Yet another SPI knocking -- Will Fix It!

[LugNut]

Thanks -- will try Autozone for the manual.

Rebuilt head, with new and improved seats, on order. Will drop the oil pan after getting the head off, to see what's up in there!

Exhaust manifold disconnected, but one stud in the center won't come out all the way (odd -- screws out easily, then seizes); have it soaking with WD-40. Now glad I had bought that Torx socket set not too long ago.

EGR valve and pipe out. Only one little flake of shiny metal in it, but might have come from the disintegrated tube-to-exhaust manifold gasket.

Double-checked all the lifters -- work fine.

Fuel injectors are resisting removal; swollen o-rings I'd guess. Fuel injector rail and hose look pristine, with Ford tag, so were likely replaced recently.

[jmcrides03]

just pull the 2 bolts where the fuel rail mounts to the manifold then grab ahold of the rail and give it a good pull and try and rock the injectors back and forth in the manifold a little bit and it should pop out. if you think youll get to it tonight i can go find my haynes manual and see what it says for head removal

[LugNut]

Yep, twisting them, vertically, had them going before they got stuck. A search here yielded a suggestion of using WD-40. I gave each a goodly shot, and after ten minutes or so of soaking, came back and twisted them some more. They worked their way out nicely! After wiping off the injectors I now have the whole rail assembly pulled out of the way, but covered in a clean plastic newspaper delivery bag for safe keeping. Surprising that I didn't need to discharge the fuel pressure!

Then the timing belt came off -- interesting eccentric/cam design to the tensioner.

Then after removing the four hold-down bolts, the throttle body wouldn't budge. A wood chisel and a whack separated its stuck gasket.

Then, looked straight down the huge intake manifold ... and the "oh sh**" moment, large, shiny silverish chunks of metal in the bottom.

Pulled the very long but small headed intake to block bolts, and have the intake hanging. Used a piece of wire to help support the exhaust, via the power steering pump bracket.

Head almost off, probably after dinner. Looking down the #1 and #4 spark plug holes showed the very carboned but oily tops of their pistons, and no shiny stuff.

[LugNut]

One of the (manual) shifter cables is shredded, where it passed under the EGR valve. Is this a common problem point? Easy to replace, especially with the engine apart/out?

[jmcrides03]

im sure youll find torn up pistons at the least if its been ran. what you see in the intake may be the valve seat, but until the heads off itll be hard to know what other damage there may be. post pics if ya can. hopefully its saveable. that cable should be a easy fix with eveything apart you should have room to run a new one i would think

[LugNut]

And it is the #3, yes #3 cylinder!

Yes, I have pics and will post when I am allowed to. Need 25 posts, being a newbie on this site.

Cylinders are all fine though, but both the head and piston in #3 are toast. Not nearly as bad as some pics I've seen, due to the engine not being run much after the seat dropped, but not as mild as the best case scenario.

So rebuilding the short block is in order. I'm likely to pull the block out instead of trying to work from underneath. That will also allow me to take the block to my machine shop for boiling out and honing, and checking for cracks.

I'll need a "new" piston and rod. The piston's a partial dome-top design -- if you have a spare OEM SPI (~2001) piston/rod (stock bore) in perfect shape, please PM me with your price (shipped to KS) and e-mail address so that I can send you a pic of my piston tops, for comparison.

After a long battle, a shower and a tube of Neosporin are in order.

[jmcrides03]

pm mikebontoft i think he dicided to part out his spi motor instead of selling it to be rebuilt. i know hes not keeping the spi hes going v8 and i have his trans in my bedroom lol

[mikebontoft]

yup I got em..... lemme work on a price. You'll need the rod with it too as they normally bend them. And the bore needs a slight hone on it (usually)

[LugNut]

Great! These forums are wonderful -- I'm a member of five different ones now, I think.

Yes, piston and rod. I'll be putting new rings and bearings throughout.

When you can, please post (or somehow send me?) a pic of the top of the piston. I'm seeing different piston-tops in various places, including eBay.

[mikebontoft]

yeah I'll post one right now:

number 3 is the second from the left, I don't think any metal even hit that one :). I'll clean it up, make it look pretty new though since I still have to remove it. I'll do that tomorrow.


close up of the bad piston but that should help for the pattern. It's out of an 05/2002 model.