(Possibly) Blew a head gasket looking for suggestions

[arlisscm]

Hey all,

The day I have been dreading for some time finally came.

Seemingly blew a head gasket down the start/finish straight at Watkins Glen and laid down a hefty smoke screen.

I'm leaning towards a built engine but I am open to suggestions.

Thinking maybe a puma speed short block or j-spec short block.

Or should I replace the gaskets (throw in some head studs while I'm there) and do the timing belt also?

This is my stock unit with ~ 71k on the clock. It's been big turbo since around 20k and has been dead reliable up until now.

Let me know what you think.

 

[dhminer]

Hard to say without knowing if the head is warped, cylinder wall scoring, or anything else. If everything is still in good shape, I’d swap the gasket, and timing belt and call it a day. Head studs wouldn’t hurt, but it seems like our engines typically throw a rod before lifting the head so not sure it’s worth the effort.

Built bottom end would be sweet. I’d probably do a long block from Pumaspeed, but if you want a short block check out the huge price tag but solid build from https://www.speedperf6rmanc3.com/products/sp63-underdog-short-block-ford-fiesta-st-1-6l.html

 

[arlisscm]

Hard to say without knowing if the head is warped, cylinder wall scoring, or anything else. If everything is still in good shape, I’d swap the gasket, and timing belt and call it a day. Head studs wouldn’t hurt, but it seems like our engines typically throw a rod before lifting the head so not sure it’s worth the effort.

Built bottom end would be sweet. I’d probably do a long block from Pumaspeed, but if you want a short block check out the huge price tag but solid build from https://www.speedperf6rmanc3.com/products/sp63-underdog-short-block-ford-fiesta-st-1-6l.html

I have tools on the way to do a compression test, and borescope so I can do a post mortem and see what I am in for. Basically, if the cylinders look good I'll go the gasket/stud route provided the head and block are still flat (actually have a straight edge to check with by pure accident). Still need to do the timing belt anyway, OE unit is coming up on 12 years old.

Plan B if the block and/or head have issues, I'm leaning towards and bulletproofed block and loaded head from Pumaspeed, then acquiring the remaining parts domestically (likely Whoosh, and straight from Ford) and having a local(ish) shop assemble if the price is reasonable. Also toying with the idea of just assembling it myself. While I haven't assembled an engine before, I've watched it done many many times (shout out to the Power Block on Saturdays when I was a kid, Engine Masters, Roadkill, etc.), and I have years of assembly experience with large industrial centrifugal pumps, so I have experience with measuring bores, turns, checking clearances, end play, etc.

I'll be putting together a spreadsheet with approximate costs, but my guess would be going piecemeal and building it myself should be cheaper, but if the math says otherwise I'm not against just pulling the trigger on a fully built long block from Pumaspeed, just need to squirrel away the funds. And because I like to collect ST parts I'll keep my engine and just pay the core. (as I learned with my transmission, never hurts to have a spare)

My thinking is if the engine has to come out, no sense in putting a stock or close to stock unit back in as the ST is ~95% track duty these days, with the other 5% being shake down/trouble shooting miles in preparation for said track duty.

 

[Grsemky]

Throw one of these bad boys in while you're at it...

 

[arlisscm]

Throw one of these bad boys in while you're at it...

That's kind of the plan. The Pumaspeed bulletproofed block is closed deck as well.

 

[arlisscm]

Small update:

Basically convinced myself at this point to just throw caution and finances to the wind and order a fully done black top competition crate engine from Pumaspeed, swap it out and do a post mortem on my engine later.

Seems to me that a fully built engine is inevitable with the use case for my ST these days, so why not just do it now? It's only money at the end of the day. And I fully intend to keep the ST forever, so ROI is of no consequence to me.

Now, I'm for sure going to keep my stock unit, take a look and see what went wrong, and go from there on a 2nd long term engine build as a spare (or maybe find something else to drop it in).

Just figuring out the logistics of things, but I'll be sure to periodically update here when I have any major updates.