Ive seen scratches like that only in certain circumstances: Fresh assembly lubricant being too thin when it had it's first start.


But I cant say thats what it is in your case for sure.

 

Check the depth of the scratches with a height indicator? My guess is they are less than half a thao deep which is nothing. The one that worries me more is the wear mark on the 4th pic since that one looks deep.

 

Why not just throw a BE pump in it and be done with it?

Thanks for taking the time to build my car right! I sure look forward to owning it, after it has crossed the country twice and gone through a couple more owners

 

Thanks guys.

G - yes oem pistons for the WIN. Two words: e85+street car. I'll have to find the rest of the info for you.

bc - yes, that would be the best solution. unfortunately I can't justify another $500 on this motor when it will never see past 7k, never be driven on track, or need any additional oil flow and/or pressure.

curly - will do, that's what I'm checking next. then cleaning everything up and possibly polishing out some of the scuffs? I dunno yet. They are so small I feel like if I take some 2000 grit and lightly go over the surfaces it will all come out.

Pen - yes, or low oil level for a little bit. My dad actually kinda said something similar. I will make sure to prime this baby up properly when starting for the 1st time to hopefully avoid any further wear.

Ed - LOL no. Just no.

Tripple - That 4th picture is actually very deceptive. I will see if I can snap a better one. none of these scuffs or scratches are deep enough to catch a nail or anything on. they're at most 1 micro-millimeter. basically almost un-feel-able (if that's a word lol)

 

Awesome, ty!

I guess if you don't have taper and you are just honing and re-ringing, reusing the pistons makes sense. It's not like you are going out and buying new OEM +0.5mm pistons at that point. Out of curiosity, has the community ever actually come up with a consensus as to the limits of the stock pistons?

FWIW Arlington has new OEM BP6D oil pumps for $266. I'm sure with your connections you could get them cheaper, but I understand the desire to not dump a ton of money into an engine if you don't have to. Is there a fancy damper in your future?

 

 

Is that a 01+ shortblock? The windage tray looks way different, and does that motor have the MBSP?

 

yes, and what you're lookin at is the mbsp

 

That was my hunch, but I didn't want to sound like a dumbass if I was wrong.

Your motor looks like it is coming together nicely. Did you plastigauge everything when you put it back together, or just go for it? Did you measure any of the cylinders fir taper or anything before re-ringing? I'm assuming new bearings and re-ring?

With the head, were you able to lap and re-seat the valves yourself?

Sorry for all the questions, I'm just about to do basically the same thing sometime this winter.

 

No worries. I'm actually trying to document this with more pics and info per your, and others, requests. So this is for you anyway

No plastigauge, just inspecting everything carefully as I go. Again, this is not a race car engine, so I'm really not going nuts with baller unobtanium parts and fancy machine work. Just taking my time and hopefully doing everything right.

Cylinders checked out per my inspection and measurement for ovaling and taper, but I'm no pro so who knows.

The head I had resurfaced on a mill, then lapped the valves myself. Nothing fancy, though I didn't lap by hand. I actually fitted the tool to my drill for the coarse paste round. They're nice and smooth and seat tight. For the fine paste I'm going to finish them off/polish them up by hand.

If I don't get too lazy I'm planning to do some very mild port work, but that's a big IF haha.

After I'm going to check lash, install new stem seals and gaskets, and its ready to go.

 

I'm also one of those people planning on doing this basic "rods-only" rebuild, and I'm curious about the valve lapping. Can you give an idiot engineer like myself more info on how you're doing it and with what tools.

Thanks Vlad

 

You are my hero. Thanks for the details. I too am interested in the valve lapping procedure you are using, although I may just outsource that part of the build anyways.

Thanks again sexy.

 

I too am very interested as I've never done a motor before. I'm starting to think the "rods-only rebuild" is within my grasp. I have the tools and the basic knowledge, I'm just not familiar with the process that goes into it.

Thanks as always for posting up the details!

 

+12589 On a "rods only" rebuild sticky!

 

Alright will do when I have time.


On another note, was doing some fine tuning and decided to do a quick VD pull.

it was super windy outside and I think I went over a bump because past 5600 it shot up to something like 200hp lol, but before that looks pretty decent.

This is basically stock with MS3x, ID1000's and DW200 pump running e85, and a 3" midpipe (mated back to the stock muffler FTL lol)

Don't know how spot on it is, but I'm going to consider my "baseline" dyno plot to compare to when its boosted.

 

Awesome, love it! The numbers seem pretty damn close to what I'd of expected as well. I'm assuming this is done with the stock motor that was in the car, or did you get the new motor together? Not that it would make any power differences n/a.

 

Thanks. Yeah still the stock motor. I'm basically focusing on tuning all the little details lately. It idles great, runs great, and pretty much 90% as good as, if not better, than OEM which I'm really pleased with, but there are still some little issues that need addressing:
cold starts
tip in/accel enrichments at cold start and warmup
minor roughness between 2k-3k when cold/warming up

Other than that its great.

I did monitor this past tank: 22mpg all city on e85
Though I think its quite a bit low due to lots of WOT pulls that I did (tuning) and lots and lots of idling I did (again tuning) so I expect the next tank to be at least 25mpg.

Considering the properties of e85 vs pump gas, I'm actually fairly happy with it even as is - no detonation, ever, and is only 2.99/gal

 

Lars is awesome

 

No pony no props.

 

What piston rings did you use for your rebuild?