Rebuild Worst Case Scenarios.
What are they? Has anyone rebuilt a CA or SR by the book and to the specific torques and still had a catastrophe? I'm about to start mine in the next few days and want a heads up at least before £3k and 12months worth of blood (literally) sweat and shears goes tits up because I may have missed something.
Please put my mind at rest.
worst case ? You start it and it breaks again in a few miles / hundred miles.
what could go wrong :
not enough assembly lube on part
poor machinist job
bad timing
the list goes on and on...
Be paranoid. double check every thing you do and everything that is done by someone else. check for clearances with plastidip ( all bearings, bore roundness, piston to cylinder, ring gap ...), check for cleanliness ( no dirt allowed where you work ) .Dont forget to put oil and water once finished, prelube everywhere you can.
It may still die though. If the block was not thouroughly cleaned and you got metal particles in your oiling system, it will still die.
Dont be afraid of the smoke when you start the engine though. It could smoke for a few hundred miles (assembly lube being burned in cylinders, then cooked in exhaust)
Building it by the book doesnt guarentee success, there is a certain amount of feel in building an engine. You know whats wrong and whats right
Examples -
How the crank feels when you turn it by hand (the wrong size bearings or a cap torqued wrong can make it tighter than it should be.
How bolts feel as you torque them up, a dirty thread etc can cause problems
This is only something that comes with experience and we all have to start somewhere but it would be an idea if its your first build to have some help from someone who knows what they are doing IMO.
Turning the key the first time is the most nerve racking experience ever
Originally Posted by silverzx
although if you double check everything, you should not have problems.
You could also use Xrays on conrods and pistons (and head, and block) to make sure they are not internally cracked, stressed, or simply faulty. But that could be an expensive test.
If you can have the block professionally cleaned, it will be better of course.
Once its up and running, check the timing, fuel pressure and condition of the plugs. Check again after a few hundred miles and drop/refill the oil and filter.
It sounds silly but putting it on a rolling road to check AFRs, power and torque will tell you if its running right.
Finding a sympathetic RR operator that will listen when you say you are running it in and won't take it to 7,5K rpm to try to get you a max bhp figure at the fly might be a little more tricky
Worst case scenario it throws a rod or something.
Buy a second hand engine for 250, drop it in an off you motor.
My last couple of engines have done 350hp+ for 1000 miles or more before they have let go ........ sadly theres no way of knowing anything for sure, as I keep finding out.What are they? Has anyone rebuilt a CA or SR by the book and to the specific torques and still had a catastrophe? I'm about to start mine in the next few days and want a heads up at least before £3k and 12months worth of blood (literally) sweat and shears goes tits up because I may have missed something.
Please put my mind at rest.
I get the feeling that this would only work if we could pursuade Ernest Borgnine to drive the Isle of Wight to Portsmouth hovercraft.
1000 miles!?
Are we talking about CA or SR here? 1000 miles is terrible. There is something horrifically wrong with the build procedure if its only last that long.
Once my SR is built again I will be extremely pissed if I don't get 10's thousands of miles out of it. Attention to detail is key.
If your not confident get the bottom end built professionally and build the head and reassemble the top end yourself.
Much less to go wrong this way. However if your methodical with your work there really isn't much to it...
Have you got all the tools? Space is also key. Being able to lay everything out in order and organised is key as well. Makes it easy to visualise how everything fits together.
As mark says. Take the crank for instance. If your engine is still running then take a mental note of the effort required to rotate the crank with pistons and without. When re-built if significantly worse there is something up. This kind of approach should see you plain sailing.
To understand Docwra's engine woes you need to do a searchee for threads he's started and read and weep.
Re: The OPs question, I think I read somewhere he is a mechanic so maybe he's looking for some 200 specific advice...although the CA is a fairly different beast to the SR.
Just searched,
I have read his thread... I dont think anything I can say will help with this!!..... Sorry
*COUGH COUGH COUGH*
http://www.sxoc.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=515493
hmm, so i'd better keep my old engine on standby for a little while after we put my replacement one in just in case.........
unknown source engine sure is appealing.
for a little north of a rebuild price you get a full working engine, a turbo and all anciliaries. Without the sweat nor blood.
hm. tempted
Plus it's built by a VERY reputable engine builder/trader
It still is in another country so i end up screwed if anything goes wrong though.
as stated on your topic, i will try to sell mine to get yours. Dont know how much it is worth, i did rebuild it and the gearbox not long ago, but that is in France and prices are somewhat different. I am getting 300hp out of it. Should get 30 more but injectors are maxed
No need to be sorry, but that was kind of my point - the penultimate engine broke after being mapped, doing drift days and all sorts, you wouldnt have found whatever the fault was if you had checked it immediately after it was built as it wasnt there.
The last engine I personally drove 50+ drift miles (admittedly at standard power) before it was mapped, it then did a couple of drift days and some more live mapping before breaking. Bad luck? Almost certainly but same as above, nothing else I could have done
I get the feeling that this would only work if we could pursuade Ernest Borgnine to drive the Isle of Wight to Portsmouth hovercraft.
She Lives!!!one!!!one111!!
Mark: nail on the head about first start up bud. I was shitting myself being my first build.
The only problem(s) I have is a major fuel leak from number 4's fuel rail O ring. And I think the CAS may be a ever so slightly out cos she was running like a skeleton having a wnak in a biscuit tin. Other than that I'm happy.
Skidder: yes mate, I did check the freeness of the crank AFTER I put in the ACL's and piston rings and it turned fine.
New o-rings and rubbery bits for injectors everytime
CAS wants to be roughly in the middle, if you find you need to adjust it all the way to one side to get the car running properly then the cam belt is a tooth out
Nope, I just forgot to connect my idle control.
Use plastigauge.
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