I completed everything on the to-do list above and went for the engine's first start today.

It turned over fine with no obvious leaks or horrible noises, but I couldn't get it to fire at all.

Issues to solve:

• Fuel pump doesn't turn on with the key. Turns on when jumped at the diagnostic box, so I'll need to troubleshoot that.
• Engine doesn't start, even with fuel pump jumped. Need to check sync, spark, injectors.
• No tach. Probably related to switching from Toyota COPS to LS Truck coil and associated wiring changes. Gotta do something with tachout...
• Instrument cluster oil pressure gauge is pegged full high. I replaced my sender with an aftermarket one after breaking my old sender while truing to remove it. Going to take some time on the multimeter.

I'm running out of time to test-drive/break-in/tune before the winter, as it's going down into the 20s at night, which means the roads will probably get salted soon.

I went to go collect a composite log yesterday and... the engine wouldn't turn over. That's, uh, mildly concerning.

I made sure it was in neutral, pulled the plugs, inspected the cylinders with a borescope, and removed the timing belt and the best I could get was a degree or two of movement with a breaker bar on the crank pully. The plugs were clean, dry, and new looking.

Following that all that, I poured a couple teaspoons of oil in the plug wells, waiting a bit, then was able to slowly turn the engine over in reverse with the breaker bar, getting progressively easier. Now it turns in either direction easily and I'm partway through reinstalling the timing belt to try with the starter again. No funny sounds, no herky-jerky movement or sudden break-loose action.

I'm at a loss to explain what happened. Is this a one time thing or a sign of a bigger problem? Maybe the rings got stuck to the cylinder walls somehow? The starter had no trouble turning the motor over normally last weekend and the lock up was rather sudden - one day it turned over and the next day it wouldn't move. The only change I made immediately prior was to fix my backwards installed fuel lines.

I have a 90 and blew my coils cranking with no plugs attached >_<

I have a set of d585s though so I'm going to go ahead and switch over... do I need to do anything special wiring wise to make the tach work?
I'll be running new wires for the coil signal from my MS2.

I'll keep that in mind when turn it over again.

For the tach, it looks like you need to enable TACHOUT in the MS (with a jumper in my MSPNP-Pro), then connect the tachout signal (pin 1F?) to the YEL-BLU wire that goes to the instrument cluster. I'm already doing this by splicing the YEL-BLU wire with BLK-WHT wire at the igniter, but I need to confirm which ECU pin outputs the tach signal - pin 1F according to the MS manual. Maybe I can just move the BLK-WHT wire from pin 2I to 1F.

But before I deal with that I need figure out what's going on with my bottom end.

Protip: Just because your battery has been on the charger for days, doesn't mean it's charged. Especially if you forgot to set the charger to AGM and it's been pretty cold out. Somebody (and I'm not saying who) could be so nervous about the first start up of a new motor that they mistook a weak battery for a bottom end problem. :facepalm:

In any case, with everything put back together and a full battery, the motor turns over, fires, and runs (badly).

I have a bad misfire and the engine will struggle to run for up to 30 seconds before it dies. I seem to be losing sync periodically, reason #2.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...55cc48ed65.png

It's going to warm today and tomorrow, so I'll go out at lunch and adjust the crank sensor clearance a little tighter (it's at 0.040") now and reconfirm that I'm getting spark and fuel to each cylinder.

Much excite for the first drive and break-in. :party:

The good: tinkering with my spark plug wires and re-re-re-adjusting my crank sensor gap got the car to sync and fire right up. Warm up tuning went well and I brought the car up to temperature for ~5 minutes before shutting it down and changing the oil. There was some smoking that went away after the first few minutes and everything sounded great. I filled it with Joe Gibbs break in oil and went to go gas up.

The bad: I think I have rod knock. RPM sync'd clattering started while I was 10 minutes from home. I got it back to my house and now I can't get it to turn over at all to get it the rest of the way in the garage. I think I've had enough for one day. I'll dig into it more tomorrow, but the motor is probably coming back out.

Shit.
Fuck.
Balls.
:facepalm:

Well, there's your problem. All bearings are frigged.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...fbb84647c7.jpg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...0ab5bde395.jpg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...3654cf5595.jpg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...7b5cc9235c.jpg

Oh shit. Sorry to see that, I know how much work this is. What did you torque the ARP mains to? Also wonder which assembly lube was used?

At least it happened in late November, so I'm not missing out on nice weather while I fix it.

ARP mains were torqued to 50 ft-lb and I used the same Redline assembly lube FM includes in their rebuild kit. Went through about half the bottle - mostly from repeated cam removal/installation while setting valve lash.

That sounds about the same as what I did.
Do you think it cranking, then sitting for a while without turning over and warming up did this? I don't know what would have caused all that.
Did you crank with coils / injectors disconnected till oil pressure showed? Not that it ever fired anyway, so I suppose what you did is about the same.

I made another thread for it in the engine build section with some more detail. Short version is that the engine started and warmed up fine. It started making noise a few minutes into my first break in drive. It looks like every one of the crank bearings was starved for oil, but I need a damper puller before I can disassemble the crank and oil pump to investigate further.

Quick update:
I'm pretty much starting over on the motor. I bought another BP6D out of a local salvage yard and dropped it off at a machine shop today with new bearings, Supertech 83.5mm 8.6:1 pistons and Manley rods. It's getting bored out, cleaned, inspected, surfaced and align honed. I may have to sell my Forester to pay for it. :burncash: :burncash::burncash:

In the salvage yard's records, the head was listed as good and the bottom end was listed as "core only" for some unknown problem. I got the whole motor as-is for $700, which is significantly cheaper than Prestige UK with current shipping rates (or anywhere else I found). I tested leakdown at 95%, 95%, 50%, and 99%, with #3 leaking out the intake valves. The #1 spark plug was missing and it looks like a little moisture got in the crankcase, causing some surface rust on non-precision faces - the journals looked good - but that was the only obvious issue I found. We'll see what the machine shop comes back with...

