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At the suggestion of a board member, I am starting a new thread regarding my build.
[02/24/19: To further narrow my focus, I wanna know if these pistons can hold up long term without scuffing the FRM walls]
My focus with this thread will not be on the general knowledge aspects of engine building; rather, I want to explore ways in which these engines can be rebuilt with readily available parts while maintaining enough simplicity and maintaining the FRM technology as Honda intended. I consider this build a science experiment and a public service. I have come to see the F20/22 as a race engine in the sense that it will require scheduled teardowns at some point after one is opened up. As we all know, only the factory original engines can last 100k+ miles. I want to go against conventional wisdom in an attempt to gain practical knowledge. Criticism is always welcome, as that's how we grow.
That being said, here is the engine that I'm building:
-Factory block bored to 87.25mm with the correct stones and techniques by InlinePro. Applied Quickseat (tungsten disulfide) to the cylinder walls. Installed pistons dry. Applied a very light coat of Total Seal assembly lube to top and 2nd rings.
-Nippon Racing Pistons in 87.25mm. The P/W clearance is set to 0.0013in. Pistons have been coated with APC by Line2Line. The goal here is to reduce the clearance to the absolute allowable minimum to minimize piston rock.
-NPR piston rings without modifying the gaps.
-Re-used the OEM rods, wrist pins. Used a known good F20 crankshaft.
-King XP race bearings.
-Inspected, cleaned, and re-installed oil pump.
-Re-used all timing chain hardware.
-OEM gasket set.
No other modifications have been made to the engine. I will document engine performance and its progress on a mileage basis.
Installed the new engine, and so far it is running very smoothly. As soon as the coolant system was bled, I went on a drive consisting of progressive pulls to higher and higher RPM until reaching redline. The engine feels a bit tight and unwilling to rev due to the abradable powder coating making the pistons tight, but I expect proper power to return within 1000 miles. Used regular 5w-30 oil for initial fill. The goal is to keep thing simple without fancy anything and see if that's viable.
About the car: It is a year 2000 with 189K miles on it. This car had sat for a number of years and is looking very rough. I intend on using this car as a mule of sorts.
The swap was complete in 27 hours (not including building the new shortblock).
Looks like you did it right, any reason to use aftermarket pistons instead of Honda? Not a criticism just wondering. Thanks for showing us.
Ι guess the Xfold price tag! OEM 87.25mm pistons are really expensive. Very nice build fatjoe! I am following with a similar build (87.25mm nippon, FRM hone) but with a stroker crank to push the limits of the pistons and honing job. Let alone things are vastly different in Europe and we had a hard time locating a machine shop perform the hone. I will make a new thread sorry so we have these in parallel. Good luck!
02-14-2019, 02:41 PM
Engine Build with Nippon Racing Pistons
