Binary Engineering Blog

Let’s get going putting this back together!

So I dropped a bunch of stuff off at the machine shop. I’m using a local shop that did the machine work on Cascade Autosports EVO rally car motors. They’re not a cheap machine shop, and they want to build everything like a full-blown race motor – but I’m not made of money. They want to inspect everything, re-size everything, polish everything, and assemble everything – and charge for everything. I had to literally grab the work order and start crossing things off because I seriously couldn’t afford it all. I wanted them to do “machine work”, I’d check everything during assembly and if I found problems I could bring them in for fixing. But they keep saying “we should check that up front- we do better work than your able to do etc.”

Anyway the guy at the desk was trying to up-sell me to death and I felt like I was getting hosed. I had to call back later after I had originally left and talk to the actual owner/machinist to be clear on what we were doing and what the cost was.

After going through all this I can say there is comfort to be had from simply buying a built short block from a good shop like Buschur, AMS, or JAM. I am still stressed over this and wondering if I’ll regret skipping some of the 10 billion steps the machine shop wanted to go through. But in the end I’ll be into the stroker shortblock about $2200, where buying one costs $3500.

The reason I didn’t buy a built shortblock was because I’ve always wanted to build an engine. This will be my first, and as nerve racking as it is you don’t get experience until you do it. So well see how things go.

Looks like the parts will be ready from the machine shop on Friday. Wooo-Wooo. They said the head was in great shape and got the 1mm OS valves cut and are ready to put it back together.

I ended up having them fit the rods and polish the bearing surfaces just to be sure things are super-sweet. They are spending a little extra time getting everything balanced as well.

More parts came today. Main bolts and some flanges for fabricating the O2 and dump tube.

Picked up all the parts from the machine shop.

- Block was cleaned. The cold tank solvent ended up removing the factory paint. Did anyone else notice the inside of the block was painted? They had to work to get the paint out of the inside so it wouldn’t flake off and get in the oil pickup.

- Block was bored and decked. Mains checked.

- Pistons and rods were balanced part-by-part to match, then the entire rotating assembly including the flywheel and clutch pressure plate. Rod ends were checked and polished.

- Head was cleaned and glass-bead shot to remove carbon build up. Then faced. And a valve grind and cut for 1mm oversize valves. Then reassembled with BC valve springs.

Did others replace the freeze plugs after being holt/cold tank cleaned? I’m up in the air on that. I also need new deck pins as the originals got marred removing them with vise-grips by the machine shop.

I’m thinking going tank style on the engine compartment by painting the block grey and the valve cover olive drab.

Fresh paint. Cast Iron Grey for the block. I’m going to use flat olive drab for the valve cover, and do some lettering in Army Tank fashion.

A couple pics of the balanced components. The pistons were within .60 grams of each other from Wiseco. The machine shop made them within .10 grams by removing a little material on the underside of the three heavy ones. Now the set is matched.

They did the same thing to the rods by sanding the inside surfaces of the H-Beam’s.  As well as the ends a touch.

Next up is to test fit the crank and grind the clearance areas in the block. Then spin down the balance shafts on the lathe.

Did some work today on the engine. First I checked my main clearances and did a little mock-up to see where I needed to grind the block for rod clearance due to the 100mm crank.

Here’s the plastigage on the bearings – looking good .0020″ everywhere.

I didn’t want to lube everything up and do a full rotating assembly mock-up just yet so I kinda roughed things together for figuring the rod grindage to the block. AMS has a good picture on their website about grinding the block. They say you need to clear out two areas. To me it looked like I needed to clear 3 areas, although I didn’t do a full rotating mock-up to verify. So I decided I’d grind all three areas just to so I didn’t have to go back later. I masked off the block to keep the chips from getting into everything, it worked really well. I used a teardrop shaped carbide burr to rough the cuts and then a stone to finish up. A ball end cutter would work well also.

After that I went over to a friends house and fired up the lathe to spin down my balance shaft. I lobed off the back section and then spun off the counter weights. This is pretty much the same as the AMS race balance shaft, they spin it down a little more but I was fine with this. It cost me roughly $4 which was the amount I paid for a cheese burger, fries and a coke because I was hungry on the drive to my friends house a savings of $296 over the AMS part.

I measured my piston-to-wall clearance yesterday with my ghetto calipers and snap gauge at home and came up with .001″. I had instructed the machine shop to bore to .0025″ clearance and expected them to measure the pistons first to get the required bore.

So I’m bringing home some better tools to remeasure. I’m really hoping that I don’t come to the conclusion that my clearance is .0010″ because I’ll have to take the block back to the machine shop. Then explain that they got the bore wrong, listen to them try and tell me why it’s right. blah blah blah.