This thing had better strip 4th gear on command.

So sorry to see this. You'll get it!

Still waiting on the machine shop to get back to me after initial inspection. They seemed pretty slammed, everyone wants to build a motor at once.

Evicted a mouse from my wife's car this morning. Tenant refused to vacate, something about squatter's rights. Settled the matter with my signature ice scraper jab move. FLAWLESS VICTORY

It's been 7 months since we last checked in with our hapless idiot. In that time, the following things happened.

This spring I got my motor back from the machine shop and began to assemble it, yay! Then I got a wrist pin cockeyed and jammed in one of my Supertech pistons. I got it unstuck but was too much of a gorilla in the process and ruined the piston. I am Jack's burning sense of shame and regret. :facepalm: Cue a summer-long wait for a backordered replacement piston, which I couldn't buy singly, so I had to order a whole set of 4. :burncash: Any body want to buy one or all of the remaining 3, unused 8.6:1, 83.5mm pistons with rings and pins?

I gave up on dealing with the rust on my my '07 FSXT and sold it to a guy who trailered it all the way back to Ohio from New Hampshire. Sad to see my first new car go away, I put nearly every one of the 203K miles on it, but one less project for me. I hope he can save it.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...b92020e366.jpg

I got my SV650 operable again and was reminded how much I love motorcycling and how much I hate carburetors. This is probably the next project to get sold but I have no idea what it's worth.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...bb08aa4d75.jpg

The SV already has a replacement; a 2022 Triumph Trident 660. I've put 2500 miles on it in 2 months, I love riding it so much. Fuel injection, traction control, ABS, and low effort handling. The triple has a little less low end grunt that my SV but it doesn't run out of breath up top and it feels faster because of the throttle response. Really well suited to commuting and weekend riding.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...45dd4cb648.jpg

I also went John Wick on some white-face hornets with brakleen and a stick. They stung my dog, you see.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...38a58edb50.png

And I finally got my new pistons, so the VVT build has resumed. Aside from a couple gaskets and seals, I should have everything I need to put the car together and try again. More updates as that progresses.

Progress.

Rotating assembly successfully assembled - past the part where I fucked up last time. Manley rods, 83.5mm 8.6:1 Supertech pistons.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...ea19b1a314.jpg

VVT head assembled with Volvo valve springs and Supertech inconel exhaust valves. I didn't bother with port work on this one.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...dcc05af439.jpg

New center capps for my wheels from Revlimiter. I'm liking these more than I thought I would.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...8ff703b2ca.jpg

And a matching horn button. Yes, the farsteners are getting replaced and I'll align the logo better.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...2d06decbb5.jpg

Remaining engine seals should arrive this week, so I shouldn't be waiting for parts any more.

Got my oil drain bung welded.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...418d74c8c.jpeg

Acquired a 6-speed and 3.63 Torsen, which I refreshed and cleaned up.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...cd3c40fb2.jpeg

Mouse patrol.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...5ae7deb72.jpeg

I'm still waiting for my last valve shims to come in, as well as new water lines for the turbo, but I decided to move ahead with mating the motor and tranny and dropping them in the car. At this point, my main goal is to get the motor started and broken in before winter. Barring any major mishaps, I might be able to start it up this weekend. We'll see.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...45186e9486.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...9753f53387.jpg

3.63 Torsen and Kraken gargantuamuff in place.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...83346a0c93.jpg

A really nice October evening to work in the garage. I've started riding the SV650 again but the carb needs some attention - as usual. I really like how it has a different character from the Trident and I"m tempted to just keep it as a track bike.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...218fcfbbd8.jpg

I guess I'm a big boy now; finally managed to drag a knee. I orbited a deserted cul-de-sac about a 100 times on the Triumph before touching my left knee down. Couldn't make it happen on the right side. I think I need to make a track day happen.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...226f4f047e.jpg
Remaining (short-term) tasks:

• Shim valves
• Connect turbo water lines
• Install radiator and fill cooling system
• Fill oil
• Install intake piping
• Check sensors and MS
• Change out old gas
• Build oil pressure
• Startup and idle tuning

Well, I got as far as the first start up. The engine turned over easy, fired, and settled into a pretty good idle right away. Then I checked for fluid leaks and found oil dribbling out around the front of the crank. It's hard to tell where it's coming from because the timing belt is flinging oil around. There's seems to be a lot coming out around the cam cover near the front exhaust cam seal. I'd estimate from the size of the puddle on the floor that I lost 250-500ml oil in 20-30 seconds of idling, so it's not a small leak.

I replaced the front main seal on the Boundary oil pump with an OEM one and I'm praying it's not any of the seals associated with the oil pump because I really don't want to have the pull the motor back out. Best case scenario is that I dislodged a cam seal when I was wrapping up my valve shimming adventures.

In either case, my timing belt is oil soaked and ruined. Which means I have to pull the ATI damper off to replace the belt and clean up the oil, which means I have to drop the sway bar to fit the puller in there. Which is when I decided to call it a night.

So close. Hopefully just a few more days. New timing belt arrives tomorrow.

Oil leaks...blech!!

What source are you using for valve shims? I checked my clearances this past weekend because I was starting to get some ticking from the intake side. Luckily, I was able to be in the ballpark on most of the lifters by doing a "re-shuffle", but I still have a couple that are slightly out of spec. All of the "usual suspects" (i.e. Cylinder Head Supply) no longer stocks 27mm shims any more. And it looks like Toyota simply doesn't sell them any more.