160k miles to fresh and slightly built
04-23-2014, 12:17 PM
#1
160k miles to fresh and slightly built
So there are a ton of builds around this site that are much more impressive than this one is / will be.
Nonetheless, I'm proud of the work done and excited for what the future holds, and wanted to share it!
My S is an 03 Spa yellow, and has been my daily for the last 6 years after it was purchased in 2008. I was 18 when I got it, and was out to prove the world wrong that just because I was young, I wouldn't kill myself in a "sports car." 6 years later, the only wreck it's been in was when I was parked at a gas station and an epileptic had a seizure on the road, drove across 3 lanes of traffic, hopped a curb, ricocheted off of two other cars and ran directly into my rear quarter panel.. but I digress.
Here's how it sits today!
The car was bought with 55k miles and it now sits with 162k miles. I have run it N/A most of its life with about a year of it running with 4.77s and a 75 wet shot of nitrous. I was irresponsible one summer and forgot to check the oil level for like 3 months and caught it before SERIOUS damage occurred, but I refilled with like 3.5 quarts, and the end result was worn bearings and low oil pressure.
I decided to replace the short block because my next project is boost. I found an awesome deal from a buddy of mine DFWS2k, the short block wasn't 100% plug n play, but I can't complain for the price he hooked me up with. It was missing the main seal (HOLY SHIT, what a pain in the ass installing one of those is!) a few bolt holes were entirely stripped out, and the shop that rebuilt the block didn't use actual Hondabond, but a generic knock off, and was very messy with it. The block was also missing the 4 bolts that connect the girdle to the block. After ordering some new parts, and cleaning up the sealant mess here and there, we were able to start the project.
The new block is also an F20C, it has 60k miles on it, but cylinder 3 had issues, and they had the block rebuilt. This bad boy has the original crank, rods and pistons, but it has been rehoned, new rings, new oil pump, ACL race bearings were installed and the crank was rebalanced to .1g (stock is .5g). It had never been run after the rebuild, the cross-hatching was still visible and the new cylinder walls were smoother than glass. Anyways, I was pretty stoked to get this guy installed
I employed the help of a fellow s2k member, and now good friend prj3ctm4yh3m (Matt) to do most of my work as I'm really not that handy mechanically. He installed my Kpro, refreshed my head with ap2 retainers and anything else that was looking worn, installed my new clutch, replaced a bad wheel bearing, has given great advice, opinions and guidance about my build and what I wanted to do with it, and so naturally, I hit him up about replacing the short block, no small task at all, but I was confident.
End of the first night:
My car tried to be a snow plow in our last ice storm, so my front undertray got pretty f@#ked up lol
Late into the second day:
Old engine is out!
Dicking around after the work was done for the 2nd day;
"FIRST START" video..
http://s37.photobucket.com/user/liqu...8c60d.mp4.html
3rd day we got the old block off and it was interesting to take a look at the wear and tear over the course of this tired engine's life!
Holy scratch in the cylinder wall! Every cylinder had scratches I could catch with my fingernail. This explains my oil consumption issue!
New block installed onto the head with ARP studs
Start of the 4th day, we began reassembling the engine and were able to get it back in within about half a day
First try, first start!
http://s37.photobucket.com/user/liqu...d91b1.mp4.html
We had a few hiccups here and there, hit the ever so fragile knock sensor, so had to replace that. BOTH of my engine mounts were COMPLETELY torn apart at the rubber. We were wondering why it was rocking back and forth so much after we unhooked every thing lol. So new engine mounts, new knock sensor and new short block installed. Between the balanced crank and the new motor mounts, this engine is literally 300% smoother than the old one, its like a different car entirely!
Results:
I tune my engine myself on Kpro, I didn't have to change much on the new engine, but I did have to add about 1% fuel every where, and adjusted the timing accordingly for the new block. I was running peak timing of 34* on the old engine, and now I'm only running 31.5* peak timing. I think this blocks compression is much better than the last one.
I also use VirtualDyno with custom settings to record the evolution of my powerband throughout the cars life. I made sure to get a solid run on my designated strip of road that I use for my street dynos. I've put 1k miles on the new block so far and have had zero problems, even drove 250 miles to houston and back last week and I broke into the mythical 300 mile club! Something the last engine has never done before.
Anyways, heres my "back to back" dynos of the old engine vs the new: The same road is used, starting at the same speed, in 3rd gear, same lane, starting at the same place every time. Outside temps and barometric pressure are corrected for. Multiple runs are done and the "middle" graph is used.
Disregard the actual numbers, I doubt they 100% accurate, but I think they are ballpark, I just don't want to change them to something more "accurate" because this is the system I've been using for the last few years when tuning my car.
Blue line is my old engine and the red line is the new engine.
