Engine assembly - instructions
 

About 60% done with the motor I've got pulled apart and building. Starting to think about putting it all back together over the next couple weeks. Anyone know of a good online guide for putting our motors back together? I've got a few things bookmarked for the head but haven't come across anyone who did a good job documenting a bottom end or complete build.

Anyone have any good bookmarks? Looking for suggestions besides the factory manual or Haynes. I've got Haynes already. Looking for a decent visual blow by blow.

I've looked...a lot.

The only thing close is the Mike's Place videos. Guy is annoying, and the vids skip around a little, but combined with common knowledge about plastigauge and such can get the job done.

Gospeed - good help. Did a quick look at his vids and they cover much of what I'm looking for. In my 44 years I have never so much as rebuilt a carburetor let alone a complete motor. I am very good with my hands, tools and puzzles though. Tearing down the motor wasn't the least bit intimidating. Just wanna make sure I don't have to do it again in a month or two by screwing up something basic!

i have a really good link to a b18c build with videos. it is however on my laptop, so ill have to post it later tonight.

I've done it all with a miata motor and am hear to help would/should you need it. A good torque wrench, sterile environment, plenty of plastigage and RTV sealant is all you need. Well, that plus a million other tools, parts, experience, and knowledge.

Kenzo, Thanks! I'll look forward to the link.

Block, pistons, rods just came back from the machine shop and are ready for me to assemble. Just have the diy head work left which will take some time doing 10-20 minutes work here and there.

Curly,

I wanna be the first guy to completely tear down and rebuilt a Miata engine with no experience, no written instructions and no tools but a screwdriver and a set of vise grips!

Sterile environment?!? I'm laughing so hard at that one I need to write it out long hand vs LOL!

Seriously? Thanks for the offer of help. When I get further along I'll likely be giving you a call. My biggest problem is I can only work on this thing in dribs and drabs. 10 minutes here, 1/2 hour there. Won't want to call in the troops until I've blocked out some time for a decent session.

Did you go to Dan Halls? How were they? Like I've said before they were awesome the first time I did a bunch of work, but in the 3 years since I'll I've had is a flywheel resurfaced/balanced and a head refurb'd, still good experience though.

One of my customers owns a machine shop, Steve's Precision here in Tigard. He saw the torn down motor and I couldn't really get out of having him do the block work.

I'm planning to take the head to Hall's to have the valve seats cleaned up when I'm done with my work on it though.

I'm doing it ALL myself, not paying a lick to a machine shop. We can learn together, and I'm sure yours will run better.

Is it Omni Mans video? I got some videos on a dvd that are for a honda but I believe should be similar. I will try to rip them and get you a link to them.

Gospeed - If I didn't end up with a set of oversized Wiseco's I wouldn't have taken the block anywhere.

This used to be a "budget" build! Still is I guess, just a different more bloated budget.

Good used 1.8 motor $500. Gasket/seal kit $150. Wiseco's $300. Mtuned rods $300. All new King bearings $45. Expected machine work $200. Timing belt/water pump $65. ARP head studs $90. Misc little crap like a couple 12point sockets-rtv-plastigage-assembly lube-etc $50. Well bloodied knuckles, cursing and frustration free!

Should be a well under 2k for a proper built motor. 300+ rwhp and broken tranny here we come!

Rods enthusiasts manual is much much better than the haynes, just follow the steps and you should be fine. The haynes manual doesn't even cover taking the gudgeon pins out of the pistons or checking the clearance in the rod!!.

I'm trying to keep from taking that exact plunge because I know what it entails. This build could quickly go from <$1K to easily double that.

I have to stop looking at pistons, and just trust in tuning and WI.

I think the actual assembly should be pretty easy, but I'm still doing all the prep work. Porting the head takes forever, especially when you only get 20-30min at a time to do it.

I don't know if you already have a shop manual, but I downloaded the Mitchell disk image for $14 and it's been pretty solid so far. Mazda sourced images and torque/spec tables.

InterTune.Tv - Home of Omniman's 200whp B16 Video DVD Resource

Thats the engine building video that I have. I already sent Cueball a pm about it, but if anyone else wants a copy of it shoot me a pm.

If you are going with new pistons, Supertechs are almost the same cost as stockers.

