Played with this a little bit yesterday. I actually went out there with the intention of installing the motor mounts ahead of the engine since I don't have a timeline on actually both finishing this engine and actually putting it in the truck, but would like to see what it feels like with fresh motor mounts. Unfortunately when I got out there and actually unboxed the package, I realized they sent me two right side mounts in the kit.
Ignore the trans mount. That is not for a Raptor. I've already replaced mine. Being that I ordered these way back in March, we'll see if they will help me out or if I just need to order a new driver side mount.
So it was on to the engine. Rings have actually been in for a month now, but I've been both busy and purposely steering clear of this engine. In poking around the forum, I stumbled across
@bubblehead93 's
engine build. Great information from a member who clearly knows way more about what he's doing than me. Not gonna begin to even compare what we are doing as it isn't even close to being the same thing, but reading his thread definitely inspired me to do better. I started by buying a little food scale just so I could weigh my piston assemblies. And while bubblehead is balancing everything down to a fraction of a gram, mine was really just to satisfy my curiosity.
I had no intention of messing with the re-used parts (1-7), just really wanted to see how the new set matched up. So 1-7 where ±4 grams of each other, but #8 was +13 grams more than their average. I couldn't decide where I'd even begin removing that much material. That coupled with the fact that I've been bothered by this grade 1 piston sitting with a batch of grade 2's prompted me to hold off and order a new grade 2 piston. I'll re-weigh and deal with that when the time comes. So yeah, his thread is making me do better, so thank you sir!
After pulling the pistons back out to resurface the block and knowing was going to be back in anyway to do rings, I went ahead and ordered a
ring groove scraper.
Boy am I glad I did. This thing is MONEY. Especially on bank 1 where I did a half-*** cleaning job. Bank 2 I really took my time. But this has to be one of the best purpose built tools I've ever used.
Next I checked end gaps on the new rings.
It was just like
@letsgetthisdone said. Stock size rings were perfect. Thankfully no fitting involved as I was really not looking forward to using that chintzy grinder. So factory spec range is 0.0137-0.0196" for end gap. Mahle specs a
min of Bore x 0.0045" top and Bore x 0.0050" intermediate for NA which shakes out to around 0.018" top and 0.020" intermediate minimum. I measured 0.021-0.022" on the tops and 0.024" or greater on the bottoms. Using
@B E N 's guidance above, I was perfectly content rolling with these. Punched those seven home hopefully for the last time. Ordered a new piston and attempting to sort out the motor mount.