DAT MIDRANGE DOE! Peak power is about the same, but there's much more area under the curve on the new engine. Vtec is set to 4500 on the new engine, the lowest I could get vtec on the old engine was 5k due to the oil pressure issues.
This engine is gonna be boosted, I'm looking to push 12-14 psi, shooting for 400-450whp. It will stay my daily so I'm not looking for anything super crazy.
Anyways, it was pretty cool having to break in a new engine on my 11 year old car, I learned a ton and I'm having fun browsing for turbos now!
Nonetheless, I'm proud of the work done and excited for what the future holds, and wanted to share it!
My S is an 03 Spa yellow, and has been my daily for the last 6 years after it was purchased in 2008. I was 18 when I got it, and was out to prove the world wrong that just because I was young, I wouldn't kill myself in a "sports car." 6 years later, the only wreck it's been in was when I was parked at a gas station and an epileptic had a seizure on the road, drove across 3 lanes of traffic, hopped a curb, ricocheted off of two other cars and ran directly into my rear quarter panel.. but I digress.
Here's how it sits today!
The car was bought with 55k miles and it now sits with 162k miles. I have run it N/A most of its life with about a year of it running with 4.77s and a 75 wet shot of nitrous. I was irresponsible one summer and forgot to check the oil level for like 3 months and caught it before SERIOUS damage occurred, but I refilled with like 3.5 quarts, and the end result was worn bearings and low oil pressure.
I decided to replace the short block because my next project is boost. I found an awesome deal from a buddy of mine DFWS2k, the short block wasn't 100% plug n play, but I can't complain for the price he hooked me up with. It was missing the main seal (HOLY SHIT, what a pain in the ass installing one of those is!) a few bolt holes were entirely stripped out, and the shop that rebuilt the block didn't use actual Hondabond, but a generic knock off, and was very messy with it. The block was also missing the 4 bolts that connect the girdle to the block. After ordering some new parts, and cleaning up the sealant mess here and there, we were able to start the project.
The new block is also an F20C, it has 60k miles on it, but cylinder 3 had issues, and they had the block rebuilt. This bad boy has the original crank, rods and pistons, but it has been rehoned, new rings, new oil pump, ACL race bearings were installed and the crank was rebalanced to .1g (stock is .5g). It had never been run after the rebuild, the cross-hatching was still visible and the new cylinder walls were smoother than glass. Anyways, I was pretty stoked to get this guy installed
I employed the help of a fellow s2k member, and now good friend prj3ctm4yh3m (Matt) to do most of my work as I'm really not that handy mechanically. He installed my Kpro, refreshed my head with ap2 retainers and anything else that was looking worn, installed my new clutch, replaced a bad wheel bearing, has given great advice, opinions and guidance about my build and what I wanted to do with it, and so naturally, I hit him up about replacing the short block, no small task at all, but I was confident.
End of the first night:
My car tried to be a snow plow in our last ice storm, so my front undertray got pretty f@#ked up lol
Late into the second day:
Old engine is out!
Dicking around after the work was done for the 2nd day;
"FIRST START" video.. http://s37.photobucket.com/user/liqu...8c60d.mp4.html
3rd day we got the old block off and it was interesting to take a look at the wear and tear over the course of this tired engine's life!
Holy scratch in the cylinder wall! Every cylinder had scratches I could catch with my fingernail. This explains my oil consumption issue!
New block installed onto the head with ARP studs
Start of the 4th day, we began reassembling the engine and were able to get it back in within about half a day
First try, first start!
http://s37.photobucket.com/user/liqu...d91b1.mp4.html
We had a few hiccups here and there, hit the ever so fragile knock sensor, so had to replace that. BOTH of my engine mounts were COMPLETELY torn apart at the rubber. We were wondering why it was rocking back and forth so much after we unhooked every thing lol. So new engine mounts, new knock sensor and new short block installed. Between the balanced crank and the new motor mounts, this engine is literally 300% smoother than the old one, its like a different car entirely!
Results:
I tune my engine myself on Kpro, I didn't have to change much on the new engine, but I did have to add about 1% fuel every where, and adjusted the timing accordingly for the new block. I was running peak timing of 34* on the old engine, and now I'm only running 31.5* peak timing. I think this blocks compression is much better than the last one.
I also use VirtualDyno with custom settings to record the evolution of my powerband throughout the cars life. I made sure to get a solid run on my designated strip of road that I use for my street dynos. I've put 1k miles on the new block so far and have had zero problems, even drove 250 miles to houston and back last week and I broke into the mythical 300 mile club! Something the last engine has never done before.
Anyways, heres my "back to back" dynos of the old engine vs the new: The same road is used, starting at the same speed, in 3rd gear, same lane, starting at the same place every time. Outside temps and barometric pressure are corrected for. Multiple runs are done and the "middle" graph is used.
