1.8 BP Engine Rebuild (block)-slow progress
 

Ok, I am getting started on my long awaited engine rebuild and I plan on documenting the entire process for future reference and to get help along the way.
Motor is a 94 with 140K and piss-poor compression when pulled.
Plan:
1. Tear down block.

2. Take block and crank to reputable local machine shop for work/prep. (honeing, cleaning, etc.)
-once shop is done, order the correct size bearings (based on shops recommendation) from mazcomp along with new oil pump (and hopefully billet gears from Loki), all seals, water pump, timing belt, new OEM rings, etc.

3. Take stock pistons (8.8CR) to HPC (high performance coatings) to get cleaned and ceramic coated. Quoted $150 for all four.

4. *undecided on this* Have crank knife-edged and have the entire rotating assembly (clutch included) balanced.

5. Reassemble block with the help of good friend that has done a few of these to proper tq. specs according to shop manual that he owns.

6. Mate to stock 94 head via ARP head studs. Maybe some DIY porting, hell, I have a spare. :ugh2:
*Plans are to later upgrade to a 99/00 fully built head with bullet proof valvetrain for 9K redline. Write up to follow on this eventuallly. :naughty: *


Comments and input are welcome, insults are not, don't make me send Hustler after you. :giggle:
Pics will be updated regularly, as well as $ ammount spent on parts and labor.

So far:
-ETD H-Beam rods(new), $300 from fellow MTnetter through classifieds. :bigtu:
-Ceramic coating on OEM pistons, $150 at HPC.

Cheers,
Dan

Upside down view of block.

Attachment 213204

***Note: Do not use a pos 'Made in taiwan' wrench, it will snap causing your hand to punch a wall, ask me how I know.

Looking forward to an excellent documentation. Something i can look back on when i am doing this myself.

+1 Subscribing for a detailed (pics, $$, problems, etccc) so i can reference in the future...

BTW good luck Zabac, here's to a successful build! :friday:

i'd let the shop assemble the bottom end if you don't have precision measuring equipment.

subscribing

Looks great.

oh yea,
How do you know?

was the cost of pistons not budgeted or are your goals sufficiently low for stockers? I've pondered this myself but adding up the cost of stock pistons and rings and everything it made sense to go with hustler's second-hand supertechs.

The good friend referrenced in step 5. has the proper tools, I am really lucky to have him offer to help with the build, well, he basically insisted.

Y8S-I am re-using my pistons, every coating shop I talked to recommended I do so to save money, reason being, both new and used pistons get treated and cleaned before coatings are applied, does not matter if they are new or used, they will get cleaned anyways. It only made sense to re-use mine.

I think what he is asking is why you didnt go with something stronger like wiseco.

1. We have good pistons as is, and piston failure is usually due to hotspots due to lean mixtures which I plan to avoid by doing the following.
a. A proper tune
b. Dual feed rail (to avoid #4 starving for fuel)
c. Ceramic coating (to avoid hotspots and get better overall burn)

2. Not to worry about piston slap, car is a semi daily driver.

3. To save money, $150 sounds a lot better than $550.

also... is there a reason you went with ceramic coating only? I'm a fan of the tripple coating myself. This includes a ceramic coating for the dome, dry film lubricant for the skirts, and a heat shedding coating for the under side. suppose to dramatically reduce knock tendency.

*edit* and wear.

I'm tempted to get the supertechs re-coated with the triple. are you talking swain noah?

The biggest difference I figure between stock and forged is durability. you're less likely to bust a ring land during detonation with a forged, rather than cast, piston. And since the only way to find your detonation threshold is to pass it... :)

Well, I am getting the tri-coat actually, all three of those are different types of ceramic coatings, I just failed to specify. The dry film actually makes the break in process a whole lot better according to Bill Cardell, so another benefit.

y8s-there is a reason FM coats their Wiseco pistons, I would recommend itfor the supertechs as well.

I believe Swain is the manufacturer. Performance Coatings can apply it, but there is also a place I found in Canada that does it for a fair price (I'd have to hunt down the link on my other computer).

Good choice. Not as forgiving as forged, but with a proper tune they should hold up great.

This is basically the same type of build I'm currently in the middle of. Only I'm building a 1.6, I got my coatings done at a Synergy Coatings locally.

I've got the short block assembled, just waiting on the head. I've got lots of pics but I don't want to hijack, I was going to wait to post pics when I finished.

Start a 1.6 rebuild thread...there are few differences in the two, it will be usefull to have both motors explained. I plan to include Tq. specs as well, for easy referrence, Good luck in your build.

Thanks, I think I'll do that, good luck with your build as well.

