# Moby Dick coming together



## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

after a lot of distraction (moving my business and home, lots of work, bike interests, etc), the car, literally forgotten for a bit, is now coming together. All machining is now done and all that's left is assembly after the final parts come in (Cosworth bearings and Cosworth piston wrist pins). Should have the car ready to run in by next weekend - I am having my bearings overnighted!

new crankshaft 

















we used a sacrificial set of OEM bearings (yellow grade) to get exact measurements. Bearings have been ordered to match (the yellows are too thick and there's inconsistency in the block mains meaning I need a mixed set) so that every crank and rod journal has a .038~.040mm oil film thickness. Even though the crank is new, the block is not, and just like my old block, there's this oddity where the back three plus main journal are the same, but the front three are looser, requiring thicker bearings to match clearances. I get the sense that the RB26 crankshaft likes to wiggle its willy up front, which cannot possibly be good for the oil pump, and so I'm glad I'm now running an ATI Damper.

measuring journals:








finally, a builder who takes the time to check every last damned bit of an engine.

checking every last piece:








the piston wrist pins have runout, so a new set was ordered. HKS would be the matching replacement, but I chose Cosworth for convenience, lighter weight, cheaper price, and perceived higher brand quality. Not much to a wrist pin really, just a 21mm x 60mm metal rod. But if this engine is going to be done in a perfectionist manner, then pull out all the stops. My builder has instructions to check and perfect everything, down to the last bolt, nut, circlip, absolutely everything. The runout check was during balancing all the conrod/piston bits.

excessive clutch cover pressure plus worn thrust bearing surface =








although in this case, it wasn't so much the center main bearing as it was an old and well-worn crankshaft. If this tiny crack had not developed, I would have never discovered this problem:








JUN oil pump gear, cracked in half. However, the pump never gave any symptoms of failure, and held itself together without shattering for months of driving. So I'm both impressed/dismayed by JUN - sucks that it broke, but impressed that even though the pump was hammered and broke, it still worked flawlessly. Again, I watch oil pressure like a hawk, and it never gave a hint of anything wrong, other than a dribble of oil from the pump housing. Replacement is a Tomei.

this will blow your mind:








#1 and #2 conrod bearings spun. This occurred one year ago, when I got a subtle rattle in the death zone for bearings (3000rpm) after hard running on Motul 5W-30. A switch to Castrol 0W-40 and pulling 10 degrees of timing in the offload 3000-5000rpm zone "cured" the problem, and after a couple months, I was able to return timing to normal and the car ran fine. But there's the damage anyways. Anyways, from here on out, I'm done with thin oil - no reason to risk it, and I will run Castrol TWS 10W-60 until the day I die.

I have pictures to be uploaded yet of the block and head; the head has been ported and flowed on both intake and exhaust ports and the exhaust manifolds (stock, the best possible choice) ported a touch and mummy-wrapped. The block has a new hone that is like an engine-turned watchface - dead-perfect. I suppose I could have reused my piston rings, but with a hone job that good, new HKS rings were procured.

I have decided to run this engine in progressively and get lots of time with mineral oil before switching over to synthetic. Mick was kind enough to share his run-in formula, very straightforward actually. I'm actually a bit swayed by BMW Motorrad's run-in schedule, that absolutely forbids synthetic use for TEN THOUSAND MILES, as they claim it takes that long for the pistons and cylinders to truly mate up.

Ten days, then I finally get to drive my baby again! With work allowing me no driving time (I walk five minutes from home to work) and the bulk of my recreational time spent tearing up the roads on my bike, I suspect this engine will take literally months to finish up 1000 miles and be ready for some dyno pulls!


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## andy42uk (Sep 17, 2005)

Thank you for the update and pictures.
Please keep us all informed of your progress.
Andy.


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## rasonline (Mar 24, 2005)

interesting abot the oil.. if i remember correctly, your last oil that you were using was 0W20??


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

I'm feeling good about the Cosworth bits - they are new in the bearing business, but the company itself has a lot behind that name! Their bearings are similar to ACL - no flash coating, just hard trimetal shells. But its true that there are very few RBs running Cosworth bearings so far.


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

rasonline said:


> interesting abot the oil.. if i remember correctly, your last oil that you were using was 0W20??


yep. I grossly misunderstood something about oil, or at least I think I did. I had incredible and consistent oil pressures, but the oil film tension of the thin stuff is weaker than thick oil, flow or no flow. So oil pressure is just one part of the equation - it's clear that thin oil under pressure was not enough to keep my front bearings (which were out of spec thanks to the last jackass builder) from touching the crank.

My guess is that thick oil might help compensate for slight oil clearance irregularities and help the crank float better. Even at 8 bars pressure, I don't think 0W-20 at over 100 degrees was good for my particular engine due to the mismatched bearings. Race engines built with exacting tolerances can probably run the stuff, but even though I am taking extreme pains to keep oil clearances on all bearings at a rigorous spec of 0.038~0.040mm (only 0.002mm deviation permitted), I won't risk it again.

btw, I can't even fathom a 0.002mm difference. Back when I used to build and repair guitars alot, I could feel out a .005 INCH difference, but that was the limit. Sharp eyes with the Plastigage and that fancy measuring equipment I guess!


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## blue32 (Jan 3, 2007)

i can see this is going to be a good thread, keep it up matey

Ryan


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## paul cawson (Jul 3, 2003)

Dont forget to drill out the oil way plugs, I found quite a lot of old shell bits in mine


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## Rain (Apr 8, 2006)

Cant wait to see how it turns out T, keep this thread going !


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## freakazoid3 (Jan 19, 2008)

paul cawson said:


> Dont forget to drill out the oil way plugs, I found quite a lot of old shell bits in mine


He's got a new crank, so surely that's not necessary? 
Don't want to be the smart-ass around here though :chuckle:


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## tarmac terror (Jul 16, 2003)

Should be an interesting thread....

Although I would say to you dont obsess about things that dont require obsession. Concentrate on the bits that do. Its true that 'proper' engine building requires an attention to detail especially in the bearing dept but its also true that most of it can be 'whacked together'

The type of hone is important too. Different car manufacturers have different methods and specs of honing new engines. You'd be wise to do your run-in with a nod to how it was honed.

I do think though that with this engine build you maybe need to take a step back and breathe.....You mentioned before that the last engine builder had OCD but I suspect that you may have a similar condition.


Hope it all goes well though.

TT


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

correction - this builder has OCD, the one who built my engine before just slapped the thing together.

I am being a bit obsession, but I also do push my engine hard. A new crank wasn't mandatory, but I was concerned about crank thrust.

OCD? I'm now in a total mess mentally because I can't decide to use 120 gram piston wrist pins, or hold up the build and wait for 100 gram pins.


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## paul cawson (Jul 3, 2003)

freakazoid3 said:


> He's got a new crank, so surely that's not necessary?
> Don't want to be the smart-ass around here though :chuckle:


Its the plugs in the block I mean, where the oil and water pumps meet there is a plug to the otherwise unclean able chamber. Lots of shell bits hide in here only to come out later and chew up your new build


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## pupsi (Aug 29, 2006)

Nice going Toby, good luck.


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

paul cawson said:


> Its the plugs in the block I mean, where the oil and water pumps meet there is a plug to the otherwise unclean able chamber. Lots of shell bits hide in here only to come out later and chew up your new build


is that chamber an oil or water chamber (that gets accessed from the plug)?


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## psd1 (May 15, 2004)

Wow, I gotta give you an "A" for tenacity...how many times will this be that the motor has been apart?


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## paul cawson (Jul 3, 2003)

kismetcapitan said:


> is that chamber an oil or water chamber (that gets accessed from the plug)?


Oil, its the end of a gallery that runs right througt the block


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## Simonh (May 24, 2002)

kismetcapitan said:


> correction - this builder has OCD, the one who built my engine before just slapped the thing together.
> 
> I am being a bit obsession, but I also do push my engine hard. A new crank wasn't mandatory, but I was concerned about crank thrust.
> 
> OCD? I'm now in a total mess mentally because I can't decide to use 120 gram piston wrist pins, or hold up the build and wait for 100 gram pins.


it won't make a noticable difference at your level of tune, go with the ones you have.

