Street Build 1g build - The Real Life Trials and Tribulations of building a DSM

[Anfurnyy]

Don’t you have to remove the brace on the strainer?

I was hoping not too, but I might have to.it doesn't look like the nut seats down all the way. Not sure if it's an issue with these motors or not but other platforms have issues with vibrations causing the pickup tube to break and you loose oil pressure.

 

[AWD-Tony]

I was hoping not too, but I might have to.it doesn't look like the nut seats down all the way. Not sure if it's an issue with these motors or not but other platforms have issues with vibrations causing the pickup tube to break and you loose oil pressure.

Pretty sure Kiggly’s instructions says to and I don’t think anyone has the pick up come loose. Just loctite it

 

[Anfurnyy]

Pretty sure Kiggly’s instructions says to and I don’t think anyone has the pick up come loose. Just loctite it

surprisingly it doesnt. I checked their instructions that came with them. I did read in other posts that people had to.
Its not that it comes loose, its that the vibration actually CRACKS the tube due to lack of a secondary support.

Im sure ill have to remove it though.

 

[AWD-Tony]

surprisingly it doesnt. I checked their instructions that came with them. I did read in other posts that people had to.
Its not that it comes loose, its that the vibration actually CRACKS the tube due to lack of a secondary support.

Im sure ill have to remove it though.

You’re right, it doesn’t say to.

 

[Anfurnyy]

You’re right, it doesn’t say to.

With the amount it says it needs the stud to protrude passed the nut, I think it would have to be cut off. Although this is only finger right.

 

[AWD-Tony]

Have you checked to see if a socket fits? Maybe that’s why??? And see if the sealing surface is flush.

 

[Anfurnyy]

Have you checked to see if a socket fits? Maybe that’s why??? And see if the sealing surface is flush.

I haven't, this was just a dry test fit to make sure that the girdle was going to fit, and to mock up the the oil pick-up/strainer.

 

[Anfurnyy]

Wasnt able to get a bunch done this weekend. BUT, i did get one of the big things checked off my list which was cleaning the block.
So this is what i did:
wire wheeled only the outside of the block to get a lot of the gunk and what no off (obviously not on machines parts)
Degreased followed by brake cleaner around the outside
used pipe cleaners inside every hole i could get them in. Oil gallery, feeds, returns, inside the block, inside the expansion plugs.
Sprayed down everything with Degreaser. Inside, outside, inside everything i could get to, let it soak for a couple minutes making sure it didnt get too dry.
Sprayed off with pressure washer. Made sure to get inside every nook and cranny I could. All oil holes, including the oil jets, bearing oil feeds, the main oil gallery ( even removed the rear plug and sprayed in from behind) Just literally everywhere.
Sprayed off with compressed air right away, drying off the machines surfaces first, then the inside of the block, followed by the outside.
Sprayed the entire inside and outside of the block with WD-40, and a little inside the expansion plugs, and down into the oil and return passages from the deck Surfaces as well.


All bearing surfaces, deck, bores and front case wiped down with ATF, then engine bagged up.

After that i worked on getting the Front case cleaned up after i scraped off all the gaskets. I tried this with an older razor blade i had been using for general purposes and quickly learned the importance of a NEW, SHARP blade for gasket scraping. I didnt damage anything ( i dont think) but it sure was a lot easier to scrape it all off!
While doing the gasket surface, i noticed something in the longer oil passage. It looks like a crack or something of some sort, but it doesnt go all the way through the housing? (to the front side) Nor does it go extend over the passage on the back side.. Im not sure what it is honestly. i hope i didnt crack it.. but its definitely possible.

*Update* after watching jafros video, he also has this same "crack" here..makes me think it's more of a flaw in the casting.


also, does anyone know is it a good idea to cut the gasket along these passages? they seem a bit restrictive and i vaguely remember someone saying to do this?


I moved on and smoothed out the oil passage transitions with a small burr. Didnt port it, just smoothed them out.
Cleaned off the front case with some degreaser and some warm water and Dawn dish soap. Blew it off with compressed air. Make super sure to clean out the spots i had ported and all associated passages too.



I also cleaned off the oil filter housing, and then ported the relief valve too. With the balance shaft delete i dont want to worry about having too high of oil pressure. Now i understand that i should have probably seen what my oil pressure is before doing that but, i figured i would have just done it since the housing was out. I DO have a spare housing i can fall back on but we'll see how it turns out.

I cleaned it out again with warm soapy water, and then brake cleaner. Making sure to get all the shavings out again.
Even after all the cleaning it was still pretty nasty. I taped up all the important things and surfaces and cut the tape and got to painting. Its a pretty small part so it took me all of 5 minutes to get one coat done. I did 2 coats. Here's a before and after!


Before i sprayed the block with wd40, i put on a few light coats of some High Gloss Hi-temp black paint, only on half the block to see how it turns out. Not too shabby! More coats will definitely look better.

 

[Anfurnyy]

My dial bore gauge came in so I decided to try my hand at actually using the Micrometer and the Bore gauge. I measured the pistons by setting them on the Non thrust side (the side where the wrist pin can be seen) and that gave it some stability as I was putting the micrometer on it.

