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1990 Eagle Talon Sleeper

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This post is long overdue. Life happened over the past few years. It has included a couple of moves, a second kid and our first home purchase. Other things occupied my time and free time in the garage didn’t happen as often. I have still been working on the car here and there; I just have not had time to edit those videos. In fact, I use a majority of my free time working on the car and I no longer plan to make videos due to the amount of time it takes to set up the shots and edit them. I will at some point fill the above posts with the content that I have already shot. While I wont be making videos, I will keep the blog here updated with pictures as I have before. Without further a due………..


Today I pulled out the block. I already measured the Piston to Wall clearance so its time modify the oil galleries, clearance the block for the Kiggly gidle and wash the block.
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Cleaning up the oil galleries with carbide bits and smoothing them out with sanding roles.
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Grinding off the “nubs” necessary to install the Kiggly girdle.
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I cleaned up the machine surfaces with a red scotch bright. Nothing to serious, just cleaning up the small imperfections from sitting so long.

Next it was time to clean the oil galleries. I use a small assortment pack of brushes from harbor freight and some brake cleaner for this step.
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For the main oil gallery, I made a man-pon with some string and one of the brushes so I could pull it from one end to the other.
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I also made sure to hit all the oil galleries, oil drain backs and bolt holes with brushes and brake cleaner. Don’t forget to clean the galleries running through each journal of the crankshaft as well.

After making a mess of things, I covered the block in simple green and washed the block with water. Immediately after, I blew the parts dry with compressed air and used WD40 to prevent the parts from rusting.

Piston ring end gaps were up next. Since I ran this motor for 4 years before I tore it apart, I really just want to see where they were. Below are the measurements I got. After checking my build sheet from 6 years ago, I originally set the gaps to .019 and .023. How they got to .023 and .027 I have no clue. I do not recommend running such wide gaps however; I had no issues compression wise or burning oil when I tore it apart so I am going to run them. According to factory specs, they are within the “service limit” so that’s my excuse. We shall see how it turns out.
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We will throw the block and crank in the parts washer tomorrow and start measuring bearing oil clearances.


Happy Boosting
 
I have been blueprinting this block for quite some time. The last measurements that I got for Piston to Wall clearance were far out of spec. I planned to have the block machined but before I did, I had to check again. I would end up measuring the PTW six different times on four different occasions, with and without the head torqued down, to find out that I had a faulty micrometer. At this point, my bore gauge is also suspect so I used a set of telescoping gauges and one measuring device (a Starett micrometer) to get my values. After finding the faulty tool and only using one measuring device, I got some better measurements.

These are the measurements that I got about 6 months ago. The left is the piston measurement, the middle is PTW with just the block and on the right is PTW with the head torqued down about 6 months ago.

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This image shows the piston measurements on the left hand side and the middle numbers were using a set of snap gauges. I ended up with .0040” - .0043” for PTW.

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This next image shows the difference between the snap gauge readings and the bore gauge readings using the same micrometer to measure/zero the tools.

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Next I pulled out the crank, measured the journals and took it out for a polish. I measured the journals when I got back and there was no change.

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I’m reusing the Weisco 1500 HDs from my previous build but they are in need of some cleaning.

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I started by identifying which piston belonged to which cylinder. Luckily my eagle rods are numbered so I just made note of them.

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I pulled the rings off and threw the pistons in an ultrasonic cleaner. It was filled with simple green, heated and ran for about 40 minutes per piston.

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While that was going, I started to final wash the block. Its amazing just how dirty something can be after being “cleaned”.

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With everything clean, its time to get some bearing clearances. I cleaned all mating surfaces, installed the bearings, assembled the main caps dry and torqued them using ARP moly lube in two equal steps to 60 ft lbs.

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To get our main clearances, we mic the OD of the crank and the ID of the main caps with bearings installed. The difference should be our oil clearances.

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Since I had issues with my bore gauge before, I also dry assembled the crank and used red and green plastigauge to check my measurements.

