AFs2k

Long story short. I over torqued (shitty harbor freight torque wrench at the time) an exhaust stud nut holding my Pfab Greddy manifold on. When it heat cycled it stretched enough to jack up the theads in the head. I know most people only hand tighten things like this, but I am very anal and follow my bible (s2k service manual), so I torque everything to spec.

I decided I needed to get the head off to fix it. I took the head off and said screw it... it's time. So began the build. I took EVERYTHING off/out of the car. And bought a new head because I was mad at the old one for stripping.

To start off, here's what my car/bay used to look like:




I track my car so I wasn't and still am not looking for the biggest numbers or a drag time slip, those are meaningless to me. A long time ago, even before all this began, I had already decided that some day I would buy the Ptuning kit because of the manifold design and the available options.

Through the past year+ (since May 2011) I've been aquiring little things here and there for the car, but my other hobby was taking most of my money. I got deployed for a while so that's where the saving came into play to buy the big stuff. I wanted to build my block with all the goodies: GE sleeves, CP pistons, Pauter rods, ACL race bearing, get the crank polished... I had a long list. But searching, reading, and compiling data on here made me think otherwise. If others are making more power than I want on a stock bottom end, why can't I just do that? I have access to 93 pump and E85, why not? So I decided against the whole bottom end build and went with a brand new OEM short block.


Thank you to my wife for getting it into the garage while I was deployed and keeping it safe. I even skyped with the block while I was deployed. True story.

So, now that I had the block it was game on. I talked with Ptuning setting everything up to get my kit when I came home. I have a 4-5 page PM session with them now. I got home, and decided I wasn't going to wait around to do this anymore. We want a kid, so now's the time. I bought everything I'd need. My turbo kit, injectors, pump, AEM EMS v2, clutch, lots of various OEM honda parts, new koyo radiator, valvetrain stuff... you name it, I bought it. I want everything to be new. It's pretty much all here waiting for me to get started. I already built a nice base map and set up all the sensor calibrations in my EMS to get the car started and up and running as soon as it's all together.

Here are some pics of a few parts:




Got 12 break in, 3 trans, and 2 diff oils.

Head after valve seats 3 angled, guides installed, then the valve spring seats and seals installed:




So in the next week, week and a half, I will be updating this post/thread with all my efforts to get the car together before I get off leave.


TO BE CONTINUED...

AFs2k

Yesterday afternoon I decided to work a little bit on the head. I had to wait for a few major parts that were arriving on the UPS truck. Mainly the crank sensor timing wheel.

I only got the exhaust side done because those keepers are my worst nightmare.



I decided to move to something else because I felt torn down by the keepers. I cleaned up the inside of my bell housing because it was nasty. It's not super clean, but it's cleaner than it was.


Took some shots of the empty bay and tunnel... You can see my hand made stands under the car. I don't like leaving the car on regular jack stands because after it sits for a while, metal (the car) starts to fatigue and may warp a little under it's (the car's) weight. I want my car to remain as close to perfect as possible. I made them out of fence posts because they have a litte give. I used softer wood for the pads that touch the frame.

What a rats nest...



UPS showed up with my random grab bag of parts I need:


After I got the parts it was time to start working on taking off the timing chain cover to take the crank sensor wheel off and change it for an '05 one. (I bought an '06-'09 block. It's what was available at the time I ordered.) The crank bolt is a little harder to take off when the engine is out of the car and sitting on a cardboard box, let me tell you. Got that off and took the bolts that hold the timing cover out and finally looked at this part for the first time I guess :



That's one of the timing chain guides. Can you spot the old one? HINT: it's not the broken one... Good thing I have an extra. I found the big missing part:



But, there was a small bit missing when you put them together... I searched for the little bit of aluminum for about 15 mins. I shook the motor a bit and looked around, shook it again and looked. I finally found the little bit in the pan towards the front. Had to get some long needle nose pliers to get it out, but... it's out. I got it and threw it away. I don't want to ever see it again.

I then scrapped off as much of the honda bond as I could so I could put a fresh bead of it on when I put the timing chain cover back on.



I couldn't make anymore progress because I had to go shopping with my wife to find outfits. We're taking pictures today because it's our 5 year anniversary!!!

AFs2k

Reserved

AFs2k

Reserved

AFs2k

Reserved

bobbyrandolph440

so whatever happened?

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spets

So, why buy a new engine block when your old block was apparently fine? Seems a little overkill?

Interested in seeing it all come together.

AFs2k

Spets, one of the piston rings broke in my old block and left a very small bit of scuffing in the cylinder. Just barely enough to feel if you go over it and over it again. I did a compression check not too long before I took it all apart and all the numbers were within +/- 1-2psi, so it wasn't bad at all...

but like I said, I want EVERYTHING new. May be over kill, but peace of mind will keep me sane. If I was to use it and put it all back together with new rings, I'd probably keep thinking about the scuff mark and not be happy.

liquid_helix136

Cant wait for this build, gonna be sick!

gnehc1

Nice!