TeamCapri
General => Build Threads => Topic started by: nachius on September 03, 2022, 10:22:51 PM
-
Recently picked up a 1991 Blue XR2 w/ 108k on it. Unfortunately bad radiator = blown head gasket. I was planning on modding it anyways, but didn't plan to dig this deep into the engine this soon. I have it torn down to shortblock and everything from the block forward removed.
Maintenance Work:
International Oil Pressure Sending Unit 58-4051-C2 to hopefully read oil pressure more accurately on the stock gauge
Purchased Timing Belt Kit - Timing Belt, Timing Seal, Cam Seal, Timing belt tensioner bearings and Water Pump
Purchased Apex Head Gasket Set
Purchased 180* Thermostat and gasket
Purchased A/C Delete length belt
Purchased O2 sensor to replace the front one w/ a broken wire at the sensor
Purchased Fuel Filter
Purchased Ignition Coil
Purchased PCV Valve
Purchased Flexible upper/lower radiator hoses to mate with aftermarket radiator
-Car Came with a Gplus 3 core aluminum radiator (~22x18x3) not installed to replace the bad one, but it will take some custom work to make it work since the bottom outlet is straight hence the flexible hoses, but I'll also have to adapt them to the right diameter sizing.
Plugs, Wires and distributor are new.
Heads are at a machine shop for cleaning, surfacing and valve job.
NEEDS TIRES will replace them before it's back on the road.
Weight Reduction:
All Under Hood A/C Components are gone will get to pulling the evaporator some time.
Removed all windshield washer components
Will "probably" pull the back seats
Will remove extra weight in the trunk (Spare, carpet, etc.)
Going to keep power steering
At some point will probably get lighter racing seats for the front
Possibly going to go with Konig Lightning Rims 14x6 at some point
Mods:
Purchased Maf sensor Adapter and cone filter
Purchased Knock off Type RS BOV
Purchased 6" Type RS flanged BOV piping
Purchased 2.5" FMIC and piping to custom fit the intercooler. Slightly smaller than I would have liked, but it's definitely an upgrade and I shouldn't have to cut anything to run the piping. ~ 28" end to end (around a 20" core), 6" tall and 3" thick? Will get exact measurements when it gets here.
Purchased Manual Boost Controller
Purchased a few Oil Catch Cans
ECU Shipped to Matt for RocketChip Upgrade
Pending Research and Mods:
Want to upgrade the turbo while it's apart would like to go with the VJ11/Tbird hybrid, but parts are difficult to find
Going to build a 2.5" piping Intake, but not 100% sure on the configuration yet other than adapting the MAF to a cone filter
2.5"? Exhaust? Custom unless someone points me towards something aftermarket
Current Work:
Started Porting the Wastegate tonight. Goal is opening it to 23-24mm
Need to clean the block surface/deck for reinstalling the heads
-plan to tape off the cylinders and brake clean then scrape and lightly flat sand the deck checking it with straight edge and feeler gauge
Pictures and work updates to keep coming!
-
WOW....you're going to town on that thing. Pretty impressive start. If you retain the IAC, putting in a 180* thermostat, it will keep it in cold idle/rich mode all the time. 2 1/4" exhaust will support a massive upgrade in power and be easier to run. The cone air filter will change you from a cold air intake to a hot air intake unless you do some mods there. You didn't mention a larger intercooler, it will do more to increase power than some of the mods you've listed. Good luck with it, I'm gonna be watching and jealous....lol
-
WOW....you're going to town on that thing. Pretty impressive start. If you retain the IAC, putting in a 180* thermostat, it will keep it in cold idle/rich mode all the time. 2 1/4" exhaust will support a massive upgrade in power and be easier to run. The cone air filter will change you from a cold air intake to a hot air intake unless you do some mods there. You didn't mention a larger intercooler, it will do more to increase power than some of the mods you've listed. Good luck with it, I'm gonna be watching and jealous....lol
Thanks:
Any idea how being in idle/rich mode will impact it with the RocketChip changing the fuel maps? Thermostat is cheap I can always just order a stock one if that will cause it to be "too" rich.
2.25" custom exhaust it is then. Will probably go 2.25" straight to a muffler with cat delete. I thought 2.5" might be overkill, but wasn't sure since I won't be running anything outlandish.
Front Mount Intercooler with 2.5" piping is up there in the list, it should be here this week. ;)
As far as the intake I'm probably going to try to get it routed to the fender well or bumper or build a box so it isn't pulling hot air from the engine bay, but that's why that one is still in the "research" phase because I don't know where it's going to fit yet.
Finished up porting the wastegate a little bit ago it's right at 23mm and I didn't want to open it any further because it's right at the edge of the flapper when I push it to the side.
-
Yes, opening up the wastegate is a great mod. The downpipe is a 2 1/4" and it is very tight getting over the rear axle, even with that. That intercooler will help a lot. The Rocketchip only addresses the fuel map in upper pressure levels. The stock starts leaning out above 10 PSI. The AUS cars came with the cooler thermostat, so their computers account for it, also why the temp gauge seems to be hot on US versions.
-
Got the new water pump on, idler and tensioner pullies for the timing belt and test fitting the Intercooler today.
