The how I got here part -

Alright so about 6 weeks ago, cruising along at 75 mph, in a hard rain. (And just a few days since I last checked my oil) Cruise Control on. Engine oil dumby light comes on and seconds later, engine starts to seize. Turns out, ran out of oil, via a leak that still has not been identified. Figured it had to be a crack in the block....Took it apart myself found that the Rod Bearings were seized completely. But no obvious holes or cracks.

I took the block to the machine shop, I've had heads flatted /spec'd at before. They hot tank it, find that its a good block, so I tell them to bore it out, let me know what size pistons I'll need but its already been re-bored during a previous rebuild.(I bought it about 7 years ago as a reman engine from Surefire through Autozone (Made it 77K miles). At the time I didn't have the cash or the spare car to have mine down for an extended period of time. And it came with the balance shafts already deleted so thought the build must be at least decent.

Anyways they didn't want to bore it anymore. (Although from what I have read you can go UP to 87mm? They were already at 85.5, and they werent sure 86.0 would be enough to fix the damage. And had doubts on how strong it would be if we had to go up to 86.5. Crank was scarred up, rotating assembly was pretty much shot.

So I found a long block at a local junk yard. Its balance shaft belt broke, destroying the balance shaft bearings. But other wise looked in decent shape.

Had it looked at, it was a virgin block with 130K of wear. No cracks, holes or flatness issues. Crank looked good, stock pistons and rods weren't too wore. Cylinder walls looked clean. Looked like i could just get new rods/pistons and bearings and be good to go, with some cleanup of the crank. But they didn't like that crank either, for whatever reason. Tried to find an OEM crank to save 450 bucks (Since I have heard the stock cranks are pretty strong as is, and I don't plan on going full drag ever in the car. 400-500 HP at best, but no one had them in stock) so decided to just buy a whole matched rotating assembly and call it a day,

So I have them bore the new block out. Over-bored just 0.20 or to 85.5 mm. Ordered a full Manley forged rotating assembly, stock 88 mm stroke, acl race bearings, both rod and main. Pistons are all balanced to within 1g of each other and are 85.5mm.. All ARP hardware. And ARP assembly lube. Spec'd out to hold 600+ HP

Dropped off everything with the machine shop to put it together about 2 weeks ago, just to get a call today that their engine builder quit (got fired?). So now i have a checked head, hot tanked/machined/bored/honed? block, all new rotating assembly and no one to put it together for me. I have called a few other local shops and everyone is backed up for MONTHS. One was 4 months before they could get to it.

The question/Advice

Now the question, with all new parts, that were straight from the manufacturer, how hard would it be to assemble myself. I know I can rent a ring installer/compressor, the wrist pins are circliped not pressed so that part is easy. What concerns me is the clearances with the rod and main bearings. I have watched a few videos on using Plastigage to measure the tolerances, but shouldn't they all be in spec with all new matched parts anyways? What if they are not by some chance? How do you correct it, aside from re-machining something? Also I do have the entire Mitsubishi Service Manual so specs and torque settings and instructions I have.

I consider myself a high level amateur mechanic, I have pretty much done all there is to do external of the internals of the engine/transmission on my Eclipse, on multiple 4x4 trucks, various other fwd and rwd cars. I just lack machinery and machining tools so I only usually take things some where when those are needed.

This assembly I know I CAN do at the basic level, with existing tools, or borrowed tools but I don't want to do it wrong and end up wasting 2k on a simple clearance issue/miscalculation.

What advice/guidance/recommendations can anyone give me.. Should I just do it myself? Or is it just too advanced for someone who has never done it before. I want it to last as long as possible, its mostly a daily driver/autocross car that may see some stop light type abuse but not drag strip abuse.

Before the mysterious oil leak, the stock block was holding over 400 BHP, with a tune, accompanying bolt-on mods, and a 20g at 22-23 psi. And aside from a mystery occasional loop at idle was running great.

Thanks!

You can do it, it is just nuts and bolts. If a tolerance is not in spec, the only thing that you can do is make it in spec. With all new parts, you shouldn't have any issues but you need to check bearing clearances anyway, be good or bad. Ring gaps need checked. All torque specs should be followed with a good torque wrench. Print out my sheet and fill in the blanks that you can so you will always be able to refer to them. You sound like you have had enough experience that you can handle the job, just know that it is 90% prep and cleaning (you can't get TOO clean) and 10% assembly.
Marty

It’s not hard at all , if you were closer I’d be happy to build it for you, I always let my customers watch so they can do it themselves the next time.

