SDL Racer complete engine rebuild.
07-28-2003
Did a compression test from 4 to 1, 165,155,135,0. Guess it's number 1 that's blown. Pull the head to find #1 is missing a chunk that melted all over the cylinder wall. The head looks fine. Begin flaking the melted aluminum off the cylinder wall as my cat comes to check out the action. Finally got all the flakes off the wall and all over the trashed piston.
Spend the next week deciding if I want to take the cheap way out and simply replace the stock piston and get back on the road for around $700 out of pocket or do a complete rebuild / upgrade for around $3000 out of pocket.
08-09-2003
Decided to pull the block and go for the extreme upgrade. I bought an engine hoist and stand and proceeded to pull the block and tranny.
08-10-2003
After all weekend, it's out. Now there's a big gaping hole where my glory once stood. Removed the tranny and put the engine on the stand. The tranny is off to be rebuilt. Looks like I've been having fun with this clutch. Remove all of this crap from the front of the motor.
08-11-2003
Flip the motor over to find chunks of piston on the oil pickup screen. Pull the pistons, #1 is trashed, melted past the rings, #2 ring is gone with a nice hole burned through to the inside. The pistons, the block and the crank.
08-12-2003
Took the block to Westside performance for block re-work.
08-19-2003
Now that I've done a complete tear down and have a chance to think about what happened, I remember back to my annoying knock problem under high boost ever since I got the B16G turbo which is rated at 380HP. That coupled with the fact that I'm still using a stock fuel pump rated at 190HP and 550cc fuel injectors rated at around 250HP and the fact that my GTech constantly reports 250 +/- 5 HP no matter what tuning I do. Also keeping in mind that the #1 injector is the last on the fuel rail and therefore the first to run lean and the fact that a lean mixture leads to excessive combustion temperatures and the fact that I've seen my exhaust manifold glow red hot at night on the #1 side and the fact that it was my #1 piston that melted...
After careful consideration and contemplation of the above situation, I have come to the conclusion that I need more fuel. PHEW!!!
Blame it on me. I consistently overlooked the possibility that fuel delivery is important. A lesson I have learned the hard way. Now after about $3000 of upgrades and rebuild, I will still need a substantially larger fuel delivery system. I plan on a new fuel pump, 660cc or 720cc injectors, an external SX style fuel pressure regulator and move my fuel PSI sending unit to the return side of the fuel rail near the regulator so I can keep an eye on fuel pressure on the #1 side of the rail where it runs lean first.
Other items I plan to upgrade or replace are a new ACT clutch disk (mine is about 50% right now), rebuild the tranny, JE 9.0:1 pistons, Eagle rods, block bore .020, block head planed, internals balanced, all new freeze plugs, head porting and planed, Crower stage 2 cams, adjustable cam gears, all billet aluminum pulleys, Mitsu 4 layer metal head gasket, all new Mitsu bearings, ARP bolts everywhere possible and of course all new gaskets and belts everywhere else.
Once completed in a couple months, I guess I will never see the 12's which has been my goal for so long. I guestimate that this combination will have me in the 11's with minor tuning. If that is the case, which I'm pretty sure of, I will need to tune the car down to stay in the 12's as I do not wish to be ejected out of the race park for lack of roll cage, 5 point harness, fire suit and all the other jazz NHRA requires. I refuse to install a roll cage!!!
We'll see.....
09-27-2003
Got the short block back from the machine shop built up and ready to rock. Had them install Wiseco 8.8:1 race pistons on Eagle connecting rods with ARP main, rod and head bolts/studs along with Clevite 77 main, rod and balance shaft bearings. Had all the internals balanced within 2 grams including the crank pulley, flywheel and pressure plate. It's ready to build up. Got $250 worth of Mitsu gaskets, seals, crush washers, tensioner, idler pulley, timing belt, balance belt, and other hoo haa stuff that should provide most of what I'll need to get started.
10-03-2003
Assembled and ready for tranny. Sent my tranny off to rebuild and discovered the center diff is trashed. Tranny shop started talking $1500 and up, so I said forget it and bought a recent rebuild from www.dsmtrader.com for $600 with a locked center diff.
10-11-2003
Fully assembled and ready to install with new tranny. Also got a new knock sensor and all new timing cover gaskets.
10-13-2003
Installation complete. Mileage is 81471. First test drive was around the block. I don't like the locked center diff tranny, very hard to make turns and quite noisy since there is no LSD between the front and back axles. It's acting like the front and rear are fighting each other. I will be looking into rebuilding my old tranny myself with new replacement parts I find wherever.
10-17-2003
Passed State inspection with flying colors. I was forced to remove the window tint from the doors windows so I need to get those re-tinted with legal tint instead of limo tint. Now have 7 miles on the new motor. Mileage is 81479.
10-18-2003
Drove the car to my sister's house to help out with a garage sale she was having and to say hi. I need to put some mileage on the car to break in the new motor. First highway miles, she lives 18 miles away. I hate this transmission! Have I said that I hate this transmission yet? Okay, so I hate this transmission. I'm driving around all nervous that I'm burning it up as I drive and wonder when it's going to lock up on the freeway. It's so damn noisy and it just doesn't feel right. At least not what I'm used to. Otherwise the car feels great, lot's of spirit. I have to keep reminding myself that I need to chill and break in the motor. It just has so much potential.
This thread has ended. The motor rebuild is complete with only one issue remaining. The tranny.