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Wouldn’t you know it, the bore gauge measurements are much looser than both plastigauge measurements. At this point, I believe the bore guage I have (or the tolerance of both tools) just isn’t cutting it. I’m rolling with the plastigauge and I even checked it twice.

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While the pistons where in the Ultrasonic cleaner, I threw in the old oil squirters. I then spray brake cleaner threw them, followed by compressed air and lastly some WD-40. Then they were re-installed with new crush washers and torqued to 23 ft lbs.

With our main bearing clearances known, we give the bearing surfaces one last cleaning, coat them in assebley lube and install the crank. ARP moly lube was used on the threads, washers and nuts of the main hardware and torqued to 60 ft lbs using the factory torque pattern.

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Lastly for the crank, we checked the endplay using a dial indicator and a pry bar. Move the crank one way, zero the gauge and then move it in the other direction. The reading is your endplay. (My measurement is a few images up with the main bearing oil clearances)

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Next up is the pistons. The faces of the bearing surfaces are in need of some touch up. We lightly used a red scotch brite pad to clean things up. This was followed by brake cleaner and compressed air.

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Even though I do not trust my bore gauge, I gave it another shot and measured the clearances using a micrometer and a bore gauge. I then slid the pistons into the cylinders with no rings and torqued them down to check my measurements. I got a reading of .002 with the red plastigauge which is much different than what I got with the bore gauge. I’m rolling with the plastigauge reading.

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With the clearances known, I installed the piston rings, clocked them per the instructions from Weisco, wiped the cylinders down with WD-40 followed by some Royal Purple ATF. I then used a generic piston ring compressor to install the pistons with the dimple facing the front of the engine.

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I torqued the rod bolts to 43 ft lbs using ARP moly lube.

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She is as smooth as butter and I can turn it over with my hand. Minus some paint and measuring the side to side clearance on the rods, this wraps up the short block.

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Happy Boosting.
 
good job on the turbo rebuild ...I've rebuilt hundreds and and this was a spot on tutorial ...only thing i would add is to take care with that compressor wheel as the fin tips are easily bent and damaged ...and for some one who has to replace one because of damage the whole assembly should be sent to be balanced

only got to 3rd page today ...thanks so much for this blog ...the tranny and diff work are going to be very useful as i am doing a total rebuild
 
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With the shortblock assembled and blueprinted, it’s time to move on to the cylinder head. I recorded many of the processes that I am about to explain in this post throughout disassembly. Until those videos get edited, I hope that this post will help.

We started with the general inspection of the cams, cam caps and cam gears. There was some slight wear on the cam lobes and cam caps but nothing that wouldn’t clean up with a scotch brite pad.
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While the valves were still installed, I filled each runner with water and waited 30 minutes to check the valves for leakage. I then used compressed air to blow air around the valve face and observed that runner for any bubbles. If water leaked out during the 30 minutes or if bubbles were observed when using compressed air around the seats, that valve was marked down as a bad valve with a red x
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Next we removed the valve springs, retainers, keepers and spring seats by placing a couple shop towels under the valves while utilizing Lisle 36050 and a deadblow hammer.
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The intake valves were pretty nasty considering the actual runtime since the last build.
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Next we inspected the seats for any signs of deformation and checked the valve guides for cracks. There were no apparent problems present.
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Since there was a lot of buildup on both the valve and the seats, it was time to clean them up. I covered the valve stems with several layers of masking tape and chucked them up in my drill. I then turned on the bench grinder and used the rotating force of both tools to clean the valves while ensuring that I do not stay in one single spot too long. The seats got a good scrubbing with carb cleaner and the cylinder head was sprayed down with low odor mineral spirits.
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Next up it was time to remove the valve seals. There are many ways to do this but I chose to make a purpose built tool for the job. It started with a set of valve stem seal removal pliers. They work but can easily slip off so I added a bead of weld to the end of the pliers to create a lip. I then ground it down to make clearance for the valve guide.