What I did to try and get the right measurement at its thickest point was open the mic so that it would fit over the piston, and kept sliding it back and forth over what I THOUGHT was the thickest part of the piston until I felt some drag. I tried to stop in the middle of the drag where I thought it was thickest and then twisted the small thimble until it ratcheted and then Carefully locked it and slid the mic off the piston and read the mic. I did this for each piston, 4-6 measurements on each piston depending on how consistent the measurements where, AND I flipped the piston 180* every measurement so that if there was any discrepancies, it might help to be more accurate.

I took the HIGHEST number of each set of measurements of each piston and that was going to be what i checked the wall clearance with.


Here were my measurements
Piston 1:
3.3387 *
3.3384
3.3386
3.3385

Piston 2:
3.3387*
3.3386
3.3387*

Piston 3:
3.3388
3.3389*
3.3387
3.3388

Piston 4:
3.3389*
3.3388
3.3387
3.3386
3.3388

I thought that the highest numbers variance between all 4 pistons was only .0002 which was great IMO.
I Wrote those measurements on the bottom of each piston as well.


Next was to check the bore size. This was really only a test as I know the bores need cleaned up because there's still some build up of carbon or something in them, but I still wanted to get some practice in.

I had to figure out how to read the damn thing.. and finally I figured it out. My gauge is graduated in .0005 marks so each mark is .0005, and then there are also thousandths marks or .001.
Anyways, I set the Micrometer to the selected size of cylinder 1, and zeroed out my Bore gauge using the mic. This makes it so that anything you measure in the bore is either BIGGER diameter if its under the zero mark, or SMALLER if its over the zero mark. Remember, this gauge reads UP when something is smaller.

did a few practice runs after cleaning out the bore with a towel and some brake cleaner and went in for my actual measurements.. So my surprise I was getting like .008 - .009! or (8-9 thousandths!) that's over 2x the recommended clearance that Manley says... I double and then triple checked.. same thing.


I grabbed my calipers and roughly measured the bore size thinking that maybe it has previously been bored over.. but nope. roughly 85mm.. so what the heck.
I grabbed some snap gauges and measure the bore and then measured that with the mics and got some inaccurate number. The only thing I can think of was that i was measuring the Piston in the wrong spot.


I vaguely remember while watching the Micrometer videos about measuring pistons that everyone measured near the bottom of the skirt.. but when I looked at Manley's instructions, it showed where the "gauge point" was, which is basically right under the oil scraping ring..

and then i READ the instructions and clearances and it says "measure 1.1 inches from the bottom of the oil scraper ring grove"
so I took my calipers and measured from the oil ring, down 1.1 inches and marked it with a sharpie. Re took my measurement with the Micrometer getting 3.3443 vs 3.3387 previously.. Re zeroed the bore gauge off the Micrometer and checked the bore size again.. this time getting .0025 Top, .0020 Middle, and .0030 Bottom on the Thrust side. The non thrust side measured .0035 all the way down.


Now THOSE numbers look much better.
Long story short, Read the instructions.

I know these shouldn't be the final numbers, but it was just for practice and knowledge.

 

[Anfurnyy]

Long time no update. Life has kind of gotten in the way, as well as work (forcing everyone to either quit or get the vaccine shot(s)) and just haven't been in the best mental state of mind because of everything but we're back.

I've been doing a lot of reading, research, and thinking about what i want for this build and its made me rethink my rod choice.
Now, I know that I basically want to be able to throw everything at this car and it be able to take it. I understand that something eventually will break but later down the road I don't want to have to pull the motor again to upgrade the rods.

I've been thinking of upgrading the rods, the only issue is I'm not sure which to go to.. I though of some Manley TT I beams but good god they are heavy. Aluminum rods came to mind but I'm slightly concerned with Longevity. I really don't feel like having to pull the rods and bearings to check and make sure the bearings are good after 5k miles or something like that. If I could get like 30k miles out of aluminum rods, that would be great. And then Eagles extreme duty H beam rods also, but I'm worried about how much power they hold, and their quality.
My goal is to end up around 700-800 wheel someday, rev out to around 9k (MAYBE higher later on), around 40-45psi at the max. I know that i also wanted 22mm wrist pins so all these options will include that as well. Here were the options followed by my concern:

Rod Goals
~9K Rev (Maybe higher later?)
Almost Daily Driven (3-4 days a week or so)
Long Bearing and Rod life
Handle 700-800hp/tq
40-45psi
22mm Pins
Stock Stroke and Rod length

R&R Aluminum rod (Longevity? Bearing life?):

R&R Billet Aluminum I-Beam Connecting Rods w/ ARP L19 Bolts: Mitsubishi Eclipse 1990-1992 6 Bolt 4G63T (22mm/150mm) & Solid Beam (1200HP+)

HP Rating: 1200 Rod Length: 150mm (standard length) Pin Diameter: 22mm Rod Bolts: ARP L19 (up to 1,100 RPM) 5.892" Center to center 1.8897 / 1.8905 Housing bore 1.100" Big end width .950" pin end width (Made to fit with ACL Tri-Metal Race Series & King Bearings. Bearings will require 3/16"...

www.extremepsi.com

Eagle Extreme duty H beam (Power rating? Quality?)

