Vroom.

[curt-s]

This is the Build Thread for Vroom.. Reply below.

 

[curt-s]

So I'm in disassembly mode to find out how much damage was done by the PO's "mechanic" with the clutch install. Hoping the crank is still good.

If all is good, I've got one more 4g63 rebuild left in me before I hang up my towel for good.

Parts I have that were supposed to go on this year before I found out my end play:

- brand new FP 6851S aka HTAv3, replaces an Evo1 B16G I've had for years. Paid no more than a new evo3 for it
- FIC high-z 1200cc, replaces low-z 750cc I've had for over a decade

So the only two things I need to decide on now are rods and pistons.

I finally want to up my compression ratio because 7.8:1 is dogshit slow on the street. I'm not interested in boosting to the moon between stop lights so I need more oomph elsewhere. I'm also not a clutch dropper or antilagger, except for scaring off the younglings.

8.3:1 seems a bit.. pointless for 1k in cost.
9.0 feels right. Gives me a solid increase for a 2.0L as I'm not doing a 2.3.

Losing some mass in the rod is also a goal so that puts me in forged territory for both.

I likely can't wind out the HTA because I'm still on a stock tranny. I have to be kind because, let's face it, most of us are on our last transmission.

 

[curt-s]

Settled pretty quickly on a set of Eagle H beam rods. Now looking for a 8.3 or 8.5 set of pistons but I have time over the winter.

 

[curt-s]

Important parts awaiting in boxes:
Eagle H-beam Rods
FIC 1200cc High-Z
FP 68HTAv3
JMFab External o2 housing
TiAL MV-S 38mm
ES master bushing set
Fidanza V2 clutch & pp
GMB water pump + other small maintenance items
Mitsu Evo 9 HD timing belt
New OEM balance shaft bearings for block-off
New stubby
New ACL front case & pump

What I'm missing:
Ross or Wiseco 8.3:1 pistons (no higher due to quality of gas here)
KingXP main and rod bearings Apparently King has been pushing unable or unwilling to continue to supply bearings, so I'll be stuck with ACL I've not had good luck with ACL's manufacturing quality
I'd like to get my hands on an ACT or Fidanza lightweight flywheel. I loved my 1g FWD Fidanza.. so crispy.

What I've yet to do to move forward:
Pull engine + trans
Inspect crank to get a verdict on whether this crank is still good after measured endplay of over .010

I haven't touched the car in months due to basement build but it's now become a fall/winter job with a spring build

 

[curt-s]

Block should be getting measured this week. A little behind schedule but I waited too long to get the stuff over to the shop. Spring build probably in jeopardy now

Changed up my build slightly:

Manley 8.5:1
Kiggly girdle
ACL bearings (boo. no more king)
ACT Streetlite flywheel (no change but I'm committed to it now)

 

[DreamChaser7]

Planning identicle

 

[curt-s]

Still not sure what's caused the endplay, but the thrust surface of the crank isn't scored and doesn't have a lip. Journal surfaces mic out largest at 1.771 for rods and 2.245 for mains. Now the OE specs for mains is 2.2433-2.2439 so I'm actually 0.0006" thicker than spec, so that's on Mitsu and gives me some extra room for polishing. Now is just the question -- how will the ACLs stack up to give me the clearances I need, or will I need to order the 0.001" extra clearance set just for one bearing shell
I have a strong feeling that it's the cheap Chinese off-brand thrust bearing that was put in on it's last rebuild (not by me) which was manufactured too thin that caused the endplay of over 0.01", but I won't know until the replacement bearings come in.

As everyone is likely already well aware, Josh from JNZ (Is that you, @DSSA?) is the real deal. I put out some inquiries to our major supporting vendors for parts availability as clarity on inventory is a bit of a mess, and he had already checked stock with Manley themselves and put together a custom order (Canadian buyer, American shipping address) before anybody else even responded once. I feel bit bad because I took a bunch of his time with our back and forths but he never once made me feel like it was unwelcome. I've dealt with JNZ before but it was a loooong time ago.. they were the only ones that stocked KingXP and thus helped me finish that build.

