Shotgun rebuild

[Ender]

I went to start up my car today a couple hours after parking it, and earlier today I performed a water treatment test and then flogged it a bit on the way to my destination. It ran just fine and pulled hard as usual, however the last couple days it has been stopping once in a while during cranking. I would crank and it would stop then start spinning again, either on its own or sometimes by me letting up on the key then trying again, but promptly start up after doing so. Now I suspect that it wasn't electrical and the motor was instead catching on something. It is currently stuck hard. I couldn't get it unstuck by a roll start, it just lurched hard and might have even dragged the tires (though I wasn't moving fast). I'd say I hope I can roll it forward in reverse and maybe pop it loose by spinning the motor backwards, but I seriously doubt it would run well if I could even start it, if I can pop it loose.

SO, that brings me to the real purpose of this thread: Ender's Shotgun Rebuild. Fortunately, due to my prudence about the realization that the compression was somewhat low, I have already gathered up ALL the necessary parts (and some unnecessary yet delicious parts like the means to street port, a beefier clutch, and the Rotary Aviation OMP adapter). I am pretty much done practicing my porting and I have begun clearancing tonight. This is my first build, but I have done quite a bit of research and I'm finishing up the Mazdatrix DIY rebuild series. I will, of course, post as many pictures as I can manage, time is especially important on this, and if at all possible I would like to have the motor swapped in by Saturday. I do have the whole week off, so to speak. Wish me luck.

[WE3RX7]

Did you already remove the engine, or are you rebuilding a different core?

[Ender]

I'm rebuilding a core.

[Ender]

I picked up some fittings today after my brief interview, I sure hope I don't screw up any of my plates...

[WE3RX7]

Ah - thats good then, just label everything really well and you should be fine. First times always the hardest, but two, three or four later - you'll be a pro. I can do FB swaps in a day and FCs take about two or three :)

[Ender]

This marks yesterday's and today's progress.

I pulled out my diffusers and realized "Oh, these went through the chemical bath when I had Arnold Motor Supply clean them". The o-rings feel like they would break easily (they are hard, probably brittle), but the diffusers seem ok. Anyone know of suitable replacement o-rings I could pick up at a hardware or parts store? They need to withstand fuel, of course.
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/8752/p4080011ay1.th.jpg (http://img91.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4080011ay1.jpg)

Here we have my two practice irons (I really wish I had a center iron to practice on, I'll have to do it another time). I basically followed the Mazdatrix porting video as well as I could, but I don't have quite all the rotary bits needed to do everything they instruct. I think I got pretty freakin' close for what I had. After I was done porting I dug deep to get an idea of where the water jacket is. Apparently a lot of people have tried to cut STRAIGHT DOWN from their port opening and end up with a useless iron. If you ever want to port your 13B, bear in mind that it is NOT beneficial to airflow to cut far straight down anyway. I did not cut straight down at all, and from what I've seen reputable builders also do not cut straight down (I am only talking about the closing edge).
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/3227/p4080008yr4.th.jpg (http://img91.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4080008yr4.jpg)http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/3973/p4080009au7.th.jpg (http://img136.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4080009au7.jpg)

Before I started porting I took at least two hours tapping these two threads... It was annoying, but these brass fittings should last a long time and more importantly, they will be EASY to replace if I ever need to do so. I removed the old nipples because they had some rust and I've had these types of nipples break on me before. It's a huge PITA to fix while the motor is in the car (not to mention hazardous and troublesome to say the least if it happens while driving). I didn't have a drill bit big enough for the big hole, so a lot of time was used cutting it out with the die grinder. I had to do the same for the small hole because my drill chuck isn't big enough for the right sized drill bit. Yippee. At least I got the little one out without cutting the nipple up like I had to with the other one :icon_no2: Before I did this I was warned to be careful not to crack the iron around the thread. I was careful and that was another reason it took so long. I'd much rather back it out many times and cut more out periodically than do it fast and have to search for, buy, and then wait for another iron.
http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/404/p4080013ll4.th.jpg (http://img136.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4080013ll4.jpg)http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/16/p4080012qd1.th.jpg (http://img147.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4080012qd1.jpg)http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/7391/p4080014nz8.th.jpg (http://img91.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4080014nz8.jpg)http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/7078/p4080015tb1.th.jpg (http://img147.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4080015tb1.jpg)

