (SVT conversion) cat the flagged my car and failed it. Note it does not need to be CARB or anything it just needs to keep the same number of cats. but because they flagged it they could not retest it and had to be done by the Utah environmental air quality people. Their test came back perfect except for one flaw... the Tune i got just "disabled" the EGR instead of reporting a false reading that all is well.

As they where looking as a more detailed print out sheet they saw this and said.. wait a second this has EGR why is it not reporting. They looked up in a data base (love big brother....) of all my past history of emission testing. They saw that it was not reported on all the tests and said that i need to get that fixed. I knew why it was what it was but guess i played dumb. The work around was if I spent over $300 or so trying to fix it I could by pass it one year but HAD to get it fixed the next year.

So I ordered a new SVT Exhaust manifold (after trying to patch up the old one but after failed welding was a complete lost) and had a shop install it (the thing that irked me was that a shop had to do it to document that work and $ was spent. Michigan dropped emission because of this and shops just trying to pull money of out peoples pockets). The shop put in a "tube" which they said you could connect to the cut EGR tube by means of a high temp silicone tube... needless to say that did not work and I have silicon coating my whole intake and it became very brittle and i ended up just capping it off not using the EGR. Oh and I also had the dealership install a new EGR valve and sensor...

After that I got a pass for 1 year and come may of 2011 I started to work on fixing it (needed to get it emission passed by the end of the month). Well I worked up a real fix of a stainless steel tube bent with some exhaust patch to seal up the ends. and got new tires and was just putting miles on the reflashed computer to get everything up and going.

This is where the rebuild started. Months before getting the EGR working I upgraded all the power wire and happened to route the starter though the intake such that the positive power wire was resting against the EGR tube from the valve to the intake. well after hooking up the EGR correctly it now was hot and melted the insulating material on power wire and shorting. This caused a short and small engine fire got everything off with minimal damage.

The car would no longer start and run, would crank over still but die seconds later, would only stay on if the gas. My then auto insurance would only tow to a dealership and they said they wanted $500+ just to diagnose it (even after I told them the initial cause). I said no and got it tow strapped home and started work. found out that the compression was all over the place varying by more than 20 psi between pistons and low 70psi range... Thus my build thread.
 
#26 ·
Well its been a while since I was able to do anything on the motor since I am still waiting on a high RPM oil pump from C-F-M... but I was able to get a 9 pin D connector for the Xcal2 so I can hook up and datalog an O2 sensor for tuning with top.
 
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