Regarding the liners... My engine guy was able to bore them out .01" over and then we just used .01" over pistons. They are a stock ford item.

I saw the notes about premature wear on the early liners and I wondered what the status of the oil in the engine was at the time. 10K miles between changes/once a year is pretty aggressive. None of the issues I've read about with this motor can't be explained by fuel diluted, old oil that has both changed viscosity due to age/mileage and lost it's additives. Note that modern oil, with the exception of "High Mileage Engines", doesn't include the bearing material additives. Probably something I'll explore down the road.

But, not seeing the test reports for the oil, or knowing the maintenance history, it's hard to say.

The liners are cast iron and pressed in. To extract one you would bore it out it super thin, and then just pull it out.

If a block needed more than a .01" over bore I'd wonder if it going to come back into alignment. There are overbore main bearings available if you have to hone it .001-.003"..

 

The body of my DB9 has been on a lift since last February... The drive train has been removed since last March.

Lots of wires got moved, hoses checked, and I said good bye to my AC lines and heater hoses at the bulkhead connections. I hope I never have to see them again!

Last night I reunited the body and frame. The body was slowly lowered, and the engine and rear differential were bolted up. The only wrinkle was two of the captive nuts in the rear got pushed up into the body of the car by overly aggressive shoving of the long bolts at the rear of the sub-frame. This caused a minor panic, until I went through the back of the trunk and found them. Definitely did a "Happy Dance". Now it's on to installing all the things that make this a car...


Front of the trunk, left side with the top of the rear sub frame mount exposed.

14mm captive nut that attaches the rear subframe to the frame of the car.

Finally get to move the engine and transmission dollies out from under the car! Now I just have to find a place to store them.

 

Speaking of installing things...

I'm doing the clutch lines (parts 4 and 12 on this sheet: https://www.scuderiacarparts.com/par.../151/662/23848)

I have learned through painful experience to not force connectors apart or together. These have a spring steel restraining clip that ensure that the hydraulic line stays connected. I removed it by first removing the spring steel retainer.

For those who have removed / replaced these lines: Do you first mate the connection and then put in the retainer? Or does the retainer go in, and then you force the connector together? I ask because I tried to insert the spring retainer after mating the connector, but was unable to get it to go in.

 

here's to not having any parts left over!

 

Crates of parts with paper tags wire tied to them, with painted arrows and markings every where. And even with all of that I'm going back and looking at photos (only took about 100, should have taken more!) and going the the exploded parts diagrams and the repair manual I find myself staring at parts and regretting not taking enough photos...

I haven't resorted to seeking out a local car to stick a bore scope under the hood, but I'm not done yet!

 

@AM4884 Congratulations!I am about half way, started a year ago in a driveway, I thought it would be an easy/medium fix, needless to say, i went in way over my head, i ended up buying a lift, which I had to squeeze under a car that was incomplete sitting on jack stands, then the bad weather came in, I had to put up a tent on top of everything
Now some background story: mine was still starting when i got it, but it was making the typical rod knock noise, it took me a very long time, but i finally have the engine on my kitchen table literally.
One of the conrods broke and was poking to both sides of the main block.
I already have a replacement block, and I am planning on replacing all the conrods and rod bearings.
Now here comes the first question: I am debating on keeping the main bearings and transplant them into the other block. I inspected all of them and I was lucky in a way, even the conrod that broke, was still attached to the crankshaft and still had the bearing intact.
Second question: how do i order the conrod bearings? zero? The conrod bearings I took out still has the factory machining ridges on them. no scratches, nothing... or should I measure?( The car has about 70k miles on it)
I am thinking of going with these conrods:
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/kot-011bn16544
I believe I have found the enginetec you were mentioning: Enginetech P5002(6)STD PISTON FORD 3.0L DOHC DURATEC
I saw you replaced the valves too, was it necessary? I feel like it is way too much work, and yes I understand the argument that it is such a pain to get to it ...
Since we are talking valves, could you point me to a ford part number? I assume some duratec again

I have been stealing your work and I have compiled a little cheatsheet of parts, maybe other people can use it in the future:
https://github.com/V12lol/aston-db9/...aster/index.md
I am planning to fill in more, specially when it came with special tools and procedures, This car required many many specialized tools, or just a weird approach to get things done.
Since you mentioned not taking enough photos, feel free PM me, since I am at a different stage than you, and for me the taking apart episode is more fresh in the memory I might be able to help.
I definitely took lots of picture, and I have a gazilion food containers labeled with bolts ...On many of the steps, I looked in the manual, watched some videos, then took my own approach. Sadly the manual is very rigid, and doesn't tell you much really, other than the fact that you need lots of specialized tools and cradles.(I love the 4x4 wood cradles you created)

 

Wow. How did i miss this thread for a year!

Phenomenal work! I love reading progress like this.
I'm excited to see a driving video!

 

Sorry for the delay - I was on travel...

1) Bearings are cheap, so I'm not convinced I wouldn't replace them regardless
2) In my case a couple of big end rod bearings let go and polluted the oil - it galled the camshaft journals, the oil pump, and polluted every oil passage include the lifters and donut oil cooler. I had to have the camshafts hard chromed (At webcamshafts), and the cam journals on the heads honed. I was having the valve seals replaced and it was clear that a couple of valves were bent. I just had the heads completely rebuilt to save the effort later. The main thing is that any(!!!) crap left in the oil will come back through after you run the motor. Really important to get every passage clean.

