Hi i have read that a St170 engine is just a fancy zetec however has slightly stronger bottom end ..

Basically my blacktops thrown a rod after just 1000 miles in the tiger

I have a good head with cams and wondered if an st170 bottom end could be used ?

If so could you also mention if i would have to make any changes ?

Thanks

No idea but why not just get another Blacktop to put in the car. They are plentiful and cheap, only £700 brand new. had one in mine now for 4 years, great engine.

Why has yours thrown a rod. This is normally down to over revving or oil starvation.

This was a new one witch adds to the pain of it happening only did few hours mapping ect + 1100 miles after that

Rev limiter was at a safe limit ..

I do have a hunch on why it threw a rod but i wont say anything on here until i have a look

I'm sure I read that that's the best combination if your running a zetec

Buy a second hand one that has been well run in - my Blacktop has accidentally been over 8k a couple of times and survived intact!

Stu

I know zetecs are bulletproof normally my old silver top had no rev limit and leaked a fair bit of oil i gave it everything i could and despite being a pre 95 it still kept going

Stu.... I have a hunch why it threw a rod but rather not say yet incase im wrong (Not looked at it yet ) but are you saying as it was new and not exactly run in this could have cause the problem ?

Ryan

And if you need an st170 bottom end drop me a u2u I have one knocking around

Engines have rev limits for a reason, granted most Ford ones have a big margin but I would fit ARP rod bolts on all builds for insurance as its usualy them that let go
Cast pistons usualy have a rev limit of close to 8k before the lands give way, there are some calculation program's on the web for stroke, rod length and angle vs revs.
Why over rev an engine if its making peak power at say 6k

I had a Silvertop several years ago that was well modified. Scholar head, Kent FZ2002 cams and springs etc, 2.1 rebore, ARP bolts, fully balanced assembly. Made about 205 bhp at 7150 rpm thus I limited it at 7300 rpm. Why rev any more even though it should have been safe to about 7600 rpm, would not give you any more power.

Due to an oil pump problem the oil filter popped the "O" ring and I lost all the oil, this happened at over 90 in third on the track, not popular with other track users. Simply refitted "O" ring and refilled with engine and all seemed OK but by the time I got home (50 miles) it was knocking, on investigation it had damaged no's 2 and 3 big ends. Need a regrind and shells. Tough engines these Zetec's.

With regards to running an engine in its not necessary like it was way back in time. Drive it normally from day one, don't keep the revs constant, don't rev it unnecessarily and don't labour it for the first 500 miles or so, more important don't baby it, that will just glaze the bores.

I don't believe my engine went due to over revs it was set at 7500 rpm with arp bolts peak power at 6950rpm and i rarely went to 7 k

Anyway i cant tell you why it has gone as ive not expected the engine it started knocking at 65mph the only reason i did not stop was i wanted to make the junction to avoid PC plod getting me recovered (Would cost more than a zetec anyway) half a mile later coming up the exit ramp bang but i got home for nothing so im not to fussed ...