Eagle 6-Bolt 4G63 DSM H-Beam Connecting Rods

Buy your Eagle 6-Bolt 4G63 DSM Standard Connecting Rods at STM!

stmtuned.com

OR

Eagle 6-Bolt 4G63 DSM H-Beam Connecting Rods

Buy your Eagle 6-Bolt 4G63 DSM Standard Connecting Rods at STM!

stmtuned.com

Manley TT IBeam (Weight)

Manley Performance "Turbo Tuff" I-Beam Steel Connecting Rods: Mitsubishi Eclipse 1990-92 4G63 6-Bolt (22mm Pin) & Upgraded ARP 625+

Manley Pro Series connecting rods are forged from aircraft quality 4340 vacuum degassed material. Each rod is fully machined in the Manley Lakewood, NJ factory to the highest standards. Our signature "Turbo Tuff" design combines the appropriate weight and rugged strength for ultimate horsepower...

www.extremepsi.com

In another Rod suggestion post this is what Twicks (the owner of tmz performance said)

The aluminum rods on the market are all high quality and have great longevity. Heck, my 2.3L 7 bolt is apart right now but was a running motor from 2008 to 2020, 3x,000 miles, couple hundred dyno pulls, and a metric ton of track passes. I never changed rod or main bearings, retorqued rod bolts or any of that stuff. I would do an oil change every couple thousand miles of street time or for race/dyno events with quality oil, and I have a large oil cooler on the car too. I let the motor warm up before beating on it and I typically shift to neutral at the top end of a pull instead of engine braking. The bearings were ready for replacement for the mains, the thrust washers looked brand new, and the rod bearings look literally good enough to reuse. Only reason I took it apart was to deck the block and head and will hone the cylinders, new rings, new main bearings and polish the crank. Then I'm slapping the same rods and pistons back into the motor and running the jam maker again.

If you want to read further on the specific details of the motor, it is in my profile, along with on my website, https://www.tmzperformance.com/racecar/
,and if you do a user search here for "Groden" with my user name, you will find plenty of good threads.

If you have any other recommendations please feel free to send em my way.

 

[twicks69]

Well, you already see my recommendation.
Al all the way.

 

[LLBeans]

I’ll be going down the rabbit hole of choosing internals in the near future. That bit from Twicks gives me some confidence on the AL route.

@twicks69 with the rods being lighter, is there a noticeable difference in revs over the traditional forged rod? Does said motor feel like it revs more freely?

I’m fairly certain my car is still on its factory internals as well as the factory flywheel. The car just feels terribly sluggish when starting out in 1st gear under normal driving conditions and I haven’t had the pleasure of driving a vehicle with lightened rotational mass yet.

 

[DreamChaser7]

So take this with a grain of salt as I don't know nearly as much as most people on here yet, I'm still in my multiple year research mode trying to teach myself everything I thought I didn't know when I was younger, . I was basically resigned to the I Beams myself, but the more I read the more I am intrigued by the AL. If I do ultimately go with the AL I'm pretty sure I will just break off the money for Vaders.

 

[Anfurnyy]

Okay so i got tired of farting around with the block and checking clearances and what not for the mains and what not that i cant change without machining.
I loaded up the block w main caps, ARP main studs, Kiggly Girdle all installed, the main bearings, the crank, the head and pistons and brought them all into our machine shop.

I gave them the sheet for the Manley pistons and showed them the Piston to wall clearance that Manley recommended (I emailed Manley as well and they said that this would be just fine for the power levels and boost that i want to run as well)
I told them that I wanted them to just POLISH the crank, they are going to line hone the main journals with the Girdle installed, Check the head for Flatness and see if it needs milled or shaved down.

That was about a week ago. They Called me Friday and let me know that the Cylinders will likely need bored out as they have a bit of taper in them. If they bored them out right now and tried to use the stock size pistons i gave them, the piston to wall clearance would be around 5.5 thousandths which is almost double what Manley recommends.

So I went ahead and orders some .5mm over pistons and ill have them bore the block out to set the clearance right.
I'm also going to go with some R&R aluminum rods and so my whole internal setup is for sale:

https://www.dsmtuners.com/marketplace/bnib-forged-manley-internals.1162/

Once the new pistons come in, I'll get them to the machine shop and hopefully get this thing squared away and start putting stuff back together. As of right now i have everything to get the head put back together.
I did notice that running these Kiggly street springs, with the stock spring seats, the seats don't easily press into the bottom of the spring? is that normal? they will fit if I push them in firmly. Im going to email Kiggly to see if this is normal.

 

[Anfurnyy]

I've known for a long time that I wanted to clean the engine bay up quite a bit and I've been on the fence about deleting the power steering for just as long. I decided to go ahead and take the plunge and delete it the Mostly right way by doing the Miata mod (deleting the separator between the 2 sides of the rack housing)


***Now would be a good time to order and replace:*** 1g TSI Awd w/ 5 speed
Swap bar end links -
Moog: https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=1005803&cc=1205626&pt=7580&jsn=377

Whiteline: https://stmtuned.com/collections/1g...ucts/w23185-dsm-3000gt-stealth-sway-bar-links
OEM: https://www.rtmracing.com/xcart/product.php?productid=17309

Inner tie rods:

1992 MITSUBISHI ECLIPSE 2.0L L4 Turbocharged Tie Rod End | Shop Now at RockAuto

Steering Parts and More for Your 1992 MITSUBISHI ECLIPSE at Reliably Low Prices. Fast Online Catalog. DIY-Easy. Your Choice of Quality. Full Manufacturer Warranty.

www.rockauto.com

(i prefer oem or moog but i cant find the moogs right now, Part number: EV236)
OEM: https://jnztuning.com/product/oem-inner-tie-rod-1g-dsm/


Outter Tie:
Moog: https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=201949&cc=1205626&pt=7428&jsn=407
Oem: https://machv.com/products/1g-oem-outer-tie-rod-ends

Sway Bar Bushings:
Energy Suspension: https://www.rtmracing.com/xcart/product.php?productid=16839
or
Energy Suspension 5.5106G 20mm Front Stabilizer Bushing for Eagle Amazon product ASIN B000CNB31K
Here's how I did it and a few things/tips I learned along the way.