I remeasured the piston-to-wall clearance with proper 0.0000″ accurate digital calipers.

First I measured all the pistons, they were spot on the same diameter. I took that dimension = 3.3640″ and then zeroed the calipers.

Next I took the snap gauge and fit it in the cylinder bore, wiggled it until I felt it was centered and locked it into place. Then I carefully extracted the snap gauge and measured it with the zeroed calipers…

Bingo 0.0025″

‘ll be checking the rod-to-crank clearances tonight, and maybe file the rings to fit. I need to spend a couple of days degreasing all of the external engine components before I put them back on as well.

Checked the piston pin to rod fit – they were perfect, an absolutely no wiggle slip fit.

Installed the rods and bearings on the crank one at a time and used plastigage to check the clearance. Everything came up a perfect .0020″ sweet.

Next up is the big degreasing effort. I’ll get to filing the piston rings this weekend.

So I have all the balance shaft bearings, freeze plugs, and deck pins on order… And I just ordered the following:

Extremepsi (good for piecing stuff together and always in stock)
- 2.5″ Aluminum mandrel bends ( 180 and 90) to fab a lower IC pipe.
- 2.5″ silicone hump couplers for IC pipes
- Stiffer wastegate spring, mine came with a 5lb, so I’m adding a 10 lb for a total of 15lbs.
- 15 ft of silicone vacuum hose for wastegate and BOV

JEGS
- 12 inch reversible Slim-Line Fan

I still need:
- Hardware for just about every flanged joint
- 1.5″ SS tubing for dump tube
- SS tubing to fab stupid right angle radiator hose
- OR new radiator.
- Better IC, my stocker is not feelin’ the GT3076, or so it tells me. This may wait til after the cars running.

I spent most of Saturday degreasing parts. Things like the oil filter housing, cam sensor housing, oil pan bolts etc were covered in grime. I got through most of the parts, I still have a few left though. I’ve got some pics I’ll load of the 3 stages of simple green tubs used. Pretty much every external bolt and bracket needed to be cleaned.

Some of the grime was from my breather filter mounted directly to the valve cover. I’m going to fabricate a catch can. I was looking forward to building something (the catch can) on Sunday but I got distracted by how messy the top of my tool box was along with the work bench – and I spent the whole day organizing the entire garage.

Here’s a picture of my degreasing setup. Brake parts cleaner is more aggressive and takes less scrubbing then simple green. But I had to do so many parts I didn’t want to be swimming in brake parts cleaner all day. So I used the simple green in the tubs with a brush and broke out the brake parts cleaner only on the bad stuff.

That oil filter housing SHOULD be bright silver, it’s got an 1/8th of an inch of grime all over it {thumbdwn} . Remember this picture when later on you see that part again – it’s silver again{thumbup}

More parts came today. This fan SUCKS and BLOWS like crazy, we tested it at work.

Knocked out a couple freeze plugs tonight. I’m hoping to finish degreasing, replace the freeze plugs, get the balance shafts handled (the upper eliminated) and file the rings this weekend. Then I can spend the following weekend assembling the bottom end and not get sidetrack half-way through it. Once I start the assembly I want to be able to finish it.

‘m replacing the freeze plugs for a couple reasons.

1. I want to make sure the cooling passages are free from metal chips from all the machining work. Typically shops require the plugs be out so they can do a proper cleaning after machining.

2. The cold tank solvent used on the block was really aggressive. It ate the paint right off. I was worried that it may have taken some of the finish off the freeze plugs making them more likely to rust over time.

3. It only costs like $10 to replace them all.
4. THIS WAS A BAD IDEA – ONE OF THE NEW ONES LEAKED. AND THE OLD ONES WERE FINE!!!!!

A few notes on the freeze plug install from tonight.

- The plugs at the end of the block are really tough to get out because there isn’t enough room inside the block for them to rotate. It was a bear. AND THIS IS THE ONE THAT ENDED UP LEAKING.

- The new plugs were pretty tough to get in. I slammed the living piss out of them to get them seated.

More parts came. Some bends for lower intercooler piping, I still have a 180 degree bend coming as well along with some couplers and a stiffer wastegate spring.

Alright Suckas :p …

HKS 264 cams are up for sale – and I’ll grab some Kelfords. As I see it the following individuals are responsible… and will need to buy some seat brackets.

- hokiruu: for being worried about the results with HKS cams vs. the awesomeness of the build.
- RallySport (Ben): for having swapped out his HKS cams during his 2.3L GT3076 build.
- justboosted02: for swapping out his HKS 264’s in his 2.3L Gt3076 and providing DYNO evidence of the improvements.
- wshishnevo: for pointing out that now is the best time to swap out cams, and justifying it with time spent vs money saved.
- sabastian458: posting how great other cams are, and having a similar setup.