Simon


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## freakazoid3 (Jan 19, 2008)

paul cawson said:


> Its the plugs in the block I mean, where the oil and water pumps meet there is a plug to the otherwise unclean able chamber. Lots of shell bits hide in here only to come out later and chew up your new build


Always learning something every day 
I've never had my block apart so just picking things up for when the day comes that I have too...Rather later then sooner though :nervous:


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

I found the result of the pin runout - 3 out of 6 pistons (assembled on the conrods) are a little sticky in their movement, the other 3 move freely yet without play.

This will be my 4th engine in two years (original blew, replaced by importer at no cost, that one blew, rebuilt it, and now rebuilding it again). With the detail going into this one though, and everything I've learned from this board over the past two years, I feel that the chances of this engine lasting a good long while are high - it wasn't the high powered tune I was running (the pistons and head are immaculate), it was the absolute shite bearing fitment that eventually led to bigger and bigger problems.

The new crank should help alleviate any crank thrust play (along with correctly fitted bearings) as well as adjusting the clutch pressure. The shop has promised free thrust checks every six months - that's pulling the oil pan and visually inspecting the center main bearing. Sounds good to me!

On the parts front, I decided to add an HKS Racing blow off valve - the basic SSQV has problems holding 2 bars of boost - it leaks at that pressure. The Racing version is good for 3 bars so they say.


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

bearings have arrived and the crankshaft fitted:









the dummy head is on:

















some plastigage and yep, bearings fit up just the way we want them to:









remeasuring everything:

















checking the journals:









the cylinder hone:









didn't someone mention that the type of hone in a sense dictates the best way to break in the engine? The hone angle here looks shallow, I had thought it'd be 45 degrees but I don't know squat about how to hone a cylinder.

no more work on the car as my engine builder is prepping a pair of Lexus IS200s that run in the KGTC, they usually dominate but I found this video where a turbocharged Hyundai manages a pass on the front straight of Yongin Speedway - the main racetrack in Korea.
korean KGTC indigo tuscani overtake kixx lexus - Video

after this weekend's race though, my car should be finished within a week, yay!


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## plumwerks (Dec 15, 2006)

Very nice K.C. now run the darn thing in properly,that hone looks excellent and the angle seems fine to me.
What are you doing for cams,are you staying the same or going up.


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

nope, same Tomei Poncam 260/260 9.15mm lift. I'm mulling over getting adjustable pulleys so that the cams can be degreed in, but I'm suspicious of adjustable cam pulleys - I keep imagining them working loose and then the cams causing the valves to smash into the pistons... 

by proper run in, are you talking the "gradual" method versus the "hard" method? I'm planning to do this one gradually, run mineral oil for at least 1000 miles, as the HKS Titan piston rings are new and harder than OEM rings.


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

ah, and a compromise was reached on the wrist pins. Pins are pins, and although one could get picky with the alloy that they're made of, we ended up just doing the obvious: the pistons and rods have been balanced and matched, so there are six sets. So just have bespoke pins milled for each set (we measured the piston holes and the conrod little ends), then the pins, although matched for a particular piston/rod set, will be weight-matched as a whole. Simple enough really.

It's really cool to be working with this guy, and to see how meticulous each step is taken. It's a whole new level of education with engine building.


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## plumwerks (Dec 15, 2006)

I was referring to the gradual method,at least for the first 500 or 600 miles,then gradually start to do the quick bursts and back off to get the oil to wash down the bores.
Oh and get the pulleys already,they wont slip,good ones actually have teeth to align them,if your builder is as thorough as you say,them I'm sure he will ask for them.


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## paul cawson (Jul 3, 2003)

How many oil holes do those Cosworth main bearings have in them


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## Stachi (Jan 26, 2008)

Nice build! I'm always impressed by precision workmanship!

But regarding the dummy head.. Looks like 2 laser cut sheet metal plates?
I always thought that you take the same Material that the head is made off and also keep the same height as the deck height? Please someone enlighten me 

Marc


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## Lith (Oct 5, 2006)

Very nice build  Are you going to stick with the same turbos on near 2bar as well?


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

Stachi said:


> Nice build! I'm always impressed by precision workmanship!
> 
> But regarding the dummy head.. Looks like 2 laser cut sheet metal plates?
> I always thought that you take the same Material that the head is made off and also keep the same height as the deck height? Please someone enlighten me
> ...


I thought so too - that the dummy head would be a big, well, head-sized chunk of aluminum. I trust this builder though - the Altezza's (two of them on the team) that he has been building the engines for have dominated the KGTC for three years. Every once in a while a team with a Tiburon running big boost threatens them, but it's very hard to keep a high-boosted Hyundai in a race from start to finish.

If this all works out, I may very well ask my builder to build me an RB20-powered R32 GTS-4 for me to run as a privateer in the KGTC (largest permissible displacement is 2000cc). I'm certain circuit racing is far more exciting than playing on the streets, and maybe the ATTESA could give the car an edge as it did in Group A.


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

Lith said:


> Very nice build  Are you going to stick with the same turbos on near 2bar as well?


yes, no turbo changes. I was considering GT-RS turbos and running them at 1.6 bar to put less stress on the turbos, but with water injection I'll just run my 2860-5s until failure, then rebuild them. At 2.7 liters, I don't have enough displacement to run the bigger GT-RS without maddening shuffle and surge.


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## paul cawson (Jul 3, 2003)

Stachi said:


> Nice build! I'm always impressed by precision workmanship!
> 
> But regarding the dummy head.. Looks like 2 laser cut sheet metal plates?
> I always thought that you take the same Material that the head is made off and also keep the same height as the deck height? Please someone enlighten me
> ...



Having the crank cradle fitted and tightened to the correct torque is possibly more important


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## Stachi (Jan 26, 2008)

paul cawson said:


> Having the crank cradle fitted and tightened to the correct torque is possibly more important


I assume that anyone is doing this?  But some sources mention "never to bore/hone a RB26 without a dummy head" and all Dummy heads that I've seen today are "big chunks of aluminum". If eg. a 20mm Plate of steel does the same job it would be much easier to get one. 20mm can be easily cut with a laser (~3.5kW) or plasma. Ground flat and parallel and there you go.

Not trying to hijack K.C.'s thread, just out of interest!

Marc


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## 1990BNR32 (May 22, 2003)

the dummy head i used for my overbore to 87mm was shipped out to me from XS engineering. it is about 2" thick and it is *HEAVY* so I'm pretty sure it's not aluminum.

the explanation i was giving is that you just need something on top of the block and torqued down to the same spec you torque the head to at each head bolt/stud hole because the bores will distort with/without something bolted on.

***

kismet, a question for you... i was under the impression that the Cosworth bearings only come in two sizes, standard and race. from your original post it seems like you were able to get 2 different sizes of main bearings from Eric at XS. did you get 3 standard and 3 race bearings or did you actually get them to send you over or under sized bearings?


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

I gave Eric all my measurement specs and I got standard across the board. My rod bearings and four out of seven crank journals match the standard size. Three of them, if I were ordering Nismo bearings, needed to be undersized by .003mm. The difference between the Cosworth sizes though are a whopping .381mm (0.015"). Eric explained that just by scratching off the flash coating of Nismo bearings, you've just taken off at least .003mm if not more. Since Cosworth (and ACL for that matter) do not have coatings and are basic tri-metal, they won't change size as quickly, if at all, every time the crank rests against the bearing, which, depending on your point of view, can be a serious issue.


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## Stachi (Jan 26, 2008)

1990BNR32 said:


> the dummy head i used for my overbore to 87mm was shipped out to me from XS engineering. it is about 2" thick and it is *HEAVY* so I'm pretty sure it's not aluminum.
> 
> the explanation i was giving is that you just need something on top of the block and torqued down to the same spec you torque the head to at each head bolt/stud hole because the bores will distort with/without something bolted on.


Thanks for that, I think it's enough of a explanation to me.

Marc


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## RB26zcar (Mar 6, 2004)

This is the torqe plate I had made from a company that makes them for machine shops.



This one I found the pic online


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

latest update: my builder found a tiny crack in one of the valve guides. So he's moving onto a spare head. I couldn't see the damned crack, but its there - shine really bright light and squint hard, and there it is. Who knows how long its been there, or how it'd affect things in the long run, but well, there you go. Ask for detail, and you get it, but this build is DRAGGING on and on!