Step 1: Break loose your lug nuts on your 2 front tires

Step 2: Jack the car up in the air, put stands under the car obviously. You're going to need to be a little bit behind the tires while under the car so make sure it give yourself plenty of room.

Step 3: Remove wheels from car, put them behind the jack stands on the rails of the car.

Step 4: Remove Downpipe (you don't NEED to do this but it does make it easier)

Step 5: Pull the Transfer Case off. I've read of people doing this without pulling it but the rack is kind of weird shaped so its much easier to pull it. If you're careful you can even keep all the fluid in the Tcase while you pull it.

Step 6: Remove the Bolt for the clamp on the steering column thing from the Gear on the rack that goes to the steering wheel. I'm not super technical here so here is what I'm talking about. Its a VERY good idea to mark on the SPLINES where the top part that goes to the Steering wheel/column match or you might have some issues getting the rack centered after installation. (Like me )


Step 7: Remove both Lines that go to the power steering pump. You'll need a drain pan of some sort to catch all the fluid. Be aware its going to leak down the rack, and the Kmember.



Step 8: Now, I removed the front sway bar first as it would also give you more room to move the rack around and get it out. I started with the end links first. I removed them from the Control arms side. One of mine was pretty rusted on there. I had to break out the impact and a 14mm IIRC Wrench? on the inside of the End link as its flat like a nut
After removing the end links, remove the outer tie rods. Remove the Cotter pin, break the nut loose and remove it, flip it over so the bottom of the nut is facing upwards and thread it onto the stud of the tie rod just until its just above the stud. If you have a pickle fork, or your own way of removing tie rod ends from the knuckles, then go ahead and do it your way. I grabbed a torch and heated up the knuckle where the Tie rod inserts into and then smacked the top of the nut with a dead blow. Be warned that this CAN damage your tie rod but if you plan on replacing, swing away. Sometimes these can be really stubborn, so grab some penetrating oil and heat. Penetrating oil chases heat. Do this for both Sides until both outer Tie rods are out of the knuckles.

-Step 8.5: If you'd like to you can rent an Inner tie rod tool and remove the outer and inner tie rods from the rack before pulling it. It would make it easier to pull out, but then you have to worry about getting an alignment later on (which id recommend doing anyways) I used some Duct tape and marked right where the locking nut of the tie rods are so that if they got moved i'd know where they were at on the Inner Tie rod.

Step 9: Under the car, remove both Crossmember, K member braces, as well as the 2 plates that go from the K member to the frame of the car. There are a few bolts so make sure to keep track of which go where. ( ill try and get pictures of this)

Step 10: Under the car find the 2 sway mounts to the K member. There is only a single bolt per mount. Remove the bolt on each mount and then Rotate the mount and pushing upwards. and then towards the back of the car. There is a tab that needs to come out of the Kmember. Be Careful not to bonk yourself in the head while doing so, as the sway bar should now be free. Pull the sway bar out either side that has more room. You might have to finagle, and twist it a bit because of the curves. Set it aside.

Step 11: With the sway bar out of the way, we can un mount the Rack. There are 2 mounting brackets, both of which have 2 bolts. Locate the brackets and unbolt them, remove them and set them aside. Make sure to hold onto the rack so it doesn't fall. Pull the rack down carefully and work the steering column ujoint off the rack. Once its off, slide the rack further to one side of the car or the other, lower the side with more room ( I slid the rack as far to the PASSENGER SIDE as possible, therefor the DRIVER SIDE would have more room) and pull the tie rods under the control arms. Then Move the rack to the side you just pulled out and do the same pulling the tie rods under the control arm.

If you need some visuals check out laserspeeddemon's post here: https://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/1g-awd-power-steering-rack-removal-install.272310/
He's got some nice pictures for uninstalling.

Congrats, your Rack should be removed from the car. That about 1/3 of it.
Tip the rack upside down over your drain pan and drain any left over fluid out of it.


Step 12: If you didn't remove your inner tie rods before, now is the time to do it. Pull the boots off, by either cutting the clamp, or put a flathead in the crimped part and twisting. With the boots Slid down I grabbed a large crescent wrench, and stuck it on the flat spot of the Inner Tie rod and laid the rack in a way that I could put pressure on it on the ground and give it a good smack with the Dead blow without it moving around. I did this for both sides, seemed to work okay. (Im replacing one of mine anyways)

Step 13: Disconnect the lines that run from the top of the rack, to the Tube. I Want to say that these were either a 14mm or a 17mm. I dont remember which. Some of mine were on there pretty good so I gave em a good hit with the Dead blow again. Remove all 4, and remove the lines from the rack. One of the lines is squished in with the Mount bushing. You need to remove the bushing to completely remove the line. You can also remove the other bushing as well.


