Well,,, I still haven't finished the first cut on the last runner,, but I couldn't stand it and smoothed out things on the outside and shot one with black primer to get an idea of how they're going to look painted. I was a little worried,, but now I think they're going to look OK.



I thought I'd have the heads back from the refresh by now,,,, but I need to clean up the undercarriage and run the fuel lines and wiring for the EFI,, so it's not holding me up yet. I plan on finishing the rest of the porting and smooth out the rest of the runners by some time Monday.

 

EX-CE-LLENT!

I was wondering about the final appearance -- if you cared about the final look? What did you use for filler on top of the welds?

Looks great -- especially if it's going to hold up to the heat. Maybe PowderCoating would be good? They make a polished-looking coating.

Black is good too!

 

Thanks Gregg. Yep,, I've never been one to care a lot about how it looked under the hood. Don't get me wrong, I've always had clean engines,, but I rarely ever popped the hood for anyone. However,, I'm actually planning on popping the hood this time around at cruise-ins and local meets/shows. It's not going to be real flashy,, but I am planning on it being flasher than anything else I've done for myself.

I didn't have to use much filler,, the dude did a really good job on the welds. All I had to do was use the burr to skim the high spots off the welds,,, and I only used a little bit of JB-Weld to "shape" the bottom of the weld to the crease and a little at the very top of the runners. I'm thinking it should hold up - I've seen people use JB-Weld on cracked cast iron exhaust manifolds with limited success. I'm probably going to use gloss black epoxy on the runners - that's held up well for me in the past on intake manifolds.

 

The JB weld will work fine. I used it in HUGE quantities to fill in the small port intake for my MR2 several years ago and it held up just fine.

Your project looks great - looking forward to the end results.



I even used specialized aluminum filled epoxy to reshape the intake port on the head when I did the engine build:



But I was lucky enough to be able to do most of the porting with a mill, then cleaned up the rest by hand. See how much epoxy the intake needed:



The guy I sold the car to sold the engine so he could go to a JDM 20 valve engine, but the guy who bought mine is still running it 4 years later and loves it. Full build details here: http://marcmedina.com/MR2enginebuild.html

 

GREAT looking work, Marc! I'm sure Kevin, who's a very experienced builder, will also appreciate what you did!




There's a guy at my work who drives an MR2. It's got some really nice aftermarket wheels -- like the high-dollar stuff you occasionally in C4Parts. They "bulge" about 1/2" It made a huge difference in appearance. I find myself looking at that car all the time!

 

Thanks Greg. That build was fun but with no smog-legal way to tune the computer it never ran like it should have. It really needed a later computer which would have been a huge gain. Fun car, but a dead stock C4 (even an 84) would kill it in auto-cross.

 

Great to see an FFI post. I am always intrigued by this intake and it's performance abilities.

 

Well,,, I haven’t done much to the MegaRam FIRST here lately,,, been working on the car (1985 Monte Carlo SS) – mainly suspension and EFI fuel system components,,, including a LOT of cleaning and painting!!!

Here's a shot of the front suspension components (600# touring springs, 2" drop spindles, all new Moog problem solver bushings, progressive bump stop, and double adjustable VariShocks (I haven't bolted on the 34mm hollow front sway bar yet).


Here's a shot of the rear suspension,, showing off the Detroit Locker Ford 9", new rear disc brakes, stainless steel lines, upper control arm support bracing, upper adjustable control arms, dual adjustable roto-joint lower control arm, stock SS sway bar, single adjustable VariShocks, AFCO 150# Street Stock "drop" coil springs,, and the corner of the new EFI fuel tank (Racetronix AN8 sending unit, Aeromotive Stealth 340 - Teflon #8 feed and #6 return).


Since most everything is new on the car,, brakes, fuel system, EFI electronics, and I don’t have any experience tuning a speed density system (only tuned on MAF cars),,, I decided to refresh the old 406, throw on a set of stock 76cc heads to get the compression down around 10.3:1 and run a flat tappet hydraulic with similar overlap to the cam in the new engine. I have a stock FIRST TPI,, all the fuel lines and wiring won’t be any different,,, so I figure I’ll make sure everything is working properly and get comfortable tuning the EBL P4 system,,, then slip in the bad boy.

Here’s a shot of the refreshed externally balanced 406 – stamped steel extra-long slot rocker arms,, Howard Cams 1.25” springs to handle the .488 lift. I should have it totally buttoned up before the end of the week and be ready to stab it this weekend. I still have a good bit of work to do (run transmission lines and cooler, fit aluminum radiator, electric fans, wiring and relays for the fan and fuel pump),, so it still may be a while before she's running and I'm able to turn my attention back to finishing up the MegaRam! I'll post shots of the stock FIRST on this engine soon.