He wasn't happy about the crank clearances on #2 and #3 (he felt there were too tight and he wants exactly .038mm oil clearances, so the block cradles were shaved some ridiculously small amount on those, and now he's happy.

I dropped off a Trust twincore radiator and an HKS Racing BOV (the SSQV leaks over 1.8bar unless you connect the vacuum hose to the throttle bodies instead of the balance pipe (but then the valve doesn't really ever open, causing surge).

New piston wrist pins were fabricated and weigh about 5g apiece more than the HKS pins that had runout. Can't have everything I suppose.

We had a discussion about the squish pads. He wasn't keen on removing them for an interesting reason I hadn't heard before - on top of the lower C/R, he said exhaust gas velocity would go down (and we want fast exhaust gases to spool them turbos!). I guess that's why on the Z-Tune only the intake pads are removed.

Another two weeks...at least.

If anyone wants a head with FULL port work (but one cracked valve guide), PM me.


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## 1990BNR32 (May 22, 2003)

why not replace the valve guide? xs engineering sells racemax bronze valve guides.


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## Stachi (Jan 26, 2008)

1990BNR32 said:


> why not replace the valve guide? xs engineering sells racemax bronze valve guides.


:thumbsup: 

No need for a new head. Will work flawlessly!

Marc


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## paul cawson (Jul 3, 2003)

kismetcapitan said:


> New piston wrist pins were fabricated and weigh about 5g apiece more than the HKS pins


You will need to add 30g to the crankshaft counter weight for good balance


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

the HKS pins are 20g lighter than stock. So I'm now 15g lighter than stock, where does that leave me in terms of balance?


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

1990BNR32 said:


> why not replace the valve guide? xs engineering sells racemax bronze valve guides.


I asked the same damned question and was told they couldn't do it. Funny, they are capable of a LOT of very precision work, but they can't do valve guides??


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## paul cawson (Jul 3, 2003)

kismetcapitan said:


> the HKS pins are 20g lighter than stock. So I'm now 15g lighter than stock, where does that leave me in terms of balance?


You need to get pistons,rods,crank,flywheel,front pulley,clutch cover balanced again as its a new crankshaft


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## Stachi (Jan 26, 2008)

I searched around a little bit and actually found a good video:

YouTube - Porsche 911 Valve Guide Removal

This Guys speaks like he knows his business (Has written a Book for Sunnen!).
Don't your engine guys have a seat and guide machine?

Marc


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

those 911 valve guides are HUGE! RB26 valve guides are slimmer than, well, about the same diameter as superslim cigarettes?


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## Stachi (Jan 26, 2008)

I didn't say "take the same diameter drill that he uses"  If you do, your new guides will fit without using any force 

Marc


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## XSDAILO (Jan 26, 2008)

Guides are simple to remove. Heat up the head to 160-180°F, pound out the old ones (special tool required), and tap in the new ones with a special tool (while the head is still hot) if they are not oversize. The XS bronze guides are not oversize btw unless you special order them oversize. You can make your own special tool on a lathe: cut some steel bar stock with a step to precisely insert inside the guide and the larger diameter to sit on the shoulder of the guide. Something like this:


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

so basically it is entirely possible to remove and replace a single valve guide out of 24? If so, that ain't saving me much money - but if the entire set must/should be replaced, then I guess the swap to another head that has good guides makes some sense - I only paid $200 for it (more or less, it came with the block I had to buy for my rebuild) - new guides are what, $500?


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## Simonh (May 24, 2002)

if you were doing one I'd do them all - if one has failed then the others could be ripe to fail also.

as for new head vs old head - didn't you have a load of head work done to the current head?


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## XSDAILO (Jan 26, 2008)

Yes, you would want to change all the guides so they are all of like material. I think the XS guides are under US$300, but I can't look them up right now because the site is down. If you need factory guides, I have some brand new spares ones sitting around for dirt cheap. The factory guides almost always crack even on stock engines though.


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

yes, it had a full port job on intakes and exhaust. So all that is being done to the spare head now. And I actually have a THIRD head, but the squish pads are burnt from DET, but that makes it a good candidate to turn into a squish pad-free head for a large turbo application.

I need to confer with my builder. Eric, I'll likely be in touch re: the guides.


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

more progress - bottom end FINALLY assembled. It could have been done in a day, rather than six weeks, but the builder's slowness is a virtue.

sump good to go:









getting the pistons rings all matched up:









wrist pin weight got reduced, whoo! 26g lighter than stock:









total mass of reciprocating parts:









all six individually and as a set, balanced and blueprinted:









about to insert the piston (think I'll try that line on the missus tonight, see if she slaps me for "ruining the mood with car talk" )









getting all six in (definitely won't say that to the missus!)









not sure what all this is, red plastigage?









Tomei oil pump, ain't she a beaut! I need to decide how many discs (if any) to run to boost output. Maybe one?









cradle installed:









HKS nickel-plated tops. For all the boost I threw at them, they cleaned up like brand-spanking new. Not a sign of det anywhere. I must be the luckiest mapper on the planet - or that's not nickel, it's unobtanium!


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## EvolutionVI (Sep 6, 2005)

Looking good Toby,bet you cant wait to run it again:smokin:


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

conrod weight: how does this compare to aftermarket rod weights?









pistons balanced in at just under 400g:









checking for ovality in the crank mains for the hundredth time:









































checking the journals, this is also the 3rd or 4th time:









measuring thrust (I think):









conrod clearances finally satisfy the OCD builder:









Cosworth tri-metal bearing, all fitted. I now realize I probably could have used ACL as well. The large increments in size with Cosworth bearings (std, oversize) meant that oil clearances could vary more. The builder took pains to make each one get the .038~.040mm oil film thickness that he wanted. I guess if Mohammed can't go to the mountain, move the mountain to Mohammed!









With the bottom end complete and as good as I imagine it could ever get, now comes the head, due in a week or so. I have already paid in advance for the entire build, and was just beginning to think that was a mistake (a shop already paid for a job needn't rush the work), but now it turns out that the guy just really does have obsessive-compulsive disorder. I wish it were this good 20 months ago when I went through my last build, but better late than never. This is the engine I've been wanting, and after losing thousands to hacks, am finally getting the swiss-watch precision I believe will make for a long-lasting (50,000 miles I hope), 2 bar boosted engine to rule the streets!


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## SamuraiSam (Oct 27, 2007)

Looking good. What's up with that last bearing- that's not plastigauge??? Why would you be using plastigauge anyways? What is that stuff?

That red goo is engine assembly lube, man.


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

aha, a new thing learned - I had been wondering what kind of lube was being used when the parts were being "dry-fitted" - the bottom end has been together and apart at least four times checking various clearances.


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## MostH8D (May 22, 2008)

where can i learn to assemble and disassemble engines like that???

im afraid to try any of this on my own engines...i'll prolly fail.


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## MostH8D (May 22, 2008)

btw..it seems to be a fantastic job you are doing.


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## Rain (Apr 8, 2006)

Looks most excellent Mr.T 

Have you picked out the rest of your package ? 

MostH8D, buy an old used engine and have at it.


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## plumwerks (Dec 15, 2006)

Looking really good there KC.
MostH8D if you really love engines/cars,do what I did,go to an automotive school,if you have the time.


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

Rain said:


> Looks most excellent Mr.T
> 
> Have you picked out the rest of your package ?


I have virtually every imaginable supporting mod, so I'm hard-pressed to think of what to upgrade at this point - it's all more or less been done...except for big-ticket items.

I'm still going to use 2860-5 turbos boosted at 1.6/2.0 bar low/high boost. Fueling will be 60% toluene/40% petrol/a few drops of Motul two-stroke oil (the best all-around brew I came up with last year).

I'm still also sticking with surface-gap spark plugs. They're helped with Splitfire coilpacks and an HKS DLI ignition amp, but I'm also considering a voltage booster to run a 20 volt ignition.