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Pulling and tugging gets old so I welded a nut into the hollow handle. I then added some threaded rod to the mix. For a makeshift slide hammer, I used an odd ball big socket I had laying around. I welded some fender washers to it and slide it over the threaded rod. I then threaded a nut onto the threaded rod and created a slide hammer tool to remove valve seals.
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With the seals out of the way, I measured the valve guide installed height. This is easily done with a set of Vanier calipers.
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After a lot of searching, I found a specification in the FSM.
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The 19.5mm is only listed once in this image. It is not posted anywhere else in the manual. If you think about it, this install height isn’t that crucial. I say that with a grain of salt but think about it, the face of the valve sits on the seat and should never contact the guide on the piston side. You could run into an issue on the camshaft side if the guide is taller spec and you have a high lift camshaft that could cause contact at peak lift. Since I had 0 issues and plan to run the same cams, I have no plans to correct my measurements. However, I will use them to calculate clearance between the top of the guide and the retainer at full lift.
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The last task to finish checking the guides is to measure the valve stem to valve guide clearance. I measured each valve stem a total of 6 times. The drawing below show the three vertical measurements that check for tapper. I then turned the valve 90 degrees and repeated those three measurements to check for out of round valves.

We measure the inside diameter of the valve guide using a set of half ball gauges and a micrometer. The difference between the two numbers is your clearance. I used the largest stem measurement with the ID of the guide to get the tightest clearance to insure there would be no interference issues.
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As you can see, Intake guides 1 and 3 need to be replaced. They are dangerously close to the service limit and are noticeably looser than the other valves. Exhaust guide number 7 is slightly over the service spec but well within the service limit. I am ok with it where its at.

Fast forward a year or two and we pull all of this back out along with some new goodies.
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The deck was never cleaner or checked so we cleaned up the deck surface with a razor blade and a red scotch brite pad.
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While the deck is nice and clean, I used a machinist straight edge and a set of feeler gauges to check the deck surface for flatness. Each line in the drawing (9 total) represents where the straight edge was placed on the deck surface. I used the smallest feeler .0015” and it did not pass through at any point.
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Lastly, we measured the oil gallery teardrop to insure it was deep enough. If you are unsure what I am talking about, just search oil port mod here on the site and there is a ton of information on the topic. The surface was ruff so I smoothed it out with sanding rolls, which in turn made the gallery slightly deeper. As long as I didn’t exceed .100” I was ok with it.

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I also checked the overall thickness of the cylinder head using the surfaces colored in red on the outside of the cylinder head in the below image.
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Since we have to get those valve guides replaced, we pull out all the oil gallery plugs, scrub them with a brass brush, flush them with carb cleaner and spray them out with compressed air.

We ran to the machine shop and had those guides replaced. I double check the new inside diameter of the guide and the valve stem to guide clearance is back in spec.

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Since we had issues with the valves leaking during the hydro test, I will check the seats and lap the valves as necessary.
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I applied a thin coat of Prussian blue to the face of the valve, inserted it into its guide and rotated the valve a few revolutions.

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After pulling the valve out, you should see a uniform contact patch around the seat.

Good Seat
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Bad Seat
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All valve stems are lubed before any lapping. Those that failed the Prussian blue test received course compound and then fine compound. Funny enough, the only seats that did not pass were 1 and 3 on the intake side. All others received fine lapping compound.
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After lapping, all seats passed the Prussian blue test.
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After the lapping, all valve stems were polished using a red scotch brite.
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I measured the valve spring installed height for the BC0100 springs when I tore the head down. The measurements to the right are the corrected measurements after I purchased a depth mic.
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Now it is time to measure them again for the Kiggly Beehives.
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I start by zeroing my Starrett depth micrometer using 1-2-3 standard blocks. I zeroed the mic at 2.0000”.
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The dial indicator was placed inside a Goodson valve stem height gauge and then used the depth mic to zero the dial indicator.
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Now insert the valve and use your dial indicator as shown to get your measurement. All of my measurements show up as negative numbers since the valve tip installed height is less than 2 inches.
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Next we pull out these sweet new valve springs, retainers and seats to get our other two measurements. I labeled each spring to correspond with a specific location.
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The next measurement we take is from the retainer to the valve stem tip. Install the retainer with two keepers and apply firm pressure. This will be subtracted from the valve tip installed height.
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The last measurement is the thickness of the valve spring seat. We measure this with a micrometer in multiple locations around the seat and then pair each seat with a spring.
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Next we perform a little math and get our spring-installed height. Kiggly calls for a 1.440” installed height to achieve 97lbs. I did change a couple seats around to get more uniform installed height.
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As you can see, I need to order some shims to bring the installed height to a more uniform range. After the installation of the shims, we should be within +/- .011 on installed height.