***Warning***
With the Above mentioned lines removed, if you Push the rack either way, fluid WILL squirt out of where the lines used to connect. I didn't know this and shot PS fluid 12 feet away onto my drywalled garage wall. It would be best to try and drain it again.

Step 14: Now we need to remove a few different things on the rack. For starters, lets go with the Big Hex/Allen key. I'm really not sure what size this is BUT i found a decent way of getting this thing out.. I actually used an turbo coolant banjo bolt.. Similar to everyone else using a big nut. I just stuck the hex side of the Banjo bolt inside the Hex of the rack, and used some vice grips to break it loose. I ended up having to use some head to heat up the rack but it came loose after working at it some. You MIGHT also be able to stick a small screwdriver through the banjo port that runs through the bolt, and back it out that way. There is also a thin locking threaded washer that threads off the outside of the big Allen key plug as well. Under that is a spring, and what im going to call a Tensioner collar or something similar. it helps put a load or resistance on the rack so its not just flopping the steering wheel everywhere with every little bump.. Its important to have the right amount of tension. Remove the spring and the tensioner with a magnet. It might vacuumed to the rack rod with fluid, so give it a wiggle.


Step 15: Next, directly below where we just pulled the big Allen plug thing, is a but nut. I don't know what size this was but i will find out and update the post. Its basically just a cover for the Retaining nut for the pinion gear housing. Remove it.

Step 16: On the top of the Pinion gear housing, there are 2 mounting bolts. 12mm, remove them. You can now Carefully twist and pull the entire gear housing out, set it aside.


Step 17: You should now be left with just the rack housing, with the rod in it. On the END of the LONG side, you should see a stopper with 4 holes in it. You should also see a little window with a wire in it. I used a pair of 45* pliers, stuck the ends in the holes of the stopper on the end and twisted it clockwise until i saw the end of the wire pop out of the window. I then Twisted the stopper Counter Clockwise until i saw the end of the wire where it pokes into the stopper. Once you see that you should simply be able to lift the wire out of the hole, and slide the stopper out of the end of the rack housing. Set them aside, don't lose the wire.


Step 18: At this point, you need to remove the Rod. To do this, simply push the rod all the way to the side that we just removed the stopper from. Remember, this could cause fluid to shoot out of where we removed the hard lines! Remove the rod and put it somewhere safe.


Step 19: Clean up. That's right, clean up and organize your area. We've done a lot in a short amount of time and we don't want to loose anything. If you have a hard time remembering where things go, you should be bagging these things as we take them off and labeling them.

Step 20: Now is also a good time to clean up all the parts that we have removed. Clean all the bolts, the rack housing, the Pinion gear and housing, everything. Remove all the old grease and what not from anywhere you can as we will be applying new stuff anyways. I used brake cleaner and towels

Step 21: Time to mod the Rod *giggity* We need to cut off the separator that divides the 2 sides of the housing. There are 2 separators or collars on the rod. One is a support for the rod when when it moves. We want to keep that one, nice and safe. That is the one with the black o-ring on it. That should just slide right off the end of the Rod. The one we Want to cut is the one with the WHITE o-ring on it. Don't bother removing it. With some sort of cutting disk, cut in 2 places on the white collar, as far down as you can go SAFELY without hitting the rod. One cut where ever you choose, and another approximately 180* of that one. Once you feel comfortable with where you cuts are, grab a small chisel or maybe a small screw driver and sick it in the cut and give it a good smack with a hammer. It should basically break in half. After mine fell off, there was a small retaining ring still inside one of the grooves where the white collar sat, and I fought with it to remove it. I'm not sure if you're supposed to or not. None of the Writeups I found mention anything about this and the one I found with pictures didn't have it on there either.


Step 22: Clean off the rod and the black o-ring collar if you hadn't already. We don't want any metal shavings where on the rod when we put it back into the rack housing.

Step 23: Time for re-assembly. With some New grease lube everything that touches anything in here. Lube the Rod, the Support with the black O-ring, Lube the rack housing, lube inside the housing, lube the gears for the Pinion gear turns on the rod, Lube deep inside the tube where the rod passes through, the Pinion gear, pack some extra in there as well. We don't want anything metal to metal rubbing together. After getting the Rod back in, I installed the support that resides in the end of the tube, followed by the stopper. Rotate the stopper so that the hole that you pull the wire out is visible. Put the bent end of the wire in there and rotate the stopper clockwise until it pulls the entire wire back in. Continue rotating until you cant see any ends of the wire.

Step 24: At this point, you can put the rack back together in any order, but I'd suggest starting with the Pinion gear and housing. dropping it in you may have to rotate the pinion shaft to get to seat down all the way. Install the nut at the bottom and torque to 14-22 ft lbs.. The cover that goes over that gets sealant, and torqued to 36-51 ft lbs. To torque the Pinion shaft nut I wrapped the shaft with a shop rag, like a red oil rag a couple times and clamped it with vice grips. No damage to the splines.


Step 25: Time for the Tensioner collar, spring and big Allen plug. This too gets sealant. I have no clue what the right tension is, so for now I set the tension on the rod to were I could barely turn the rack on the spline side with one hand. This will likely have to get adjusted while you have it installed back in the car, and the steering wheel attached. I used the same coolant banjo bolt as before but stuck a small screwdriver through the banjo port to tighten it. The smaller locking collar /washer that threads on to that I snugged down with a big crescent wrench.