You can't bore and hone and use old pistons. The most you can do to save money is reuse the pistons that came from that block, use new rings, and do a DIY hone using Brush Research Manufacturing: Industrial Brushes, Flexible Honing Tools, Wire Brushes

If you are having the block machined, do a PLATEAU HONE after the main hone, and have the deck checked (and done if necessary). No way $200 will cut it.

Block was hot tanked, bored, honed, rods sized to piston pins, rings gapped, deck checked - I'm into it $140 so far. Only other machining I'm planning on is touch up valve seats and check the head for flatness. $200 is low but I don't expect much more than $250 unless something is really wrong.


Thanks for all the good suggestions on vids and possible reading!

Gospeed, I was planning on reusing my stock pistons too. The wiseco's popped up NIB for $300 and I figured that was only $175 more than just buying new rings. Of course I would have saved $80 if the block didn't need the bore for oversized pistons. I could have done the DIY hone I'd planned on instead.

$170 decked the head and replaced a valve and seal or two at Dan Halls about 4 years ago, $200 sounds like a good estimate.

Fucking enviro-nazi laws and army of lazy-ass pensioned gov't employees may be why machining is so expensive in CA.

cueball did your honing include a PLATEAU HONE?

I wish I could get machine work for that cheap. It is going to cost me $150 for my overbore and hone. Not sure how much hot tanking will add to it. I am hoping to leave the machine shop with less then $300 in costs but im not sure if that will happen.

I'll have to ask about that one. I gave the guy Wiseco's honing instructions and suggested ring gaps like he asked for. He's a really ---- upight kinda machinist. Not real warm and fuzzy. I didn't ask and he didn't tell. You can see the cross hatching but it feels VERY smooth to the touch. I'll ask when I see him next before I start putting stuff together.

Plateau honing is required for all rings these days. Without it the rings will live a short life.

Ultra-finish honing for a burr-free finish

Any chance you'll be taking notes to share with the rest of us? Always something I've wanted to do too.

evans tuning forums :: View topic - The definitive gsr engine build article

Sure as hell wish I was that organized and thorough. Curly can attest to my slovenliness when it comes to tools and my car. I've got the motor in my warehouse here at work and can only work on it sporadically. It basically looks like the motor blew up and landed in a pile of parts. At least most of the small parts and hardware seemed to land in zip-loc baggies. Organization, documentation and follow up definetely not my strong suit.

Just ask my wife or employees!


Jason, haven't had a chance to ask the mashinist about the plateau hone but with the bore clean the cotton ball test passes with flying colors. No snagging.

Engine building roadmap
 

Here's some suggestions for your engine build, YMMV:

1. Rod's Enthusiast Manual, the Haynes manual and the Mazda Shop manual provide you with just enough information to be dangerous.

2. Beg, borrow or steal a copy of "Engine Blueprinting" by Rick Voegelin and read it, cover-to-cover, several times.

3. Before you even turn a wrench on assembling your new "box of parts", prepare an engine blueprinting record sheet and make sure that you have all the critical clearances, torque specs and other relevant information (valve spring pressure open & closed, coil bind, cam specs for degreeing, etc. etc.) in front of you before you start assembly. Verify each clearance/spec on the blueprinting record sheet (or have your machine do it for items like piston pin clearance) as you test assemble components before final assembly.

4. Assume that your machine shop/vendor did not properly clean all of your parts (block, crank, rods, pistons, head etc). Take the time to completely clean all of these parts until they are spotless and clean enough to eat off of (including bolt holes, threads, water jackets and crank passages). Residual dirt and machining swarf kill a lot of bearings on first startup. Make sure that all oil galley plugs and freeze plugs have been replaced if the block was hot tanked. Failure to do so will result in no or limited oil pressure (oil galleys) or gushing coolant leaks (freeze plugs) on start-up.

5. Don't regard engine assembly as a single continuous process. Most professional engine builders do multiple sub assembly "mockups" to verify critical clearances (crank bearing clearance, rod bearing clearance, piston deck height, cam degreeing, piston to valve clearance, etc.) before proceeding with final assembly.

6. When assembling the rotating components in the block, record the amount of torque required to rotate the crank after it is torqued in place and the thrust bearing setting is verified. Recheck rotating torque after you install and torque each rod & piston assembly to make sure that nothing has gone awry. A large increase in rotating torque after installing a rod/piston assembly is generally a sign of something gone astray.