Ordered up:

Manley 8.5:1 0.020" over
Kiggly girdle
ACL Race mains and rods, STD size
ACT Streetlite flywheel

Going to try and make a day trip down to ND out of it with the wife.. she loves her Hobby Lobbys.

 

[1990TSIAWDTALON]

Curt, let me know if you need a single 4B1146H-STD shell. I have a broken set and would be glad to help out if I can find them. Just LMK.
Marty

 

[curt-s]

Curt, let me know if you need a single 4B1146H-STD shell. I have a broken set and would be glad to help out if I can find them. Just LMK.
Marty

Will do Marty, but it would involve customs declaration paperwork.

By broken I assume you meant you also needed to match between sets to get your clearances and not that ACL lived up to their QA history I've had with them.

 

[1990TSIAWDTALON]

Correct. I needed one shell also. I just wanted to reach out and try to help. When ONE of my Manley 6* valve keepers went "zinging" as I uncompressed a spring last week while building my head, I was in the same situation as Manley doesn't sell just ONE. I ordered another set on a Saturday late afternoon then FOUND the little bugger on my bathroom carpet 4' away. I got lucky and was able to cancel the order I placed, saving me $60 for just ONE keeper.
Let me know if you need one or two, I can get them to ya if needed!
I work at (I'm the only one) a Post Office and could figure out customs. I don't ship much international mail out of my little office but I can. (I'd just have to figure out the customs form).

 

[curt-s]

Whee! Gonna go pick up the JNZ order from the border today and get this show on the road (tomorrow..)

 

[curt-s]

Ground off the little bosses for the girdle and decided whilst I had the grinder out to clean up the oil galleys behind the front case. Not as much flash as my first block but smoother is better.

The main bolts holding the girdle on are just temporary until it gets to the machine shop. Obviously a set of main studs are going in.

 

[curt-s]

Was standing in the shower a few days ago and it hit me.. when I measured endplay, I had the dial indicator affixed to the bottom of the frame rail near the crank bolt. As I was alone, I used the prybar method on main saddle against the crank, but I may have been pulling the bar handle towards the front of the motor.. I should have used the clutch and the maximum indicator but I thought I knew better apparently.

If that's true, I would have been artificially increasing endplay readings by more than a few thousandths.

The shop is mocking the crank up anyway and will get me an end play number but I measured both sets of thrust bearings and they both came out to 1.144" +/- reasonable variance given the shoddy way I was measuring them. Even the old ones which had some dry start evidence weren't worn down.

I truly wonder if that's what I did..

 

[curt-s]

Talked with the shop today about the block and crank. Good news all around:

Crank endplay is on the low side of 0.005 and that was with the old bearings. YAY! Polished up nicely
Mains clearances - 0.002 + a couple tenths
Rod clearances - 0.0015 - 0.0018
Bored 0.020 over with PTW - 0.0035
Deck cleaned up 100% with 0.006 total cut. I have a feeling this must have been a virgin block because boy was it out.

The rod clearances are tighter than I want so I'm having them adjust so that I get between 0.002 and 0.0025
They went ahead and bored off Manley's spec of 0.0035 but I want to run a little looser so I'm having them go to 0.004 PTW

Line hole completed with girdle installed

Should be ready either late next week or early week after. Temps should be starting to warm up by then so I can start working on the other things I need to do.

Ordered:
second set of main and rod bearings so that I can mix'n'match as needed
-4AN FP inline filter (RED/.125 orifice) and validated with FP that I can send the 68HTAv3 off the OFH with it as-is
IR 3 port solenoid so I can replace the aged stock BCS. It worked great but I don't want a failure in the middle of a pull

 

[1990TSIAWDTALON]

Man, all of that is wonderful news. When I rebuilt my auto block, it's endplay was so tight compared to a stick shift crank. Almost new spec.
VERY glad to follow your progress!

 

[curt-s]

Thanks @1990TSIAWDTALON !

They also checked journals for roundness and they be poifect too. Shop manager was overall impressed with the condition of the block and crank, considering it's from a ~91 (and from a JDM GVR4 RS no less)

Whilst I wait for the rest of the work to be done, maybe some before pics.