Stock alternator is getting tossed, and some 180amp unit is going in. More parasitic drag, but the ignition system uses a surprising amount of juice, and I have a power-hungry stereo system that can draw peaks of 80 amps. Add my addiction to air conditioning and the hot engine bay of a Skyline that reduces alternator efficiency...well, so there you have it. I've already replaced long ago those tiny batteries and put in a behemoth SUV battery in the boot.

No change to the stock intercooler. There's water injection there which I feel compensates to some degree. I do want to find a way to use the windshield washer button to spray only (and not activate the wipers), so I can quickly and easily plumb an FMIC water sprayer running off the stock windshield washer tank.

The limiting factors to my build are in the drivetrain - the front differential and to a lesser degree, the transmission (I've got OS Giken gears 1-3 but that doesn't include syncros - I've still got tatty old stock ones helped along with Redline Heavy Shockproof). I need to upgrade the front differential before going up to the 800bhp level.

Other than that, there are just little things, like cutting out the muffler box in my Apexi catback so that I have a true 4" straight pipe, from my Tomei elbows all the way out. I will use an Apexi ATS valve at the end for sound control....when I want sound control, that is! I've heard Skylines with completely unmuffled exhausts, and they sound like God Himself approaching (and that's just when they're parking!).

Oh! I've got a somewhat complex checkvalve system I put together with various -AN fittings (kinda like legos, I needed gender adapters and whatnot). Aeromotive -6AN checkvalves now sit on either end of the fuel rail. This will allow one fuel pump to die and rail pressure still be held up by the other pump. This will be good enough for everything but boost over 1.6bar. 1/8" NPT taps allow me to put in pressure senders so I can know when (and which) pump fails. I can then just cruise home. Without checkvalves, when one pump fails, the other can't maintain pressure because fuel is spilling backwards through the other pump. Then it's a tow. I hate getting towed, it's happened FAR too many times!!!

Anyways, they'll look interesting in the engine bay - the fittings are stacked with various bits, so now they can't stick down, but they have to sit over the intake plenum.

Mines cam cover baffle plates from the group buy a few months ago will go in, and I will reroute my Nismo oil separator so that the vent is behind the car. Under the hood, it ends up misting oil and generally, crankcase fumes do not smell good.

I'd like to stick in some N1 bumper vents but can't find any. I'd kill for a pair of Veilside side skirts but also, none to be found at bargain prices.


I have a leftover block and two heads. The block will get bored to 87.5mm and will eventually receive a stroker kit. One of the heads has fried squish pads - a perfect candidate for combustion chamber work to restore it. With the pads removed and the valves deshrouded, the combustion chambers will be as good as new. Big lift cams are going to go in that head. I will add an R34 Getrag 6 speed and a Nismo Coppermix competition clutch (I've just got the regular twinplate on the engine going in now). This spare engine will eventually get the uprated front differential. No decision on turbos, could be anything from GT-RS to a pair of 3037S.

The basic idea is to have this spare engine being worked on over a long period of time. I'd like to have it utterly complete so that **if** I lost this new engine, I could replace it within a day. Or ideally, I'll pull the engine while it's still running beautifully, and have a complete spare while I bring my car up to the 800+bhp level. And frankly, I want to have a complete, fully built RB26 to have on display. It's a beautiful engine, and I'm mentally imbalanced enough to stick one on a stand, polished and perfect, and put it in the lobby of my business.....:flame: 


But such big power plans are far in the future, as if they were a part of another life. I want 2860-5 power now!! :chuckle:


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

oh, and the only two expensive things left to do on my car (other than the front diff), are the FMIC (which I'm covering with water/meth injection)...and brakes. I've got my heart set on Brembo monoblocks front and rear, 343mm rotors so I can continue to use 17" wheels (buying a set of 18" is highly unlikely for me, unless a set falls into my lap - the cost versus benefit - simply slightly more bling appearance, just doesn't work out). Anyways, the Brembos...the calipers are grey. The car is grey. It's just....destiny  It's also ten thousand dollars! 

But truth be told, Endless rotors, stock calipers, APP braided lines, Endless pads, and Motul brake fluid go a LONG way in improving brake performance. I've never been in a situation on the streets when I needed more. But when I eventually run sanctioned time attacks, more braking power would be useful for late braking and trail braking.


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## Stachi (Jan 26, 2008)

Nice technical pics, keep them coming! Me likes precision work, thats what I learned...

Marc


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## paul cawson (Jul 3, 2003)

Have you drilled out the sump oil return holes


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

paul cawson said:


> Have you drilled out the sump oil return holes


where are those to be found?


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## XSDAILO (Jan 26, 2008)

OCD is good, man. Just what you want in an engine builder.


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## paul cawson (Jul 3, 2003)

kismetcapitan said:


> where are those to be found?


They are the row of holes under the drive shaft tube in the sump.


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## EvolutionVI (Sep 6, 2005)

paul cawson said:


> They are the row of holes under the drive shaft tube in the sump.



they tapper down from 4mm to 1.5mm,so the oil cant find its was back :wavey:


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## paul cawson (Jul 3, 2003)

EvolutionVI said:


> they tapper down from 4mm to 1.5mm,so the oil cant find its was back :wavey:


Yes but the Tomei baffle covers the front of the holes so oil cannot splash up them when they are enlarged .

If the modification is not done the strainer could end up pulling air, as the baffle lid does not have enough holes in it for the oil to flow back into


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

is this a mod specified in the Tomei installation instructions? Odd that they put two holes on the front (left side of the pic) upper deck of the baffle, but none on the right sloped part. Wouldn't oil just flow under the top part of the baffle and through the trap doors underneath? Or is the problem that there are no trap doors on the right (rear-facing) part of the underside?

A fair number of people use Tomei oil baffles, I think I'll start a separate thread about it.


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

ok, I nicked this pic from RHD Japan:









here we have the lower assembly. The right side would face the front of the car, and the left the rear. Just one trapdoor to let oil in. I can see the notches for the ribs in the pan.

here's Tomei's illustration:
Oil lubrication

so would holes be drilled in the upper plate to assist oil drainage from the rear? That would make sense if the single trapdoor wasn't enough to flow enough oil from the rear of the sump into the "box" where the oil pickup is.

I'm straining my eyes at the small picture on the Tomei website - it looks like there's a "wall" perpendicular to the ribs that might get sealed off when the upper plate goes in? I wonder why Tomei didn't think that out.


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## paul cawson (Jul 3, 2003)

kismetcapitan said:


> is this a mod specified in the Tomei installation instructions?


Yes they even spec the size to drill out too


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

http://www.tomei-p.co.jp/manuals/pdf/baffle_rb26.pdf

I see now. Damn, need to check on this.


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## paul cawson (Jul 3, 2003)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2400/1786418771_5828083f5f.jpg 

Here is a picture of the holes in mine


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## 1990BNR32 (May 22, 2003)

not to threadjack your sh!t kismet, but... 

i was going to use the tomei baffle on my r34 build, but instead i got my hands on a second hand nismo baffle that I understand might offer a slight advantage over the tomei.

does anyone know if a similar modification to the pan must be made for the nismo baffle? i didn't get instructions with it since it was second hand.


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

I guess it depends on how it installs, see if the baffle impedes oil flow back into the "box" - if it does, drill accordingly!


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

I just got my latest look-see, pictures are forthcoming. The engine has been installed - the block, turbos and intake were assembled, then the transmission mounted, all while outside the car. The entire assembly was then bolted to the front subframe (removed from the car), then the subframe and engine were hoisted up into place and bolted up.

One other hiccup - they forgot to mummy-wrap the exhaust manifolds. No one's perfect, and considering how nicely everything has been assembled, it would be a shame to tear it all apart again.

A/C piping got all new seals; hopefully this will keep me cool.

160 amp alternator, rebuilt from an Infiniti I30 fits right it - it's a little longer, and the plug is different, but all in all it will be nice to have a lot of reserve electrical juice on tap. I will have the electric fan wired to a manual switch so I can kick it on in traffic - even when water is below 90 degrees, activating the electric fan will help the A/C run cooler.

The intake temp sensor has been relocated and is now in a bung immediately after the intercooler. Getting that thing out of the engine bay is a very important thing I believe - when underhood temps get hot (when the IAT reads 70 degrees...is the intake air REALLY 70 degrees???), the idle starts to run very lean, and the surging idle is annoying in the least, and makes idle AFR tuning a headache.

