Moby Dick coming together

[XSDAILO]

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:

[kismetcapitan]

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?

[Simonh]

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?

[XSDAILO]

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.

[kismetcapitan]

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.

[kismetcapitan]

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!

[EvolutionVI]

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

[kismetcapitan]

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!

[SamuraiSam]

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.

[kismetcapitan]

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.

[MostH8D]

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.

[MostH8D]

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

[Rain]

Looks most excellent Mr.T

Have you picked out the rest of your package ?

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

[plumwerks]

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.

[kismetcapitan]

Originally Posted by Rain

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.....


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!!