I ported the secondaries first, as that was what I practiced on, and they went smoothly. Please note, I did not take pictures of EVERYTHING, as it isn't really necessary and it is time consuming trying to photographically document absolutely everything. The runners were pretty easy, just use your head. They go quickly, too, which was nice.
http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/8792/p4080005zh5.th.jpg (http://img147.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4080005zh5.jpg)http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/1480/p4080006pa9.th.jpg (http://img138.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4080006pa9.jpg)http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/600/p4080007vy0.th.jpg (http://img147.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4080007vy0.jpg)http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/8006/p4090016ec2.th.jpg (http://img136.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4090016ec2.jpg)http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/5180/p4090017ih4.th.jpg (http://img136.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4090017ih4.jpg)http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/6897/p4090018qf6.th.jpg (http://img147.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4090018qf6.jpg)

While I was told that I could use my Racing Beat street port template as-is for all four ports, I decided to shrink it for the primaries.
A) I can't afford (time nor money) to mess them up trying to open them wide up to anything like the secondaries.
B) This does need to be streetable and I like keeping a low profile when it suits me, I suspect I would have to set the idle a bit higher if I made the ports very large.
To accomplish this I simply drew reference marks on the template to show me where the new lines would intersect, marked the intersections on the plate, and scribed the official line by hand.
http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/7035/p4090020mu6.th.jpg (http://img147.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4090020mu6.jpg)http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/2892/p4090021os8.th.jpg (http://img147.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4090021os8.jpg)http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/5014/p4090022li8.th.jpg (http://img144.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4090022li8.jpg)http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/5884/p4090024tu8.th.jpg (http://img147.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4090024tu8.jpg)

Since my split mandrel and sandpaper strips won't arrive for about a week I decided to make my own. I would have preferred to shave and cut a bolt for a mandrel, but that would have taken precious time. Also, the best sandpaper I have for the job was 320 grit. 220 is the finest recommended by Mazdatrix, so I went light on its use. The main purpose was to ever so slightly smooth the sharp corners of the inner port openings, I think it did the trick. Good old fashioned ingenuity.
http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/4035/p4090037jo0.th.jpg (http://img144.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4090037jo0.jpg)http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/1596/p4090038jj2.th.jpg (http://img147.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4090038jj2.jpg)http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/1947/p4090036tr2.th.jpg (http://img144.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4090036tr2.jpg)

I'm proud of these babies, I think my first primary ports came out well (again though, I don't have all the proper bits so they aren't quite as smooth as would be preferred, but I think I will still receive most of the benefits of this type of port job.
http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/3925/p4090030qv3.th.jpg (http://img136.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4090030qv3.jpg)http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/6796/p4090028de7.th.jpg (http://img147.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4090028de7.jpg)http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/3286/p4090032bv7.th.jpg (http://img144.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4090032bv7.jpg)http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/5058/p4090034ut1.th.jpg (http://img136.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4090034ut1.jpg)

FINALLY, some clear pictures. I think some of the fuzzy pictures are because I was too close and others because I don't have terribly steady hands with something as light as a camera after hours and hours of porting. These are as done as I'm going to be able to get them. I would like some opinions on whether or not these will be safe and reliable for extended use, mainly because I'm nervous about my first build. I was very careful not to nick the faces and not to go past my lines except to very gently blend the sharp points where the template and stock ports didn't meet smoothly. There were one or two very, very minor spots where I went over a line. I remember once was probably .5mm past the outer opening edge line and once was about the same past the closing edge. Should that be ok?
http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/7743/p4090039ly0.th.jpg (http://img147.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4090039ly0.jpg)http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/1701/p4090041ta1.th.jpg (http://img136.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4090041ta1.jpg)http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/9763/p4090042aw0.th.jpg (http://img136.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4090042aw0.jpg)http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/3428/p4090043gr7.th.jpg (http://img144.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4090043gr7.jpg)

[Ender]

Primary runners:
http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/1654/p4090031ak0.th.jpg (http://img144.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4090031ak0.jpg)http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/1292/p4090035gq5.th.jpg (http://img147.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4090035gq5.jpg)

You can compare the two finished secondaries side by side here:
http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/3121/p4090027rl4.th.jpg (http://img147.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4090027rl4.jpg)

[Ender]