Step 26: Time to plug the holes from the hardlines. 5 of the 6 ports on the rack assembly are 1/4" NPT plugs which you can find at Ace hardware, Menards, Lowes in the plumping section. One of them I believe is a 3/8th NPT. I put some black RTV on all mine and threaded them in to keep the dust and dirt out of the rack and pinion housings.


Before reinstalling completely we will need to Center the rack, so that there's equal amount of turn going both ways. I personally tried to find a way but gave in and found housegsx
post here: https://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/how-to-remove-and-rebuild-the-power-steering-rack.226656/

ALIGNMENT TIPS

This is what you have to do to actually center the rack itself in the housing so the wheels will have an equal amount of turns to each lock.

-Make sure the negative terminal on the battery is disconnected. When you put the rack back on the car, you will have to get the splines from the steering column to slide down into the pinion housing on the rack assembly. While you are maneuvering that spline back in do not worry about the steering wheel position. We will adjust that later.

-Once you have the steering housing bolted into the car and the pinion gear spline is in we can move to the next step: What you do now is make sure an equal amount of the steering rack is coming out each side of the housing. The best way to do this is after you rebuild your rack do not put the inner tie rod ends or the rubber boot dust covers on yet. This way you can still see the ends of the rack to measure each side for an equal amount of protrusion from each end of the housing. Now you will want to take the steering wheel off. Don't worry, it's easy. There are 4 nuts on the back of the steering wheel holding the airbag on. We are taking the airbag off and this is why the battery must be disconnected. For safety and so you don't get a permanent SRS light on your dash that only the dealer can remove. Take the nuts off and pull the airbag off disconnecting the airbag plug and the horn. Now the only thing holding the wheel on is the center bolt. Remove it and pull off the wheel. You may have to hit it with your fist from behind a few times to pop it off if you don't have a puller you can use. Get under the car again and make sure the rack is still centered. Now you can reinstall/re-clock the steering wheel centered on the column. Make sure you do not over tighten the center nut, it will strip. I think it is 22 ft/lbs. but I'm not certain. Make sure you hook the airbag back up before reconnecting the battery.

-So now you have the wheel straight or very close to it and the rack is still centered. Now you can reinstall the inner tie rod ends and rubber dust covers. Then reinstall the outer tie rod ends and try to get the wheels eyeballed fairly straight ahead by adjusting them.
-Now you can take it to the alignment shop and have them reset the toe to spec via the outer tie rod ends without having to worry about them trying to re-center the steering wheel or even worse yet just leaving the steering wheel crooked and them centering it with the tie rods leaving you with uneven lock-to-lock turns from center.

I want to thank everyone that i got the info from that helped me do this. I know i missed a few pictures but hopefully there's enough pictures and details between my post, as well as the others linked below to help people out.

https://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/miata-mod-on-a-dsm-de-powering-the-rack.343614/

https://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/how-to-remove-and-rebuild-the-power-steering-rack.226656/

https://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/1g-awd-power-steering-rack-removal-install.272310/

 

[Anfurnyy]

So on top of removing power steering I decided to try and do an engine bay wire tuck as well. I've never done anything quite this extensive but I'm a hands in learner and it has yet to really fail me yet.

I know this is going to be one hell of a task but I know in the end it will be worth it. Yesterday I started by just unbolting the fuse box in the Bay, unbolting some of the wiring harness mounts, just observing where the harness went. I also removed both quarter panels/fenders (unfortunately I realize that I think i didn't really need to remove the passenger side after I removed it)

So from the research I've done, there are 2 parts to the harness. The engine harness and the body harness. The body harness mainly connected to the body stuff like headlights and what not, but then the harness also runs under the radiator, and over to the fuse box and battery..

I'm going to start here in the next day or so labeling all the connectors and MAYBE try and make a plan as to how to route everything in the Bay.

 

[Anfurnyy]

So ill start off with i went way overboard but there doesn't seem to be that many options for Decent Rods for the 6 bolt. I don't want an steel I beam as they all seem too heavy. and any H beam doesn't seem to be able to handle what i might want to make in the future.

So i sold my Whole internal setup and first off had to buy a new set of pistons (just .5mm over) as they had to bore my block .020 over unfortunately. But it does seem like they were able to get my piston to wall clearance set right.
As for my rods i ended up going with some R&R aluminum rods. as they are I beams, support quite a bit of power, and they are lighter than the Steel I beams. I've ready pretty much every post on Tuner regarding aluminum rods in "Street cars" and everyone that has personally run them and checked them after says they have run just fine. so i'm going to take a chance here and go with em. Still stock length, and 22mm wrist pin.

Couple questions though is i understand that aluminum expands more than steel.
So what should my bearing clearances be? What temp should i measure the clearances at?
If i'm thinking about this right, if i measure the rods at room temp, (say 70*) they should measure small, since aluminum shrinks and expands easier. But are we talking we want them to measure .002 or even smaller while cold so that when warmed up they are .003 or .0035?? I also bought .001 oversized bearings so i'll have to see if i have to get new ones after i do clearances.

I did have the question about piston to head height but after reading the sale page on extreme psi it says that the rods are made .010" smaller to account for expansion. so that answers that one. How would you go about Measuring this anyways?Ive read once you have the bottom end together measure the quench area and then the thickness of your head gasket but that doenst really seem like it's accurate to me since the head gasket gets crushed. I do have an old used head gasket that i pulled off i could measure but that was with regular ARP head studs and not L19s that i'm moving to.

