3.4L Turbo engine mock-up pictures
 

Here are some pictures of the dry assembly (mock-up) of my engine. Neil Harvey of Performance Developments handled ALL of the machine work for me and the list is extensive. These pictures were taken by him at his shop. I sent him my disassembled long block and told him to make it right. There wasn't enough money left in my budget to have him (or anyone else) do the final assembly of the long block, so I thought I'd at least compromise and have Neil handle the valve to piston clearance check. This also enabled him to get a final compression ratio measurement (7.3:1) and to ensure that the major parts would all line up properly. I was confident that there would be plenty of clearance (I was planning on doing this critical check myself), but in case there was a problem, it saved me the potential delays in having to ship the parts back to him to have the clearances machined. EVERYTHING has been measured and documented. The parts should be shipping this week, then I can start the final assembly.
http://img55.imageshack.us/img55/4940/13pl.jpg
http://img55.imageshack.us/img55/850/21yx.jpg
http://img55.imageshack.us/img55/7488/36gs.jpg
http://img55.imageshack.us/img55/9643/47qw.jpg
http://img55.imageshack.us/img55/6963/55gj2.jpg
Valve seats being dressed:
http://img428.imageshack.us/img428/1511/60tq.jpg
Second spark plug hole being done:
http://img428.imageshack.us/img428/4291/89qv.jpg
http://img428.imageshack.us/img428/2355/93ub.jpg
Valve guide being done:
http://img428.imageshack.us/img428/7244/75ut.jpg

Looks awesome! Good luck with your project. If you don't mind my asking, how much does he charge for twin plugging?

Pat

Did you go with the 14 or 12mm lower spark plugs?

Awesome stuff! Looks like you want BIG HP!

Would you like to buy some awesome Marco Menzie made 930 racing headers and Borla exhaust to go with this upgrade?

I'm selling it all (complete), cheap!

Merv, If the Sand Man is not interested I am.
Pat Haskell

Thanks for the compliment. As for big HP, I'm really just going for reliability. I'm sure it'll be plenty fast for me, but honestly, it's my daily driver. Thanks for offering your headers and exhaust! I've got B&B headers and a Fabspeed "Zork" tube straight pipe. If I didn't already have these, I'd be interested in yours.

I know that I should have the answer to your question, but honestly, I just turned it all over to Neil and let him do his thing. Whatever he decided will be detailed in the build sheet that he provides with the parts. We didn't discuss the hole diameter...although I knew there was a choice from the research that I had done. All I can say is that he did whatever makes sense. He knows that this is a street engine and he knows what my main concern was/is...RELIABILITY.

Pat - PM sent!

No worries sand_man. I'm in the process of having a twin turbo system installed "Protomotive system". I can't wait till it's completed. I'm not going for big HP. Just quick spooling, big torque street performance. Should be a sweet setup indeed.

Good luck with your project!

Solid Tensioners
 

I see that you are using the tensioners that we manufacture, have you seen the other stuff for the 911 engines ? we have developed a 12 pin distributor both internal and crank triggered. as well as a line of billet cylinders with iron liners that range from 2.0 thru 3.8 and also some custom sizes and lengths as well. check it out JBRacing.com Your project looks nice by the way.

Mike Bruns

Are you using solid tensioners?

Regards,

Re: Solid Tensioners
 

Actually those tensioners belong to Neil Harvey. They're being used to quickly set the cam timing for the mock-up. I'll be buying a set to keep in my tool box (to use when I do the cam timing for final assembly). I'll be using oil fed tensioners.

As for JB Racing, yes I am familiar with your products...TOP NOTCH stuff! Your cylinders are works of art and came highly recommended by user DonE. They were unfortunately beyond my budget for this engine build. Maybe next time.

Tensioners
 

We are in the process of making another run of the tensioners,when you get ready call and ask for me and I will take care of you. Have Fun
Mike Bruns JBRacing.com

Mike, is there any downside to running with solid tensioners?

thanks...

P.S. Sand_man - sorry to steal your post for an OT question :)

No worries! I'd like to know too. I've always associated the solid/mechanical tensioners with racing applications.

Solid tensioners may not fail but they wreck havoc on the chain. There's no "give" in the system and puts way too much load on the chain. I'd recommend against it.

Tensioners
 

We use solids in all of our race engines up to the 3.6/3.8 they have no ill effect on the chains if they are properly aligned and adjusted correct, you must allow for growth in the engine as it comes to temp. and adjust regular as the chain settles in. We have spent alot of hours on the dyno to figure what to set them cold vs. hot and how much time it takes to settle them in with the race chains. but for the street and milder engines its a little more maintenance intense and the pressure fed work well, in full race we have had the hard lines fail and cause major oil leaks even with all the latest updates but never a pressure tensioner itself fail.
Mike Bruns

The chain 'settling in' is actually it getting longer due to wear. It's a common misconception that chains 'stretch' when infact it's actually the holes in the links getting bigger and the pins getting smaller.

There's all sorts of loads that get transferred into and out of the chains and by having a tensioner with no 'give' these loads likely get very high. Obviously I haven't measured the effects of all of this but a solid tensioner isn't ideal from a pure engineering standpoint.

With that said, the failure of a tensioner is more severe than a worn chain. For non street vehicles it could be a better solution.

What about a stop in the bottom of a pressure tensioner to prevent total failure? Would this be the best of both worlds?

Craig, it would be my choice if I were building an engine... Not much downside that I can see and eliminates the problems of solid tensioners.