Ported my housings today. Racing Beat street port template, so the closing edge was basically unchanged. I also spent at least 20 minutes getting a crappy plug out of one housing. I had to heat it constantly for ~15 minutes with a propane torch (hottest thing I have available out there) and crank fairly hard on it with a 2' breaker bar. I was none too pleased, because the first surprise was the plug is English. 3/8". Great... So once I got it out I discovered a severely retarded person had installed the plug. The original threads were not only screwed up, the whole plug was inserted crooked. It's like they used an impact wrench from the start and probably didn't even tap a new thread :mad: At least I don't think that the turbo coolant passage right there requires a thread, I figure it's just an o-ring and the LIM holds it there. I sure hope that's the case, especially since the other housing's plug (which is in straight) has been (supposedly) messed up by a shop that couldn't get the plug out. I wonder if they fell for the 'try a metric allen socket', because 9mm is TOO SMALL.
http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/6904/p4100001ln7.th.jpg (http://img144.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4100001ln7.jpg)http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/5924/p4100002vf1.th.jpg (http://img81.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4100002vf1.jpg)http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/8705/p4100003uk1.th.jpg (http://img144.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4100003uk1.jpg)

One housing prepped for paint, both are cleaned/brushed:
http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/5779/p4100004se3.th.jpg (http://img144.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4100004se3.jpg)http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/5038/p4100005so4.th.jpg (http://img148.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4100005so4.jpg)

However, I'm debating if I even want to bother painting the motor at this point. I need to get it DONE, ideally I could start the swap Saturday morning. Any thoughts? Suggestions? I won't be able to do much before 10, I have an interview at 10am tomorrow, and I have to go pick up my rotors/stat gears from the machinist. Hopefully they'll be done by noon, and I have to clearance my seals still.

Here are the colors, red for the irons and chrome for the housings if I go ahead with it:
http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/7010/p4100008kc2.th.jpg (http://img144.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4100008kc2.jpg)

Engine stand w/ 13B head. Had to spend $22 for nuts and bolts just to mount the plate. Stupid Lowe's.
http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/7492/p4100006gj3.th.jpg (http://img144.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4100006gj3.jpg)

Hey! The stock sound pads are good for something after all! Kneeling mats!
http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/9949/p4100007sh3.th.jpg (http://img148.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4100007sh3.jpg)

[Boostmaniac]

Man, I wish you the best of luck. Everything looks super clean and ready to rock.

Get some more pics up of the build when you can.

[Iox106]

Good luck wit the build everything look greats so far!!

[Ender]

Thanks, guys!

Random thought:
My DIY sandpaper flapper worked pretty well on the exhaust ports.

Hopefully I can get the seals clearanced fast enough to get the rotors back to the machinist. He couldn't do the bearings today, but might be able to have them done by tomorrow morning sometime. I really hope so, but once I'm done with that then I can maybe paint, prep the plates for installation, and start pulling the motor before the new one is even built. The more I think about it I do need to check to make sure it isn't just the starter that locked up, if it did and can easily be fixed it will possibly save a lot of trouble involving driving a few hours to borrow my grandpa's car and such.

[Ender]

Finished clearancing at about 6 this morning, threw the seals in my super duper seal sorter, then whisked them off to have new bearings installed.
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/8639/p4110008oc5.th.jpg (http://img90.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4110008oc5.jpg)http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/6438/p4110009vw2.th.jpg (http://img85.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4110009vw2.jpg)http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/8609/p4110007fu9.th.jpg (http://img232.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4110007fu9.jpg)

Now, what should I do about this? See that divot in the outer sealing area? I'm sure there's something I can use to seal it, block it off, but I don't know what would work well. I have some assorted glues, JB Weld, body filler and fiberglass; would any of those work well for this?
http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/480/p4110004dt5.th.jpg (http://img232.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4110004dt5.jpg)http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/3918/p4110001ae3.th.jpg (http://img148.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4110001ae3.jpg)

Wobbly triangles, courtesy of Felix Wankel (sort of...)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRkXfy7gonk

Now I'm going back out to assemble my engine lift. Hopefully I'll get a call from Car Ex soon marking the successful installation of my rotor and stat gear bearings.

[Ender]

Yar, CarX couldn't change my bearings. I'll try to get pics soon to ask if I really need to change them.

[RETed]

Now, what should I do about this? See that divot in the outer sealing area? I'm sure there's something I can use to seal it, block it off, but I don't know what would work well. I have some assorted glues, JB Weld, body filler and fiberglass; would any of those work well for this?