Happy Boosting
 

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This thread is amazing! Beautiful car as well! i am definitely going to be using the run through on the rear end this winter when i park my car as i believe its over due for some maintenance. as well as some guides for the motor since i will be pulling it and doing some minor repairs and trying to find the source of my higher then normal oil pressure!!
 
I have crammed a lot of work in over the past 10 days or so. While I was waiting on some parts from Kiggly, I cleaned the matting surfaces on the head with a white bristle disk.

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We then cleaned out the oil galleries with brake cleaner and compressed air before installing the oil gallery plugs with Loctite 567.

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I got my shims and a new can insulator from Kiggly.

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Using our measurements from the last post, I installed the appropriate shims into the cylinder head.

After that I placed a few shop towels under the valves and used my valve spring tool to install the Kiggly beehives.

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Next it was out with the old and in with the new. This Kiggly HLA regulator is a known improvement to keep more oil in the pan where it belongs and its shinny so I picked one up.

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We gave everything one last cleaning before calling it done and this is the final product.

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With the head done, it’s time to paint the block. Masking was made easy with a file and some masking tape. I then wire wheeled the block and wipe it clean with wax and grease remover.

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Before and after paint.

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I could not find my block to head dowel pins so I pulled out the spare block and borrowed the dowels from it.

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You really should check the flatness of your deck before you assemble your motor but for some reason I didn’t. I went ahead and checked it now before installing the head. The smallest feeler gauge I had (.001 in) did not fit anywhere.

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With all that checking out, I had some help installing the ARP head studs. I coated all the threads with ARP molly lube.

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While those were being installed, I hydro tested the valves since I lapped them in. I also sprayed compressed air around the valve seat while the runner was full of water to check for leaks. None of the valves leaked.

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After that we coated all contact surfaces of the nuts and washers with ARP moly lube. To avoid contacting the springs, the washers and nuts where placed inside the cylinder head before it was installed on the block.

We cleaned all the excess lube from around the head bolts. I pulled out the new Cometic gasket and installed it on the block. Cometic advises against any coatings so it was installed dry.

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Then the head was slipped on and torqued to 90 ft lbs in three equal steps using the pattern outlined in the FSM.

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Moving right along, I pulled out the front case and clean those matting surfaces with a white bristle disk. All the old seals were removed and the front case was filthy so it was cleaned with mineral spirits and sprayed down with compressed air. After cleaning with mineral spirits.

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Using the clearances in the FSM, I checked the Drive and Driven gear clearances using feeler gauges and a machinist straight edge.

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Continuing on from post 216....

All the clearances checked out.

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We gave all the parts a final wash using mineral spirits and began reassembly.

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I removed the rubber plug and reinstalled it using some red RTV.

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Then the rest of the seals where installed

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Lastly, the oil pump was filled with Moly lube, the gears were inserted and then more moly lube was added.

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I applied a bead of red RTV to the oil pump cover and torqued the bolts to spec using blue Loctite on the threads.

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Before throwing the front case on, I wanted to have the oil filter housing ready to go. This thing was filthy I tried cleaning with mineral spirits and used a white bristle disk in the gasket surfaces but you can only polish a turd so much.

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So, I masked it off and used VHT high heat primer and cast aluminum spray paint to freshen it up.