Waiting to be loaded onto the truck to bring it to my province. Yes, it did sit that high. It was on Moog "OE" replacement springs, which gave something like 8-11" of ground clearance. For the first while I was 4x4'ing around MOAAAAAB

First thing I did was check that clutch slave. Nope, couldn't push it in. Master wasn't adjusted properly. The fear of crankwalk set in real fast after that but, as the shop just measured, low side of 0.005" endplay.
Next up, shifter felt a little sloppy.

That'll do it. Popped the skateboard bearings out of my 1g shifter cables and pressed them in. Nice and tight.

I knew she had to be burning oil from somewhere as it was smoking quite a bit.

It was at that point I decided to swap on the head from my 1G, as it only had a season. Clean up the decks as best as I can and send it. I knew I would be rebuilding this motor within the next couple years, was at least hoping to get 2 seasons out of it first but that wasn't case (see dumbass way to test endplay).

My little family

Walbro 350 went in

One of those moments where you suddenly have a thought "This is about to end badly", and then half a second later, part of your finger is on the floor.

going thumbnail for those that get squeemish. i get it.


Head back on

couldn't find my Jay Racing tensioner tool so I improvised. Found it later but one of the pins snapped

Basically back together

I was tempted to leave it like this

Ah, bad fuel pressure you say?

Years of not filling the brake fluid reservoir properly will get you this:

and you can't see Prosport Evo gauges in the sunlight worth a damn. I have short and long visors for them both this year.

and that's my little story until now.

 

[curt-s]

and the obligatory idling video. I'm thinking one or two of my HLAs are bleeding down, so I have a new set of 8 spares to make sure I get all good ones

 

[CrackedDSM]

If you think that's gonna make me squeamish, boy the pictures I could show you.


For those not combat veterans or just really unfortunate, did you know if you leave a large enough puddle of blood laying there for more than 0.15 seconds it turns into blood jell-o? And then 0.15 seconds past that stage, it becomes akin to concrete or dried egg.



But yeah, curious about which of your family turbo collection you'll enjoy the most. God I love turbos.

 

[curt-s]

Actually have a few more from last year

I was running the cyclone but I just couldn't get it to "feel right". My VE was definitely affected but, if anything, I lost on the short runner and the long runner felt just like the 1g stocker. Foot hard down in 5th at 80kph, so that's not a lot of revs, I also swear I got the 16g to surge.
That classic "fffffffffffffffffffuhp fuhp fuhp fuhp" sound out of it at 20psi. Perhaps that is too much air for barely 2k rpm..!

Pullin' er apart.

I don't know, maybe 3k km if that?

The thrust surface of the #3. A tiny bit of wear from drystart and clutch start, but overall still measured out to spec.

The remaining bearings looked like this to varying degrees. The crank's fine but these needed to come out ASAP anyway. Their crush was pretty bad. Bearings supplied by Altrom, not sure who made them.
The main were also showing uneveness, so regardless of girdle use or not, a line hone was necessary with (supposedly?) higher quality bearings. Stuck with ACL due to no supply of any other manufacturer is available for a 6bolt it seems.

and kitties

 

[curt-s]

If you think that's gonna make me squeamish, boy the pictures I could show you.


For those not combat veterans or just really unfortunate, did you know if you leave a large enough puddle of blood laying there for more than 0.15 seconds it turns into blood jell-o? And then 0.15 seconds past that stage, it becomes akin to concrete or dried egg.



But yeah, curious about which of your family turbo collection you'll enjoy the most. God I love turbos.

Well, not you in particular.. according to your sig, you've seen a thing or ten thousand. Yours and my wife's jobs are two things I couldn't do.