Buschur Racing is not all that far from you if you need to go there.

This is one of those crossroads .... You need to push the fear aside And do it yourself. I made that choice and I’ve been building engines ever since

If all the machine work is complete, just save yourself the labor cost and build it yourself. It is very easy to do, you just need to be mindful of oil tolerances, torque specs, ant the timing. All of these are easy if you do the research and have the spec on hand while building, and keep it all organized and clean. Also take your time so you don't over look something important.

You live in Cincinnati. Have you checked with Hucks machine shop? I should be getting the block back this Friday

SasaniFab said:

This is one of those crossroads .... You need to push the fear aside And do it yourself. I made that choice and I’ve been building engines ever since

Click to expand...

I have to agree with this. Before I rebuilt my engine, the biggest job I’d ever done was brakes. It’s intimidating, especially after putting a bunch of money forward but damn was I ever proud of myself on first start up. There’s plenty of resources out there to guide you along, Jafro’s videos were my biggest help. With a service manual and the forums, you can surely build it yourself. You got this dude!

If In doubt along the way, ask here.

There are a ton of helpful people on dsmtuners. Lots that have done engine assembly as well.

Good luck! Nothing better than starting a car for the first time knowing you did most of it yourself!

It is an indescribable feeling to hear your own work start up for the first time. You are nervous, you are anxious and you are sweating until she bust's off and runs, then you are a face full of smile!!!!

SasaniFab said:

It’s not hard at all , if you were closer I’d be happy to build it for you, I always let my customers watch so they can do it themselves the next time.

Click to expand...

next time

Just wanted to updated everyone who commented in. But 3 months later, we are back on the road!. Not without the drama though. I initially got it all back together August 10th, started right up the first time. But it was very very loud, lifters were ticking like crazy. Attempted to get them quiet by idling and gently reving, but still loud. Assumed they had to be bad due to oil starvation when the car lost its oil. So i ordered some upgraded (quiet) lifters. But also found a oil leak or two I couldn't figure out where it was coming from. Thought it had to be the oil pump crank seal. Took it all back apart, but that seal was dry, and the car was not leaking when not running. Also checked the lifters, cams, and camshaft for looseness, or being out of spec. Everything looked good.

Put it all back together - started it up.. well tried, and now it wasnt even starting. Long story short I put the crank shaft sensor plate on backwards, 180 degrees. But at the time I did not know that, I assumed it was a timing issue but assumed if it was that far off, the valves must have been bent. So ordered new valves, and decided to just drop it off at a local shop i've worked with before. I was exhausted of the whole experience and knew the head was already checked and scoped and seals installed so, just needed lifters and valves put in.

Come to find out lifters were fine, valves were fine. No interference happened. Lifters just needed to be bled of air. They did find that one of my coil packs went bad, at some point between the first startup and the timing issue. It was barely a few weeks old. Anyways I was left with just an oil leak(s) down on the oil filter housing/oil pump area. One was the o-ring/seal between the oil cooler and the oil filter Housing. The other..took the shop 2 weeks to find.

It was the castle nut that seals the Stub Shaft. Apparently between taking it off and putting it back on the oring fell off. Causing a pretty steady leak. a 3 dollar part.

But I picked it up early last week and aside from 2 minor issues, one being the o2 sensor was disconnected, had to zip tie it. And the other being the Temp Sensor connector, a wire pulled free. The car has been driving like a dream so far. I'm still in the break in period. Only got about 250 miles on it so far. So haven't taken it much above 3500 rpm, and kept out of high boost for now. But they did check compression on the garage and said it was great. So moral of the story, doing the job myself, the main job anyways. Went pretty well. I didn't really run into any issues during reassembly. And the initial start up was without issue. Aside from the oil leak, (my fault) and the lifters just needing bled. Not too bad.

Though guess I won't really know until i get into her, and see what she has once break in is over.

My last build I filled the engine up with oil before I did the timing belt, I spun the oil pump with a drill too make sure there were no leaks. It turned out to be a great idea because I forgot to put on my cam seals.

Thanks @roadtrip_69 for putting a story at the end of the thread with how things went and are going now. I always love to see a thread with a happy ending and when you follow up like you did, you have helped ALOT of others and didn't realize it! Happy DSMing now!!!
Marty