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After installing the front case and oil filter housing, this small portion of the front case looked funny so I masked off the part and sprayed it with the same paint.

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Most of the water pump is hidden and its not dirty at all so I threw it on without any paint.

The oil pickup tube was installed and torqued to spec using red Loctite.

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It was at this point I picked up a motor mount and noticed that all the remaining components looked absolutely horrid. I did not spend all this time making things look good to bolt this rust back on. I pulled out all the parts and decided to powder coat them.

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I started by cleaning all the parts with mineral spirits. I then media blasted all of the parts.

While the parts where clean, I added another weld bead to the oil pan since it leaked on the last build. I also drilled and tapped the intake manifold to have another boost/vacuum source.

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All the parts where then sprayed off using compressed air. I did this out in the yard to avoid getting any in the motor. I then brought the parts inside and washed them all down with mineral spirits really good and blew them dry with compressed air.

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I then brought them all inside and used various size plugs, high temp tape and tin foil to mask off the parts. The look on my Wife’s face was priceless!

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I used gloss black and chrome (more like a brushed aluminum color) to coat a majority of the parts. The accent color of Illusion Blueberry will be used on a couple of parts and those will be done later. Here are the results of the powder coating.

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With all the parts coated, we installed the brackets and timing components so that we can degree in the cams.

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Even though the cams were oiled and wrapped up, they still got discolored after being stored. I used a red scotch brite and some WD40 to clean the journals and lobes. Polished cam up front unpolished cam in the rear.

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The cams were then installed using engine assembly lube. The only lifters in place are the two solid lifters on the number 1 exhaust and number one intake valve.

I also installed test springs on these two valves to check piston to valve clearance while degreeing in the cams.

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I covered this entire process in the two below posts so this description will be a little more vague.

[URL="http://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/1990-eagle-talon-sleeper.427853/page-7#post-153496160”]Degreeing Camshafts Part 1[/URL]

http://[URL="http://www.dsmtuners.c...-7#post-153498000]Degreeing Camshafts Part 2[/URL]

Using a degree wheel, some measuring tools and some homemade special tools, I degreed in my camshafts.

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These are the opening and closing events with the cams installed “straight up”.

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Just in case I want to play with the cam timing at a later date, I checked the piston to valve clearance. I advanced the intake cam 16 crank degrees and got a clearance of .113”. The minimum is .080 on the intake side so I have some room to play with the intake cam if I decide too. The minimum for the Exhaust is .100 so I am good there too.

I decided to dial in these Delta HKS 272’s to the actual HKS cam specs since the lobe profile is very similar. The HKS made more since to me than the numbers provided by Delta. Below is the piston to valve clearance at 0, +16 and +4 on the intake cam.

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The same was done for the exhaust cam. I measured Piston to valve clearance at 0, went to a far extreme to see how much room I have for adjustment and then I dialed it in.

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These are the final valve events after dialing in the camshafts. I had to retard the exhaust cam 4 crank degrees and advance the intake 4 crank degrees to meet HKS Specs. All cam lock screws were reinstalled using red loctite.

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I tried to clean the old lifters using some kerosene. This would end up being unsuccessful as some of the check valves would not properly operate and allowed the lifter to be depressed with your finger even after filling with fluid.

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I ordered a new set of topline revised lifters to replace the old ones.

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We then bled the lifters of the shipping fluid, filled them with oil and then bled them again in preparation for instillation.

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Since I am using regrinds, I installed the supplied shims into each cylinder bore.

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I then replaced the test springs with the Kiggly valve springs.

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To stop anything from falling into the cylinder, I loosely installed the sparkplugs.

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Every part that makes contact with another metal part receives a coating of assembley lube. The lifters rockers and cams were all installed. The cam caps were torqued to spec following the FSM.

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At this point I got a little excited. I started bolting on shinny parts where they belonged and one thing led to another. I threw a valve cover on to keep trash out but this is where the motor sits right now.

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Happy Boosting
 
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I got a little ahead of myself setting shiny things on the engine so its back to reality.