Unfortunately, none of those would work well.
A proper fix would be to reweld the aluminum and machine it down to tolerance.
Unforunately, that labor intensive and requires special machinery to do properly (or expensive). :(

Your rotor housings look like you use some type of sealant on the o-rings?
I don't like to use RTV types of sealant on those o-rings, but it's the only option you've got outside of the more expensive option mentioned above.

Luckily, it's on the outer o-ring, so the stress is not as bad versus the inner o-rings; you don' t have to worry about the inner combustion chambers!


-Ted

[Ender]

I looked at them again, and they really weren't in bad shape. Except CarX SCREWED ONE OF THE BEARINGS UP AND DIDN'T TELL ME!! :icon_tdown: :cuss: :mad: :toetap05: I am furious. It would have been one thing if they had told me it happened, but now I have no choice but to replace all of them and they gave me my parts box back without a word about their condition. I'm calling them today to request they help pay to have the bearings replaced. I would have been able to reuse these without any problems and I was going to do just that until I discovered this.

This is the one, you can't tell well because it's blurry, but it's very obvious on both sides that whatever disc they used slipped.
http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/3848/p4120010cd3.th.jpg (http://img237.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4120010cd3.jpg)

http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/4858/p4120007dw8.th.jpg (http://img237.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4120007dw8.jpg)http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/1557/p4120008zt0.th.jpg (http://img91.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4120008zt0.jpg)http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/8642/p4120009cg3.th.jpg (http://img237.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4120009cg3.jpg)

[Ender]

Your rotor housings look like you use some type of sealant on the o-rings?
I don't like to use RTV types of sealant on those o-rings, but it's the only option you've got outside of the more expensive option mentioned above.
Damn, you're sure I couldn't rough up the pit and put some liquid steel in there or something? When I got the housing there was black stuff built up in that pit so I cleaned it out. I'm not sure what the stuff was, but I certainly don't want my seal to bear the load of keeping that gap shut.

[Ender]

Let me rephrase that: I'm calling them tomorrow. They are closed today.

[RETed]

This is the one, you can't tell well because it's blurry, but it's very obvious on both sides that whatever disc they used slipped.

Okay, the pics are that bad that I'm not quite sure what you're trying to describe?

The two later ones with the stat gears are fine.
The copper showing on the *seam* of the bearing is okay.

I'm not too sure what is wrong with the bearing on the rotor is?
If anything it looks like it slipped out a little?
If so, you can just press it back in; just make sure the "tab" is aligned correctly.
Else, I don't see any major copper areas showing.


-Ted

[RETed]

Damn, you're sure I couldn't rough up the pit and put some liquid steel in there or something?

Here's the problems with any epoxy (yes, "Liquid Steel" is an epoxy)...

First, heat expansion...
These epoxies do not expand and contract like the surrounding metal.
Due to the heat cycling of the metal (i.e. aluminum), the epoxy will eventually work itself loose due to the heat cycling.

Second, how does the epoxy react with the coolant?
A lot of them do not like being immersed in chemicals.
You need to confirm with the manufacturer that it is okay to be "submerged" with your coolant.
Most epoxies do not like to be in contact with glycol based liquids and will eventually erode away.


-Ted

[Ender]

The divot starts on the dry half of the seal. As long as it is flat and doesn't break down from heat it should never even come in contact with coolant. I got some epoxy intended to bond with Aluminum (along with some other things), withstands -60*F to 300*F, and might do something else. Like be fluid resistant. I think I'll use that stuff.

If you could see the rotor it would be blazingly obvious that their disc slipped and gouged the bearing on both sides.

[Ender]

Update on CarX, they said they'd cover the cost to have Arnold press the bearing. I decided to just replace the one anyway, I don't see any advantage to replacing them all since they were all in really good shape (as I learned yesterday during some researching, 1/4" wear at the seam and nowhere else is excellent condition). The machinist at Arnold MS said they ought to be done by this afternoon.

I also got the motor pulled late last night. This is one of those few days where I strongly feel I've fulfilled my duties and exhibited my prowess as a man, haha. Some friends came to help a little for an hour or so yesterday afternoon. Among multiple cars, one drives an FB (traded his old NA FC for it) and the other drives a fully loaded G35. Both pretty cool guys. I'm the stud in the green.

