Complete engine restauration

As I work for a company which is testing and measuring engines, I wanted to measure all important bushings and the cylinders.

We found out that the cylinders were slightly out of roundness and out of taper so this was a reason enough why now I'm actually going to rebore and rehone the engine to the next standard size.
Also I have decided, since I'm doing this, I will go with forged pistons and connecting rods as I really don't want to open the engine again next year and buy all the gaskets again!

Another issue were the exhaust valve guides which were not very good either. Those were not cylindrical any more and became conical with the time (from the top to the bottom). So these, together with the new valve seats are going to be inserted into the head.

Oh yes, and the engine is now very clean. It took me about 6 hours to do this and after some machine washing it looked wonderful! The same for the cylinder head! Not like new, but nearly!

Best wishes!

Cleaning the engine bay

Well, with the engine out of the car, I have got a clear picture of the actual mess that was inside the engine bay!

So, i decided to clean and to respray it! Here I have to say a really big thank You to my significant other for helping me out! Even though she was cold, she stood there for nearly 5 hours and cleaned the engine bay and the surrounding nearly without a break! Amazing! Offcourse I did it too, just in case You think I let her work and do nothing!

Also, I have cleaned all the rusty spots and treat them with some Brunox anti rust chemical stuff which is a base coat as well. Now, there are only the lower door hinges which need some treatment and the front is ready to be repainted. Also I have covered everything in foil for the painting process!

A lots of parts were sandblasted last week. E.g. The intake manifold, camshaft, timing belt and ignition coil covers and should be painted this weekend with the wrinkle black color. I'm looking forward to the finished product!
The engine hood hinges, engine carrier arms and some auxiliary mounts were sand blasted too and painted mat black as they will not be visible but I also didn't want to leave them unpainted. It looks cool though! :)
I'll put some pictures up in the next post!

Cheers

Opening the engine

As my father doesn't allways have the time to help me, we found some time on January, 7th to take the engine apart and have a look at it.

I really don't have to tell You how dirty it is, so I won't.

Anyway, my worst fear was it that it after taking out the pistons i would need to rebore and rehone the cylinder because of the broken piston rings. But, to my surprise, we have found out that the piston rings are not broken, the cylinders are in great shape and all of the bearings are like new.

So, basically i would just need to clean the engine and to put everything back together, would I? More about this in a few days!

Cheers

Taking the car apart

Finally I have started taking the car apart.

First job was to dismount the front bumper, front left and right wing and all auxiliary parts at the front in order to have a clear access to the engine to take it out in probably 3 weeks from now as Leo has offered me his help in getting this job done :)

I was really not pleased with what I have seen under these parts and this just makes me doubt more about the real mileage of the car and therefore I have decided to check what mileage the car really has or had during the deregistration of the car in Japan. Looking forward to seeing the result.

Anyway, what I have seen is a bit of rust, a lot of dirt, a lot of burnt oil on the parts which usually don't get in contact with oil and nearly all of the screws were completely rusty and therefore very hard to unbolt. I really find it hard to believe that a car with 100kkm on the clock is this dirty and the bolts are this rusty. Not even my 200kkm '95 citroen which is driven all the time and in the winter with salted streets hast bolts which are in this condition. Anyway, I'll wait and see ;)

On January, 2nd Leo was so nice to come by and help me with the engine removal. Well, the process took about 4 hours which were funny and painful! Also we took showers in water and oil. Once again, sorry for this buddy!

Well, after taking the camshaft cover off the car few days ago and finding a mess under it, i nearly passed out!

Anyway, without rushing in, we waited to see what we would find in the oil pan and then, this was what we found:

This was the time where I actually got very calm on the outside but was raging in the inside as I got very desperate and really didn't know what to do!

To all of that Leo called a friend of his to ask for a possible reason for this and the first possibility was that the piston rings are done! I was really pissed after this as originally I didn't plan to open the engine completely.

I left the engine opening part for later to do it together with my father (another post).

Cheers,

RoB

Lots has happened

Hi all!

As holidays are coming up pretty fast, I have also changed into turbo boost mode.

As You might recall I have this to do list for the garage. Now here is the updated version:

• Paint the wall behind the sink and where the heater was
• Get the sink to work (exchange the siphon which the guys broke during their work)
• Clean the f****** mess

• Clean the working room
• Install some breadboards above the working desks

• Buy stainless steel plates to cover the working desks and install them
• Install all the fixed equipment (drill, bench grinder, bench vice...)
• Refill the compressor oil
• Clean the groove again and fix the wall cover panels.

Now, as You can read and see, I was really busy the last couple of days to finish the main parts of the garage before I start taking the car apart. After all, I really want as clean as possible garage for working.

New parts and plans

After having my garage cleaned and after some loooooong talks and calls to Leo few things have changed.

The biggest change is that I'm not going to use the R35 brake setup for the car as it simply doesn't give enough flexibility to use a wider wheel combination ranges. I would basically be limited to 18" or bigger wheels which would be PITA when going to some track days as a good wheel needs a high side wall, which is impossible with 18" wheels on this car.