AAC has been cleaned and is shiny and ****-and-span.

Boost solenoid has been moved to the turbo side. All vacuum hard pipes have been removed, and I just have my vacuum line running from the plenum to the solenoid. From there, it goes to a T-pipe and the wastegates have equal-length hoses from the T.

All recirc garbage has been binned, the HICAS capped off and the HICAS pipes removed, and vent holes drilled behind the oil cooler so that air can actually flow *through*.

Ohlins coilovers (the cheaper ones that I have) are a pain to adjust - you have to remove the unit and then move the spring plate. The rear of the car is getting lowered about a centimeter, the front will get lowered some more and the arches rolled. I'm no longer concerned with "usable" ride height so the car is getting dropped as far as is practical for city streets.

The intercooler is being cleaned. I want to see pics of what has been living in there for the past 17 years! 

It's going to take awhile to break in this car - I don't drive much these days!! I am going on a 1000km plan, incrementally increasing load and boost every 100km or so. I think I'll do it on the Naegok-Bundang highway, where I've done high-speed runs. The ups and downs through the mountains should provide enough load variation, even though as a highway it's easy to get stuck at 3000rpm. 23.9km per lap, five laps a night, I can get it done in ten days 

fuel costs for break-in alone will run over $600  I remember when a gallon of premium cost $0.95 ($8 in Korea now).

Once the car is broken in, I have booked a LOT of dynopack time. I don't plan to just run full-boost pulls, I'll get the car up to a certain rpm, lock in the load, then map every damned cell individually for optimum ignition timing. Two days dawn to dusk should be worthwhile, then an all-nighter on the road. And then...we'll run that dyno-queen pull and see just how much 2860-5s at 2 bars makes  (my butt-dyno says a lot, but let's quantify this number, shall we?)


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

and it should be noted - although the car had been mapped before, I am remapping from scratch. Because I had, for want of a better term, "fragile bearings", my map had about 10 degrees of timing pulled from a certain area of the map. This kept the bearing I spun (and somehow settled back in again) from acting up.

I'm also shopping for NASCAR-spec Brembo racing monoblocks. These are much smaller than the monstrous calipers squeezed under 20" wheels these days. Rear 4 pots are a direct fit for the stock 298mm R32 rear rotor. Front 4 pots will take more, a 332mm rotor. A stock R34 rotor might work there. Anyways, it's a much cheaper route than spending $10-$15K for 8 pot racing monoblocks, which I really don't need anyways.


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## plumwerks (Dec 15, 2006)

Good stuff KC,keep it going.


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## MacGTR (Dec 31, 2006)

Sounds like it should be a monster.

One thing I have to complain about is you complaining about petrol, thats still a lot cheaper than over here, Feel lucky while it is still so cheap!


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

sorry...I'm American - I'm used to petrol costing 1/4th of what we pay!


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

question: with all the balancing and whatnot, but a Nissan crank (albeit new) and a new ATI street damper...would you redline this engine at 9000rpm??


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## plumwerks (Dec 15, 2006)

After mapping,you'll know where to redline it.
Once you know where power falls off significantly,then there is no use revving it past that point.


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

FINALLY got to drive it today!!!! It wasn't much, about 20km of pottering about, staying under 4000rpm and trying to keep the turbos from building any boost. Once the car was warm, I tuned the injector settings and got AFRs where I want them. I'm using my old fueling map, and it seems I won't have to tweak it much, although of course I haven't seen any boost or load.

The car is not significantly louder (I had the muffler box removed) but it has a boomy resonance that I find satisfying. So no regrets on that. I do have an Apexi ATS - we tried it out for a bit. It works. It sounds like complete shit - like a buzzy 1 liter Kei-car with some loud cat-back. Or more accurately, it sounds like a kazoo. But it does the silencing job well.

I am having a problem - when starting the engine hot, the engine is turning over far too rich, and I have to open the throttle to get enough air in to get it to fire up. Any ideas?

I don't know how in the hell I'm going to manage to stay off the boost for 1000km. But it's probably too late to do the hard and fast run-in method.

Relocating the air temp sensor to the intercooler was the smartest thing I've ever done. On a scorching hot day, water temp over 80 degrees and not moving fast at all (80km tops), I finally saw realistic air temp readings - 31 degrees, slightly cooler than ambient. And with oil and water over 80 degrees, the idle didn't go super-rich and lumpy as it usually had. I now consider relocating the AIT sensor a necessary mod.

I pick up the car in a few days. The A/C needs to be charged, the rear Ohlins lowered a centimeter (the irritating thing about the Ohlins design is that you have to remove the coilover to adjust the height - the expensive ones don't have that of course).

But really, what's holding things up is that the builder is trying to source a Nismo rubber cap for the cam cover breathers, so that it's symmetrical. Did I mention he's OCD?

He wants to take the oilpan off and inspect the bearings after the 1000km run-in. Is this really necessary?

The Tomei oil pump is brilliant. I haven't added any discs and oil pressure was 3.8 bars at 85 degrees at 1050rpm idle. By 3500rpm it was pushing over 7 bars. That's plenty pressure for me. I'll set the Accusump at 4 bars - higher if I go on a track day.

It felt good to be in the driver's seat. Really good.


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## plumwerks (Dec 15, 2006)

Good stuff KC,now get some kms in so we can see how it really goes.
If your OCD builder wants to do an inspection at 1000kms,I say let him,it wont hurt and you'll feel better knowing how it's going.


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## freakazoid3 (Jan 19, 2008)

Nice to hear she's alive and well!
I say if the builder wants to see them bearings why not let him? You already know they are one off the most fragile parts off the engine so why not? It could save you a lot off hassle and money 
Maybe dumb question but what's the AIT sensor? probably short for something logic, but nothing pops to mind...yet
It probably will as soon as I press the "post" button


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## andy42uk (Sep 17, 2005)

Quote "He wants to take the oilpan off and inspect the bearings after the 1000km run-in. Is this really necessary?"

No its not necessary, its insanity, if it ain't broke by then leave the dam thing alone!
I have only just learnt that kismet means 'fate' in Turkish... Fatecaptain?
Leave it to fate.
Andy.


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## EvolutionVI (Sep 6, 2005)

Sounds really good,Tobi.
I would let the oilpan on,as long as you have good oilpressure,everything should be fine,checking 100 times will not make anything better!


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

AIT - air intake temp sensor. It's plugged into the intake plenum, and does a great job of measuring ENGINE BAY temp


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## zell (Nov 23, 2007)

Great you're back on the road ! 
I'm really looking forward to seeing how that thing goes, as I now want to build the car close to your specification, but maybe with RB30 
I would stick to the builder's advice, you know he's a good guy, right


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

I need to sort out the hot start engine flooding. I guess I could always start the car with the gas pedal floored, but I'd rather fix the problem!

I wonder if I have leaky injectors. I now have Aeromotive -6AN checkvalves on either end of my fuel rail, so fuel pressure can be insured - once fuel goes in, it's not going out, and even if one pump fails, the other can maintain 90% flow capacity. My base fuel pressure is 4 bars. I wonder if, on tickover, instead of a little spray, the cylinders are getting a big squirt of fuel (from overpressure).

Does anyone know if there's a way in Datalogit to directly adjust fueling for engine start only?


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## roadie (Feb 6, 2006)

I think under one of the setting tabs there is "cranking ms" with cooresponding temps. Is that what you are after ??


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## zell (Nov 23, 2007)

Doesn't it have cranking enrichment ?


Edit:
Sorry, didn't see the above post


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

roadie said:


> I think under one of the setting tabs there is "cranking ms" with cooresponding temps. Is that what you are after ??


brilliant! I had thought for some reason that was how long the engine would crank. I'm a moron - the engine cranks as long as I hold the key :chairshot

so the ms might be how long the injector stays open per crank revolution. I'll play with it


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## andy42uk (Sep 17, 2005)

From my experience with oem ecu's there seems to be no specific 'start-up' conditions when you crank the engine....before you say otherwise let me explain...
You can bump start a car, there is no cranking, but it starts...at almost any speed.
From what I gather it is more a 0-low rpm with temperature compensation modification/pulling of the map.
It may just be bad English for ease of explanation but I think 'cranking ms' is more how the 0-low rpm (start condition) is implemented.
Feels like I'm invisible around here mostly, but hey just trying to help...


