I have not posted much for updates to the car for a while so time for a status update
The first day I fired up the car it turned over no problem and it was running well. After a few more times firing up the car and shutting it off I started having issues with the starter relay, then it failed so I just had to jump the starter to fire the motor up. At times the engine seemed difficult to crank over, I wrote this off as being due to battery relocation and cables not large enough and hooked up a jumper pack. Then a couple days later I have another issue that came up with a couple small ground wires that melted when I was trying to crank the motor over. So I needed to step up to some larger ground cables and installed a few more 4 gauge grounds and I no longer had an issue with wires melting, but the engine was still difficult to crank at times...Note to self, dont ignore a hard cranking issue
The car ultimately died on me one day on my way home for lunch and the motor was locked up. I tried turning the crank with a breaker bar and socket, but no go. It was time to pull the motor after driving it for a few short days and only about 20 miles of driving. A few people will wonder about the tune that the car had as well, but I can assure you there were no alarming knock counts leading up to this. I found two spots with 6 counts as the highest I logged and that was during first day of start up, I was extremely conservative with the tuning to start with so I didn't have to worry about high knock counts being an issue while driving to data log. I did not have an oil pressure gauge installed at the time (something being added now however), but given the condition of the motor when I tore it down it is fair to say the motor was not well maintained at all...my own fault for not doing a more thorough teardown/inspection.
Well, onto tear down photos
Pulled the plugs, all looked fine nothing smashed so i was happy besides the obvious running rich
http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/e...123_165011.jpg
Slowly disassembling the motor and checking things out. Once I got this on the engine stand I was able to break the crank free to rotate it around and you could feel where it was binding up and having that cranking issue...it was all making sense now.
http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/e...123_164440.jpg
Look at the oil sludge build up on this bottom end...5-6mm thick at least and was a bitch to clean up;
http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/e...123_160002.jpg
Here was the culprit issue;
http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/e...123_161718.jpg
http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/e...123_161706.jpg
Main bearings not so great from all the contaminated material;
http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/e...123_155930.jpg
http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/e...123_153254.jpg
Slowly cleaning things up and inspecting clearances and everything;
http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/e...129_201811.jpg
Checked the ring gaps on the piston rings that came out of the motor and these were the readings if anybody was interested;
http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/e...130_115704.jpg
Pistons didn't look bad, but they were all cleaned up a bit more and will be swapped to a new set of the stock 75 rods. I chose to use the stock rods vs 74s because I am only doing a basic short block refresh for this engine...a built motor will come later, right now I just want to drive this thing and enjoy it;
http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/e...130_115549.jpg
http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/e...131_112644.jpg
http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/e...202_114210.jpg
The oil pump needed to be gone through to inspect the damage. I really didn't want to buy a new oil pump so I just cleaned this up and checked the clearances, besides the obvious visual signs of wear this thing still checked out well within specifications. Since I will also be installing an oil pressure gauge this time around I am not real worried about re-using this pump either.
http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/e...130_141408.jpg
http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/e...130_135816.jpg
Now since the crankshaft needed to be machined and repaired I contacted Mile High Crankshafts out here in Denver to inquire about the repair and additional machining. With the one journal to be repaired and having the crankshaft nitride coated again to bring it back to OEM specs it would have been a $500+ repair bill. Fortunately I was offered a deal on a good used crankshaft so I picked that up and will just save the other crank for another engine built later
http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/e...203_162129.jpg
http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/e...204_075722.jpg
I cleaned up the engine block a little more, honed the the cylinders, and repainted the block with a wrinkle black paint which I am happy with how it came out.
http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/e...208_173809.jpg
http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/e...208_173925.jpg
http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/e...208_173946.jpg
I am slowly working on the reassembly, just waiting for bearings and piston rings to come in so I can get going on putting things back together again. As much as it sucked to have the engine crap out, I am glad that it happened now and now during a trip.
- - - Updated - - -
Another batch of the Distributor Adapter plates done, already sold 3 from this batch which puts us up to 8 MIVEC swaps out there as of now.
http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/e...213_150039.jpg