'91 GT Engine Rebuild Update '01

Back to...   Bowers' 2000 Road America SAAC Open Track Experience | Bower's '91 Mustang GT

 

Well, the LONG winter of 2000-2001 is over and things are starting to look better regarding the '91 GT...

If you haven't already, read this first... We had the GT-40Y aluminum heads checked over by our engine shop and they were fine, so we had them milled a little to true them up. WHEW!  At least the heads weren't ruined from our little head gasket problem.  (LOL!!)

After doing some thinking over the winter, we decided to pull the motor and have it rebuilt.  In addition to the blown head gaskets, there had been A LOT of water in the engine and we were afraid the bearings were also ruined.  We also decided to add a few items to the current set up during the rebuild to slightly increase the horsepower and ensure the engine's longevity since it sees quite a bit of hard use autocrossing and open tracking.

(click on any photo below to get a larger view)

Update -  March 2001...    Pulling the engine... yuck!  Actually, it's kind of embarrassing how greasy and rusty looking it is.  It really didn't look that bad sitting in the engine bay.  A big thanks to Jeff Burrell (fellow Mustang Club of Central Iowa member) for letting us borrow his engine hoist.  After the last photo, the engine was loaded up and hauled off to Midstate Machine Shop, Des Moines, IA for them to work their magic on it... 
Update -  April 12, 2001...    TA-DA!!!!  Looks better already, doesn't it?!  We had Midstate Machine Shop tear it down and inspect everything (i.e. bearings, etc.) and rebuild it (balanced, honed cylinders and replaced bearings, rings and oil pump). While they were at it, they installed a new 2031 Crane cam and Canton oil pan and windage tray (see bottom photo) and they also did some porting and polishing. We had them reuse our aluminum GT-40Y heads and 1.72 roller rockers. We'll also be upgrading to 24 lb injectors (from the original 19 lbs.).  Here's the rest of the car's set up.  We're hoping to also get it dyno-tuned at some point after it's all back together.

Hopefully, it will be back on the road in a few weeks.  We can't wait to get it running again.  We'll have to hurry and get it back together so we can get some miles on it before our first autocross event on May 6.

STAY TUNED FOR MORE...  We'll have more photos posted soon... 

Copyright 2001 by David & Kathy Bowers - images and text (except where noted).
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Last update:  4/12/01