Atuca
Supporting Member
- 1,145
- 303
- Jan 6, 2007
-
Central Valley,
California
My first engine build is coming along pretty smoothly, aside from taking alot longer than expected. I had ALL 3 
of the other local DSMers in Tracy come out and pitch in, they were working on my car, their cars, there was beer, music; its the atmosphere I been missing for a long time.
I already had redone the crank (thanks for the input last time dsmtuners!) and when my friends all showed up, we put our game face on.
First, the night before with another car ethusiast, we spent a good 3 hours hand sanding the block the best we could to get a nicer base to paint the engine on. Trying to keep it civil, I just painted it a low gloss black with hi temp engine enamel. Per instructions and research, I used no primer, and did 2 light coats of paint, and one medium coat. The block was already black, so if nothing else this just freshened the 20 year old block up.
View attachment 1428
After the block was drying for a good 24 hours, the gang showed up. He fixed up my ETS FMIC hole really good, no more leaks there
View attachment 1431
With a huge set of size 20mm - 40mm sockets, getting the balance shaft bearings out was cake with the assortment of options we had. We popped those out and than put in the new ones in.
We tapped in the freeze plugs coated with some hi-temp RTV to ensure no leaks. It was at this time my friend had realized I didn't own a hammer.... We tapped them in with a crow bar, breaker bar, 1/2" ratchet, w/e was handy to get the job done
View attachment 1429
Pistons were filed to have a top ring gap of .020 and a bottom ring of .022. By recommendations from my machinist, he said a normal top ring by specification and a tighter bottom ring. This process took entirely longer than I thought it would, but it is a very slow meticulous process, you can always remove more material from the rings but its real hard to put it back
View attachment 1426
The piston's wrist pins were installed to the eagle rods and and the rings were installed on the pistons. Everything was going pretty smoothly until is came time to install the rod bearings. The caps all removed without too much fuss, all except one. We probably spent a good 30 mins trying to remove this cap off this rod!!
In the end we shoved a beer bottle into the end of the rod with some shop towels for protection and that popped it off eventually. Layed the ACL bearings in there (without assembly lube behind them 
) and coated the top side of the bearings with assembly lube.
View attachment 1424
Put the crank with 2 and 3 dead center bottom to make sure we didn't nick anything with the rod on the way down. Coated the cylinder walls with some oil and put the piston in the ring compressor and carefully tapped them in. Put the rod cap on from underneath the engine and torque it down to eagle specs (forget off the top my head) Did the same to the crank for 1 and 4 and ... BAM short block assembled!
But it didn't stop there!
We cleaned the threads on the block before inserting the ARP head studs. For good measure, we used some assemble lube on the block side while threading them in, as they were still pretty snug being finger tightened into the block.
The 1g head got some work too. Using a c clamp type spring compressor, we removed all of the lock pins and removed the springs from the head. I than carefully lapped all the valves. The shop said they were all seated properly, but I lapped them anyways to get a nice smooth silver ring around and between the valve and head mating surfaces. That took 10 seconds to type out, but it took 2 hours to actually complete. Very time consuming, and the lap suction cup kept popping off, probably because the valves themselves were pretty grimy. I will have to go back and dremel clean and polish them up good as new. I went ahead and decided to replace the valve stem seals; for 20 bucks I don't have to worry about it again; do it once and do it right... While I wait to finish collecting all the small parts I forgot to order the first time around, I couldn't put in my new beehive evo 8 springs and retainers, so that will have to wait for another day.
I did have an issue with my new ARP crank bolt. It doesn't thread into the crank. The 6 bolt crank donor bolt fits into the g4cs crank just fine, but this ARP does not. Has anyone had any issues with this? Do I ask for the vendor to send me a new one or what? I can finger thread the 6 bolt bolt, I shouldn't have to force my ARP right?
