tuning ford's 2.8 v6
Discussion
Specialised engine's site isn't much better either .. very frustrating to use the Burton's site.Joo, I've posted about this before in the S fourm (fairly recently too IIRC), so do a search.
Best option is to bore it out... although I am told the limiting factor for the output of this engine is the siamese manifold porting... so a custom manifold design would be required.. (expensive)
Best option is to bore it out... although I am told the limiting factor for the output of this engine is the siamese manifold porting... so a custom manifold design would be required.. (expensive)
Julian
As on the 'turbo' thread yesterday, you need the 6 port heads that were on the US 'Cologne' fitted to the 2.8 Mustang. I think that Real Steel can source them from the US.
Otherwise I personally wouldn't bother very much, short of a Turbo or Engine Swap you are going to be struggling for more power
davidy
As on the 'turbo' thread yesterday, you need the 6 port heads that were on the US 'Cologne' fitted to the 2.8 Mustang. I think that Real Steel can source them from the US.
Otherwise I personally wouldn't bother very much, short of a Turbo or Engine Swap you are going to be struggling for more power
davidy
and I have been told that you can bore out to 3.2 davidy said:
Yes, but if you can't get the exhaust gasses away fast enough, whats the point?
There was an article in Fast Car about 12 years ago on Tuning the Cologne and it talked about importing the 6 port heads.
davidy
True...
Try speaking to the Sierra XR4i / XR4x4 lot... as the earlier version of those cars had the Cologne 2.8
Specialised engines do bore and stroke to 3.6, but that's outside the scope of what we can do.
The engine in the taz develops 193bhp as is on john noble's rolling road so that's not too shabby .. it's also very surprising considering the very limited mods allowed under the previous season's regs... so all credit ot the previous builder whoever that was.
essentially it'll be a development of what we have in this engine, but I'm building from scratch.
The std heads will have to stay, as will the crank and the breathing limits us to about 6500 revs so the weak rod bolts wil be changed for arp units and the rods sorted.
we need to meet the taz group A spec of 180bhp / ton over a wide rev range, so wild cams are out ..
just wondering if there's been any development in the last 10 years on this engine .. everything burtons tell me is old news and there's been no work from them recently, not surprising as it's an old engine not widely used as a performance starting point!!
The engine in the taz develops 193bhp as is on john noble's rolling road so that's not too shabby .. it's also very surprising considering the very limited mods allowed under the previous season's regs... so all credit ot the previous builder whoever that was.
essentially it'll be a development of what we have in this engine, but I'm building from scratch.
The std heads will have to stay, as will the crank and the breathing limits us to about 6500 revs so the weak rod bolts wil be changed for arp units and the rods sorted.
we need to meet the taz group A spec of 180bhp / ton over a wide rev range, so wild cams are out ..
just wondering if there's been any development in the last 10 years on this engine .. everything burtons tell me is old news and there's been no work from them recently, not surprising as it's an old engine not widely used as a performance starting point!!
The most your ever going to get out of a N/A 2.8V6 is 200bhp that was the figure given by Ford motorsport at Boreham in 1986 for the Group A XR4x4, You could try the 6 port heads by (IIRC) "Swaymar engineering" (01932 868377) and have some manifolds made up to match this conversion gives approx 20 bhp. Unfortunatly the german V6 is never going to give big horse`s, in fact the standard 150bhp is a bit optimistic IMHO
Tony( XR4i owner) amongst others
>> Edited by T88CAN on Friday 19th March 22:15
Tony( XR4i owner) amongst others
>> Edited by T88CAN on Friday 19th March 22:15
Another option is the Ford Granada 2.9 V6 (12V not cosworth.) It comes with individual ports and knocks out some more bhp and is 2-3mpg more efficient in standard form. Can't fit these heads to the 2.8 block and something about having a matching bellhousing as the starter motor mounts on the opposite side of the engine.
The XR4x4 and XR4i 2.8 motor are the same Cologne siamese port V6.
The XR4x4 and XR4i 2.8 motor are the same Cologne siamese port V6.
The 2.8 V6 is never going to be a ball of fire but what you can do with it is fairly simple.
1) Lose weight from the flywheel.
2) Fit a fast road cam.
3) Refabricate the injection manifold to allow more air in.
4) Or fit a carburettor.
5) Skim the heads and raise the CR, then use 98 octane fuel.
6) Derestrict the exhaust.
7) Fit digital ignition with crank triggering to avoid inaccuraces and use more advance.
If you really want to make a Cologne V6 engined vehicle faster then the way to go is to fit an Explorer or Ranger 4.0 V6 in OHV or OHC form.
You reach a stage where doing the work becomes economically unviable on a 2.8 V6 very quickly and in this case it's better to cut your losses fairly quickly and use an inherently better engine. The 2.8's virtue was that it was cheap. It had few other redeeming virtues. I speak as an XR4x4 2.8 and Scorpio 2.9 owner.
>> Edited by GavinPearson on Tuesday 23 March 02:38
1) Lose weight from the flywheel.
2) Fit a fast road cam.
3) Refabricate the injection manifold to allow more air in.
4) Or fit a carburettor.
5) Skim the heads and raise the CR, then use 98 octane fuel.
6) Derestrict the exhaust.
7) Fit digital ignition with crank triggering to avoid inaccuraces and use more advance.
If you really want to make a Cologne V6 engined vehicle faster then the way to go is to fit an Explorer or Ranger 4.0 V6 in OHV or OHC form.
You reach a stage where doing the work becomes economically unviable on a 2.8 V6 very quickly and in this case it's better to cut your losses fairly quickly and use an inherently better engine. The 2.8's virtue was that it was cheap. It had few other redeeming virtues. I speak as an XR4x4 2.8 and Scorpio 2.9 owner.
>> Edited by GavinPearson on Tuesday 23 March 02:38
davidy said:
There was an article in Fast Car about 12 years ago on Tuning the Cologne
There was another one around 1995 which I wrote, after a visit to AES. From what I remember they said you can't sensibly bore the engine much and in any case it's already way oversquare. So they regrind the crank for a longer stroke to get a bigger capacity - up to 3.4 litres, I think.
As somebody mentioned the big problem is the siamesed porting. I seem to recall them saying that the US-spec 2.8 with its individual ports wouldn't fit a Euro 2.8.
The 24-valve Cosworth V6 is a very attractive alternative...
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