Im down to help dan just let me know...i can travel :)

Dan, looking good! :bigtu:

Tell me when should I send you my engine :)

Wait to see if this one holds up, I am not brave enough to put my name on a motor other than my own yet.
btw-I think it would be cheaper to get me a ticket to the DR then it would be to send me an engine and then have to ship it back :giggle:
I plan on to documenting the entire process as well as $$ spent so everyone has a pretty good idea of what to expect if they want to tacle this on their own.
Should be lots of fun, i can't want to get in over my head.
Cross yo' fingas!

Let's do it Z!!! This is gonna be a great thread, just keep your promise and document everything very well! And we want LOTTTTTTTS of pics!!!
As I said before=SUBSCRIBED

Looking forward to following this thread, please keep us updated! :)

I see some vacation at the beach in your future! ;)

Oh snap, what have I done? lol
j/k
I plan on satisfying all questions the best I can and post lots a pics for you with learning dissabilities. I will also have lots of questions myself so feel free to contribute your $.02 as well when I get stuck.

Update with pics!
 

OK, so got the block apart, took all of one hour including eating some pizza and drinking some cold brew while watching Seinfeld, IOW it's pretty easy.
Not to insult any of the pros, but these are noob directions since I figured that's who would need them and I am pretty much a noob myself :noob:

I started of with the block upside down and broke all the 14mm crank bearing support bolts and all the 14mm Rod bearing nuts loose. (appologize if I use the wrong terminology-ESL here)
Like this:
Crank bearing support
Attachment 213141
Once you have loosened all the nuts and bolts, you remove the crank bearing support by wiggling it back and forth to get it loose.
In the corner of the pic you can see how I placed the crank bearing supports in individual bags with their respective bolts. No idea if that is neccasary, but what the hell. The crank bearing support are numbered from 1-5 so you can't really mess them up.

Rod bearing support
Attachment 213142
You can loosen the rod bearing support loose by tapping the studs until it separates and then you just pull it off.
In the above pic you can also see where the oil squirters are, you will need to remove them as well and now is a good time, or you can do it once you have the crank out.

Next, I went ahead and separated the rod bearings from the rod bearing supports.
Attachment 213143

The oil squirters with their bolts and washers.
Attachment 213144

This is what you should have left.
Attachment 213145

You cannot remove the pistons from this side, you have to stand the block up like this in order to get them out, when they stop coming out, just wiggle them gently until they come out.
Attachment 213146

The cyl walls look good, this is the part that gets honed so your new rings can get properly seated and broken in. More on this later.
Attachment 213147

The crank also looks good as there are no aparant scratches, I will more than likely use standard size bearings, but do not know for sure until I hear from the shop cause the crank still needs to get polished at these "bearing seats".
Once the shop is done with the crank they will tell me what bearings I need for sure.
Attachment 213148

Next I have to separate the Pistons from the rods by removing the wrist pins, i forgot the pliers at the house so I have to wait till tomorrow to do so. Once I do that, well, it's time to look for a local reputable shop to do the machine work on the crank and block and take pistons to HPC to recieve their Ceramic makeover.

Hopefully more to come soon.

ps-If anyone feels I makde a mistake somewhere please let me know, input is appreciated.

wooooow, nice progress man!
Great pics, walkthru so far (dunno bout accuracy-but def noob friendly!! lol)

I don't trust myself to keep bearing and rod caps in the proper order... I usually stamp them or engrave them to ensure they stay a matched set on re-assembly. This will also help you out if the shop that balances them doesn't keep them in the right order, your box falls over during transport to/from the shop, your wife trips on the shit and scatters it all over the living room floor, etc etc.

*edit* worst grammar ever.

The bearing caps are numbered, so no issues there, the rod caps are getting replaced since I am using ETD rods and their caps, so no biggie there, reason I mention anything is for the people who will be re-using their so they know to keep them in order. Thanks for pointing that out.

Sometimes the angry japaneese robot that does the numbering has a hangover and the numbers are really hard to read.


Good writeup so far!

haha, true, my #3 stamp looks a lot like a turd

Usefull info!
 

On the driver side of the block, there are two holes.
They are capped of by bolts, the 14mm bolt is the oil feed, thread pattern is 10mm x 1.5.
More usefull info here
Attachment 213119

Question-Does anyone know what the other hole is for?

I see one small problem with reusing your factory pistons..

If the machine shop (which they will) over-bores your cylinders, you'll need physically larger diameter pistons.. ie, .020, .030, .040 overbore, etc...

Other than that, Subscribe!

he wont need an overbore if the bores aren't scored. just a light re-hone to put a cross-hatch back in and remove any lip from the top edge. shouldn't change the bore diameter significantly.

you call him doctor, rady.

I am not boring it out, the walls look pretty good, no scoring that I see yet. A light hone is all it needs (I hope) which removes less than 2/1000" of metal, should still be within sepc even.

I'm pretty skeptical of that, with low compression and high mileage I seriously doubt a hone will bring it true -- I could be wrong.

