Perchance to dream, to be alive in the world of DSM and men. To dream that all your sweat , your love and patience isssue forth from the moment the dsm machine. roars to life, eleciting at least one, "Holy Shit!!!!"

I should have asked was the thrust part of the bearing flattened? In the 6 bolt thrust bearing pics that MidShipCivic posted in this thread, you can clearly see that the flywheel thrust part of the bearing is 'flattened'. In the 7 bolt motor that I tore down the TB's look almost identical...

I always use inexpensive non-detergent oil for the first 150 miles. For one thing Royal Purple is what? $15 bucks a quart? I use the cheepo oil because when I first fire up a rebuild, i might have screwed up and I get coolant in the oil. I do not think that the type of oil has a lot to do with...

Jeremy, First off I am sorry this happened to you. But I have just built a 7 bolt with a new Topline Crank. I had it inspected by a very excellent machinist (who did my block work). He said it checked out fine. I had him farm out the block to another machinist who "aligned honed" the mains with...

I have a Stage 5 1G head that has a pinhole leak in #4 exhaust bowl/port. See photo. The pointed tip of the Phillips screwdriver is right at the pinhole. I need someone who can fix it. I'll pay you good money, but you must have good references. The head is custom crated and ready to ship...

Take the head off and have the machinists double check it. But I stand by my original statement, there should be minimal leak down through the seal of the valve to the seat. In an ideal world there should be no leak down, but then we all know this world is not real or ideal. It is just a...

I believe you should know already what performance characteristics that you expect to get from your upgrades ands mods. Most folks say, "Oh! I want 400 HP" things like that. If you are going to 272 cams, in and out, I would say that you are going to use 1mm OS valves, right? Don't waste your...

My machinist talked me into it. His argument was this: Before he bored out the cylinders to .040" over (with torque plate) he wanted to be certain that the mains bore angle was true to the angle of the cylinders. He claimed this was essential in an engine that was going to have the rotating...

I should think not. Back where I come from (England) the last thing we would do on a valve job is hand 'lap' the valves. Before installing the valves, springs and all, we would apply a little light rubbing compound to the valve seat. Then after inserting just the valve and a drill to the valve...

Gold Diamond, The message I was trying to get across is that it probably is not a tuning issue. Other than looking a little oily, the valves look normal. Not black and sooty, not pure off white either. There is some hardened grey/whitish carbon deposits on the valve. What I think is that the...

Well, strangely enough I have taken several dsm virgin (factory) clutch's apart and never found any evidence of thread lock on the flywheel bolts. The trouble with red Loctite is that when it reaches a certain temperature the compound hardens too much, making it impossible to remove them. That...

I am using Manley valves and springs too. My shims are underneath the valve locator seat. Your photo shows a valve locator seat, not a shim. I too had a couple of the ARP nuts only just clear the spings. Nothing to get me rattled though. The head worked fine until the a pinhole leak occurred in...

Not likely. A lean (extra heat) condition causes carbon deposits to become hard and brittle, grey/whitish in color. The hardened carbon acts like a glow plug and can cause pre-ignition on the next compression cycle. Guess no one likes the valve "float" theory, huh? It is scientific and is...

I have to agree, I have spent close to $15K and three years on my 1G. I finally got it running only to discover my $1700 Stage 5 head had a pinhole leak in an exhaust port. Three weeks later I was diagnosed with terminal cancer! So you are right DSM's are cursed.

Well detonation is also known as pre-ignition, meaning that the air fuel mixture detonates for some reason and not at the prescribed tuning, say 5 degrees BTC. When the AFR is lean the resultant gases reach a higher temperature and even little bits of hard white carbon glow hot enough into the...

We need a photo of the cam sprocket alignment with # 1@TDC, then you look at the crankshaft pulley notch and it should be exactly 0 TDC. The CAS should be set at that time also. You can not tell if the final timing is right until the base timing is set correctly. I am assuming you want to set...

There is no visual evidence of overheating, so I'll rule that out. If you look at the corresponding notch on the piston crown is there evidence that the valve hit it? If so timing might have been off. Stock valves, right? Were you thrashing the engine, over revving it? Valve "float" at high rpms...

There are many kinds of pipe sold by McMaster-Carr that specify velocity factors. Velocity is as important as volume, especially if you are running a 2G head. Ram air is difficult when used with a turbocharger. My thought is, yes, the cooler you can keep the intake air and the cooler the intake...

Are the injectors firing? After cranking can you smell gas at the exhaust tip? You will need to check all the basics yourself if you bought the car non-running. You cannot trust people these days. If the injectors are firing and you have good spark on all four and good compression (140-150...

My introduction to DSM's was through a guy I knew who was ready to take a 1993 FWD Talon to the junk yard. He was leaving town and needed cash. I gave him $400. It was only worth $50! I felt pride in myself for deed of civic duty. $15000.00 later and I still have not gotten the car on the road...

You might like to know that Clevite was bought out by Mahle. I agree on ACL bearings, especially their 'Race Bearings', that do not have the final sintered layer. I like Mahle pistons, Eagle rods and stock cranks unless you want over 400 HP.

Man, I hate to hear about this stuff. I just got ripped on a used cylinder head. I have an email from the guy saying there are no dings or dents on the gasket surface, yet the first thing I saw were irreperable dents right on the fire ring. People who do this sort of thing should be prosecuted...

Thanks Bogus SVO. Can you recommend a welder to me?

I agree. Good forged pistons, do not need oil squirters. There is nothing bad about high oil pressure, other than it can blow gaskets and seals. You should always use a good external oil cooler on any performance engine. I don't eat at Burger King and I do not buy parts from Car King!!