http://img234.imageshack.us/img234/8954/p4130001us1.th.jpg (http://img234.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4130001us1.jpg)http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/5203/p4130002us2.th.jpg (http://img224.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4130002us2.jpg)http://img234.imageshack.us/img234/7800/p4130003vw7.th.jpg (http://img234.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4130003vw7.jpg)http://img394.imageshack.us/img394/5172/p4130004es5.th.jpg (http://img394.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4130004es5.jpg)http://img394.imageshack.us/img394/4959/p4130005cx2.th.jpg (http://img394.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4130005cx2.jpg)http://img394.imageshack.us/img394/3686/p4130006vh2.th.jpg (http://img394.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4130006vh2.jpg)http://img234.imageshack.us/img234/6610/p4130007xe2.th.jpg (http://img234.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4130007xe2.jpg)http://img394.imageshack.us/img394/3927/p4130008oc0.th.jpg (http://img394.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4130008oc0.jpg)

You may not see it in these, but I used a car ramp with planks on it to hold the transmission up. That allowed me to have the car jacked up while doing all this, which is really useful for the trans bolts you have to take out. Especially that one right next to the EGR valve. ALL of them went peacefully except for that one.
http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/13/p4130009ur5.th.jpg (http://img224.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4130009ur5.jpg)http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/5489/p4130010qz9.th.jpg (http://img224.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4130010qz9.jpg)http://img394.imageshack.us/img394/5438/p4130012js9.th.jpg (http://img394.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4130012js9.jpg)http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/2576/p4130013mr4.th.jpg (http://img231.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4130013mr4.jpg)http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/1825/p4130014zf9.th.jpg (http://img231.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4130014zf9.jpg)http://img73.imageshack.us/img73/5421/p4130015ya1.th.jpg (http://img73.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4130015ya1.jpg)

[Ender]

Holy crap I need to get this done so if nothing else, I can get back to a normal sleeping schedule.

[Ender]

I tried this color on the turbine housing and alt pulley, somewhat as an experiment. I will say that this paint isn't terribly durable, but we'll see how it holds up under driving conditions. I do really like the color though. Next time around I will try to spring for a candy apple metallic red powder coat.
http://img74.imageshack.us/img74/5436/p4130002jz5.th.jpg (http://img74.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4130002jz5.jpg)http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/6622/p4140004bs7.th.jpg (http://img90.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4140004bs7.jpg)

I went to Magic Muffler to have my wastegate washer welded on so I could port it more. They only charged me $5 and it took about 15 minutes in total. Sweet. It gave me more time to perfect my port job.
http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/917/p4140005rd2.th.jpg (http://img225.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4140005rd2.jpg)http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/75/p4140006wt0.th.jpg (http://img224.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4140006wt0.jpg)http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/8734/p4140007su7.th.jpg (http://img224.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4140007su7.jpg)

Figured I'd get rid of that pesky pipe in my exhaust manifold.
http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/7624/p4150009vz5.th.jpg (http://img224.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4150009vz5.jpg)http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/9669/p4150011la4.th.jpg (http://img227.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4150011la4.jpg)

Mock up to get stuff fitting right as I go along. I drastically shortened the vac line to the wastegate (compared with the ~3' that was being used before).
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/8128/p4150013sp5.th.jpg (http://img227.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4150013sp5.jpg)http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/9272/p4150014dp4.th.jpg (http://img225.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4150014dp4.jpg)

Is this flywheel ok to use? It came off a different '87 TII and the marks around the edge are from my grubby hands, and it's only surface rust. I can't currently get the flywheel nut off the old motor so it's actually quite fortunate I had this (I just hope it's good to use), as has been the case with a lot of things in this build.
http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/3145/p4150015hq0.th.jpg (http://img225.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4150015hq0.jpg)http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/7034/p4150016jq7.th.jpg (http://img153.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4150016jq7.jpg)http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/5416/p4150017oi3.th.jpg (http://img225.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4150017oi3.jpg)

I have a bunch of parts cleaning left to do, then I will start building. Anyone know a fast/easy way to get rid of old, hardened paper gaskets? Wire wheel maybe?

[RETed]

I Is this flywheel ok to use? It came off a different '87 TII and the marks around the edge are from my grubby hands, and it's only surface rust. I can't currently get the flywheel nut off the old motor so it's actually quite fortunate I had this (I just hope it's good to use), as has been the case with a lot of things in this build.
If it's just surface rust, just knock it off with a wire wheel.
Make sure there's no "bluing" of the steel, and the surface should be even.
It's highly recommended to get it resurfaced from a machine shop.


-Ted

[Ender]

If it's just surface rust, just knock it off with a wire wheel.
Make sure there's no "bluing" of the steel, and the surface should be even.
It's highly recommended to get it resurfaced from a machine shop.

