Northstar rebuild: Will style (Page 73/119)
Dave E Bouy DEC 22, 09:41 PM
Oops. Double post and wow I own page 19

[This message has been edited by Dave E Bouy (edited 12-22-2012).]

Dave E Bouy DEC 22, 09:49 PM
Well Will. Despite what I know to be very good advice I am going to stick with motor I've got. I figure the rebuild will be at least half the fun and a source of pride. I already have a Timesert kit borrowed but I do need some inserts. Can you tell me I could get some? As far as engine management, I guess I'll go back to the Megasquirt which is not a problem if it's tuned properly. Hopefully in time I can get the COP working. I've heard that Megasquirt is working on something along those lines. Anyway, wish me luck. . . .

DF
Will DEC 26, 12:47 PM

quote
Originally posted by Dave E Bouy:

Well Will. Despite what I know to be very good advice I am going to stick with motor I've got. I figure the rebuild will be at least half the fun and a source of pride. I already have a Timesert kit borrowed but I do need some inserts. Can you tell me I could get some? As far as engine management, I guess I'll go back to the Megasquirt which is not a problem if it's tuned properly. Hopefully in time I can get the COP working. I've heard that Megasquirt is working on something along those lines. Anyway, wish me luck. . . .

DF



I'm tickled to death with how well my built engine performs. It certainly is gratifying to have gone through all the crap I've gone through to learn about building a Northstar and have the end result turn out as well as it has. I hope it works out well for you.
I ordered my inserts directly from www.timesert.com IIRC, they were about $1 each. When I 'serted my main bolt holes, I did it on a mill and only needed the installation mandrel, not the whole kit. I bought the mandrel by itself and it was around $80. The money's in the tooling for the timeserts.

Levi (CRZYONE) used a Big Stuff 3 to run his Y2K Northstar, so it is possible, but that's an expensive computer. Megasquirt should be adaptable to the job, but the '00-'04 Northstars have a reluctor wheel pattern that is, AFAIK, unique to those engines.

[This message has been edited by Will (edited 12-26-2012).]

ericjon262 DEC 27, 12:52 AM
Are the reluctors pressed on to the crank or are they machined on it? joseph upson ran into a similar problem on his 3900 build, and had a new wheel machined to replace the 3900 wheel. It may be an option for you N* guys.

------------------
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Will DEC 27, 07:40 AM
It may be removable on the 58x engines, but it's integral on the '93-'99 and '00-'04 engines.
ericjon262 DEC 27, 11:48 PM

quote
Originally posted by Will:

It may be removable on the 58x engines, but it's integral on the '93-'99 and '00-'04 engines.



10-4, another thought, it may be possible to have the ring turned down, and then a new ring machined to fit.

------------------
there's a Group on 60degreeV6.com for us 660 Fiero owners!

Fiero Owner's group on 60degreeV6.com

I know these lines Look crooked on paper, but I swear I've got them straight in my head.

Dave E Bouy DEC 29, 07:40 PM

quote
Originally posted by Will:


I'm tickled to death with how well my built engine performs. It certainly is gratifying to have gone through all the crap I've gone through to learn about building a Northstar and have the end result turn out as well as it has. I hope it works out well for you.
I ordered my inserts directly from www.timesert.com IIRC, they were about $1 each. When I 'serted my main bolt holes, I did it on a mill and only needed the installation mandrel, not the whole kit. I bought the mandrel by itself and it was around $80. The money's in the tooling for the timeserts.

Levi (CRZYONE) used a Big Stuff 3 to run his Y2K Northstar, so it is possible, but that's an expensive computer. Megasquirt should be adaptable to the job, but the '00-'04 Northstars have a reluctor wheel pattern that is, AFAIK, unique to those engines.




OK thanks for the info Will. This motor did run on the MSquirt but we had to use a trigger wheel bolted on to the harmonic balancer and a Ford ignition system. I think I asked you once before but I can't remember what you said. Can I use pre Y2k cam covers on this motor? At least that way I should be able to make it look nicer than it did with plug wires running into cam covers that are designed to have COP. I guess I should have tried timesert first. I bought some on fleabay and paid $67.00 for 20 inserts. Oops

DF
Will JAN 01, 10:02 PM
I was able to take a few hours yesterday and today to do the majority of the work on the wiring harness adapter for the Shelby PCM.



Remaining to be done:
-Populate a 3 or more pin Molex which carries a clutch switch wire, and +12V/GND for the MAF sensor from the interior body harness. Theoretically, I could have brought them off the backs of the adapter connectors, but space is at a premium when soldering to those pins, and the existing power/ground wires are 18 ga rather than 22. There just wasn't space to get everything in and allow room for the shrink tube which will be needed to assure isolation.
-Build an additional pigtail for the MAF and connect it to the aforementioned Molex as well as the signal pin on the Shelby connectors.
-Provide for a connection to the IAC, either by building an adapter to go from the ISM to the IAC or by running a dedicated pigtail similar to that which I will have to build for the MAF sensor. The ISM to IAC adapter is complicated by the fact that one of the ISM wires goes directly to ground, so I have to run one wire the entire length ANYWAY... might as well run three more and have one less connector to worry about.
-Obtain and wire in an OBDII DLC.

Once I do those things, the car will be ready for swapping the throttle to an OBDII unit and trying the Shelby PCM.

Also, the left decklid hinge pin broke, so I had to develop a replacement:

[This message has been edited by Will (edited 01-01-2013).]

Will JAN 01, 10:05 PM

quote
Originally posted by Dave E Bouy:

OK thanks for the info Will. This motor did run on the MSquirt but we had to use a trigger wheel bolted on to the harmonic balancer and a Ford ignition system. I think I asked you once before but I can't remember what you said. Can I use pre Y2k cam covers on this motor? At least that way I should be able to make it look nicer than it did with plug wires running into cam covers that are designed to have COP. I guess I should have tried timesert first. I bought some on fleabay and paid $67.00 for 20 inserts. Oops

DF



The inserts might have been $3 each... been a while since I bought them. You can buy them direct easily enough.

The Y2K covers will not fit the earlier heads. The outline and plug well angles are different.
Will JAN 03, 12:33 PM

quote
Originally posted by ericjon262:

10-4, another thought, it may be possible to have the ring turned down, and then a new ring machined to fit.




It's in the middle of the engine, so the new wheel would have to pass over counterweights in order to be installed... The current wheel is close to the OD of the counterweights... I'd have to do some measuring to figure out if it's possible.

I @$$ume that most engine computers are flexible enough in crankshaft offset angle to allow pretty much any offset.