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Engine back in the car
Finally got my engine back in the car. It started out with some quickjack issues. The passenger side would go down. Eventually after lubing it over the course of days and working it at the limit it went down. Unfortunately when I got the car off I saw the scary condition of the rear pivot.…
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Engine assembled
I got the engine pretty much assembled. Start out with that fresh block smell. Never seen it so clean. Then I laid in the crank. Plastigauge says I have around 0.0018″ clearance. Next up was gapping some rings. I went 0.022″ top and 0.024″ bottom. Maybe a little loose for NA, but better to be…
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Engine back from the machine shop
Finally got the engine back from the machine shop today. I guess the shop resized my old rods anyways. Anyone need a set of ’99 rods with ARP hardware that’s already been checked out?
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Bores too scored: 3.903 bore and Wiseco pistons, oil cooler
The engine is still at the shop. They finally took a look at it and said the bores were too scored to just hone. So I had them bore to the first oversize- 3.903″ which means new pistons, which means I might as well get new rods. Wiseco +3cc forged mini domes to bump compression…
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Rebuild continues: crank polished, rods resized, new 2 piece oil pan with baffles
The rebuild continues. Engine is off at the shop getting the crank polished, cleaned, honed, and rods resized for ARP hardware. Should be able to safely run 7k now instead of rolling the dice with the weak 99 rod bolts. Lots of cleaning. Heads, misc parts. Took the oil pump apart, cleaned and reassembled. No…
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Rebuild plan: bearings, lifters, hone
I decided to do the cheap version of the refresh- New bearings all around, lifters, dingle hone the cylinders, and clean everything up. I’ll have a shop polish the crank and check if the rods need resized once I have the arp hardware. After checking shop prices it was going to be like $2k extra…
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Engine out
I eventually got out the engine. You have to be very careful to keep the torque tube and engine aligned with the load leveler and it’ll pop out. It’s way easier to pry from under the car than up top. You just need to lower the car around the engine to get enough height to…
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Found it: cam gear wear
I got my cam gear off and there was wear on the back where it had rubbed a bolt. That’s probably the noise. The less good news is someone pointed out that the back of the gear looked off and apparently I had forgotten the thrust bearing this one is supposed to use and…
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Valley cover off: inspecting the cam bolts
I popped off the valley cover and got out the scope to inspect the cam bolts. They looked okay. No obvious wobble. They look snug. However on the #2 cylinder cam lobe I notice spalling. Time to put in a new cam. I don’t know if the previous lifter failed, or the brand new one.…
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Boroscope: no smoking gun
Good news bad news. I boroscoped my cylinders and didn’t find any evidence of something loose in there. The wideband was slightly loose so I tightened that up and spun it in flood clear mode so it didn’t fire. No sounds so I fired it up. The noise came right back but this time the…