Cool. I'll probably look into a resurfacing tonight, if it's less than $30 I'd definitely do it...

[Ender]

So I apparently missed this in my initial inspection. This stat gear bearing has some copper showing and a few little grooves in the worn spot where it looks like a piece of sand had some fun. The picture shows the spot, it's not worn across the whole bearing nor more than a quarter of the way around, which makes me think it's only worn because some crap got in there and was eventually removed. I need to know what kind of bearing life I might expect from this if I reuse it. I think some would reuse this one while others would not. The FSM is vague about how much wear Mazda deems acceptable. I'm ready to build this bitch, I would like to reuse this bearing if I should be able to get 40k+ miles out of it. By that time I will probably have had enough time to work on another rebuild geared toward more power and an upgraded turbo.
http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/3457/p4160001hg3.th.jpg (http://img171.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4160001hg3.jpg)http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/3117/p41600010ds0.th.jpg (http://img228.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p41600010ds0.jpg)

[Ender]

Just finished a 12 hour shift on my motor, the shortblock is completely assembled, everything is clean. Sorry, no pics of the process, I would have taken the time to do a more detailed account if my car wasn't broken while I rebuild.

I need to install my clutch slave and master cylinders, then some peripheral parts on the block, map the new OMP lines, and call for help because it's nice to have some extra hands when doing the heavy lifting/maneuvering.

[RETed]

What did you do about the above stat gear (bearing)?
I forgot to tell you to...molest it. :)
Feel with your fingers to see if you can detect any change of the surface.
If you can feel anything, I would recommend to change it out.
Replacement bearings are not that expensive ($20?); labor usually costs more to press it out and then replace.

Good luck!


-Ted

[Ender]

I replaced the bearing, and it only took the machinist about 5 minutes and cost me ~$15. $50 for the flywheel though, but it looks so sexy. If a flywheel can look sexy. I think it can. Anyway an rx7club member who builds motors said I could reuse it, but I didn't want to risk it... there were some gouges in it from particles, not just even wear.

Currently I'm rebuilding the OMP system, I had to break to come in and get lengths.
http://rotorwiki.com/index.php/Custom_OMP_Injection_Lines
I also really need some food... With the wife moved out right now and my car broken, I hate the thought of taking the bus to go grocery shopping, it could take me like 3 hours if not more. I hate using the bus, it takes forever.

Moving on, after the OMP is done I'll bolt up the turbo, brackets, and the rest of the stuff that needs to come off the old block. Like the little sensor next to the oil pressure sensor, what does it do? It looks like a thermocouple.

My endplay turned out surprisingly nice, I thought I was going to have way too much and then I'd be screwed, because all four spacers (a few spares and a new one) I have happen to be the same size :o10:

Oh yeah, I also had two outer oil control rings break during block assembly. One was broken before it got out of the package, and one broke during pressing. Is that common? Makes me question the quality of the Atkins oil seals, if nothing else. Should they get stronger with some use? I reused old ones, as they were mostly in good condition and just needed cleaning and new o-rings.

[Iox106]

I would be pissed if the oil seal came broke. I bet if u called up atkins they will replace them.

[RETed]

Moving on, after the OMP is done I'll bolt up the turbo, brackets, and the rest of the stuff that needs to come off the old block. Like the little sensor next to the oil pressure sensor, what does it do? It looks like a thermocouple.
Water temp sensor for the instrument cluster?
Either has a bullet connector (Zenki) or male spade (Kouki) on it?


I also had two outer oil control rings break during block assembly. One was broken before it got out of the package, and one broke during pressing. Is that common? Makes me question the quality of the Atkins oil seals, if nothing else. Should they get stronger with some use? I reused old ones, as they were mostly in good condition and just needed cleaning and new o-rings.
Yikes...
I will never use anything buy Mazda OEM.
I've never had problems like that with Mazda OEM.


-Ted

[Ender]

I would be pissed if the oil seal came broke. I bet if u called up atkins they will replace them.

Tough part is I bought the kit from a person who bought it a couple years ago and never used it. :ack2:* There's no telling exactly why they broke, but it does scare me. I will definitely be calling Atkins up if I have any problems with the oil seals once the motor is running, but right now I wouldn't be able to make a good case. Also, there shouldn't be a finite shelf life on them, nor should any normal temperatures harm them...