Instead of the R35 brake setup which practically is gone already, I will be going with the Stoptech brake system. 

Now there are some benefits from it, comparing to the R35 brake system:

• Lighter and smaller
• Much more combinations of wheels and tires can be used with these
• Spare or refurbishing parts are much much cheaper
• The brakes can be homologated easily without any issues
• Caliper adapters are already delivered with the kit and are therefore not necessary to machine
• The color is black which means I don't need to repaint them as I wanted them Black

As You see a lots of benefits.

I have also weighted the car and I have to tell that without the seats and some small parts it weights 1470kg which is far tooooooo much.

If possible, I would like to get it under 1400kg but it will definitely be difficult to get it there - very difficult that is.

Some new parts arrived from whiteline and even though everyone is satisfied with them, I wasn't as there were two most important packages missing, the HICAS lockout bar has cracked paint (which I really don't matter and I hope it's only paint and not the material as well) and it seems that one bushing set was used already. The vendor was informed and is now checking the issues with the supplier. Still, not satisfied.

I have a tough decision to make about the seats as well. Firstly I was going to go for the Cusco/Bride Vios III full bucket seats but it seems that the Austrian bureaucracy is just really fucked up and that it is impossible to get those seats homologated for a street car. I hope to find out tomorrow. If this is true, I will have to go with the Cusco/Bride Stradia II which are unfortunately nearly 6kg heavier then the full bucket ones but are good looking as well :)

I have also made a list of things to do until my deadline. The deadline is April, 15th 2014 as I am planning to drive to the "Carfreitag" event on the Nürburgring on the 18th. 2 days after this event I will probably drive to a guy in Germany who is able to get my car legal with all modifications and give me all the papers necessary, which are needed for the Austrian government.
Unfortunately the list is very long and I hope to get it all finished until April.

So, here it goes:

• Abflug Frontdiffuser
• Adjustable front tierod and front upper arms
• Take out the engine, clean it, seal it and give it some new things like oil and water pump, timing belt...
• Integrate Tomei oil sump baffle plate
• Fluidampr Crankshaftdamper
• MAYBE integrate an oilcooler for the differential
• Relocate the battery and the window washing water container to the boot
• Paint the engine bay
• Mount the SARD breather tank into the engine bay
• Paint the engine valve and timing belt cover
• Implement the Nismo Engine and Gearbox mounts
• MAYBE a Carbon drive shaft
• Kansai Strut brace front
• Okuyama fixed strut brace rear
• Door sealing on the door side as they are porose and partially broken
• Remove the underfloor sealing, clean the underfloor, fix the car jack bump and paint the underfloor
• Paint the rear subframe
• Exchange all bushings with new one from whiteline
• Brakeupgrade to Stoptech brakes
• Remove HICAS
• Apply the gold heat reflective foil in the engine bay and on the underfloor above the gearbox if the price is ok
• New steering wheel as it seems that mine is for race use only
• New seats - probably Bride Stradia II
• Remove the rear view mirror and the whole assembly as it is ugly and use a new mirror and stick it to the window
• MAYBE exchange the cockpit with a newer one without bubbles
• BIG MAYBE if there is enough time - build a new airbox and rear seat cover

Thanks for reading!

Cheers,
RoB

Garage is comming on pretty well

Hi all,

My last post was long time ago as I was on a business trip and had a lot to do.

Now I've finally found some time to write some news on here.

My Garage is finally getting done as we speak.
What has changed?

Firstly, I have washed the whole floor with the pressure washer. Now, even though I'm not 100% satisfied, it looks much cleaner and I can work with this. The agreement with my landlord was to have a nice floor put in the garage somewhere in the summer next year. Can't wait :)

Second thing was to put all the shelves into the garage and fill them with the stuff which I have collected over the past few weeks/months.

The most important thing for working in the garage this year was to get the heating system installed by the landlord. Unfortunately he didn't tell me this in advance and started to work and sledgehammer through the wall without having the car backed up or all the stuff covered up.
What I ended with is shelves and stuff full of dust which i can clean after they finish the job (off course, who else should do it? it's not their fault that all of a sudden this stuff appeared in the garage while they were working!?) and paint the wall where the heater was before.

Also, notice my new sink with a small closet for various stuff! I like it. And I have warm water. Like it even more.
You can see the new blower with the heater as well. I really don't understand why they didn't go higher with it, but I actually don't care as long as this thing works properly.

Next things to do:

• Paint the wall behind the sink and where the heater was
• Get the sink to work (exchange the siphon which the guys broke during their work)
• Clean the f****** mess
• Clean the working room
• Install some breadboards over the working desks
• Buy stainless steel plates to cover the working desks and install them
• Install all the fixed equipment (drill, bench grinder, bench vice...)
• Refill the compressor oil
• Clean the groove again and fix the wall cover panels.

Basically not all of the thing are necessary and some of them will be done when I have to wait for some car parts and won't have anything else to do.

Keep on reading :)