Disregard the actual numbers, I doubt they 100% accurate, but I think they are ballpark, I just don't want to change them to something more "accurate" because this is the system I've been using for the last few years when tuning my car.
Blue line is my old engine and the red line is the new engine.
DAT MIDRANGE DOE! Peak power is about the same, but there's much more area under the curve on the new engine. Vtec is set to 4500 on the new engine, the lowest I could get vtec on the old engine was 5k due to the oil pressure issues.
This engine is gonna be boosted, I'm looking to push 12-14 psi, shooting for 400-450whp. It will stay my daily so I'm not looking for anything super crazy.
Anyways, it was pretty cool having to break in a new engine on my 11 year old car, I learned a ton and I'm having fun browsing for turbos now!
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04-26-2014, 08:59 AM
#8
Well as with many things when it comes to building cars and buying used parts, this was short lived. I put 1100 miles on the new engine, everything was running 100% perfectly, I used valvoline conventional to break it in, swapped it out at 300 miles, then swapped it out again at 1100 miles to put in Amsoil 5w-40 Full SAPS. I did this right before I made this thread, went out for the night, drove it pretty hard on the way home (took it through a couple gears on an empty freeway, got to about 110) and when I pulled into the garage I heard a noise that I wasn't hearing just seconds before. It sounded distinctively like rod knock, I shut the car off and went to bed pretty upset and decided to deal with it in the morning.
This is what the car sounded like on a cold start the next morning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umfkGCDhjPQ
Matt (the guy who put it together) wants to hear it before we dig into it, so I'm just letting it sit for now. We're gonna do a compression test and check the vtec solenoid filter etc. to check for simple things before we start tearing it apart. I also have a fresh oil pan with just the oil I recently changed out sitting in the garage so I may send that off for an oil analysis as well.
The engine didn't burn any oil whatsoever when I was using the dino oil for the first 1100 miles, but after this happened, I checked the oil level and its about 1/4 quart lower than it was when I changed the oil earlier that day. Oil starvation doesn't seem likely unless there was something wrong with the block initially, and the oil change and this problem happened coincidentally.
This is what the car sounded like on a cold start the next morning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umfkGCDhjPQ
Matt (the guy who put it together) wants to hear it before we dig into it, so I'm just letting it sit for now. We're gonna do a compression test and check the vtec solenoid filter etc. to check for simple things before we start tearing it apart. I also have a fresh oil pan with just the oil I recently changed out sitting in the garage so I may send that off for an oil analysis as well.
The engine didn't burn any oil whatsoever when I was using the dino oil for the first 1100 miles, but after this happened, I checked the oil level and its about 1/4 quart lower than it was when I changed the oil earlier that day. Oil starvation doesn't seem likely unless there was something wrong with the block initially, and the oil change and this problem happened coincidentally.
04-28-2014, 06:21 AM
#9
Well as with many things when it comes to building cars and buying used parts, this was short lived. I put 1100 miles on the new engine, everything was running 100% perfectly, I used valvoline conventional to break it in, swapped it out at 300 miles, then swapped it out again at 1100 miles to put in Amsoil 5w-40 Full SAPS. I did this right before I made this thread, went out for the night, drove it pretty hard on the way home (took it through a couple gears on an empty freeway, got to about 110) and when I pulled into the garage I heard a noise that I wasn't hearing just seconds before. It sounded distinctively like rod knock, I shut the car off and went to bed pretty upset and decided to deal with it in the morning.
This is what the car sounded like on a cold start the next morning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umfkGCDhjPQ
Matt (the guy who put it together) wants to hear it before we dig into it, so I'm just letting it sit for now. We're gonna do a compression test and check the vtec solenoid filter etc. to check for simple things before we start tearing it apart. I also have a fresh oil pan with just the oil I recently changed out sitting in the garage so I may send that off for an oil analysis as well.
The engine didn't burn any oil whatsoever when I was using the dino oil for the first 1100 miles, but after this happened, I checked the oil level and its about 1/4 quart lower than it was when I changed the oil earlier that day. Oil starvation doesn't seem likely unless there was something wrong with the block initially, and the oil change and this problem happened coincidentally.
This is what the car sounded like on a cold start the next morning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umfkGCDhjPQ
Matt (the guy who put it together) wants to hear it before we dig into it, so I'm just letting it sit for now. We're gonna do a compression test and check the vtec solenoid filter etc. to check for simple things before we start tearing it apart. I also have a fresh oil pan with just the oil I recently changed out sitting in the garage so I may send that off for an oil analysis as well.
The engine didn't burn any oil whatsoever when I was using the dino oil for the first 1100 miles, but after this happened, I checked the oil level and its about 1/4 quart lower than it was when I changed the oil earlier that day. Oil starvation doesn't seem likely unless there was something wrong with the block initially, and the oil change and this problem happened coincidentally.