The motor is ready to be installed, I just need to install the clutch thing... The bearing that the clutch lever moves back and forth? What's that called? I also want to check if I installed my clutch properly. I used the alignment tool and I think I got it in there very heterosexual, but I just wanted to double check on which side should be facing out. I put the thicker side facing the back.

*It's so awesome that I really just wanted to throw that in somewhere. :biggthumpup:
:puke: <--out the nose and everything! you just know that has to burn...

[Ender]

Either has a bullet connector (Zenki)
^^^

[Ender]

HOLY CRAP. What a long freakin' weekend. And I still have laundry to finish. New job starts at 6:30am tomorrow morning. SO:

Rebuild motor. Check.
Install rebuilt motor. Check.
Start rebuilt motor. Check.
Inspect for any poor symptoms. Uh oh, no oil pressure.
Do a little research, CRAP, missed installation of one little o-ring that Mazda put there to baffle do it yourselfers like me :P Spent the next 3+ hours tearing it down and prying the front cover off, then repairing as best I could the torn oil pan and front cover gaskets. An inch of the oil pan gasket tore out from underneath the front iron, so I loosened a bolt, pried on the pan (hard) and slipped the piece back in, using hylomar for the o-ring and front cover gasket frag. Voila. But I would just recommend installing that little o-ring before installing the motor. Just a suggestion :banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead:

Reinstall, reassemble, and she's running again. But, she's running very loud, and very poorly, and at 3am and the property managers threatened to tow/call police. I found this out this afternoon, anyway, back to right after I got it running with oil pressure:
It runs like crap. Almost zero throttle response, I have to bounce the gas to get it above 1500RPM which it does VERY grudgingly, I get to McDonald's 'cause I'm starving and I notice my boost gauge has zeroed out. Hrm, probably a problem with the line. I peer inside my hoodless engine bay to find A) a melted nylon vac line and B) a BRIGHT ORANGE TURBOCHARGER, YAY! I'm not big on orange, but apparently she was.So, despite setting my timing on the marks, it was uber retarded. Uberetarded. Something like that. So uberetarded that I must have been burning almost all the mixture in the frickin' turbo, which explains a lot, including the apparent boost on very light acceleration (as noted by the BOV as well as the boost gauge when the line wasn't destroyed).

I do some more research and find that perhaps the pulley plus the hub I used equals timing marks that are incorrect. Wonderful, now I think I'll have to pull the front hub AGAIN to install the original hub so my timing marks will be right, but for now I was able with the help of a friend to get it running MUCH cooler, much closer to correct timing, and my turbo will only show a dull glow in the dark. We took it to the in-laws' tonight and it did great. Phew, at least now I'm confident I can get to work in 7 hours.

I apologize again for not having pics, I would have had to recruit help just for photography if I wanted a shot at getting this done this weekend, I have worked SO HARD on this. I look forward to the rest of break-in, as it seems to run quite well even at just ~40 miles, and starting it isn't much of a hassle, at least compared to the old motor.

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/3782/p4190001hl8.th.jpg (http://img148.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4190001hl8.jpg)http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/9797/p4190002jr9.th.jpg (http://img233.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p4190002jr9.jpg)

[Ender]

I might be able to get some video if my wife would get her ass back in town.

[Ender]

So I've been getting anxious. I have a little over 500 miles on the rebuild and I realized that I'd probably get a little better mileage with the wastegate hooked up (until this weekend the arm had been detached so it was always freely open to prevent boosting, which was still incredibly easy to do. a good thing, just not at the moment). But, so I'm not just wasting that exhaust energy, I decided to hook up the wastegate (in stock form). Two tanks ago I got ~15mpg. Last tank? 19mpg. Now, I had a larger percentage of those miles on the last tank on the highway, but I was a little harder on it, too.

Admittedly, I have boosted to 5psi a number of brief times and taken it up to 5k RPM, but I'm trying to keep it under 2psi. It's kind of hard when stupid chicks in their heavy, automatic Grand Prix's are trying to race you around a gentle bend, but instead they're losing and almost sliding into you in the process... Honestly I don't know how she pulled it off, she must have been retarded. I wasn't pushing it at all, medium throttle @~4kRPM and only a few pounds of boost and I'm holding strong and she's falling behind on my flank, her tires squealing like stuck pigs.