I think what is just as important as to what parts to use, is the machine work that must be done to the block. Boring must be done with a torque plate, as should the mains align hone. The align hone is critical on a 7 bolt. I wish I had done a 6 bolt. But I put Eagle Rods, Mahle pistons and...

Well, Jason of Performance CNC, that did the work, did offer to fix it for free. But then he told me he pressure tested it before he sent it back. I suppose that it could have popped the moment I fired it up. The reason I don't trust his work has to do with another issue I posted about this...

I had Bob Pake (Pakes Machine Shop) pressure test it. It is the only leak. Over all I was pretty happy with Jason's CNC port work, except as you say, he may have taken too much out of the bowl. It fired and ran awesome with 272 cams. Until I saw the coolant coming out of the manifold flange on...

Please see the attached photo and give me your opinion on whether or not it can be welded. The tip of the phillips screw driver is right on the small hole.

I would replace the water pump for sure. Probably the oil pump too. New pistons and rings. Keep it all oem/stock. If you measure the cylinder diameter and it is still within specs you can do a light cross hatch hone to help the new rings seat. I would also replace the main bearings and the rod...

It sounds like your engine is misfiring while de-accelerating. How many miles on the motor? If it is a 7 bolt 4G63, the chances are that there is excessive crankshaft endplay. The valves are probably shot and you may have a blown head gasket. The best test you can do to verify the integrity of...

Most timing belts fail around 130K-150K. On the 4g63 interference motor this can trash valves and pistons. Do a compression test and preferably a leak down test. Or check the amount of blowby gases coming out of the valve cover egr. This will tell you how worn the piston rings and/or valves are...

If you have read some of my recent posts, I just had to take the 1G head off my 7 bolt because the guy that did my head work screwed up and did not pressure test it before sending it back to me. Any way, I had to take the transmission mount and driver side mount out and tilt the motor up in...

Both the head surface and the block deck must be better than 50 RA's. That is what Cometic recommend.

I just bought a genuine Cometic Head Gasket on EBay. Its the real deal, made in the USA. Many reputable Race shops like Maperformance, sell on EBay. Just don't buy one that has no known brand name, or has a location like Hong Kong!

Nice comments, thanks. I am going to have my Manley valves and springs installed in an unported IG head (after it has been pressure tested!). Can you give me some advice on gasket port matching? The intake is ok but my exhaust manifold has bigger port holes than the cylinder head. Oh! I...

Just wanted to share my 1G Stage 5 cylinder head saga. Got my motor running a couple of weeks ago, only to discover coolant blowing out of the O2 bung hole. Traced it back to a small hole in #4 exhaust port bowl about 10 mm down from the valve seat. Impossible to weld. The man who did the...

I went with a stock crankshaft, Eagle rods, Mahle pistons and ACL Race bearings. Good for 400 HP+. You must make sure that the Thrust bearing walls on the crankshaft have been machined true. Everybody worries about crankwalk.

A new clutch should grab and hold torque right away. There is some thing wrong in your clutch system. You say the pedal does not clear the safety switch? That is right on the floor. You should have to push the clutch pedal to its most downward limit before the car will start. When hydraulic...

I went with a Gates kevlar belt. Excellent quality, will not stretch. If you want to use a solid tensioner, use the Gates. Cost me $160.

Air intake velocity is important to low-mid end torque. I choose to use the JDM Cyclone intake, for its dual runner design. Keeping the velocity of the air going into the ports is tantamount to low end torque. All those huge surge tank intakes are great for high end torque but do nothing fo...

I do some times get things "bass ackwards"! I can tell you that "aligning" the 7 bolt mains cap girdle is a complete mystery to me. I tried tapping it fowards and backwards before tightening the arp bolts. It did not move a single thousandths. Once its in there, its in there. I did pay a...

Couple of questions for you. One. Are you saying that lack of lubrication to the crank thrust wall is the root cause of premature thrust bearing failure? Second. How long does the graphite coating last and how many thousandths do you allow for its thickness? I examined a 4g63 with over 0.075"...

May I suggest that you read the threads guys have written about MLS and SGE gasket problems. There is a big debate about whether or not to use copper spray sealant on MLS gaskets. I just installed one in my 350 HP fwd project car without sealant and have not yet road tested it. Apparently they...

You know valve seating issues or burnt valves can cause misfires. If I was you, I would do a compression check on all four cylinders (with the engine hot). If you use cams that have more lift and duration, you really should use adjustable cam sprockets. You can fine tune the engine by...

Well, I have never heard of "rich knock". Knock is also known as "ping", also known as pre-detonation. Whatever you want to call it, it is caused by the air/fuel mixture igniting before it is supposed to, causing the piston/rod assembly to be shoved downwards. If this occurs before about 10...

Ok. I am an electronic technician. A 500 mA drain is a little high but not unusual. Most ecm/ecu's draw that much. A fully charged car battery should be able to supply that for months before becoming fully discharged. So you have some other problem you have not mentioned. Would...

Are the fuel injectors firing? The ECM uses the CAS signal to generate ignition and fuel injector pulses.

Get a set of Bilstein shock absorbers.

1998 GST uses a CAS (Camshaft Angle Sensor) for ignition timing right? So what would "crankwalk" have to do with it? Only engines with a Crank Angle Sensor run poorly when crankshaft end play becomes excessive.

To answer your question. Yes! the cranking is continous until either the engine starts or you let off the key. I am not sure about the 4g63 starter, but some toyota starters stop spinning if there is no resistance against the bendix gear. I think your real problem is why is the car not...