Are there benefits to Water Meth on Naturally Aspirated 3.0?

[don4331]

Wow This blew up, Let's Start from the bottom, I made a few discoveries this morning.

It beat the usual question of "How big of tires can I fit in my Ranger". So, you received lots of ... feedback.

 

[pjtoledo]

Just for fun:

from the Ford Performance catalog, how to accurately calculate compressing ratio.


EngineBuildingTipsSpecs.pdf (ford.com)

 

[O No 3.0!]

49 cc heads with dome pistons??? It will be more than 11.1-1. And you could just go ahead & switch over to e-85. You would probably need 100 octane fuel with that compression & iron heads to not spark knock & blow a head gasket. E-85 has enough octane to cover that. And nos will not help, it will make it worse. You have to turn down timing to run nos, and add fuel.

 

[don4331]

I do everything in metric:

88.9mm bore (3.5")
79.8mm stroke (3.14)
1.65mm head gasket (0.065")
49.0cc head chambers
50.0mm x 0.81mm dome on pistons (its a thin cylinder)

1 cylinder = 495cc
head gasket = 10.2cc
Compression Ratio aka CR = (495+10.2+49)/(495+10.2) = 9.35 (same as historical)

Add in the dome
CR = (495+10.2+49-1.6)/(495+10.2-1.6) = 9.59 - the domes on the Taurus pistons do increase the CR, but not bloody much

.75 mm decking of heads (even figuring the combustion chamber is a rectangle of 88mm x 60mm)
CR = (495+10.2+49-1.6-4.1)/(495+10.2-1.6-4.1) =10.24

At ~10:1, @MankDeems3.0 can probably still get away with just running premium.

With only a $0.30/gallon difference between regular and premium, assuming Ranger gets 15 mpg, its over 25k miles to pay off a $500 commercial water injection system (not including the additional windshield washer fluid).​

Aside: With the decking and dome you will want to check valve clearance.

 

[MankDeems3.0]

I do everything in metric:

88.9mm bore (3.5")
79.8mm stroke (3.14)
1.65mm head gasket (0.065")
49.0cc head chambers
50.0mm x 0.81mm dome on pistons (its a thin cylinder)

1 cylinder = 495cc
head gasket = 10.2cc
Compression Ratio aka CR = (495+10.2+49)/(495+10.2) = 9.35 (same as historical)

Add in the dome
CR = (495+10.2+49-1.6)/(495+10.2-1.6) = 9.59 - the domes on the Taurus pistons do increase the CR, but not bloody much

.75 mm decking of heads (even figuring the combustion chamber is a rectangle of 88mm x 60mm)
CR = (495+10.2+49-1.6-4.1)/(495+10.2-1.6-4.1) =10.24

At ~10:1, @MankDeems3.0 can probably still get away with just running premium.

With only a $0.30/gallon difference between regular and premium, assuming Ranger gets 15 mpg, its over 25k miles to pay off a $500 commercial water injection system (not including the additional windshield washer fluid).​

Aside: With the decking and dome you will want to check valve clearance.

If you have PayPal or Venmo dm me I'd love to buy you a beer. It's amazing that my original estimate was so close. 8th digit of my vin is V so I'll probably opt for the E85 route, here in the Midwest it's at every 3rd gas station, 100 octane baby!

Took the weekend to slap it back together, didn't see your post about valve clearance so I didn't do that but I'm more than happy to say she made it to work like a champ today. I'm missing a single header bolt that's driving insane but it runs fantastic otherwise! I'm gonna button up a few things on it then I'll post pics and videos!

 

[stmitch]

E85 is the easy button. Runs cooler. Eliminates carbon buildup. Has plenty of octane (usually). Cheaper than Premium. Just make sure you've got enough injector.

There's a mile of piston to valve clearance, even with 1.7 rockers. I did a clay test on mine when I put it together, and with about 1/4" of clay on the piston, the valves didn't even make an imprint.
A cam would be nice. You'd really want a nice valve spring upgrade though with rockers and a cam. Especially if you spend any time at high rpms. The 1.7s alone might be enough to warrant the spring upgrade.