In related news, Saturday my oil pressure dropped (again. if you'll remember, I had 0 oil pressure upon the first startup. no front cover o-ring). Well, I managed to screw up the fix and it blew out, so I spent ~4 hours today fixing that and a couple really minor things, then testing it out. YAY! I have good oil pressure. I didn't use the Teflon ring because I thought the 'later casting' in the Mazdatrix FAQ referred to an S5 casting as opposed to the S4 casting and not the 13B casting as opposed to the 12A casting (the latter being reality. damn. oops). So I put that in... I should remount the AC again before I go to bed; it's such a pain, but I don't want it rattling around too much.

[Boostmaniac]

I can't wait to see what happens after you tune this beast. Definitely keep the updates coming.

[Ender]

It will take some doing for me to get a hold of a wideband. I'm swimming in a circumstantial cesspool and truthfully the rebuild has cost me some that I don't have. In total probably about as much as it would have taken for someone like Kevin Landers to do it for me, but since that includes the cost of tools and parts I think I'm doing ok, plus I can do it again whenever I want/need to. Hopefully not the latter ever again, but apparently such is life.

However, this car hauls at 5psi as it is. I'm in love again, and it's kind of like waiting for my wife to come back home (she's been gone for 6 weeks. don't ask, this isn't the place, but I'm sure you see the comparison). I keep getting a couple feels and a few kisses here and there, and once she's ready it'll be full throttle, haha. 10psi might be a little scary until I get used to it. Throttle response is better at low RPM, it picks up much sooner than before, so it makes up some in sensuality for my redline abstinence for the time being. Did I ever mention the sound? Now that the exhaust is properly sealed (I had a blown turbo-mani gasket before) it sounds beautiful. Unfortunately it hums loudly from 3300-3600RPM, but 3k in fifth is 70mph and it's pretty quiet there so it's not too bad. My wife thinks it's louder, which it may be, but the sound quality is definitely better.

[Ender]

0-60 pull today at 6psi, and I shifted at 6k both times (so I had an extra shift in there, normally it would only require 1-2, but I didn't want to redline yet), and made 7.3s.

7.3s!

That's .2s faster than a 0-60 pull at ~8psi on my old setup. Extra shift so naturally I used less of my power band as well as running less boost, and it's STILL faster. OHHHHHH heck yes.

[Ender]

Stock boost (maybe creeping briefly to 7psi), full tank of gas, no passengers this time.
7.56 0-60
17 FLAT 0-100

Sweet. There must be at least another .5s I can cut, too, at just this level of boost. I also drove around 150 miles today. Just for fun.

[Ender]

~1500 miles on the rebuild and I'm still running stock boost. The other day ^^^, I ran 7.56 0-60 and 17 0-100, and that was with the twin scroll inactive because the banjo bolt was broken (no vacuum leak, I stuck a solid bolt in there). Yesterday, a nasty afterburn blew out my turbo to mani gasket AGAIN, GRRR (meaning that even after tightening the turbo down over the remnants, I cannot boost quite as well as before). Today, I tightened the turbo down and also fixed the twin scroll banjo bolt. Under pretty similar engine temp, weather conditions, and same place as that prior time trial, I ran 6.8 0-60 and 16.1 0-100. Both times had basically identical shift points as well, and while I think my technique improved slightly since the last time, there's no way I overcame less boost to get such better times.

In short:
A tad less boost, especially up high, yet with the twin scroll active, the car is faster. Sweet.

Oh, and today, after fixing my twin scroll I squawked the tires two different times going into second gear from high in first. I was never able to do that before. SWEET.

[Ender]

WOOOOOOO!

Installed my MBC today and ran a few tests. I'm not boosting quite right (probably due to the blown turbo-mani gasket), but I managed to maintain 10psi for a while out of third and fourth (didn't bother with fifth today), some in second. 15.5s 0-100! And I didn't even have a very good launch. I should hit and maintain boost much better when I replace the gasket, which should happen Friday night.

[Ender]

DYNO!
Relevant list: untuned 13Bt, Rtek 1.7 ECU with 720cc secondaries, 10psi max boost using a cheap manual boost controller and cheap BOV (that may or may not leak some...), open 2.5" dp to a y-pipe splitting to two 2" pipes with a muffler on each, no emissions, manual steering, A/C still installed.

Pulled in 4th gear.

http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/5063/forum52408mustangdynocohe0.jpg
http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/2716/forum52408afie1.jpg

[Ender]

Oh, and Friday night I pulled off a 15s flat 0-100 muahaha
(14.94s on my stopwatch)

[TehMonkay]

You need to be making about 50 more horsepower.