F40 Engine Rebuild - Don't try this at home!

Jon,
If you don't mind my asking, what caused the problem?

Tom

 

It's amazing how much the f-40 engine and rear frame have in common with the 3x8 series. Looking at just the block and heads, I would swear it was a 308/328 block and head. The rear frame of the f-40 where the engine mounts looks just like the 328's

 

Thanks Jon. But why did the lining wear off those three sleeves? Was it a matter of miles? Is this to be expected on a F-40 ? Just curious.

 

By far one of the best "how to" post yet on the F40 engine. Many people think they can buy these cars and do their own repair work. Not so as once can see from the pictures these engines require proper disassembly as well as proper procedures to insure that the new parts are installed properly and in some case in the proper order. High tech engine blocks require proper temperatures to install different metals like engine sleeves. Cool the sleeve, heat the block and the install will go like it should. Only someome who has done this before will know the correct amount of heat to use.

My wife was always mad when she would open the freezer and find engine parts in it!! She finally bought me my own fridge for the garage.

Question: Would there be any advantage in porting and polishing the cylinder heads while they are out?

 

Jon, I'm sorry to hear you had to go through this engine rebuilding exercise. I hope you get back on the road soon. I tell ya, I really feel your pain - my 355 just went through the same thing, full engine rebuild, top to bottom.

I'm not sure of ever hearing something this common for ANY other car marque, so WHY do these "great" cars need engine rebuilds in under 20k miles?

 

Thanks for the pics! My F40 photo collection just became complete and perfect. The most amazing photos I have ever seen....what a rare sight.

 

Rob, you should be preparing the newsletter about now. I nominate this for thread of the month!

 

its ccrazzzzzzineeesssssssss.

 

I'm surprised you have this problem. In my F40 experience, which is about a dozen different cars, they do seem to foul their spark plugs if "faffed" about with..ie in showrooms and/or start stop all the time.

If you then drive with fouled plugs and a misfire you could wash the bores which I suspect your problem is, so double check your plugs, (fit new of course, and NGK are better than Champion in my experience.)

Also, double check your injectors for clean spray and non leakage, as this could have contributed to the bore washing.

Always let the engine run at idle for at least one cooling fan cycle before turning off after a hard run, and change the oil regularly.

And NEVER give the engine a blip before shutting off, I see guys do it...they just don't get it....that gives the turbos a big spin up, then you deprive them of their oil feed!

 

What a perfect post...You're the "post" man of the month for sure !
We all learned something from your pain. Glad that you have found the right folks to do the job.
On my side, no trouble yet, I'm VERY carefull with heating properlly and cooling down after each run. That's very important with turbo engine.
John's F40 has tons of miles but only a turbo failure over the time. Mine, only cames seals...LOL.
I hope that you'll be back soon on the road and still enjoying that great car. Remember to get the oil at 190/200 before going over 3500rpm and let idle after ANY type of run.
take care and thanks again for such a detail post
Roland
F40LM

 

Turbochargers spin at awesome rpms. They require oil to cool their center bearings. This is why many factory turbocharged diesels have timers that allow the engines to idle AFTER you turn the key off for anywhere between 1 to 9 minutes. This allows the turbos to cool down and the oil in the entire system also cools down. Heat is a killer to anything that "turns". Just a few degrees of heat over the recommended temperature of the bearings is ruin. This is why the computer must vary the engine timing so that there is not too much heat created as this too will cook the turbos themselves. Factories and engineers spend countless hours designing cooling ducts to deflect air, moving air that assists in this cooling.

The current F1 engines all have a button on the wheel that causes a pressured container of oil to add more oil to the dry sump tank so that the car can continue to run. This system gave the Honda engineers alot ot trouble this year until they figured out that the placement of the spare tank was also getting too hot and when released it was causing air cavatation or foaming thus resulting in no oil reaching the tank. That is why startup and shut down procedures are so important to any turbo engine.

 

Post of the month!

Great pics - Enjoyed them very much.

 

An outstanding post. Keep the info flowing.

Ferrarifixer, do you know off hand the NGK plug you recommend for the F40?

Also, after I had my injectors removed, and cleaned, my F40 has never run better. Huge improvement. Clogged injectors was the genesis of several problems.

 

I'm under contract with NGK, I get my plugs from them directly.
PM me and I'll give you the number that I use in the LM. I do change only once a year after the main Winter check up. Never had to do a change during the season.
Roland
F40LM

 

Definately upgrade the turbo's while your in there John!

Geat post this shoudl be a wake up call to all car owners about potential damage you can do when you dont allow your car to warm up before you "rev the motor" to show off. Figure on a normal factory motor oil temps should be atleast 150 degrees before you take the car over 3000 rpm. Boosting on a cold motor is horrible for the engine.

Glad you'll be at 100% when is the date of completion you think?

 

If you are putting OEM internals back into the block that already failed from stock turbos I wonder if putting bigger turbos on is advisable. I know it doesn't seem like your failure was from detonation or melting but just the fact that it "wore" through gives me pause. Then again maybe it's a common upgrade with proven results. I'll be the first to admit that I don't know anything about your motor.

I bet you could pick up 25-50 hp in a good port job by somebody that knows those heads. I don't know how adaptable your stock computer is with regards your VE curve changing from the port work though. Rule of thumb is all the power's is in the head on turbo cars.

I don't know how mod friendly WWOC is so it might be a moot point. The motor also might be put back together already by now so yeat another point of moot.

As far as cool down goes, just don't boost on the last 5-10 minutes home and that's your cool down.

Good luck with everything!

PS: I just re-read that and noticed "I don't know" anything

 

I'm with RogerM on this one. You should look into getting something better on those liners and pistons. Speaking as a fellow turbo owner (Not F40) who has over 140k on my motor and turbo I can offer some advice from myself and also others.

Cool down. As been said here always allow for cool down. But how much? I see way to many turbo owners over use turbo timers. If you're just driving about and haven't really been in the boost and pop into the 7-11 for a quick soda you don't need to cool the turbos. Now if you've been on the highway for a good few minutes and do the same, yes you need to let the car idle for 30sec (minimum) to 2 minutes. Always use synthetic oil (Mobil One is my choice).

Start up. Very simple here. Start it up, drive it. Don't boost the engine until it's warm! That's what boost gauges are for.

If you still have time think about getting those pistons ceramic coated. It'll help reduce hot spots and thus pre-detonation. Pre-detonation kills more turbo engines than boost!

Also make sure those NGK plugs Roland's getting you are the proper temp. Typically plugs used for high RPM (which I would guess to be his application) and constant boost tend to be one step colder than the stock plug temp. This is to reduce pre-detonation as well. But they can foul at lower RPM driving. Which seems to have been your problem.

NGK usually has a number notation for the temps. Example:
BKR5E (MR2 N/A Stock)
BKR6E (MR2 Turbo stock or N/A for 1step colder)
BKR7E (MR2 Turbo 1 step colder)

The N/A (naturally asperated) uses the "5" for Turbo because of the extra heat they move to a 6 (track day N/A cars should use this as well) and then the 7 denotes another step colder for this plug type.

Hope it helps.

 

Awesome post! The pictures are fantastic. It really is something special to see your engine out of the car. I know when I did the 30k on my 348 I would just sit and stare at the engine for an hour or more at times. Just looking at the way it was put together. But to have the engine out of an F40, and then completely torn down, that is some serious eye candy.