View attachment 1425
Than I started preparing the timing side of the block. I have been waiting for this day for a while. I have had two medium sized blocks with 1g parts in them for months, and I couldn't wait to clean them up and put them back to work. HOWEVER, it appears by the time I got to the bolts on the front case, water pump, ect I started to get lazy (or if I remeber correctly, my friends got impatient) and I stopped labeling plastic baggies and putting bolts into my box in an organized manner. So it took me a few hours of cleaning bolts and sizing them up to trying to match them with the factory service manual.
In between cleaning bolts and measuring, I worked on some of my other new shiny oem parts. The front case needed the BSE plug installed. Per my friend's experience, JBweld melts at that plug, and instead preferred to use again Hi-temp RTV to seal the plug in there. To be honest, the plug was plenty tight and I don't think it will back out, the RTV should seal any small oil trying to get through, I'm satisfied with the decision. I did however find that the front case I ordered did not come with the oil pump gears, drive or driven. EXTREMELY unhappy with finding that, it set the pace for the rest of the night that it was just gonna be mock fitting everything.
The water pump was pretty self explanatory, the factory service manual said the bolts were marked with a 4 on the head on 4 of the bolts and a 7 on the 5th bolt. Well looking at all the bolts i had from the disassembly of the donor 6 bolt, there was no way I was gonna be able to match it perfectly. I seriously doubt it matters what the markings are, I got bolts to length that threaded into the holes and ended up with 3 bolts with 7s on them and 2 with 4. Oh well; its not the end of the world.
I ported the oil filter housing as well. While mine wasn't as extreme as I've seen on tuners, I widen the hole more which is more than it is from the factory. Unless you guys think it is WAY to small, I am to assume I can just roll with it.
View attachment 1427
Last part of the night was making adjustments to my 2g motor mount. I started to do it with the dremel, but after 3 cutting wheels got ate up, my friends showed me a whole new world..... AN ANGLE GRINDER!! Oh the joys of modern technology. Boy do I need to get me one of them. I said I need to cut here, he asked how much, I told him, he said ok, and bam.. it was done in 3-5 seconds. He cleaned it up with a die grinder, and oh god, I am in love. The mount looks amazing!
stock:
View attachment 1430
Modded:
View attachment 1423
My next goals are going to have to be making my sand blast box, because its time to pretty up the used parts some.
Well that's it for updates. see you guys next time!
of the other local DSMers in Tracy come out and pitch in, they were working on my car, their cars, there was beer, music; its the atmosphere I been missing for a long time.I already had redone the crank (thanks for the input last time dsmtuners!) and when my friends all showed up, we put our game face on.
First, the night before with another car ethusiast, we spent a good 3 hours hand sanding the block the best we could to get a nicer base to paint the engine on. Trying to keep it civil, I just painted it a low gloss black with hi temp engine enamel. Per instructions and research, I used no primer, and did 2 light coats of paint, and one medium coat. The block was already black, so if nothing else this just freshened the 20 year old block up.
View attachment 1428
After the block was drying for a good 24 hours, the gang showed up. He fixed up my ETS FMIC hole really good, no more leaks there
View attachment 1431
With a huge set of size 20mm - 40mm sockets, getting the balance shaft bearings out was cake with the assortment of options we had. We popped those out and than put in the new ones in.
We tapped in the freeze plugs coated with some hi-temp RTV to ensure no leaks. It was at this time my friend had realized I didn't own a hammer.... We tapped them in with a crow bar, breaker bar, 1/2" ratchet, w/e was handy to get the job done
View attachment 1429
Pistons were filed to have a top ring gap of .020 and a bottom ring of .022. By recommendations from my machinist, he said a normal top ring by specification and a tighter bottom ring. This process took entirely longer than I thought it would, but it is a very slow meticulous process, you can always remove more material from the rings but its real hard to put it back
View attachment 1426
The piston's wrist pins were installed to the eagle rods and and the rings were installed on the pistons. Everything was going pretty smoothly until is came time to install the rod bearings. The caps all removed without too much fuss, all except one. We probably spent a good 30 mins trying to remove this cap off this rod!!