Other questions that i will find out later but maybe someone can chime in are:
Do i have to ditch the oil squirters to make clearance for the rods?
Do i have to clearance the Kiggly Girdle or the Main caps for the rods?
Can you torque the Rod caps just based off torque spec and not bolt stretch?

I am doing some double/triple reading on this post with many of the same questions:
https://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/b...um-rod-lr-2-2l-7-bolt-feedback-wanted.517472/

 

[TCB91GSX]

Any updates on this one !?

 

[Anfurnyy]

Any updates on this one !?

Yes I have quite a bit. Just gotta make time to get some updates posted up! I've been lazy and haven't really had the will work on the car

 

[Cheiud]

My replacement T case from RixRacing came in yesterday and oh boy.. it's uh.. it looks rough to say the least.. the shield? Where the yoke slips in looks like it might have taken a beating during shipping and it's a tad wavy in some spots. Is this an item that can be replaced? Maybe I can swap mine from my current Tcase.
View attachment 634020View attachment 634021

I'm learning more and more than the other use parts out there are not as clean as the parts that have been on or with this car for the most part..

I also took the 5 or so minutes to get my rear wiper delete installed too. I won't lie, it was a very snug fit and it was kind of a PITA to snap in but it's in there! While I had the back panel off the hatch I noticed that my rear defroster connector snapped off the rear glass. Is there any way to fix that or re-attach it? I don't plan on driving this car in the winter much, if at all but that might be nice to have. I popped the metal element out of the end of it and stuffed the connector back into the hatch for safe keeping.

View attachment 634022View attachment 634023View attachment 634024

Have you found a solution for this?

 

[Anfurnyy]

Have you found a solution for this?

For the rear hatch defroster? Nope. I'm honestly not sure there is a fix unless there's some sort of glass wizard out there that knows exactly how to. I might try looking up some videos or something to see if someone has something.

 

[Anfurnyy]

Well I had a HUGE 'ol reply typed up and was just putting some touches on it buttt it's gone. So I'm gonna have to spend some more time writing that back up. That's disappointing.

Long story short I've been fighting with Rod Bolt stretch, and Rod Bearing clearance issues the last couple weeks.

I'll fill in the in between details in the next post.

 

[Anfurnyy]

Okay we'll try this again.
I wont lie, i really lost motivation to work on the car. Between the Cold in the garage because of winter, and just running into all these issues left and right was pretty discouraging but i found the motivation again for the most part and im back at it again.

So where did we leave off? Right, I sold all my old internals and bought aluminum rods.
I had a few questions at the start of it, but since then ive been abel to get them answered.
Other questions that i will find out later but maybe someone can chime in are:
Do i have to ditch the oil squirters to make clearance for the rods? - No, you can keep them but you have to bend them to clearance the pistons. They do some somewhat close to the rods but since your bending them, make sure there is good clearance between the rod too.

Do i have to clearance the Kiggly Girdle or the Main caps for the rods? - No/Yes. No for the Girdle, yes for the caps. You do have to Grind away the middle of the Front and rear Main caps. Its not a whole log but you do.
Can you torque the Rod caps just based off torque spec and not bolt stretch? - Yes but you SHOULD use stretch. I reached out to R&R about this and they said that they just torque the bolts to 75ft/lbs incrementally using 50w oil and thats it. I tried to do the stretch method but i had some major inconsistencies with it. I made a separate post for that here:

https://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/l19-rod-bolt-stretch.536656/page-2#post-153846654

Other things you have to clearance as well are the bottom of the Cylinder Bores too. The rod does NOT Hit the Non-oil squirter side, but does hit the squirter side. I clearanced both sides in all 4 cylinders just to be safe.


Above you saw that i got the block painted already which turned out great. I picked up all new freeze plugs as well and got those knocked in. I would highly suggest buying a tool do do this. I did it with a socked and a bearing puller (not the claw separator kind) and while it worked it was difficult to make sure it went in perfect in dept and flushness although not impossible.


I picked up a Dial bore gauge and double checked my machines Piston to Wall Clearances, all of which turned out to be .0035" just as i had asked and Per Manley Spec for those pistons. I also Threw in the Main bearings (some ACL +.001 bearings) for testing the clearances. I have forgotten what they were and i dont have the pictures on my phone so ill have to find those and post them. If I Remember right, they were reading in the Low .003" which with STD bearings sounds about where I want to be.


Next Up was the Piston ring end gap. For the love of god this was the single most tedious thing ive done on this car i swear. Hours and hours of Measuring, grinding, Smoothing the Burrs off, putting it in the block measuring, repeat, repeat.. Per Manley's specs and their math they wanted bore Size x .008 on both the top and 2nd ring for "High Boost" E85 Applications and just .015" for the oil ring. So that's what i went with. With my Bore size that put the ring end gaps at around .027" on both the 1st and 2nd Rings and i went with .016" on the oil rings.


I saw a post on Buschurs that he was clearancing out some front subframe stuff so i went ahead and picked one of those up. Nice powedercoated black piece, much lighter and better looking. Allows a ton more room up front by the turbo. Maybe now i can actually get my wastegate dump tube to fit?? Trying to get this installed was easy.. but the old one didnt come out with out a hell of a fight. The driver side came out like cake, but the passenger side... The Metal insert inside the bushing rusted to the Subframe bolt.. I spent over an hour on that one bolt trying to get that insert out of there. Heat, penetrating oil, more heat, hammers, more oil, more heat and FINALLY i was able to twist off. The new one went on easily and it look so, so much better in there.