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

took delivery of the car after 5 months, and I started booting it methodically. 100km of 4000rpm redline, full throttle in 3rd and 4th (barely any boost, turbos don't really kick in that much that low), then pulls to 5000rpm, also only in 3rd and 4th (to generate suitable load and so that the engine has a good few seconds to pull the gear - 1st and 2nd are over far too quickly). Boost limiter is set at 1 bar. I will be upping the RPM limit every 50km, keeping boost at 1 bar - to break in, the rings just need to be loaded, and I'm sure 1 bar and 450+bhp is plenty enough pressure and load to break the engine in. Oil change at 200km, again at 500km (why not, mineral oil is cheap as water compared to synthetic!), and from 500km to 1000km is when I'm going to be checking and adjusting my map up to 2 bars boost, and activating my meth injection (set to kick in at 0.8bar).

at 1000km we'll hit the dynapacks and with a tankful of toluene, I'm gunning for 666whp. I'll probably add some "cheater" things like spraying the intercooler with canned air (the stuff that, when it comes out as a liquid, flash freezes on contact) and running the intake air through ice before it goes into the pods.

The builder insists on pulling the engine at that point to inspect the bearings. I've got enough evidence that his work has been dead perfect so I don't see the need, but it'll only cost me time (remember, in Korea work is billed by the job and not by the hour and I've already paid up front long ago), so why not.

I think my key decision that may make a significant difference in how well the engine breaks in, is to run mineral oil at least another 500~1000km MORE. I admit I have been influenced by the engine oil protocol for BMW motorcycles, which absolutely forbids the use of synthetic oil for 10,000 MILES!!! (the rationale being that the engine continues to gradually break in and produce an engine that is exceptionally long-lived)

Also, the hot-start problem was indeed solved by tweaking the cranking setting on the Power FC. With the engine and oil at 90 degrees, I shut it off, then took the +80 degree timing from 3.5 to 2.5, and it was far worse. Adding a millisecond (setting it to 4.5) completely got rid of start hesitation with the engine boiling hot and the A/C compressor on at startup. I love how pressing a few buttons can sort everything out


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

I checked the oil - it is so clean, I could not see where it was on the dipstick - I had to touch to feel it. Engine oil so clean, beautiful to see 

mineral oil 10W-40, it's been getting real hot real fast. I'm not used to it.

I also found today that with the car lowered even further, at full lock the tires are rubbing somewhere, enough to stick and practically stop the car (this is of course only when parking, when else does one use full steering lock?


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## plumwerks (Dec 15, 2006)

Good stuff KC,I'm waiting for the 2bar setup.


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

went out after the missus was asleep and ran my next set of pulls. 1.3 bar boost, and 4th gear - cruise in vacuum at 3000rpm, then floor it. Slow windup, very much like on a dyno. 6000rpm was the limit tonight. As soon as I hit 6000rpm, off the gas and coast down in gear back to 3000, then boot it again (highway was empty). Did a couple pulls to 7000rpm.

The full-lock steering issue went away. Dunno what that was all about.

The HKS Racing BOV sounds quite different than an SSQV. THe best I can describe it is it sounds like a bus or truck with air brakes, venting off some air. A more mature sounding BOV.

The wide open pipe is a screamer at high RPM - it is fooking loud with no muffler. Quite satisfying, it sounds like a serious uncompromised sports car.

I think I'll run two more days of street pulls, upping to 7000rpm and then 8000rpm, then head in for an oil change. Then I'll be tweaking my 2 bar map and edging up the boost.

Something, I don't know what, but the car simply does not REEK like it used to, of fuel and oil.

The Infiniti I30 160amp alternator is doing a brilliant job - the voltage is the same of course, but I can run all accessories and the car's up to it now.

One thing I need to check - it sounds like I'm getting very loud clicking sounds from the intake-side cam cover. Which usually means injectors of course, but I've been using these injectors for quite some time and they've never been this noisy. Could there be some cam issue, like the intake cam not getting enough oil?

Starting with a fresh engine that cost big money and more importantly, a huge amount of time, the beginning is always a bit paranoia-filled.

Power FC knock in the mid-20's, no odd sounds from the det cans. Full boost AFR is a rich 10.5:1.

It's good to have the car home!


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## Hugo (Oct 1, 2007)

Wait a minute, how many miles did you put on her in the last 5 days?! :chuckle: Already hitting 7k rpm?  Drove that much? 

Good to hear she's back alive and kicking :flame: Getting ready to eat more Lamborghini's!!

Get some clips up from the exhaust note!


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## GT-R Glenn (Nov 9, 2002)

> Wait a minute, how many miles did you put on her in the last 5 days?! Already hitting 7k rpm? Drove that much?


??
How many miles does it need ?



Good one kismet.


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

really, all one needs are a few really hard and good pulls before bumping up the redline and doing the next set of pulls. At least I hope so!!

The intended redline is 9000rpm - that's why all the balancing was done. Surely it should be no problem...but I'm still chicken to run it up there!

Gradual break-in, without loading the engine at all for 1000km makes no sense to me, but I'm not a professional.


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## andy42uk (Sep 17, 2005)

Laboring the engine is far worse than a few runs to the limiter whilst running-in, IMHO.


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## Asim R32GTR (Sep 24, 2003)

Every RB26 engine that i have ever build i ran them in hard.

Started up, got it warm, ran the cheapest oil i could find.
Ran the car for about halv hour on different low rpms, then stopped to check things. 
After that, gave it some high rpm runs, with low boost. Ran them like this for about 1hour or so.

Then back to the garage, changed oil, put in some Valvoline mineral 10/60, on the dyno the next day.

The very first engine i built and ran in like this back in 2003, still runs like hell.

I did my engine last year, and it has now passed 10.000km the other day.
Not ever used one drop of oil, nothing through the breather system, no oil leaks.
556hp 650nm at the hubs.
Trackdays as often as i can, drag racing as often as i can.
1.9bar boost all the time. 
Driving on the street
Cruising
etc etc etc

You cant beat that?

Why pull the engine for inspection? 

Asim


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

I need to find some 10W-60 mineral oil, the 10W-40 that's in it now gets very hot very quickly (90~100 degrees) - not quite up to the temperature rigors of a breaking in engine I think.


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## SamuraiSam (Oct 27, 2007)

Did you read this: http://www.gtr.co.uk/forum/102584-tips-running-2-8-forged-engine-2.html#post956191


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

I'm running the engine hard and never in a steady state - I'm either pulling, or engine braking. Sounds like I'm on a dyno, which I think is the point of driving this way.

Turns out the map I had before still works fine - a middle of the road tune. Of course, I've got on-board det cans and wideband. Rebuilding the AAC has seemed to make idle better (as in, what I punch in on the Power FC, the engine actually matches when it's warmed up)

I rolled the rear fenders and added 5mm spacers. They help finish the car's appearance, I need to do the fronts now.


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

SamuraiSam said:


> Did you read this: http://www.gtr.co.uk/forum/102584-tips-running-2-8-forged-engine-2.html#post956191


I missed that post but I'm following the basic idea of that. No point in babying the car around.

I ran in my BMW motorcycle the same way. Brand new, 0km - as soon as the engine was warm and the bike was handed over to me, I pulled away WOT to redline through the first four gears. Believe me, that's not what the manual said to do!!


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## SamuraiSam (Oct 27, 2007)

Awesome. When are going to get to see some video?


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## Asim R32GTR (Sep 24, 2003)

kismetcapitan said:


> I'm running the engine hard and never in a steady state - I'm either pulling, or engine braking. Sounds like I'm on a dyno, which I think is the point of driving this way.


Your run in time is long gone.
Get the car on the dyno 

A couple of days ago we started a new built supra, with all possible mods.
The car was actually hooked up to the Dynapack, ran it warm, did a few pulls, changed oil, then mapped the car.
Engine didnt blow out one drop of oil, and it made almost 700 at the hubs.

How is that for a run in ? hehe...


