[Rev.Hammer]

I am just gonna give a general stream of thought comment here on the photo's published:

http://fordstnation.com/focus-st-performance/1432-high-res-focus-st-engine-photos.html

Take a look and then comment here about what YOU think.
I might have a couple of things wrong, I dunno. Here goes:

water jacket surrounds the exhaust tubing to the port... why?
Why are they cooling the exhaust? Heat is a factor of power. This will heat the coolant significantly. Maybe reason for overboost limitation?
This will limit power as enlarging the exhaust path will be very difficult, the extra amount of heat created will heat the coolant MORE.

oil path is set up for external cooler, most likely in radiator. Blocking this off and setting up auxilliary

oil cooler will reduce load on cooling system. add oil cooler to feed line to turbo

Fuel pump looks to be driven off of cam assembly. This means there is an electric take up pump

most likely in the tank. This is going to be a hard part to mod or make a hi-perf version of.

What is the chamber to the right of the throtte valve?

ASS is most likely vented to the interior from the airbox and not from the intake hi pressure side

Valve to piston clearance is TIGHT on the piston, This limits aftermarket cams significantly.

water jacket around cylinders volume look sparse.

Underdrive pulleys look feasible and a good idea.

Thermal coating of air intake path is a very good idea from the look of things.

Solid built pistons with good thick ring lands. Small skirts with anti-friction pads. Good Potential.

Appears to use a rotating shaft-weight countervibration system driven off the crank, might be worth a few HP and decrease RPM drive time but will increase the harshness of the engine.

The waste gate is vacuum controlled not servo controlled and appears preloadable

Need to find a larger oil filter that will work.


Please put in your opinions!

 

[Mustang Man]

I noticed most of those things, as for finding a larger oil filter I am 90% sure an FL400 and FL910 share the same thread and gasket setup. And if I am correct that will effectively nearly double the oil filter volume.

 

[Grabber523]

If I had to take a blind swing at the water-jacketed exhaust manifold setup, I'd say its to get the engine to operating temperature faster, thus getting the ECU into closed loop faster, reducing fuel consumption and emissions. Could be why the oil cooler may be integrated into the radiator as well. The faster the coolant is heated, the faster that extra heat is delivered throughout the engine by that coolant. It would also prevent thermal shock by dispersing the thermal load thorugh the entire engine, rather than being concentrated to certain areas of the head and block.

This is a hard-core fuel-efficiency engineered engine, after all...they can't get the MPG numbers needed by running a more performance-oriented setup.

As far as the vacuum controlled wastegate is concerned, there could very well be a solenoid upstream of the wastegate actuator which controlls vacuum to the actuator. That's how the aftermarket boost controller I installed on my 3000GT VR4 worked. Actually, it would pretty much have to have an ECU controlled solenoid to make the overboost funtion work.

When it comes to other performance modifications...might as well get used to the idea that boost and octane will be the only variables in that equation. The traditional "port, polish, cams, and headers with an intake" school of upping horsepower is just not going to work with the head design of this engine. Tuning will only net you a handful of ponies, and the fuel system is going to be a huge limiting factor for a long time.

I'm okay with that. My days of seriously modding a daily driver are over. My Mustang has been fun, but its to a point where just driving it to work and back every day isn't efficient or comfortable on the wallet any more. It will be nice to have a fun car that doesn't require the level of maintenance my current car does.

 

[AK Maniak]

To me it just seems that this car is not going to be garage tuner friendly. It probably won't take well to bolt-ons.
If you plan on a full build then it will probably be just like any car because you'll be replacing almost everything anyways.

In regards to the fuel pump, plenty of of cars have an in tank fuel pump. They really aren't hard to swap out.

 

[Crooked Letta]

Any one know the clutch size or the torque capacity. The flywheel seems to be decent. I just hope it can handle a good amount of extra power.

 

[ATX Eric]

water jacket surrounds the exhaust tubing to the port... why?
Why are they cooling the exhaust? Heat is a factor of power. This will heat the coolant significantly. Maybe reason for overboost limitation?

This will limit power as enlarging the exhaust path will be very difficult, the extra amount of heat created will heat the coolant MORE.




water jacket around cylinders volume look sparse.

Thermal coating of air intake path is a very good idea from the look of things.

I remain concerned about cooling capacities, efficiencies, and long-term efficacy in this car in warm/hot climates.

 

[Rev.Hammer]

Any one know the clutch size or the torque capacity. The flywheel seems to be decent. I just hope it can handle a good amount of extra power.

THAT is a good question. I was thinking that and if a lightweight flywheel might come into being for this car..

 

[Rev.Hammer]

I remain concerned about cooling capacities, efficiencies, and long-term efficacy in this car in warm/hot climates.