I pulled out a brand new Gates timing kit that I picked up offline. I also grabbed my timing tool kit. I really just wanted to replace the belt since it was so old and I reused the OEM Mitsu Pulleys and tensioner since they had such low mileage.

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I applied tension, torqued the bolts, rotated the engine 6 times and waited 15 minutes to check the tension again. I also measured the distance between the tensioner body and the tensioner arm using drill bits per the FSM. I also rechecked the torque on all the bolts behind the timing cover and marked them with a paint marker.

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I got a little excited and painted my timing cover before realizing that it needed to be trimmed in order the fit the Fluidampr. Soooo, I pulled the timing cover off and trimmed the lower cover using a dremel tool with cutoff wheels and sanding wheels.

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I shot another coat of paint on the front cover and moved on to other odds and ends.

Next up it was time for the exhaust manifold studs. I pulled them all out and gave them a cleaning on the ol’ bench grinder wire wheel. I then installed using copper anti-seize. The one in the lower center stud hole received a coating of red RTV instead of copper anti-seize.

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Next it was time to test a theory. Some people have mentioned needing longer harmonic balancer bolts due to the hub of the fluidampr being thicker than the stock unit. That thread was really old so I decided to test the theory.

I grabbed the stock bolts, the stock harmonic balancer and the Fluidampr. With these parts in front of me I was able to take a measurement of both units with the stock bolts protruding through the hub.

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As you can see, the fluidampr has just as much if not a little more thread engagement than the stock unit utilizing the stock bolts. With that said, I threw the Fluidampr on with the stock bolts and some red Loctite.

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With the timing cover and pulley installed, you can now see the clearance made from trimming the cover.

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I threw on the motor mount, the water pump pulleys and the knock sensor and that just about wraps up the engine for now.

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On to the next thing, the engine bay. It was super dirty after sitting for two years and part of that time was outside while I was moving. With that being said it had to be washed. This is the cleaned engine bay. Of course, the sub frame and all those nasty looking parts will be yanked out soon enough for a makeover.

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After that she was pushed to a resting spot and my little helpers started to put her on jack stands.

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First things that needed to come off were the wheels. It’s surprising how well this went.

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Now it was time to start opening some parts that I have had for well over two years. (P.S. you can see a torn down throttle body sitting to the left. It has now been glass bead blasted)

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I opted to replace the stock cross member and lateral bars using a product from a supporting freelancer here on the site. @99gst_racer did some phenomenal work with these pieces and it included all the necessary hardware for the instillation. I promised him pictures years ago and well… Here are a couple pictures.

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Look at the difference between the stock pieces and these sleek looking replacements.

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Just to give you an idea of how long I have had some of these parts.

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Pics of the cross member installed.

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It was at this point that I realized the sub frame and other parts really needed to come out for powder coating before I continue. There is no way I can start putting dirty parts back into the bay now. So until next time…… Happy Boosting.
 
It’s been a while but now that I am back with a little free time, lets make some progress on this project. I had a pile of parts that have been accumulating over the holidays and the first thing I grabbed was a set of Throttle Body seals that I picked up from Tim @twicks69 over at TMZperformance.

I masked and blasted the TB and the throttle cable plate. I then thoroughly cleaned the TB, painted it and reinstalled the FIAV screwing it all the way in.

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I installed the shaft seals using dielectric grease and a fancy TB shaft seal tool I made on a lathe.

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Reinstalled the TPS, return springs, throttle plate and throttle plate shaft screws. I used some red lactite on those shaft screws to keep them from wiggling out later on.

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With the throttle body complete it’s time to wrap up this engine and get it installed.

The next item up for grabs was a Jay’s racing alternator relocation kit. I followed the installation instructions from Jay’s website. I clearances the motor mount for the alternator belt, ground down all the contact points from the block, bracket and alternator contact points and used blue loctite on the installation hardware.

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The next item I grabbed off the pile was some sweet new motor mount inserts to go along with the new color scheme. I threw them in with some dielectric grease.