The 14b was my first taste but it felt so .. linear. Which it was, it spooled quick and at 18psi it could still blow the tires off my fwd.
Then I went to the Evo1 B16g. Later spool but hit hard and fast. It was a PITA to manage boost and if I didn't keep it to under 12psi before 4k I had zero traction, but that was no fun. When she hooked, she moooved and was a blast.
I had a 2013.5 S4 6speed with an APR Stage 1 reflash and a nice free flowing exhaust at the same time. God it sounded glorious. That supercharger whine.. I swear the fwd 16g Talon was still faster after the dig, though. Probably becaues the S4 was 50% heavier. The Talon was easily more reliable, though.

the AWD Talon with the 16g, not so much in the 'feels faster' department, but that's a 7.8:1 turbo with awd drivetrain loss vs supercharged v6 torque starts-at-1000rpm argument. I've never launched her from a dig, nor will I. I'm not building this car for those reasons.

So the 68HTAv3 will probably feel pretty much the same as the 16g unless I'm pushing it -- which I really can't (same, tired, transmission availability argument)

To answer your question, I think the 16g on the fwd. The smile on my face the first time I hooked and hit >21psi.

 

[BeatupVR4]

I've driven two FWD 14B cars, a 1G and a 2G, with only cams and an exhaust and more boost and they were a BLAST to drive.

Still on an Evo III 16G but the v3 68HTA looks very enticing for the Galant.

 

[curt-s]

Found a few more..

I got lucky with this. Literally brand new JMFab O2 housing and TiAL 38mm MVS (came with all hardware, flanges, and every spring) for like $500 USD. Some may think :O on price but in Canada, that's a steal, considering their availability.

ha cat butt. I might be 41 but I still have a child's mind sometimes

I'd like to use Link-on-RPi setup I had in my 1G but I don't want to get rid of my double din headunit, and it doesn't have HDMI. I might try and find one but it's probably laptop from now on.


So I disassembled the transfer case last year because when I drained it, I found heavyweight shockproof and water..

The breather bulb had no sealant on it, so any water splashes got right in there. The car was from BC so moisture is no stranger there.

Thankfully, and I posted these in another thread, no significant damage. The car gods doth smiled upon me.

I didn't want to disassemble the entire mid section after seeing that the gears looked brand new and the amount of wear, or lack thereof, on the bearings. So I flushed out the entire thing with a lot of diesel and then brake cleaner and compressed air, and immediately followed with a dousing of lightweight shockproof to relube and protect against corrosion.

 

[curt-s]

Trying to sum up the courage to open up my other set of 2G tail light housings and install these bad boys that I had on my 1G. I'd have to modify the PCBs but not impossible.

273 Philips HPWT lumileds per side broken into 7 segments. Full brightness the tail lights consumed 11 amps at 9V . Arduino-based with bluetooth controller via an Android app I wrote. By the time I considered it "done", it had a dozen different sequences, a custom "piano-like" input mode, and a various VU meters that utilized the phone mic to sync to music.

(ignore the wheels)



I just don't know if I can bring myself to possibly screw up the only other set of tails I have for my baby.

 

[CrackedDSM]

How do you guys even come up with this stuff. That's amazing.


Also, I'll repeat my comment from Youtube, and put it here.


I love the Cylon "sweep". I'd kill for a set for my Talon.

 

[curt-s]

How do you guys even come up with this stuff. That's amazing.


Also, I'll repeat my comment from Youtube, and put it here.


I love the Cylon "sweep". I'd kill for a set for my Talon.

Remind me to never have you as my ambulance driver.. "so, about those tail lights of yours.. How much traffic are they worth to you?"



There was an outfit in Ontario that would buy trailers of 'undeliverable' goods (damage to trailer, damage to some contents, bad orders, etc.) and then resell the contents on ebay. They used to unload tons of Lumileds, so I picked up 600 worth of tubes of them. It also helped to have free access to a laser PCB prototyping machine as I was helping to set it up for a local 'maker space'. I had absolutely zero circuit design experience at the time so my EM shielding and ground plane control was shiet. Power filtering was also practically nonexistent.

That being said, it worked, it didn't kill my alternator, and it was cool as hell. In the end I learned arduino, the fundamentals of I2C, Android, and Java (again.. last time was in University)

Now I have a crate of thousands of various ICs, boards, etc etc, that I picked up over the years and I have absolutely no idea what to do with them. I might donate them to a community college for their electronics program.