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

car's going in this saturday for some preliminary dyno runs - mostly to finish fine tuning my full-boost map and get that 8000-9000 zone dialed in.

as mentioned in another thread, I had a fuel pump failure, but my failsafe system worked  Car has 90% fueling capacity on one pump - good for a solid 1.2 bar.

I have a suspicion that the holes needed to be drilled for oil return (for the Tomei baffle) aren't there. But it may just be the power of the Tomei oil pump. Anyways, sucking the sump dry is not a good thing, and my pump is on the lowest setting. The Accusump doesn't help in this situation - at redline, oil pressure falls to 6 bars (from 8 bars), but the Accusump is set to trigger at 4 bars.

Teething problems. I hope to get them all out of the way quickly. Also I hope to get the last batch of photos of my build.


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## Piggaz (Sep 5, 2002)

^^^
Yes but if say you do happen to have a oil pump failure on boost... 4 bar is better then 0 bar. You are convincing me to buy one of these accusumps


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

not only is it 4 bar, but a steady 4 bar for 30-40 seconds - PLENTY of time to shut down!

I will take pictures of how I have mine installed - I went to a manual valve setup, so I can shut the Accusump off during city driving.


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## mifn21 (Mar 19, 2007)

kismetcapitan said:


> not only is it 4 bar, but a steady 4 bar for 30-40 seconds - PLENTY of time to shut down!
> 
> I will take pictures of how I have mine installed - I went to a manual valve setup, so I can shut the Accusump off during city driving.


Thats what I've decided to go for - cheaper too! Just got to remember to make sure the pressure is held before switching the car off :chuckle:

Only thing that worries me is that if your pump fails or something else causes you to lose oil pressure at 8k rpm, wouldn't it be bad to have cold oil dumped into the engine? Obviously its going to be better than no oil at all, but its something I was thinking about


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

I would think the cooling effect would be a Good Thing, but I'm no expert. Also consider this - 2 liters of oil are being fed into the engine over 30 seconds. It's not that fast!


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## mifn21 (Mar 19, 2007)

True, its just as everyone knows you're never meant to cane an engine until the oil is upto temp which is what got me thinking :chuckle:

I wonder if theres a way to hook up a switch that kills the ignition if it detects a lack of oil pressure


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

mifn21 said:


> I wonder if theres a way to hook up a switch that kills the ignition if it detects a lack of oil pressure


there is, I saw a relay in the Summit Racing catalog that was pressure dependent. No pressure, the relay closes, no more fuel pumps.


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

none of my builder's hi-res pics, but some snapshots with my phone:
car back on the lift:









231km, and all innards disassembled yet again:








Notice the Tomei oil pump - as any builder should, the pump was disassembled, the gears checked, and then the backing plate reinstalled with Loctite. Not many moving parts in an oil pump, and it's a quick five minute job to make sure a pump is working.

Cosworth bearings check out as good to go:









check out the bore hone, how it holds oil even a week after disassembly - makes the bores look like glass.









all new idlers (old ones seemed ok but I'd rather not take chances), new steel grade 10.9 bolts, and the head is complete with replaced valves and valve guides.

And just for the hell of it, I've decided to add a Trust sump extension. Although the Tomei sump extension would be ideal as it doesn't extend below the front subframe crossmember, it's also $2000, TEN TIMES the price of the Trust. So Trust it is  And my oiling system now consists of: Tomei oil restrictor, Tomei oil baffle, Trust oil cooler, Trust oil extension, Canton Accusump. The whole thing will take ten liters of oil to fill, and so far as I can figure, is about as complete a wet sump system as one can do on an RB26. The only missing thing is the head drain mod - I'm not 100% sold on that, and I think the extended sump will make running the pan dry a near impossibility.

Overkill, eh?


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## Piggaz (Sep 5, 2002)

^^ You forgot to include your Tomei oil pump :squintdan


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## frostmotorsport (Aug 10, 2007)

kismetcapitan said:


> there is, I saw a relay in the Summit Racing catalog that was pressure dependent. No pressure, the relay closes, no more fuel pumps.


mmmm, bad! as we all know, if you're on boost and the pump fails, pressure drops, fuel pumps cut, engine runs oh so lean and bad ju ju! :runaway:

better of wiring such a relay into the igition so the whole motor is cut - or even splice it into your coil loom earth so that just the ignition is cut!

my 2p anyway...

nice build KC! :bowdown1:


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

Piggaz said:


> ^^ You forgot to include your Tomei oil pump :squintdan


it's up in the right corner of the "innards" pic :clap:


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

car's back on the road, and it's running much, much better. I suspect something was a bit rattly or loose, but it is extremely, beautifully, smooth. Not a trace of knock - as far as my knock sensors are concerned, the engine is practically dead - the graph flatlines no matter how much welly I'm giving it. Nice clean ticks on the det cans, ran perfectly cool. Pics to come.

I did get stuck in a traffic jam and got idle leanout and hunt (idle mix leans out and you get an annoying 200rpm up and down surge), but after getting into clear air, that went away.

I love my car.


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

I'm also switching to Bosch 044 pumps, and planning to mount the pumps under the car, tucked up next to the fuel tank (I have two fat Z32 fuel filters there at the moment, so there's definitely some room there). Would a single Apexi pump placed to feed these twin 044s help, or be a restriction? I'm not keen on installing a trunk-mount surge tank; I'd like to retain as much of my existing hoses as possible - I've spent a small fortune on all those Aeroquip lines.

Also, in such a setup, if the Apexi (placed inline and before the Bosch pumps) fails, wouldn't it take out the entire system? If one of the Bosch pumps fails I'm ok as my checkvalves will save things.

Oh! An unexpected and great disappointment! Installing the Trust sump extension meant that my Cusco front tension rod brace no longer fit. That brace had done wonders to making the steering response to my car crisp and precise. Front handling doesn't suck without it by any means (I've got pillowball tension rods as well), but I could feel it missing.

I was also horrified to find that they had, from the beginning, NOT used crap engine oil! Instead, the car had been running Motul 4100 semi-synthetic! Shouldn't a run-in oil be purely non-synthetic? The crappiest cheapest engine oil possible? I also feel jinxed by Motul - every time my car has broken down, Motul oil was in the engine. Granted, I use it 50% of the time, so it's a 50/50 shot, but nevertheless Motul spooks me.

Also installed in the car were prayer papers from a monk; I brought one in to perform an exorcism on the car. He replied that he didn't sense any spirits inhabiting my car, but it could be a magnet for them. I paid him £40 to do his thing, and install these things to ward off evil spirits. I'm a Zen buddhist, so I don't believe in such hocus-pocus, but it can't hurt, and furthermore, the car came from Japan and the land of Shinto, who knows what kind of spirits might have tagged along with my car?? The car had been exorcised once before. Can't hurt


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## Asim R32GTR (Sep 24, 2003)

Are you still on about those bloody bosch pumps? :chuckle:

Put them both in the tank. They work just fine as in-tank pumps also.

Here is the oil you should have used when breaking in your engine.

Product Quickorder - Joe Gibbs Racing Oil

Excellent GOOD quality break in oil. All the us-car people here in Norway use this. 

Personally id use a cheap non / semi synthetic oil.

Asim


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

true, perhaps I should take that route. But I've been hearing its a fooking pain in the arse to get twin 044s into the tank, requires fabricating custom brackets and because of their longer length, have to sit nearly horizontal. All hearsay though.


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

twin 044s ordered, I'll be mounting them in-tank with a bespoke bracket.

some pics:









new home for the HKS DLI, space made available by throwing out the recirc crap:









relocated boost solenoid, hoses to wastegates are exactly the same length - dunno how much that helps, but my car has no shuffle now (had a teeny bit before)









overall engine:









Accusump valve handle - I went to manual. The electronic version sucks.









serpentine Accusump plumbing into the oil filter remote:









rolled fenders and 5mm spacers front and rear - very subtle, but the look of the car sits with me better:









another dyno day tomorrow. Map's fine on the road, need to lean out my AFRs a bit (10.9 at boost, I want to be at 11.5), and I've got a coolant leak from the rear of the engine. Just little dribbles, but I want a completely tight engine.

Still wish I could find some way to have my tension rod brace installed.