I’ll look for your guys orders

:beer:

Well it was one of those days yesterday…. where crap goes wrong.

Trying to get the balance shaft bearings out I was struggling. There are allen set screws directly outside the bearings. And the bearing wasn’t budging, so I thought I may need to remove the set screws. BAD IDEA. The are made of weak material and seriously torqued in place. My allen wrench just spun inside them. So then I tried vise grips on the outside – that just collapsed it… great. So I grab an easy out broken screw remover. I drill a hole, thread in the easy out, start turning and BAM – The easy out breaks. Awesome, now I have a piece of hardened tool steel stuck in the bolt I need to remove; sweet. So an hour later and a handful of burnt drill bits and dull punches I get the thing out. I ruined the threads in the block though as my drilling kept getting deflect by the broken easy out. So I’ll need to up size it and tapped new threads. And then it turns out the set screws don’t even make contact with the bearings! I guess I’ll know what I’m doing next time.

I finally did get the bearing out it just took major banging with a big mallet.

Before all that carnage I did get the rings filed and fitted on the pistons.

Anyone who hasn’t seen this video, should. It’s a cool fast speed engine build.

Lots of pictures….

Here was me struggling to remove bolts that could have stayed in place. Don’t remove these!

What the front balance shaft bearing looked like after I beat the piss out of it. It being so hard to get out was what “screwed” me (thinking I had to remove the set screws).

Up-sizing the hole/threads since they got ruined drilling out the broken screw/easy out.

Pressing in the new bearing with the oil hole clocked away from the oil feed. Ugly bolt with RTV. Since the bearing covers the hole there’s really little risk of oil being there, but a little RTV to be sure. I may paint that bolt so I don’t look at it and remind myself of the carnage.

Back to the fun stuff. Grinding the piston ring end gaps.

Checking gaps.

Time to lube things up and start reassembly.

Crank in and spun around a few times.

Bearing Cap on, torqued, and thrust in spec!

These C-Clips are a pain to put in. The pain is mostly in my fingers -ouch!

Just tap it in.

Pistons in and ready to clean off all the extra oil.

Surfaces cleaned and head gasket on.

Buttoned up.

Now I can finish cleaning the oil pump housing and get all the motor externals back on.

Hey my oil squirters are uber close to the piston skirts. Any of you guys run into this. I might take the head off, pull the pistons and clearance for the oil squirters. I should have stopped when I saw the lack of clearance in that area, but i was all about making progress..

I ordered Kelford 272’s today. I also got a few more fabrication parts for the lower IC pipe and some other random hardware etc.

Here are some pictures of the oil squirters, it’s hard to get a clean shot but this gives you an idea.

What I’m thinking for the fix.

So I worked everything out last night. First I installed with just the washers. But the squirters were still closer than I wanted. So I did some bending as well.

- clamped the squirter in a vise and slightly bent it up with needle nose pliers.

- Then I bent the tip back with some pliers. If I didn’t do this the tip was too close to the piston pin boss area in the center of the piston.

Stock

Bent

I then re-installed with the bent squirters and the washers and checked clearance. I had bent one of the squirters too much and it hitting the crank counter weight. So I had to mellow the bend. It’s important to check everything!

Here’s a picture of the final deal.

Got a used Buschur FMIC today from the “for sale” area today {thumbup}

Buh-Bye stock intercooler{pcfreak}

Cleaned up the oil pump and took it apart and inspected the gears and clearance. Everything looked great so I lubed it up and put it back together. Here’s checking the gear clearance to the case with a feeler gauge.

So I put in new seals in the oil pump, blocked off the balance shaft hole and got to re-assembly. I was able to get the race balance shaft in, oil pump housing, water pump, engine mount, tensioner, main gear, and some covers back on.

Then it’s back in it’s plastic sleeping bag and off to bed for the night.

Tomorrow I’ll be looking to finish up that front side, get the cooling hoses and such back on, re-install the intake manifold, paint the valve cover – stuff like that. The Kelford 272’s should arrive on Tuesday-ish so I should be able to wrap up the engine on the stand by end of next week.

Made good progress today…

Sneaking in and putting the main seal housing on while it’s still on the stand :thumbup:

Waiting for the cams/timing belt. One of the pulleys is in the wrong spor kids…

Getting ready to put the oil pan back on.

Oil Pan on. It was SO dirty I had to scrub it down like a dirty pirate hooker. And removing the old gasket material is always super fun :thumbdown

Intake manifold ON.

Mmmm Flat Olive Drab.

A little photoshop preview of the valve cover “artwork”. I Like.

Just need the new cams now (Tuesday) so I can finish the prep on the stand and get the timing belt and covers back on.

