Another Rookie 3.0L rebuild

[jdbunda]

Making some progress with assembly. After a comical sequence of orders and re-orders, I finally got all of the correct parts (and some extras) to get my oil pressure relief/bypass pistons installed. Part of the problem is I still haven't been able to get one of them out of the old case, the one with the big NLA flat-blade screw cap. Since Wayne suggests all new parts for these anyway, I am just leaving it for now.

I installed half of my new Supertec studs, and supported the rods with Big Ass rubber bands. I'll put the other studs in once I have the pistons on the rods, this gives some room to work.



I was installing the case chain ramps last night, and had one bolt that was a little stubborn, didn't want to go into the plastic chain ramp, and was very hard to turn. This being my first build, I am more than a little shy about forcing something that doesn't want to go. I vaguely recall one of them being difficult to remove. On closer inspection:



Somebody must have broken a timing chain at some point? I was surprised that anyone would re-use this bolt until I checked on pricing . Still, I'm getting a new one.

[arbita1]

What's the list behind the bolt? Sealing procedure?

[jdbunda]

Originally Posted by arbita1

What's the list behind the bolt? Sealing procedure?

Yep - it's the info sheet that comes with the Supertec sealant kit. I wanted to put the bolt along a straight edge to show the bend, and that happened to be handy...

[jdbunda]

Here is where I install the Classic Autowerks crank sensor for EFI. It mounts to the case behind the crank pulley on the LHS of the case, next to the nose bearing. First, I taped the drilling template to the case along the parting line of the case and against the nose bearing, then used a punch to locate where the holes need to be. The engine is rotated 90 with cylinders 1-2-3 at the top.



Then I drilled and tapped two M3 holes to accommodate the screws that will hold the sensor in place. These holes don't go into the case, they go through to the other side of the web for the fan, which is external, so no worries about aluminum filings ending up inside.



Here is the sensor installed.



The pulley has three magnets mounted to trigger the sensor:




Here is the pulley mounted on the crank, with one of the magnets shown over the sensor.



With that done, the crank pulley can be torqued, and it becomes time for cylinders and pistons!

[jdbunda]

I have been remiss in updating this thread. I have made some progress - I will admit I never thought this would take me as long as it has. When I first started and I was reading threads that went on for a year, I remember thinking, not me! I'm gonna crank this baby out quick! Well, I realized a week or two ago that I hit the one year mark of finding the crack in my case. Not gonna worry though, it's all about the journey. The learning curve is steep, but I am quite sure my next build will go a lot quicker.

Anyway, I had a couple minor setbacks. First, as I mentioned earlier in the thread, I am doing performance coatings on most of the parts that can benefit. The pistons and wrist pins presented the greatest challenge so far. First, Jamie had a hard time getting the coating to stick to the piston crowns. After he got that sorted, I went to start assembling, and discovered that the performance coating on the wrist pins was just thick enough to cause problems when installing the pins, they just did not want to go into the pistons. Persuasion with a hammer got one partially installed, but it was so tight, I decided I was not going to get it on without harming something, so I took it off. Getting the pin out proved to be another obstacle. I thought I had it properly protected when I positioned it on my vise with rubber jaws so I could hammer the pin out, but discovered later that I had munged up the skirt right at the oil ring, and even took a little tick out of the oil ring. I got a another piston (thanks, Tom) and set of rings for good measure. Further delays as I learned how to remove 12g of aluminum from a piston to balance with the others. I used a mill bit in my cheapie HF drill press, which was just barely up to the job, but got it done. Finally, back to where I had been two weeks earlier!

I took a red scotchbrite to the wrist pins. My micrometer showed them to be about 0.005mm larger than an uncoated pin, so I polished the coating down, and wiped the micro-cruft off the pins with solvent. This took them down to nominal size, and made them install like buttah. Jamie says the coating penetrates, so not a problem to polish it down, and it's a good idea to have it since these pins just get oil from the squirters rather than internal lubrication. Bill Conway (silverc4s) helped me install the pistons and cylinders last weekend, where I learned I am not as good with a ring compressor as I would like. Managed to get them all installed, but the July Texas heat makes a marathon session difficult.

Then this last Sunday, I went over to Jamie's to "help" (i.e. watch) him coat the combustion chambers, valve faces, exhaust ports, and valve stems. Here is the artiste at work.



Here is a coated and uncoated head for comparison. I meant to note the composition of the coating, but forgot to write it down. If you look closely, you can see some of the heads have similar pitting to a couple of my pistons. It certainly appears that some parts of this motor survived some kind of catastrophic event in the past. Outside of that, these heads look pretty sexy, thanks again to cgarr for working his magic.



After I left, Jamie finished the baking them, and assembled the valve springs and keepers, and I brought them home yesterday.

Tonight I had some prep work left to do. When Bill and I installed the pistons and cylinders last week, we didn't seal the base gaskets. I know some leave them dry, but Jamie's counsel is to put CurilT on them. I had incorrectly decided to wait until installing the heads, as I was under the erroneous impression that the sealant would cure. I thought it would be better to wait to apply the sealant until ready to torque the heads down. Tonight, I paid the price of my ignorance, as it is a bit of a pain to try to get sealant on those gaskets while in place on the engine. Thankfully, I had only two studs installed for each cylinder, which made access a little easier. Once I had all of the base gaskets sealed, I installed the other two Supertec studs for each cylinder. My next work session will be putting those heads on. But, it is starting to look like an actual motor:

[silverc4s]

Good to see the progress, John. Bet you are ready to see the heads go on and the long block buttoned up😎

[jdbunda]

For a bit, I thought my powder coater shorted me two pieces of my engine baffle tin - the pieces that fit along the tops of 3.0L cylinders. Turns out they were stuck in the foam wrapping of one of the larger pieces. Whew!