I don't think some port work, a small compression bump, more valve lift and E85 are going to get you 50+hp, but they'll probably make the truck more enjoyable.

 

[MankDeems3.0]

E85 is the easy button. Runs cooler. Eliminates carbon buildup. Has plenty of octane (usually). Cheaper than Premium. Just make sure you've got enough injector.

There's a mile of piston to valve clearance, even with 1.7 rockers. I did a clay test on mine when I put it together, and with about 1/4" of clay on the piston, the valves didn't even make an imprint.
A cam would be nice. You'd really want a nice valve spring upgrade though with rockers and a cam. Especially if you spend any time at high rpms. The 1.7s alone might be enough to warrant the spring upgrade.

I don't think some port work, a small compression bump, more valve lift and E85 are going to get you 50+hp, but they'll probably make the truck more enjoyable.

I'm chaising a charging system issue. New ground strap, alternator, battery, all since I built my heads, none related. I'll post more when it's tracked down, I'm still dying to see the final results!

The main goal of this project was to find out, if a guy found a 3.0 ranger for $500 on Facebook with a cracked a head or ya even blew a gasket. Are the "While your in there" performance mods going to make your Vulcan a better engine day to day?

My working theory is a single reman head is $375. I got 80K mile Taurus heads, got them tested and resurfaced, Motocraft gaskets, head bolts and fluids for about $550. If you're already in there and spending that much you might as well spend the extra $200 on a used throttle body and rocker arms and make it a little more drivable for the same price as the reman heads at $750! We'll see what the butt dyno says. If my ass is really impressed I Might even bring it over for 3 runs on the rollers at my local speed shop once it's all done

 

[stmitch]

We'll see what the butt dyno says. If my ass is really impressed I Might even bring it over for 3 runs on the rollers at my local speed shop once it's all done

 

[O No 3.0!]

I'm chaising a charging system issue. New ground strap, alternator, battery, all since I built my heads, none related. I'll post more when it's tracked down, I'm still dying to see the final results!

The main goal of this project was to find out, if a guy found a 3.0 ranger for $500 on Facebook with a cracked a head or ya even blew a gasket. Are the "While your in there" performance mods going to make your Vulcan a better engine day to day?

My working theory is a single reman head is $375. I got 80K mile Taurus heads, got them tested and resurfaced, Motocraft gaskets, head bolts and fluids for about $550. If you're already in there and spending that much you might as well spend the extra $200 on a used throttle body and rocker arms and make it a little more drivable for the same price as the reman heads at $750! We'll see what the butt dyno says. If my ass is really impressed I Might even bring it over for 3 runs on the rollers at my local speed shop once it's all done

I know they respond well to mods. Ive done an E-fan, exhaust, & ported the maf meter & put in a k&n filter. Its much peppier than it was before, i can actually accelerate & merge into traffic without getting kilt. Lol. I have a ported upper/lower intake from an '02, 1.8 rockers, and underdrive pulleys to add soon. Debating on getting a set of new heads & doing a bit of port work. I'd like to do a cam, but Ive only found one place to get one & that guy stoopid high on his prices.

 

[fixizin]

Didn't the Yamaha 3.0 in the Taurus SHO make 225HP bone-stock, normally-aspirated? What were the parameters on that mill? Surely it wasn't due to the cool-looking "nest of snakes" intake manifold...

 

[pjtoledo]

the heads gave it the top end power, 220 hp.
the snakes switched between short runners for top end and long runners for bottom end.

they easily hit the rev limiter at 7400.

 

[fixizin]

COMPression ratio????

 

[O No 3.0!]

the heads gave it the top end power, 220 hp.
the snakes switched between short runners for top end and long runners for bottom end.

they easily hit the rev limiter at 7400.

DOHC 24 valve 220 hp @ 6200. 7000 rpm limit.

 

[pjtoledo]

in 3rd 7400 was about 99 mph. both my 92 and 95 saw it many times.
I don't recall the compression ratio, they ran fine on 87 octane.

 

[pjtoledo]

the mighty Vulcan in my 2000 Ranger always had a tendency to ping, maybe some H 2 OH for the S L O would have been helpful.