MrWOT

Overview of the build if you would?

I would guess the .022 piston to head clearance, that's a tight squish. Must be very confident in your rods

I thought of that too, not a single listing within a 75 mile radius that I can find The height is what I'm worried about as well, but the rest looks SO promising I really want to know. Hopefully someone has one local and will chime in. Too good a powerplant not to investigate! edit: Here's a read on the background if anyone is interested http://www.brian894x4.com/ExpeditionLandCruiserFZJ80engine.html here is a thread with shots of the internals... http://www.performanceforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=67208203 highlights: 4.5L 4V DOHC I6, 7 mains, fully counterweighted crank, factory forged double-shot peened rods, oil squirters for the pistons, integrated coolant based oil cooler, long rods (known to take 8k when built), same trans pattern as the 2UZ (secondhand information) Factory head looks pretty nice too.

I'm having zero luck finding the dimensions on this thing, and no yard around me has one. Anybody ever get out the ol' measuring tape?

Ah wanting for the cam adj, my mistake. edit: They make 32V heads for sbc and lsx as well for you GM fans

http://www.araoengineering.com/Ford/frdsmb.htm A set already exists, though probably pretty expensive.

Just in case you can't make the t56 work, a world class t5 will hold 374+ft/lbs, because I did so myself with my 86 SVO, and seen many others do the same on turbford.org Lasted a no-issue 17k, already had 102k on the clock as well, though well maintained. Car met it's sad end at that point, still running wonderfully.

Thanks for the 7MGE love, with MAFT-pro working on the GE now, this is a great addition!

That's amazing, I work with cast iron turbine housings everyday (water pumps) and they never hold longterm when welded, and they are under significantly less stress from heat cycling. Go figure.

It takes very special tools to weld cast iron unfortunately. Start shopping for a new manifold.

Hot honing doesn't have anything to do with distortion from the head, it has to do with the fact that the bores themselves are different dimensions when hot because the thickness of the metal is not constant. Anyway, I've emailed several people in the last few days to check on this. One in particular who works for Ford in their racing division told me hot honing is standard practice on all racing engines due to the much lower failure rate of hot honed motors! He also told me when they started going from cold honed to hot honed motors their piston failure rate dropped from about 17% to around 9% in endurance applications and all of the hot honed motors made consistantly more power then the cold honed, had less oil contamination, yada yada, etc... It really makes me wonder why this isn't a more commonly known thing? Or is it and I just missed it or all these years somehow? I posted this same article on a number of other webboards and I've gotten the same responses, a select few people, most of which are "in the know" ie the ones pushing relitively large hp per displacement, and they all seem to know about it already and tell the same story, hot honed motors are far more reliable then cold honed motors. So... anyone know a machine shop in norcal that does hot honing?

The top especially sees more in a siamesed bore engine. And I think they could get pretty close to running conditions with a specialized setup like that. Can't be positive though, I've never heard of anyone doing this before.

http://www.circletrack.com/techarticles/82438/ Interesting results, should provide significant benefits in ring life, seal and piston heat dissipation. Anyone ever run across this before?

Well, when you consider that Ford owns Mazda.. then yes... yes he did

That is some of the most beautiful work I have seen in a very long time....