I decided to clean the crank up and clean out my dead end journals that everyone talks about. And im happy i did. I didnt get quite as much as everyone else seems to get but i got enough to make it worth it for sure. I think i used about 5 cans of Brake cleaner, and some compressed air too. Here is what i got out of mine


I found a great deal on a Link G4+ Ecu for $800, so i went for it and bought it. I ended up selling my Link v3 for almost that same price so i hardly put any more towards the link ecu! Nice! this will be a sweet upgrade from Link, easier to tune and more inputs as well. Cant wait for that.


ive known for awhile that i wanted a double pump setup so i snagged a Full Blown Motorsports dual pump Hanger. This thing is freaking sweet guys. The anodizing is super nice, and it comes pre-wired which was a surprise. Ill be running dual 450s in this guy.


I also found that STM Tuned was selling a Brand new Open box 6 bolt Front case for a discounted price AND an extra 20% off with code. So i snagged that too! ill keep that for later as I have another set of Straight cut oil pump gears too that will most likely go in there.

Next i wanted to check my rod bearing clearances.. I had one hell of a time trying to do this and i STILL am. At first i tried to torque them using the stretch method but when i checked the stretch i had one bolt that was stretching to spec .007" @ 55ft/lbs and the other bolt only stretching to .0045 @ 73ft/lbs. This repeated for 2 Separate rods. I even took out the bearings on of them to see if the bearing was causing the issue and i got the same issue. I emailed R&R and the spoke With Mike at R&R (President) and he said that theres too much confusion with people trying to measure the stretch and too many inconsistencies.. he just uses Lucas 50w and torqued to 75ft/lbs. He said that he's never had an issue with that. Read that Separate post here:

https://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/l19-rod-bolt-stretch.536656/page-2#post-153846654

I Turned to building the head after the rod bolt thing happened so that i could at least get something done. All went somewhat smooth. While putting my keepers in i found that i was missing 3 Keepers.. so i had to order a whole new set . This head is built with Ferrea valves, Kiggly Street Steel springs and their Chromoly Steel retainers, GSC S2 Billet Cams, AEM Cam Gears. It should rip pretty hard.

As of right now, i threw the rods back together with New L19 bolts Straight from R&R and retorqued them just like R&R specified that they did at 75ft/lbs and measured my rod bearing clearances. They were all coming up around .0037" Except for #4 which came up around .0042" all with .001 oversized bearings. Im going to have my standard bearing sizes re-drilled and recheck my bearing clearances using those as well just to make sure that everything falls into the right clearance range that i wanted. Which for this build i was hoping for between .0025 - .003 but mostly right about .0027ish.

 

[Anfurnyy]

Cleaned out my oil pan. Im sending it to Buschurs for them to modifying with their custom baffle. $140 pretty cheap!..

I picked up new +.001" and std size rod bearings and im going to send those AND one rod to R&R to have them drill the bearings out as im not confident in my ability to drill them straight and de-burr them correctly.

I also picked up a new Carrier Bearing from Driveshaft parts since they are hard to come by. I think it was like $40? ill see if i can find the link I have no clue when ill do this since mine seems to be okay but we'll see.


I "final" cleaned the block again for like the 5th time.. This time i coated the machined surfaces with ATF and then took a new detailing brush and dunked it in some 30w oil and literally coated everything on the inside of the block to keep it from rusting. I spent over an hour with just air alone to dry it completely. Hopefully this will hold until the engine gets back together.


I wanted to get going on getting it back together. I threw new crush washers on the banjo bolts and got those in. I moved to the main bearings next. Went with acl STD size mains as it puts me right at .0025" on the mains which i feel is enough.

Speaking of Bearing clearances after a short convo with R&R about rod bearing clearances they would recommend pretty close to .0035" with a bare minimum of .0025". That seems like a ton of clearance to me but i guess with these cars and our crazy ass oil pressure its probably not a big deal.

As of right now the main bearings, crank and main caps are in but not torqued down. With the rods not available until they come back from R&R i might have a hard time torquing down the rods with the girdle in the way. I might throw the nuts on there to keep the caps from sliding off (if they ever could)


I think next is going to be the rear main seal, and the front case. Question on the front case though.. the oil gallery that runs through the back of the case. There is gasket material there that seems like it COULD Maybe be some sort of restriction of flow? Have people cut these before? is it okay to run as is?

 

[Anfurnyy]

Alright boys. We did some stuff and things and we mad progress.

Put in a little work tonight.
Rear main seal installed

Oil pump gear installed and torqued

Front case installed and torqued (I didn't cut the gasket that I asked about in my previous update)

Oil filter housing installed and torqued

Test fitted the Kiggly Girdle with everything installed (minus the rods) and it fits.. but JUST. It hits one of the bolts to the oil pump housing. I don't think it's touching but I doubt you could fit a sheet of paper between them. Is it safe to run like that? My guess is no, due to thermal expansion.. I remember reading a forum from somewhere that they removed the bolt and ground it down to clear?

Used the bolt from the front balance shaft gear to plug the tensioner threads, literally perfect fit. Which bolts in the front case need RTV or sealant? I put RTV on the balance shaft tensioner bolt I threaded in.