In the end we shoved a beer bottle into the end of the rod with some shop towels for protection and that popped it off eventually. Layed the ACL bearings in there (without assembly lube behind them ) and coated the top side of the bearings with assembly lube.View attachment 1424
Put the crank with 2 and 3 dead center bottom to make sure we didn't nick anything with the rod on the way down. Coated the cylinder walls with some oil and put the piston in the ring compressor and carefully tapped them in. Put the rod cap on from underneath the engine and torque it down to eagle specs (forget off the top my head) Did the same to the crank for 1 and 4 and ... BAM short block assembled!
But it didn't stop there!
We cleaned the threads on the block before inserting the ARP head studs. For good measure, we used some assemble lube on the block side while threading them in, as they were still pretty snug being finger tightened into the block.
The 1g head got some work too. Using a c clamp type spring compressor, we removed all of the lock pins and removed the springs from the head. I than carefully lapped all the valves. The shop said they were all seated properly, but I lapped them anyways to get a nice smooth silver ring around and between the valve and head mating surfaces. That took 10 seconds to type out, but it took 2 hours to actually complete. Very time consuming, and the lap suction cup kept popping off, probably because the valves themselves were pretty grimy. I will have to go back and dremel clean and polish them up good as new. I went ahead and decided to replace the valve stem seals; for 20 bucks I don't have to worry about it again; do it once and do it right... While I wait to finish collecting all the small parts I forgot to order the first time around, I couldn't put in my new beehive evo 8 springs and retainers, so that will have to wait for another day.
I did have an issue with my new ARP crank bolt. It doesn't thread into the crank. The 6 bolt crank donor bolt fits into the g4cs crank just fine, but this ARP does not. Has anyone had any issues with this? Do I ask for the vendor to send me a new one or what? I can finger thread the 6 bolt bolt, I shouldn't have to force my ARP right?
View attachment 1425
Than I started preparing the timing side of the block. I have been waiting for this day for a while. I have had two medium sized blocks with 1g parts in them for months, and I couldn't wait to clean them up and put them back to work. HOWEVER, it appears by the time I got to the bolts on the front case, water pump, ect I started to get lazy (or if I remeber correctly, my friends got impatient) and I stopped labeling plastic baggies and putting bolts into my box in an organized manner. So it took me a few hours of cleaning bolts and sizing them up to trying to match them with the factory service manual.
In between cleaning bolts and measuring, I worked on some of my other new shiny oem parts. The front case needed the BSE plug installed. Per my friend's experience, JBweld melts at that plug, and instead preferred to use again Hi-temp RTV to seal the plug in there. To be honest, the plug was plenty tight and I don't think it will back out, the RTV should seal any small oil trying to get through, I'm satisfied with the decision. I did however find that the front case I ordered did not come with the oil pump gears, drive or driven. EXTREMELY unhappy with finding that, it set the pace for the rest of the night that it was just gonna be mock fitting everything.
The water pump was pretty self explanatory, the factory service manual said the bolts were marked with a 4 on the head on 4 of the bolts and a 7 on the 5th bolt. Well looking at all the bolts i had from the disassembly of the donor 6 bolt, there was no way I was gonna be able to match it perfectly. I seriously doubt it matters what the markings are, I got bolts to length that threaded into the holes and ended up with 3 bolts with 7s on them and 2 with 4. Oh well; its not the end of the world.
I ported the oil filter housing as well. While mine wasn't as extreme as I've seen on tuners, I widen the hole more which is more than it is from the factory. Unless you guys think it is WAY to small, I am to assume I can just roll with it.
View attachment 1427
Last part of the night was making adjustments to my 2g motor mount. I started to do it with the dremel, but after 3 cutting wheels got ate up, my friends showed me a whole new world..... AN ANGLE GRINDER!! Oh the joys of modern technology. Boy do I need to get me one of them. I said I need to cut here, he asked how much, I told him, he said ok, and bam.. it was done in 3-5 seconds. He cleaned it up with a die grinder, and oh god, I am in love. The mount looks amazing!
stock:
View attachment 1430
Modded:
View attachment 1423
My next goals are going to have to be making my sand blast box, because its time to pretty up the used parts some.
Well that's it for updates. see you guys next time!