I did use the enginetech kit, and the valve train is the same as a 2005 ford duratec v6 (So a Ford Escape...) I ended up buying it all on RockAuto.

I am surprised by the conn rod breaking. Powder metal parts are exceedingly strong. Was it the small end bearing seizing or did someone over rev the motor? I bought 12 new off Ebay for $30.00 a pop.

I would take the oil pump apart and clean it and inspect for excessive wear. I would get a new donut oil cooler...

And, did the crank spin freely in the mains? There are specs in the repair manual for how much torque it should take. In my case the crankshaft bent when the rod bearings went. Marine Crankshafts in CA was able to straighten/grind/polish mine.

Good luck!
Larry

 

I looked more, definitely replacing mains too, I looked, and apparently some very small aluminum parts made it to the mains, only one has a hairline scratch, barely visible, I am planning on grinding that one, Thanks for the many useful tips, since you were mentioning I am replacing the oil pump too, I dont want to take any chances. I will still inspect the old one just for educational purpose.
Not sure what the heck caused mine to break(it was previous owner) I assume one of 2 things: either over-revving like an idiot, or one of the cylinders got flooded(i assume with gas) the reasone I am saying this is because the piston was still floating in the cylinder, it was not seized, unless it dislodged itself ... most cases i have seen the piston was stuck very well, and it wont move.
This one danced quite a bit(back pressure) and it had many shallow valve marks on it so it was floating there for a while.
I was very tempted by the H beam .. but after looking at the part you suggested, it seems like it is more than enough, the upgrade seems to be a v groove inside the brass small end to keep the oil in.
My oil only had relatively large aluminum bits in it(from the block) I will look at the oil cooler see if it's worth keeping.
The crank still spins freely, no catching nothing to me it looks like the conrod broke in one boom, then hit both sides, and locked itself against the crank somehow backwards, and stayed there until i got to it.
Question for everyone here that has been inside this kind of engine: I could swear I saw oil squirters somewhere that supposed to keep the pistons wet, or am i confusing things?
I expected something like this ..

 

I flow tested and rebuilt my injectors to avoid flooding a bore... That is painful to imagine.

I replaced my donut oil cooler (really a heater, it's there to heat the oil quickly and get it to operating temperature. Not really needed to cool the oil, but with impatient drivers, there is a strong desire to get the very large Aluminum block up to temperature quickly and evenly. I put an oil pressure gauge sender and oil temperature sender on one of the spare galleys in the rear of the block.

Anyway, the Donut oil cooler is from Modine and is a model 1A14001C. Out of stock from AM/Scuderia. 6 week lead time from Modine, $134.00 B2B. I eventually bought a Ford F150/5.8L/Bronco Donut cooler. It was 1/4" thinner (I had to trim my oil cooler bolt) but mounted up fine. I would be very leary of reinstalling the old cooler which has fine cooling passages just waiting to hold onto old metal and release it... Perhaps hooking it up to a pressure pump and flushing it with kerosene?

Good luck on your engine!

I have been hooking up wiring. Tonight it was the main fuse panel. Lots of labeling, lots of planning and some dielectric grease go a long way!

 

fuse panel resting on the holder, AC lines still disconnected to the right.

back of the fuse panel. #4 is top of panel
Slowly working my way around the engine compartment. Re-wrapping the wiring harness where the cloth tape frayed or came loose, replacing the fir-tree zip tie holders so the loom stays in place, and reinstalling the fuse panel. The fuse panel mounts in the back near the fire wall and has 10 connectors on the back side, plus a couple of 8 gauge power leads, one of which goes to a positive feed "hidden" on the bulkhead. Fortunately the connectors on the fuse panel are keyed so they only go into one location. But just in case I took the time to number them.

 

Hey I see one of the pictures with all the arp bolts in place that you don't have the weird ones that hold the windage tray in place, how did you get around that? or did you simply left the windage tray out?
Also for the main bearing, I do have the chart with measurements, and I do have the ford code, however aston says colors for the thickness, how did you figure out the thickness equivalent on ford bearings?

Thank you

 

Wow, awesome work! 👏🏻

 

I bought new stretch bolts from AM for the 4 bolts that hold the windage tray. The rest are ARP. Def. wanted the windage tray given the oil level in the sump.

When I had the mains ground, I had them grind it to spec and then just used a .01" over (so smaller diameter crank) bearings. They only come in one size, so that what was used. Presumably plastigauged it to .003".

 

Life!! It is ALIVE!


March 2/2020 - I had drained the fuel tanks, and put 12 gallons of fresh high test in. I pulled the fuel pump fuse and hooked up my oil pressure gauge / oil temperature gauge. I ran it for 10 seconds on/30 seconds off with the fuel pump fuse disconnected until I got 6 PSI of oil pressure. Put the fuse in and listened while the fuel rails pressurized. They are returnless so it takes a bit to get fuel to the injectors... 3 sets of cranking while pumping the gas cause a sputter, a backfire, a rough idle and then a satisfying roar!