Wasnt there a guy in Ghana who converted CIS engine to LH? I was hoping to go that route, reusing intake and harness from the 4.2 and pick up the ECM from evilbay. Alternatively, I could use the CIS, quite familiar with it, also with its shortcomings. One good thing about CIS its a self adjusting system more airflow = more fuel (stroker, could also be adapted for FI). Good to know you can tune the LH ECM.
I think you could do this, but as I said, this is a serious masochist project. You will be way, way ahead selling the .960 engine and buying a .97x engine. I forgot about the Ghana Guy (
link), but remember, he did that because he literally could not get a .97x where he lived in Africa. You can get one, it will just cost more up front, but save you huuuuuge amounts of time and money later on. Also, he did not convert to LH, he kept it CIS. Note Ghana Guy's post #9, where he said: "
Hindsight is 20-20, and now I profoundly regret using a 119.960..." Just because you
can do it, doesn't mean you
should.
Boring and alusil the block is probably out .Dont think I have anybody within reasonable distance who could do it. Was thinking about custom rods and original pistons. Not the best compo as far as rod ratio, but tall deck should keep it still reasonable. I can turn 117 crank myself to make it fit 119 block. ... I have noticed, the 117 5.6 and 119 5.0 tall deck have the same bore and rod length. Possibly using 117 pistons with machined pockets for 4 valve heads with shorter rods from 4.2 would do the trick? Anybody tried that combo?
I've never researched this, so I'm not sure what will work. Machining 117 pistons sounds like a waste of time and money, with high levels of risk. If you are going far enough to install a stroker crank, shell out for new custom pistons. You can design those to work with stock length rods.
I like 722.6 way better then 722.3. You can customize the shifts to your engine, or/and get manual shifts , better acceleration , top speed, and fuel economy. Tuning OLF controller is pretty easy. Done one on 500hp om606 and love it. There is cost to it, but well worth it in my book, if car was a keeper. May run it with 722.3 initially and see how I like the v8 over turboed I6

.
Totally agree, the 722.6 is a massive improvement over the 722.3 in many ways. But it's a lot of work and $$$. As I said before, the ROI is questionable vs the benefts. Tiny improvement in acceleration, top speed we can't use anywhere in North America, and like 1mpg better economy. Don't get me wrong, I love this concept and wish I had it in my cars, but the LOE required.... oooof.
FI, yes space under the hood is at the premium. Probably blower in the v, a la M113K would be the best option. Anybody adopted that blower to 119?
I've never seen this done. I assume there are some size / packaging issues with the M113K blower fitting on the M119. If possible, this would totally be the way to go. High cost, tons of labor, insane amounts of custom fabrication of everything, but the potential end result could be amazing.
Not sure what kept RENNtechs turbo power down, but we know that engine is capable of serious turbo power . Sauber was pushing over 800HP out of 5.0 119 and it lasted 24hrs of La Mans.
Sauber's build was kind of an apples & oranges thing. About the only thing on that build which is the same on the production engine was the block, maybe? It did prove the engine was capable of surviving those power levels, but making those power levels in the first place is a different story.
Cooling would be addressed with thicker rad , cooler Tstat, high flow electric fan, and oversize full flow oil cooler. I have a blown E46 M3 track car pushing over 600hp (almost double the stock power) and that strategy works well.
This mention of a "high flow electric fan" sounds very easy to type. In reality it's very difficult to pull off due to limited space with a stock radiator, let alone a thicker one. Almost all aftermarket electric fans that fit, are unable to move enough air for this application. The best solution I've seen so far is using a mid-2000's OE MB variable speed fan, with an aftermarket controller. Someone posted about this recently on the forum. Not cheap, but it just might work. I want to try this setup on one of my cars and see how it works. Need to locate the donor fan from a junkyard first.
Are performance cams available for 119?
I've only seen regrinds available from Dbilas and Hagmann. Nobody, that I know of to date, has posted before & after dyno graphs for these on any M119. Claimed gains are surprisingly modest. I always wanted to try a set on a 5.0L engine but the cost of sending 4 cams to Germany and back was prohibitive. And, there was some concern about the increased lift causing problems with stock springs, ditto for reduced base circle. I'd like to get more info on this but it was a several thousand dollar gamble that I couldn't bring myself to roll the dice on.
Whats the max rpm of 119 with the usual valve train upgrades (stronger springs, Ti keepers, may be solid lifters conversion)?
I don't know. Stock M119 is fine to 6650rpm but I don't know the limits beyond that, or what RPM the LH-SFI (or CIS) is limited to. Based on my past research, there seemed to be better ROI in professionally porting the intake side of the heads, rather than spinning to 7000+rpm. High RPM makes more sense for a race engine that lives on the track spinning up there all the time. Total waste on a street engine. Solid lifters may not be worth the hassle either. This is pretty esoteric stuff that even RENNtech almost never used. I heard of one M119 6.0L build of theirs with solids. Maybe two.
I will keep my eyes out for .97X donor for a while yet, until some other projects are out of the shop, but hope to use what I have.
Sounds good. Keep us posted!