Will start grabbing pics tomorrow. My heads should be ready to pick up this week as well.
Intercooler Test Mounting
(https://i.ibb.co/YTw4vxS/intercooler-test-mount.jpg) (https://ibb.co/LhHD43y)
23mm ported wastegate
(https://i.ibb.co/m8mv3V5/wastegate.jpg) (https://ibb.co/k1p3ts2)
-
This looks awesome! I'm looking forward to seeing what you can do with it
-
I'll second that. You're bulking yourself a bear there. Nice.
-
Busy weekend so haven't had much time in the garage so far, but picked up my heads Friday and just cleaned the piston tops, cylinder walls etc. with basic wd40 and green scotch bright pads. Will grab some pics after while and post them. Definitely "fun" project and time consuming. Never mentioned, but my "goal" other than getting it back on the road is targeting 250HP+ and get it into 12s in the 1/4. We'll go from there to see what else we can get out of it!
Head info: Decked .024" (So they definitely got really hot probably more than once), everything cleaned up and polished and valve job - $300ish dollars for the machine shop work!
Pistons/Cylinders Before:
(https://i.ibb.co/2PQK5QW/20220828-142319.jpg) (https://ibb.co/wCX6YXB)
Pistons/Cylinders After:
(https://i.ibb.co/g6fdTGq/20220911-181237.jpg) (https://ibb.co/cxZwFPf)
Heads Before:
(https://i.ibb.co/XX5K3Wk/20220827-180635.jpg) (https://ibb.co/SNmMd67)
Heads After:
(https://i.ibb.co/k99ksD9/20220911-181353.jpg) (https://ibb.co/X33Nr53)
-
Nice
-
Damn, that looks pretty good. You go with any fancy bits in there, like pistons or cam gears or anything fun? I just cleaned mine up and put it back together with the factory bits, new gaskets, and lots of cleaning. I see you plan on doing a hybrid turbo on it; any other big plans?
-
If either of you are in the FB group, I just shared a post from a guy in Australia that's selling a car with a professionally built engine that put out 350HP, he detuned it to a little over 200HP because it was so hairy. He shares what had been done to it to get it there and said it was very streetable.
-
If either of you are in the FB group, I just shared a post from a guy in Australia that's selling a car with a professionally built engine that put out 350HP, he detuned it to a little over 200HP because it was so hairy. He shares what had been done to it to get it there and said it was very streetable.
I saw that build with Dyno Sheets on the FB group. Pretty impressive.
As far as my build unfortunately didn't have the time or money to look into pistons, cams or cam gears etc.
-Machine Shop - Heads are decked .024", valve job, polished the cams and cleaned everything up, but outside of picking up a minor amount of compression for the decked heads the internals will probably remain stock. Maybe if I fall into some money in the future I'll see if I can push it up past 300HP like that pro build, but for now I'll be happy with a goal of mid 200s and 12s in the 1/4.
-
If either of you are in the FB group, I just shared a post from a guy in Australia that's selling a car with a professionally built engine that put out 350HP, he detuned it to a little over 200HP because it was so hairy. He shares what had been done to it to get it there and said it was very streetable.
I saw that build with Dyno Sheets on the FB group. Pretty impressive.
As far as my build unfortunately didn't have the time or money to look into pistons, cams or cam gears etc.
-Machine Shop - Heads are decked .024", valve job, polished the cams and cleaned everything up, but outside of picking up a minor amount of compression for the decked heads the internals will probably remain stock. Maybe if I fall into some money in the future I'll see if I can push it up past 300HP like that pro build, but for now I'll be happy with a goal of mid 200s and 12s in the 1/4.
The thing that stopped me from going wild with mine, is that from what I've heard, our transaxles don't appreciate much abuse. Especially when you are feeding them over 300 horses. It took me months to find, and over $600 to buy, my replacement tranny. I've no desire to need to do that on a regular basis. Plus, if you do the maths, a sub 2400 pound car with around 250 horsepower.....shit that's gotta be plenty.
-
Getting excited now - Tbird Turbo is here, VJ11 should arrive today. Awaiting 1 box of misc. stuff from silicon intakes and that should be everything major needed to get it back together and running. Daughter has Homecoming tomorrow and I go to NC for work next week, but would "like" to have it running by early October!
Only "fab" type things left are getting the mounting bungs welded to the aluminum radiator to mount it and cut a hole for the driver side intercooler piping.
-
Finally got the oil pan off to change the gasket, steps in another post, but possible to do from underneath.
Oil pickup/screen looks clean no metal and rods have little to no movement so bottom end seems solid
Also got the hole cut in the driver side for the intercooler piping to pass through
Have now received everything ordered except my RocketChiped ECU, but can start cleaning and putting everything back together very soon!
-
Finally got the oil pan off to change the gasket, steps in another post, but possible to do from underneath.
Oil pickup/screen looks clean no metal and rods have little to no movement so bottom end seems solid
Also got the hole cut in the driver side for the intercooler piping to pass through
Have now received everything ordered except my RocketChiped ECU, but can start cleaning and putting everything back together very soon!