The Apexi ATS does a fine job of silencing the car - so much so that I took it out and will likely never use it unless I'm forced to. I like the loud drone the open exhaust now has.

The injectors clicking seems to be getting louder and louder. I hope it's not something else, like a problem in the head!

had my A/C system overhauled; new hoses, o-rings, and the shop (not my engine builder) thought that the A/C fan wasn't working (for those who don't know, it only goes on when the A/C is on and water temps hit 90)....so he puzzled out the Aussie trick of wiring the fan to the A/C relay so the electric fan goes on anytime the A/C is on. I like it, it makes the A/C a lot colder!!

Just a few more little nitpicky things and I'll be all done for now. I want two years of trouble-free motoring out of this build - the turbos are the weak point if I run 1.95 bars again. New power steering boots have been ordered. My ATTESA problem when parking is still there, but I've now traced it to intermittent wheel speed sensors.

And my stereo has a loose connection somewhere; it doesn't always turn on!! I need to find a new ground or ground it off the battery.

I should then have perfection


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## freakazoid3 (Jan 19, 2008)

The original engine bay is cramped, but yours is even worse 
Love you're car though, nice and clean and inconspicuous like the underdog should be 
Is the red cagiva yours also?
Or is it a gilera 50 cc? I hope not if it's yours...


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## Piggaz (Sep 5, 2002)

Back already!!! Did you end up sticking with the 231 km "old" rings or purchase new ones?

Will you be putting your pumps in yourself or will someone else do it?


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

yep, both bikes are mine. The little one has an 80cc kit and 26mm carb on it and has been stripped of a LOT of weight to make it track-worthy. The BMW F800S there is also a nimble bike, but I'd like to start racing bikes....and I don't fancy going more than 120kph on a track with a pack of other bikes!

I kept my rings - HKS Titan rings don't come cheap! 

The car goes back to the shop via flatbed once more on Tuesday. The car is perfectly drivable - I've been finding reasons to take it out every day. I've gotten a lot of mapping done and am still amazed at how much faster my turbos spool....when you don't choke them with overfueling at 3500rpm! I don't think I've been risking anything - with a leaner top-end AFR, I logged a knock value of 8 (EIGHT!) at load 18 and 7800rpm.

it's just teething issues now:

1) I need a custom bracket made to put my 044s in-tank. The shop does a lot of bespoke fabrication so they'll be taking care of it. My single Apexi (the other one's dead but my fuel system still works because of checkvalves) can't support more than 1.3 bar before losing pressure (I might get 1.4~1.5 without running lean, but I don't want to find out!) That's good enough for some, but I need full boost mates.

2) my heater hoses have an intermittent leak.

4) head noise - that's my biggest concern. Something ticking under the intake cam. I want it sorted - with a lot of time and money invested, I'm not settling for anything less than perfect.

5) remove the rest of the power steering system down to the bare minimum. This is mostly prompted by a slow leak where they capped off the HICAS lines on the driver's side. Without high-pressure HICAS we can toss the PS fluid cooler as well. I like ripping out pipes and binning them! 

6) my water injection pump won't prime. maybe it's dead, £50 for a new one, but I'd like to try and get mine working. No sense throwing away money if there's a cheap fix.

7) the steering rack gets new boots.

8) now that my oil system is fully upgraded, I'm going to increase the flow on the Tomei oil pump. Just can't decide if I should add one or two discs. I'm still wet sump but I've got ten liters of oil all told in the whole works - I think it can handle more extreme flow!

With my fueling system back up to spec, I can then finish off mapping high boost, then go hunting with a car rated at 666bhp


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## freakazoid3 (Jan 19, 2008)

kismetcapitan said:


> yep, both bikes are mine. The little one has an 80cc kit and 26mm carb on it and has been stripped of a LOT of weight to make it track-worthy.


That reminds me off the good old days on my aprilia rs 50 extrema. Had done some cylinderwork, skimmed the head an opened up the combustionchamber en redesigned it to fit my 80cc polini, V force reedvalves, carenzi crank, 28 dellortho carb, moded ninja exhaust, done work on the crankcases too...Ah I loved that bike. It did run very well and got it's 130 kph so easily (real measured speed not speedo bullcr*ap) :flame:
Did the fairings over again also, she was a looker 
But then sold her for my husqvarna 610 supermotard 
Well upgrading is never a bad thing 
As long as you don't buy a mito 125, they're crap. Had 2 off them, they go fast as hell, got 43 hp out off my 160cc polini conversion. But they don't last long... 996km to be exact :chairshot
Oh memories...
I'll post some pics as teasers  
Sorry for the hijacking :nervous: 

Aprilia RS50 (80cc)

Cagiva mito 125 (160cc)

Husqvarna 610 supermotard


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

2-strokes are a lot of fun; I had thought of upgrading up the 2-stroke route but went with the BMW. I still think owning a bike with a 500cc V4 2-stroke engine would be loads of fun


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

044 fuel pumps installed today. No more fuel pressure loss, although the pumps need about 20 hours of run time to fully break in.

god almighty, it is SO SATISFYING to have full power back. I ran medium boost of 1.6 bar and the map is good. I think I want to check my ignition map on a dyno though before I run high boost. What's clean at 1.6 bar could be det at 1.9.

Even at that boost though, my baby's got her groove back. Very, very quick down the road!

My replacement Apexi ATS arrived and I plugged that in. Turns out the bolts for my last one was...just a bolt. The Apexi supplied version has a locking nut plus a cotter pin - to keep from spitting the thing out on the highway....just as I had done.

I think I'll keep it more or less permanently installed. It makes the car extremely stealthy...and then the exhaust opens wide at 5000rpm and its screaming like an F-15  It does have a slight effect between 4000-5000rpm where when bigger boost is building, the tension of the spring has to be overcome. A weaker spring would be preferable I think, one that opens wide at 4000.

I feel such a sense of completeness, of inner peace now!


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## plumwerks (Dec 15, 2006)

Completeness,never gonna happen,you own a skyline,you'll want something more in about an hour


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## roadie (Feb 6, 2006)

The "idle hunt" could be overfueling too...Pull a few degrees out of your idle ign and a bit of fuel out too....:wavey:


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## R.I.P.S NZ (May 7, 2004)

Kismet, why does the electric accusump valve "suck" ?? What did you find?

Rob


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

idle has settled in, I just had to run the 30 minute idle self-learning thing again.

The EPC valve for the Accusump automates everything, and so I never knew when it was working or not. I think it also had "slow fill" or "slow discharge" modes, and I prefer to have the thing wide open all the time.


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

photos documenting much of the rest of the build exist, but have yet to be mailed to me. The engine is again in bits. I think the bores are now broken in - they don't feel rough but you can still see the crosshatch pattern.

The piston pin rattle boils down to very small clearance variations. HKS specs are for the pin to be 20.998~21.010mm. The ones we used were Nissan OEM pins cut down to 60mm, and were 20.990mm. It may seem like only a 0.008mm difference, but it's better to think of the pins as being 0.018mm too small. Doesn't make a peep when cold, but once the metals start expanding, the #6 piston starts making a single ticking sound (not the double-click of a seriously loose wrist pin rattling at TDC).

Three of the six HKS pins seem to have bent under the power of my engine, from det, or both. The bend is VERY slight, but causes slight stickiness in the small end.

Ross Racing wrist pins have been ordered and should arrive shortly. A normal wrist pin costs $10~15, these cost a whopping $40 each. Presumably, these are incredibly strong plus shave nearly 40 grams off of the OEM weight.

The only other sorting that needs to be done is to change all the coolant hoses which are beginning to rot out, and simplify the power steering system. The other bits are just cleaning up and binning unneeded things like hard vacuum lines I'm no longer using.

This had better work; if it doesn't, I'm seriously thinking of an Evo X. They're being sold in Korea now, starting from last week, full warranty. I'd just have to make sure I never tuned the damned thing...

But can I live with being slower??


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## ATCO (Feb 2, 2003)

kismetcapitan said:


> But can I live with being slower??


Toby, I cannot believe you actually typed that. This isn't Mrs T using his account is it?

DaveG


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## kismetcapitan (Nov 25, 2005)

I was just having a bad moment  I'm all sorted again; my car will be reassembled by this weekend


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