7. Find TDC with a piston stop (before installing the head) and make sure that sure stock timing marks are accurate (re-mark if off)

8. Degree both cams to Miata/mfg spec before installing front cover & valve cover.

9. Do a compression check before installing the engine in the car. Either rig up a bellhousing/starter to the engine for a cranking test or do a cylinder leakdown test.

10. Preoil the engine before starting by cranking the engine over with the plugs out and ignition disconnected until you get positive oil pressure.

Good luck!

Should we consider plugging the piston squirters as shown at the end of the third vid above?

He said he did it to get higher oil pressure in the bearings, but our motors run pretty high pressure as is. How does this weigh against the benefits of piston cooling in an forced induction motor?

The original 323 turbo motor was designed with piston oil squirters to keep piston temps down. A lot of diesel motors also use them for the same reason. Plugging the squirters is a half-assed way to get more oil pressure. If you really need more oil pressure (e.g., as demonstrated by datalogs on the track at high RPM), go with a quality aftermarket pump with billet gears and keep the oil squirters.

That's what I thought.

Everything else he did seemed pretty quality, but was surprised he would delete piston squirters in a FI application.

Also, he only secured to the end mains before plastigauging the rod journals. I assume this is due to not having access with the large crank girdle.

In our motors we should be able to gauge, lube, assemble and torque all of the crank journals before moving on to con rods right?

Definitely. Ideally you (or your machinist) has already checked main & rod bearing clearance before you start assembly. Last motor I did, I trusted the machine shop's assurances on clearances and I only spot checked 2/7 mains and 2/6 rods with plastiguage. If you are doing a budget build and want to be sure of your clearances, I'd suggest taking the extra time to plastiguage all of the mains and all of the rods.

Kind of a PITA, because you really shouldn't rotate the crank after you have tightened the main caps and smushed all the Plastiguage. So, you have to install the crank, put plastiguage on all the mains, torque the caps in sequence then remove the caps and check main clearances. Then you have to clean off all the Plastiguage off the main journals. Then you have to lube the main journals and bearing inserts, re-install and torque the main caps and then start with checking the rod clearances.

FWIW, you don't need to install the piston rings on the pistons to do the rod bearing clearance check but you should insert a feeler guage/guages between the side of the rod and the crank to take-up any side clearance before torquing the cap. Again, you have to remove the cap on Number 1 and check the Plastiguage before you can rotate the crank to install the next rod for clearance checking.

Sorry, I meant after the plastigauge torque down. Then lube and torque, and move on to rods.

I plan to plastigauge everything since I only have a set of calipers and bore gauge set, which I don't plan to trust .XXXX precision to.

I'd hoped to do the rods in pairs, but guess it really doesn't matter.

All good advice. Any other pitfalls we should watch for?

You can check the rod clearances in pairs if desired. If you are running non stock rods, take the time to talk to the rod supplier and get the bolt stretch spec for the rod bolts.

Doesn't look like your precision tools include a dial indicator; I'd suggest getting an inexpensive one and a magnetic base before starting your build. It is going to be hard to check crankshaft end play or piston deck height or verify lobe lift on your cams without a dial indicator. If you want to degree your cams, you'll need the dial indicator for that too (as well as a degree wheel).

Probably not applicable on a budget engine build. But, I had my crank ground, polished, and nitrided. The crank was then cleaned. However, the crank shop did not take out the plug that Mazda installed after oil galley drilling. My builder took all the plugs out of the crank's galleys, and found a pretty substantial amount of machining slag.

Takeaway: If you are machining your crank (or any other engine part), take out all galley plugs and re-clean the part after machining.

It's applicable on any engine build. If you don't clean out all of the crank, block and head passages you risk trashing your new bearings on initial start up.

sn95,

That is a hell of a write up! I'm hoping you had that written already and just copied and pasted it. BIG THANK YOU for taking the time to share all that.

For a thread I thought I might get flamed for, it's turning into a pretty informative string of information. Can't imagine why that guy would have eliminated the oil squirters.

Glad I could be of assistance. BTW, if your block was hot tanked by the machine shop, make sure that all the oil galley plugs have been properly replaced (shops often remove oil galley plugs and water jacket expansion plugs before hot tanking). Otherwise, you will assemble the engine, put it in the car, start it up and find you have no oil pressure. Then you will say WTF!, take the engine out of the car, take it apart and find that "someone" forgot to plug an oil galley. :vash:

Also, insure that the head gasket is installed correctly or you may block oil passage

Ye right which dickhead would do that.............................................. ......................




Oh ye me