While you have the lower pan off, you should check for end-play in the crank. I know you have a '91, so you also want to see if you have the sort nose crank. IF your end-play is over spec, or even on the fat side of spec, now would be the time to replace your thrust washers. I honestly don't know if you can do it with the engine assembled and in the car, but I imagine it is possible. DEFINITELY take the time (& money, if you need to buy tools) to check it. I've built a couple of NA Miata's, which share the same engine architecture, and the manual transmission ones especially tended to have crank walk issues if pushed hard. If you have the short nose crank, it isn't the end of the world. Mine is also a short nose. There is a lot of information out there on things you can do to try and help prevent that potential failure, but this is what I did: I replaced the front crank bolt with an OEM Mazda one (it was only $15ish, plus or minus a two hour drive). I used blue (medium strength) thread locker when I installed it. I torqued it to spec, then I torqued it to spec again a week later when I was sure the loctite cured. That's all I felt I had to do after doing all my research, at least. You could do as little as nothing, and as much as a new crank and front case.
-
Finally got the oil pan off to change the gasket, steps in another post, but possible to do from underneath.
Oil pickup/screen looks clean no metal and rods have little to no movement so bottom end seems solid
Also got the hole cut in the driver side for the intercooler piping to pass through
Have now received everything ordered except my RocketChiped ECU, but can start cleaning and putting everything back together very soon!
While you have the lower pan off, you should check for end-play in the crank. I know you have a '91, so you also want to see if you have the sort nose crank. IF your end-play is over spec, or even on the fat side of spec, now would be the time to replace your thrust washers. I honestly don't know if you can do it with the engine assembled and in the car, but I imagine it is possible. DEFINITELY take the time (& money, if you need to buy tools) to check it. I've built a couple of NA Miata's, which share the same engine architecture, and the manual transmission ones especially tended to have crank walk issues if pushed hard. If you have the short nose crank, it isn't the end of the world. Mine is also a short nose. There is a lot of information out there on things you can do to try and help prevent that potential failure, but this is what I did: I replaced the front crank bolt with an OEM Mazda one (it was only $15ish, plus or minus a two hour drive). I used blue (medium strength) thread locker when I installed it. I torqued it to spec, then I torqued it to spec again a week later when I was sure the loctite cured. That's all I felt I had to do after doing all my research, at least. You could do as little as nothing, and as much as a new crank and front case.
Thanks I know 2nd gen DSMs are notorious for crank walk, didn't even think about these 1.6s, but I will see if I can track down my dial gauge or buy a new one if I can't. Makes total sense to check while it's cracked anyways thanks for the call out!
-
Pulled my neck while at work out of state on 9/19 so haven't done much, getting better, but still not great. Only thing I have done is "clean" the injectors.
Used this kit:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VC37VRB?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1
also had to buy an injector pigtail to plug these in. Spray pattern looked fine to the eye test. Will also be replacing all the injector O rings.
I hope my neck is good enough to get back at it this weekend as it's starting to get colder here in Ohio.
I also received my RocketChipped ECU back from Matt so that's all good and ready!
This weekend plans if the neck allows is finish cleaning surfaces for oil pan, Reinstall pan/gaskets and new crank seal and bolt. After that will get started on the timing belt side of things and reinstalling the heads!
-
Sorry to hear about that. Hope you get to feeling better. The injector cleaner kit looks pretty cool. Good luck.
-
Slowly, but surely back at it. I was down for about a month with my neck...
My pick tools were too flimsy to pull the crank seal so I had to buy a seal puller as I didn't want to score the area up digging the seal out as the picks were just bending. I got the seal out tonight, replaced, crank bolt, pulley etc. reinstalled w/ red loctite back to ~120 ft lbs.
Started putting the oil pan back on and it seems like it's going to be just as bad putting it back in trying to get the gasket to line up, was trying to avoid gasket maker, but might use some just to hold it in place. More to come hope to maybe get the oil pan back on and everything underneath back together then put the heads and valve cover back on before I leave for NC for work again later this week...more to come.
-
Slowly, but surely back at it. I was down for about a month with my neck...
My pick tools were too flimsy to pull the crank seal so I had to buy a seal puller as I didn't want to score the area up digging the seal out as the picks were just bending. I got the seal out tonight, replaced, crank bolt, pulley etc. reinstalled w/ red loctite back to ~120 ft lbs.
Started putting the oil pan back on and it seems like it's going to be just as bad putting it back in trying to get the gasket to line up, was trying to avoid gasket maker, but might use some just to hold it in place. More to come hope to maybe get the oil pan back on and everything underneath back together then put the heads and valve cover back on before I leave for NC for work again later this week...more to come.
Sorry to hear about the injury man. I was wondering what happened, it's not often someone starts a new build on here. I'm looking forward to more updates! Good work on the loctite with the crank bolt. As far as the oil pan; so my engine gasket set came with two floppy little rubber U shapes for the ends, and this sad little gasket that goes around the edges. I can't recall which brand gasket set I used, but these things looked bad. Real bad. So, I just went with grey RTV all the way around the oil pan. It hasn't ran yet, but it's been sitting parked full of oil for about 5 months now without leaking.