I’m doing some test fitting of the turbo to get everything clocked correctly and the oil and coolant lines routed. While bolting the turbo to the manifold I noticed some hairline cracks in the manifold at the wastegate dump. So I had to beef up the welds.

Before.

After.

I’m going to build a bracket to support the turbo and tie it directly to the block. The mass of the turbo is simply too much to have hanging cantilevered off the manifold with no support. I’ll also create a support for the wastegate.

The Kelfords are waiting for me to pickup in the receiving department at work so I should have the engine wrapped up soon.

Kelfords arrived. I took a couple of measurements of my old HKS 264’s and the Kelford 272’s just for fun.

HKS 264’s lobe size = 35.8mm

Kelford lobe size = 36.4mm

HKS lobe radius = 10mm

Kelford lobe radius = 11mm

That combination of features, larger lobes with a bigger radius, is what makes the Kelford cams have more duration and lift.

Well I got the lifters all serviced and bled. I flushed them with diesel and then filled them with diesel to remove the air, which is bleeding them, and re-installed them. That’s what the manual said to do.

Once that was done it was no problem to install the new Kelford 272 cams, and get the new timing belt and the final external engine parts all bolted up.

Now I’m just finishing up fitting the turbo and building the support brackets. I was looking at my manifold some more and found more cracks. They were actually new cracks. I touched up a few hairlines splits in the main runners and that opened up new cracks in other places. So I went and fixed those. Then fixing one of the newest cracks created yet another one. This is a crappy pattern. At this point I’ve done all I can. I think I have them all patched up, but some of them were areas nearly impossible to get the torch head into.

I should be slipping it back into the car next weekend.

finished building a turbo support bracket. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. I used some .20″ flat bar stock and welded it together. It mounts to the block with 2 bolts and then picks up the turbine housing with 2 bolts. I hit it with a coat of the same engine enamel I used on the block.

Every turbo mounted to a tubular manifold should have one of these.

Got the used Buschur IC. It’s kinda beat up, but I got a good deal on it. I’m in the process of bending the mounting tabs trying to get it to line up and go on properly. I didn’t realize the inlet was 2.25″. My coupler from the turbo is 2.5″ and the tubing I have is 2.5″. So I’m just going to build a 2.5″ pipe that exits the turbo and then use a 2.5″ to 2.25″ coupler to connect to the IC.

I’ve also been fooling with coolant lines. I ordered some barbed banjo fittings as a backup plan. I’m trying to make the factory lines work with some bending. i can make the rear line work for sure. The front one is a little tricky.

The IC.

Reworked rear coolant line.

Mocking stuff up some more.

Tonight I’ll clean-up the engine bay in the car so it’s all pretty and ready for things to go back in this weekend. It will be sweet to have the motor back in the chassis again.

F.

I totally would have used that transitioned 5 bolt flange. I actually plan to do the same thing with a die grinder – it would have been easier to just buy that. I just discovered ATP turbo for fab parts yesterday, I actually have coolant banjo fittings and a silicone coupler coming that I ordered from them yesterday. They also have tight radius 3 inch mandrel bends, which would be ideal for the O2 housing. I got a larger radius bend and I think I’m going to have to do a JDM Ti style bend and cut a few tight sections and put them together.

I used ExtremePSI for most of my fab parts and random stuff, but I think ATP is a little better for the turbo specific stuff.

- I’m just going to dump the wastegate, I don’t feel like plumbing it into my downpipe. I thought about a bumper cutout for it, but I’m not sure I want black suet all over the side of my car.

- I’m definitely taking notes on the 02 housing. If I’m happy with it and you like we can figure out something for you fo_sho.

I spent some time wiping off dirt in the engine bay. I decided to remove all the insulation on the firewall as well. That’s always fun. I did it to the interior a few years ago. I just unbolted a few things and then started cutting it out section by section.

After.

I started grinding the O2 flange. This is as far as I got on a single compressor tank worth of air. The baby was asleep in her room above the garage – so I couldn’t let the compressor fire-up.

Where the magic happens.

After doing some thinking I didn’t want to compromise the O2 housing by having to weld a tight radius out of multiple pieces… so I ordered that tight radius 3″ tubing from ATP. You can never have too much mandrel bent tubing laying around!

I got the coolant line banjo bolts today, these connect to 3/8″ hose and are nice for building your own coolant lines. These were from ATP as well. I’m going to use this for the front line and keep the hardpipe in the back. It’s called a 14mm barbed banjo for those interested.

I went and had some vinyl cut for the valve cover and such.

balance shaft parts kits FYI…
MD103722 – Front Balance shaft bearing
MD040597 – Rear Balance shaft bearing
MD092785 – Balance shaft cap
MD098626 – Balance shaft stub
MD128107 – Balance shaft spacer