The second hole is a coolant jacket. Leave that plug out for the cleaning, it'll help things a bit.

it really depends on his machine shop. He can measure the bores after honing and get real numbers.

me... I've got new pistons already :D

I found the shop I was looking for!!!
This guy does not advertise, he's been in business for longer than I've been alive, and he is a racer himself. I got referred to him by the guy who painted my car, he says he would never take any of his motors anywhere else.
I'll let everyone know what he says about my block once he cleans in and hones, if he says it's ok and withon spec, OE pisotons go back in, if not, well then I'll bend over and get soe forged ones.

any updates? this is an interesting thread.
as a few others have said i'd be a bit surprised if a reputable machine shop was ok with recommending a hone without boring the block, but you could get lucky....these engines a quite a bit different than a lot of the older v8 types.

either way good luck with the build.

No real updates yet, I am researching what parts to get and and where to get the from at this moment. I feel ok with this block as it is not in bad shape, the walls don't look terribly glazed nor scortched, so once the pistons are coated and the block is honed, I think I will be at a reasonale clearacnce, but again, until the pro is done with it, I really don't know anything yet, so cross yo' fingas fo' me foo!! lol

I will post further updates as soon as I have them. I do have some news I found rather intersting.
Main Bearings(1-5)-Mazda Comp=$44 appx. To get them coated (optional, not a must by any means) it is $39 appx. So total for coated would be $83
Main Bearings(1-5)-Calico= $104.07 H-hardness and already coated
Rod Bearings(1-4)-Mazda Comp=$39 appx., plus coating $24.50, so total for coated is $64 appx.
Rod Bearings(1-4)-Calico=$68.03 H-hardness and already coated
Difference between Mazda stock vs. Mazda+Coating vs. Calico is:
$83 vs. $147 vs. $172
Figured I'd throw that out there for everyone that was looking for an alternative bearings wise, and if you don't know who Calico is, just spend a few minutes over at Google and find out.

Got something to sell?

Ben, that's funny you say that, I just got done studying his profile, he actually has some reasonable posts, this is the only exception, so I think he may be ok, at least for now lol

updates yet? come on what is taking you this long. you made one million last week and still not spending it. good write up. looking forward to get my hand dirty again. lol . not really but i'll have to . are you gonna be done till july 25? its time for the Gap.

No my friend, I will not be done by then, going up there in the smoke machine. I hope I make it or it's time to use the AAA for the third time, haha.
I actually didn't even touch the block/crank yet, I have to get my pistons done first, and then take all the shit to Bob to do his magic.
Time is the issue, well actually not having it is the part that sucks. Tell you what, you wanna do some legwork for me? :naughty:

legwork sounds too much what do you need done? let me know. well get her straight.

I need to take my pistons to Calico, then once they are done, i need to take the pistons, block, crank, flywheel over to Bob's shop for him to get started on it, and then pick it all up and take it Justins house, wait for bearings to come in and slap that shit together.
Easy enough. lol

'scribed.

Looks good!

Back from the dead.

*NEWS*
After examining the block at the shop, turns out I am just a little out of wack and cannot use OE size pistons. So, I am on the lookout for some .20 over sized pistons, prefer Wiseco if anyone has some to get rid of.
Also, crank needed a little love too, so undersized bearings are needed by .10 under.

Just ordered some ARP head and main studs for $192.08 shipped, if anyone wants to know where from, PM me.
No pics at the moment, will get some soon.

Pretty sure I told you to get oversize and plan on boring it about a year ago.... Wiseco or JE pistons will work fine.

could you measure the cylinder wall thickness for me?

Wtf Dan? That sucks :mad:

Do you know if MSM pistons come oversized? I have a set with Stephanie. If they fit and you need them let me know.

Just in case you decide to follow Pat's advice; I would suggest you check into Belfab's Supertechs. They are priced at $399.

Rub it in, thanks! :fawk:
I know, I guess I was just trying to avoid reality.

Yes, before or after boring?

It's not so bad Rafa, this really only made my mind up for me, I secretly wanted to go with forged pistons but could not justify the cost, well now I have to and it makes the decision that much easier.

The MSM pistons are the same bore, only difference is the CR (9.5:1) I believe.

I have looked at the Supertechs before, but forgot everything I knew, I'll compare them all once I have some free time.

both if you don't mind (we are assuming mm with calipers right?)

FWIW, I saw JE pistons at a discount from another vendor. Let me know if you'd be interested. I can look those up too.

Not yet Rafa, I can't dump any money in the car yet, I need a few more weeks.
The heating in my house just went out, need to drop about a grand for a new compressor and labor :( FAAK.

HAHA- you too?

My god damned furnace just died yesterday. :vash:

Had a new one installed today. Oh boy, I have a shiny new furnace now. :jerkit:

What a waste. :mad:

/hijack