I agree...and moreso for those that wish to get more power out will be even more so affected.
I see better rads/fans for this car in the future or oil coolers to help reduce heat load.

 

[Rev.Hammer]

To me it just seems that this car is not going to be garage tuner friendly. It probably won't take well to bolt-ons.
If you plan on a full build then it will probably be just like any car because you'll be replacing almost everything anyways.

In regards to the fuel pump, plenty of of cars have an in tank fuel pump. They really aren't hard to swap out.

TRUE... and the pump in the tank is going to be the lift pump... it feeds the pressure pump at the engine.

 

[Rev.Hammer]

As per Grabber523:
I'm okay with that. My days of seriously modding a daily driver are over. My Mustang has been fun, but its to a point where just driving it to work and back every day isn't efficient or comfortable on the wallet any more. It will be nice to have a fun car that doesn't require the level of maintenance my current car does.


Very very true.. I agree... to a point
Instead of add-ons... I am thinking that maximization of what is there will already eventually be the way to go.
Better Tune
Better Fuel
Spark plugs
Airfilters
monkey with the wastegate

pretty much leaving the engine as is.. unopened and making sure that everything is as effecient as possible.


Blueprinting may be an option....

 

[1chrisb]

I don't see how adding a monkey to the wastegate will improve things... :?:

 

[oaxa]

REV - Couple of novice questions:
What if it's NOT a water jacket?
Maybe the double walls are for insulation, after all the "headers" are in the head.

Also from FJ re the port polish See posts 23-25
In the era of cad/cam how much does blueprinting address?
Lastly I DO think a tune, boosting so say 20-22 psi + high octane would net you +30hp for the track.
IDK how well it will hold up heat wise after extended laps.

I understand that the Borg Warner ECU does NOT have an easy access to the software.
MY SVT uses the ODCII port which made installing tune a cinch.

 

[oaxa]

Oh I almost forgot like Grabber523 sez:
DD mod= NO! This will help me to resist it.
Also I still have a ways to go on the SVT so I'll put alll my creativty & extra $$(HA hA) into that after of course new wheels, tint, blackout....

 

[Z28ken]

THAT is a good question. I was thinking that and if a lightweight flywheel might come into being for this car..

Any idea what the weight of the flywheel is?

 

[Rownan]

what a weird manifold. the collector is integrated into the head.. lol. is that common with newer high efficiency engines?

also, I still can't tell what they are doing with the IC piping. The throttle body is at a pretty steep angle downward from the intake manifold, which leads me to believe that the cold side will be a short hop away from the IC. But probably a bitch to replace.

I'm gonna miss the cartridge type oil filter in my LNF.. so easy to do an oil change =\

 

[Rownan]

overall it's a pretty sexy looking powerplant.

 

[86azms3]

This seems to be more of the production version I've found. Where the exhaust manifold is not incorporated into the head. Because IMO that would just be retarded and during WOT, ECT's would just fucking boil.

But it still looks like you'd have an incorporated exhaust manifold to the turbine housing. Meaning you have to replace the manifold and turbo if you're looking to upgrade the turbo.

 

[Rev.Hammer]

REV - Couple of novice questions:
What if it's NOT a water jacket?
Maybe the double walls are for insulation, after all the "headers" are in the head.

Also from FJ re the port polish See posts 23-25
In the era of cad/cam how much does blueprinting address?
Lastly I DO think a tune, boosting so say 20-22 psi + high octane would net you +30hp for the track.
IDK how well it will hold up heat wise after extended laps.

I understand that the Borg Warner ECU does NOT have an easy access to the software.
MY SVT uses the ODCII port which made installing tune a cinch.

I can assure you the exhaust path is Inside the water jacket look at picture number 11 very closely and you will see the freeze-casting plug. They are the press in type for water jackets. Also, notice the connector casting spar that connects the expaust tube to the head. If it was not water cooled there would be VERY hot spots on the head and that would cause incredibly bad head warping , and, where would all of the stored heat go? It would have to remain in the head causing all sorts of mischief. I se no outlet for it.

As for blue printing, blue printing removes manufacturing variance as all mass manufactured products have a variance to speed production. You also get rid of all burrs, flash, ridges, and particles of crap that comes from mass manufacturing molding. you are also going to clear and clean the oil passages and water passages.
Essentially you are making the engine PERFECT. That usually frees up a few HP right there and increases strength and longevity.

The continued heating of the coolant WILL require improving the cooling system !

 

[Rev.Hammer]

Also, hot path (exhaust) is red and coolant path is blue.

 

[Rev.Hammer]

Any idea what the weight of the flywheel is?

at this point.. no not yet. I feel that it may already be fairly light with the rotating counter vibration system in play in the oil pan.