[Mark Henry]

On the coatings, I've never found that DFL stuck good enough to steel to be worth the trouble, but bearings, aluminum parts, piston skirts, etc. it's great.
In fact I love how it tightens up the tolerances inside the oil pump housing.

Ceramic is a PITA to do right and it doesn't like sharp edges.

You might want to tighten up the gap for the sensor/magnets.

[jpnovak]

Mark,

Thanks for the comments. I think the magnet distance is fine. Ceramic Cobalt magnets and the sensor read distance is 18mm. Current clearance is about 2mm. Works just fine on all the other installations.

The DFL is highly dependent on the surface prep. sometimes you can see that the coating appears worn visually but thin films still have a significant reduction in friction. And that is the whole point of the DFL coatings.

I have the first engine I coated parts apart in the garage and they have demonstrated remarkable robustness despite about 4 years of service, many track days and the summer heat of TX. The reduction in temperature is worth it.

Jamie

[jdbunda]

Thanks for chiming in, Jamie. Mark, that photo might make the gap look bigger than it is, it's probably around 2mm. If it ever did need to be closer, it would be pretty easy to shim the sensor out a little bit from the case, but based on the specs and Jamie's testing, I think it is the least of my worries in this build.

One of my biggest problems seems to be keeping my parts organized. On Sunday, I couldn't find them, and I thought my rebuild seal/gasket kit was missing oil return tube o-rings, so I capitulated to the heat and ordered a set that showed up today. Naturally, as soon as I set up to work tonight, I found the bag of goodies containing those o-rings squirreled under something else, and so now have an extra set of o-rings. My hope is having an extra set on hand will keep the ones that are in there from leaking.

I got everything ready, did a final cleaning of the cam towers including blasting out the rocker oiler rails with brake cleaner. I put the sealant on, got all the pins aligned, and started putting the nuts and washers on using the screwdriver technique. Somehow, I still managed to lose control of one of the washers and had it fall - of course - into a valve spring pocket. Rookie mistake #368!! I tried to get it out of there for a minute or so, but I couldn't get at it even with a magnet. With sealant a-curing, I didn't have time to fool around, so I popped the tower back off (it hadn't yet contacted the heads on the sealing surface) and got the washer out.

Anyway, no drama after that, got the 4-5-6 heads and cam tower assembled without further incident. This is the last time I will be able to use my trusty trash bag engine cover, it won't fit once I get the other heads and cam tower put on.

[Mark Henry]

Originally Posted by jdbunda

This is the last time I will be able to use my trusty trash bag engine cover, it won't fit once I get the other heads and cam tower put on.

Looking good!

I use two leaf/recycle bags and overlap them in the middle.
Use masking tape to cover stuff like the cooler holes, intake, exhaust, etc., till you're ready to install.

[Mark Henry]

BTW I know others are following this thread, so if anyone is interested here's my 3.0 build thread for my 914/6 conversion.
914World.com - The fastest growing online 914 community!

[jdbunda]

Originally Posted by Mark Henry

BTW I know others are following this thread, so if anyone is interested here's my 3.0 build thread for my 914/6 conversion.
914World.com - The fastest growing online 914 community!

Nice thread, Mark - I am definitely bookmarking it, as I have dreams of building a 914-6 once I have this car up and running. I see you are going with Webers - my car came with them and I have decided to go EFI with Jamie's help. Mine were in need of some tweaking - they ran very rich, and the fuel economy was abysmal. Good luck with your build!

[jdbunda]

1-2-3 cam tower and heads are on - nothing like a little momentum...

[jpnovak]

This finally looks like an engine... Nice work.

[David Borden]

Congrats on the progress... Ive been enjoying the updates.

David

[jdbunda]

Thanks, David. I need all the encouragement I can get!

After a morning run in sundevil64's awesome turbo, I got the cams and end plates in before the heat started getting to me.

Cams have been performance coated, and inserted smoothly. I know they shouldn't bind - they both definitely turn easier then harder for a bit, but not by a lot, wondering if this is normal. By this I mean if I turn them by hand with the socket tool (no ratchet handle), I can turn them most of the way around, but then I reach a point where they won't turn further without a tool in the socket. With a ratchet handle on the socket, when I turn them, I can feel a spot where they "speed up" when turning with constant pressure. Is this normal or the kind of binding I should be worried about? Did I just not get enough lube in the journals? Should I loosen and re-torque the cam tower nuts (per the good book) to see if that changes anything?

Obligatory photo:

[911 tweaks]

nice thread... u should b fine with the cams = possible "binding" as you call it, sounds like u r running up and down the hills of the cam lobes and compressing and decompressing valve springs which is normal... if you want to b 100% certain, remove 1 upper valve cover and watch as you rotate the cam and see when you feel this "bindings" and look to see whats going on... carry on... bob

[jdbunda]

Hey Bob, thanks for the diagnosis, but with no rockers installed yet, I think I might need to look for another cause!

[911 tweaks]

true... I thought I saw valve covers on there but I did not have my glasses on either...))
if the cams are not in contact with anything, I would remove one camshaft and inspect 1 cam tower bearing surface and cam at a time for unusual wear... maybe this is a reflection of the cam lube coating you did...? either way they should turn easily 360 degrees so something is binding and/or is not true...Are cam towers torqued in correctly = cam tower is not being flexed out of being straight from incorrect torque...? dig further and ask jamie... he will have a good idea too...