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I went to install the engine and again noticed the horrible condition of the subframe and other components. I tore out the entire front end for blasting and power coating. In this photo, the wheel bearings are still in, but I pressed them out shortly after.

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And then it looked like this

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I reinstalled all the bushings and the ball joints and torqued it all back into the car.

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Next is the rear main seal. I installed the pieces as shown below with dielectric grease. The power steering pulley serves as the perfect rear main seal installer.

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I used some tacky stuff from loctite to hold the gasket in place during installation. I also completed the final install of the oil pan at this point.

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The clean bay before install.

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In she goes.

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That should pretty much wrap this one up. The motor is torqued into its final resting place. There is more already done and a lot more to do, so stay tuned for more updates.

Happy Boosting
 
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So, we are right back at it. I had a couple weeks off and was able to cover a lot of ground. I still have a ways to go but its safe to say that she is well on her way now.

I started by tackling the next biggest part of this beast, the Transmission.

About three years ago, I sent a center diff to Jacks and he welded the diff in exchange for the good spider gears inside. So all this thing cost me was shipping.

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With the center diff finally out of its box, I moved swiftly into dismantling the transmission..... with some help of course.

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We removed the top (outer) cover, roll pin, shift fork, fifth gear assembly, intermidiate gear, both lock nuts, the VC and its snap ring, the output shaft detent the next case section and lastly the center diff.

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It was at this point that I realized I needed new bearings for the center diff. I spent the better part of an afternoon trying to source both bearings. One is readily available at most hardware stores. The other is like finding a Unicorn, you have to know when and were to look. I even had a bearing distributor call NSK who manufactures this said bearing and they said it was a dealer only item and that they could not sell it unless you have a mistu dealer number.

Needless to say, Tim at TMZperformance @twicks69 came through once again. If you need anything transmission wise for these cars, hit Tim up via email. If it can still be had for the 28 year old relics, he either has it or can get it.

While I was waiting on the bearings I threw the flywheel, clutch disk and pressure plate on.

I had the flywheel resurfaced and when I measured the step height, I was getting .605 so I took it back the the machine shop where they measured it with two depth mics showing .610. I trust their depth mic more than my dial gauge so on it went. If I have disengagement issues, I will have a good idea where to look.

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I used this clutch disk because I had it. I am also on the fence about future plans so hopefully this will hold me over for now.

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Same 2900 PP from the last setup.

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Shortly after, Tim came through with the bearings and it was time to assemble this thing.

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I pulled and installed the new inner race.

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I then removed the bearings with a bearing splitter. I needed something to install the outer (top) bearing back onto the center diff. Because the diff is welded, it required something other than a socket that I had. I found that a piece of 1 1/2 in PVC fits perfectly onto the inner race. It looks like PVC was made for this bearing.

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With the new bearings in place, we torqued down the upper and lower halves of the center diff using blue loctite and continued to measuring the bearing preloads.

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With the current shim that I have, the preload that I get is between .004 and .006. I would like them to be .005 and .007 but I can live with that. I did get one loose measurement of .001 but that did not repeat itself so I disregarded it and rolled with the shim I had.

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I installed everything I took out and followed the instructions in the FSM. I replaced both shaft nuts with new ones from TMZ.

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With the trans assembled and hanging from the cherry picker, I brought this thing up to par in the looks department. There was no way I was putting this thing in that engine bay. I degreased it and shot it with two coats of self etching primer.

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Followed by two coats of engine primer and two coats of cast aluminum from VHT.

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I threw on the TOB, Jesus clip and shift fork with a little grease and reinstalled all the rubber breathers.

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I applied some grease to both shaft splines and I rolled this beast under the car. I put on a new starter plate since I decided to powder coat my other one and I threw this thing in.

After having the trans bolted up, I installed the trans side of the transmission mount. I then put the through bolt through and lastly I used a punch to install the four bolts through the body into the other side of the mount.

This is what I ended up with.

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That wraps up the transmission install.

Happy Boosting
 
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