Engine's Out! Winter build has started

[Chris@Rvengeperformance]

hey anyone know of a good intercooler core that I can swap my cxracing one for? I'm happy with the piping, but would like a spearco, ets, bell, treadstone, pte, etc type of intercooler. Should be pretty simple to find one. I think the core is 24" by 12" by 3" on this, with the overall width about 28". I don't want to go thicker, just more efficient. I could go a little wider, but the pipes would have to be cut and re-flared.

There may be enough give to go 26" wide on the core without changing the pipes. I have no oil cooler on the drive side, so I have a lot of room to move the pipes around.

[Chris@Rvengeperformance]

hey can anyone recommend a good ring filer? what is a decent stock replacement ring pack?

you are supposed to use a 300 grit hone for stock style rings, correct?

I'm looking at a simple tool like this since i'll only need it once:

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/PRO-66785/

[Ninja Performance]

I don't know yet, it really depends on the condition of the bores. If I can get away with a light hone and just new rings I'll probably not need machine work. I have some bore gauge tools to inspect the bores, I'm going to blueprint them the best I can and see if they are out of round.

The crank I have now is already micro-polished from a machine shop and it has already been checked out to be std. std. The only thing I'm concerned about are the rods. I'm sure they could use resizing, but if I am going to go to that trouble I'm going with the spool/3sx rods.

I'm going to look at the rod bearings and if they are worn evenly I'm going to put the new crank in and plastigauge. If I get between .0015 and .0025 I'm not going to get much more excited about it. It isn't like I'm pushing the limit of anything and I'd rather take my chances on the stock machine work than get it screwed up. Clevites came out to .002 last time when I swapped them out, so unless this crank is a lot smaller I should be okay.

I'm definitely not going to grind the crank. This engine has never spun a bearing, had good compression, and good leak down so I really don't think its going to need too much work.

I would shoot for 20 on the mains and rods. Resizing the rods is pretty cheap as are spool rods.

You may want to shore up the girdle with these, it is what was on my setup when I was 2 bolt.

ARP 6G72 91-92 TT 2 Bolt Main Studs (NP2boltmains) - Ninja Performance - Affordable Performance

-Chris

[Chris@Rvengeperformance]

thanks for the info, do you sell the spool rods?

I got the rear turbo and manifold off. Laughably easy with the engine out. Anti-seize pays off. After I broke the nuts loose all the studs screwed out with my fingers. Everything is good so far. I got to inspect the damage to my rear stub shaft mounting bolt holes up close. I actually stripped one of these out and broke a corner off another a few years ago. The bottom one I was able to helicoil, but top one has basically been 3/4's of a bolt hold for a long time.

Probably going to drill it out and put in a timesert. There are a lot of good threads deep down. I can post some pics later. If nothing else I will have to weld the boss back up or use my backup block.

I'm probably going to break the whole thing down Saturday.

The rear coolant drain is frozen, should I heat it up or lust leave it alone?

[TurboSinceBirth]

I made my own ring filer tool using some 3" grinding discs and scrap steel. You could either do that or buy one. You just want a straight/uniform file on the end which isn't too hard to achieve.

[Chris@Rvengeperformance]

Here you guys can see the bolt boss I was talking about:



haha valve cover gasket anyone?



bye bye 19t:





bye bye shit stock manifold (trying to get in on gilbert's group buy for his badass header) No cracks in this one at least.





Only worked about an hour tonight, saving the head pull for my friend because he wants to see how it all goes together. He's new to working on cars and I'm trying to teach him some things.

I was able to get the front block drain open, so I'm going to leave the back one alone for now. I don't really want to twist it off.

[Ninja Performance]

I made my own ring filer tool using some 3" grinding discs and scrap steel. You could either do that or buy one. You just want a straight/uniform file on the end which isn't too hard to achieve.

Nice cheap tool for something you could spend lots on. The nice grinders allow you to set the amount of the cut which is nice.

I usually just use a file.

-Chris

[Ninja Performance]

thanks for the info, do you sell the spool rods?

I got the rear turbo and manifold off. Laughably easy with the engine out. Anti-seize pays off. After I broke the nuts loose all the studs screwed out with my fingers. Everything is good so far. I got to inspect the damage to my rear stub shaft mounting bolt holes up close. I actually stripped one of these out and broke a corner off another a few years ago. The bottom one I was able to helicoil, but top one has basically been 3/4's of a bolt hold for a long time.

Probably going to drill it out and put in a timesert. There are a lot of good threads deep down. I can post some pics later. If nothing else I will have to weld the boss back up or use my backup block.

I'm probably going to break the whole thing down Saturday.

The rear coolant drain is frozen, should I heat it up or lust leave it alone?

I don't carry them, but I think I have a set of the 3SX rods in a box somewhere. Was saving them in case I blew this engine....but other more important things have come up.

The rear drain shouldn't break, have never seen or heard of one snap. Although anything is possible. You could apply a little heat to the block and not the bolt to help. NOT TOO MUCH HEAT, I have seen these blocks crack with applying heat - BE CAREFUL. Once it's cracked it's junk. I have seen skilled welders unable to successfully weld it back up.

Worst case there is a little coolant in there which will come out through the top end when you tip the block on the stand.

-Chris

[Chris@Rvengeperformance]

well I got the front head off:









The cylinders look pretty good to me. I do not think it needs a bore, only a light hone and new rings. You can see almost all of the original cross hatch.

The head shows some evidence of oil leakage in the 2 cylinders I've had issues with the plugs in. The #1 cylinder has a lot of carbon and showed the most valve stem seal leakage. The head gasket showed no signs of leakage and there is no sign of detonation, even though this engine has seen a lot of knock counts. Makes me wonder...

I'm going to break the rest of the motor down Sat. If the rest of it looks this good I'm going to clean the shit out of it, hone it and re-ring it here in the garage. Then if the new crank specs in good with my mains and rods I'm going to put it back together.

Hey Chris, how do you know when you are done honing? How many passes does it take. I remember you used to do this a bunch way back in the day.

[Ninja Performance]

Get a ball hone (if you don't already have one). It is the easiest to use deglazer/finisher and you literally can't mess up the bore with it. Spray WD-40 in the bore after you clean it. Ball hone attaches to a drill and as you spin it in the drill you push and pull it in and out of the bore. It won't take but a handful of passes to get a proper finish.



-Chris