New motor build

#41

That is about all you can do for shaft seals. I sometimes coat the outer ring of the seal with the sealant but not much you can do on the inner part except make sure it rides on a different part of the shaft.

#42

I usually use copper rtv everywhere.

#43

My brother just called to tell me my head is “scrap metal”. Cam journals are shot. His only spare head has 6 bent exhaust valves so it may be junk as well.

#44

I have 2 spare heads, but I’m kinda far away from you. The heads are assembled and came off of high mileage cars so I can’t vouch for their condition, other than the cams looked ok when I bagged the heads and stored them in the attic.

The cam ok, or is it shot too? Often when the head has visible wear at the cam journals, so does the head.

The head with the bent valves may be fine. Hope for the best, plan for the worst.

#45

The cam is junk also. The lobes were all perfect though.

#46

It’s a crappy pic but I don’t think cam bearings should look like this.
[attachment=1780]2012-02-1822.12.36.jpg[/attachment]

#47

My brothers spare head is in good shape despite the seriously bent valves on the right that came out of it.
[attachment=1781]2012-02-1822.17.02.jpg[/attachment]

#48

The head and cam have been together for a long time. I’ve read that coated bearings don’t need any break in. The rockers were carefully selected from a 10lb bag of used rockers so that just leaves the rings for break in. Do I need to do the usual junk oil break in or can I just throw good synthetic in and drive like I stole it?

#49

It sounds like your cam is well broken in, but I would shy away from synthetic oil until you break in the rings. There are differing opininions on ring break procedures, but I’ve had success with the “drive it like you stole it method”! The goal is to seat the rings before the cylinders glaze. You need load and high cylinder pressures to do this. Don’t run your motor much until you can load the engine otherwise you might glaze your cylinders and the rings may never properly seat. When you can drive your car, conduct several acceleration and deceleration runs from 2000 or so RPM to full engine speed.

#50

Is there a kind of bearing that needs break in?

In a departure from my normal screwing around, that was a serious question.

#51

I was reading a bunch of oil info last night trying to find if royal purple racing oils are api certified. It was in the faq section that said coated bearing don’t need a mineral oil break in. Maybe that only applies to someone who hadn’t done anything to the motor but change bearings.

#52

According to the engine builders I’ve spoken with, bearings don’t “break in”. Makes sense to me considering there is no metal to metal contact while oil is flowing assuming they fit properly. I broke in my last motor on the dyno; it’s strong! I intend to do the same on my latest build.

#53

My brother is insisting on the accumulator and he has 600$ into the motor plus labor so I’m going to buy the moroso 3 quart. The -10 lines I have are non flared and are made for helicopter transmission oil. I can’t find an adapter for female straight unflared an to npt anywhere. My SSG 15g aircraft hydraulics friend says I can get an adapter at the local oreilly but that sounds unlikely. I’m calling earls and moroso tomorrow otherwise I need to hack saw the end off the line and put an npt fitting on.

#54

A couple years ago I set out to create the most complicated e30 oiling system known to man. One of the lessons learned during that effort is that clever choices re. fittings made a big difference in how well the plumbing worked.

The best kind of fitting is an AN swivel fitting. AN fittings are highly tolerant of R/R. Swivel fittings allow you to easily adjust the directions of the hoses. In my early efforts I underestimated the significance of both of these issues.

The worst kind of fitting is NPT because they are good at neither of the above.

In the middle is a non-swivel AN.

Murphy’s rule of fittings is “any kind of fitting that has an angle will be entirely wrong once fastened up tight”. So if you don’t have a swivel, you’re, ah “hosed”. Pun intended. Of course.

Also…you can save a lot of money on plumbing by using steel hydraulic JIC fittings instead of aviation oriented aluminum AN fittings. We’re talking 90% cheaper here, made all the more significant by the fact that inevitably you end up with fittings you don’t use.

Instead of a half dozen interations of buying expensive AN fittings mail-order to make the latest idea work…and the first couple plumbing ideas never work…I was instead able to head to a local hydraulic repair shop, peruse their bins of JIC fittings and get what I wanted immed. So not only did I save a lot of $$, but it was very efficient.

The merits of AN apply equally to JIC, except that JIC is even more rugged because it’s steel or brass.

#55

I did order a moroso accumulator today. I still haven’t figured out wtf the fitting on the lines I have are. At first I thought they were nps(national pipe straight) but they could also be orfs(o-ring face seal). I downloaded the army manual on it today and have found that the various non flare fittings are simply called MS fittings. Searching for MS to NPT adapters hasn’t given me any good results so far.

#56

I had an Accusump, not the Moroso version. The sump, valve and checkvalve were all NPT. I’m pretty sure the Moroso version is the same. Get some brass JIC to NPT adapters and you are done.

In fact, I’ll go fetch my oil plumbing box, take some pictures and put a bunch of fittings up for sale cheap. See the classifieds.

#57

I spent 4 days of the time I spent at my parents house building an elaborate oil pan. Most of it was learning to weld aluminum. My welding instructor was a moron (I taught myself) so lessons were long and slow. On the third day the fog cleared and the burned up porous black crap started to look like welding.
[attachment=1788]2012-02-2922.43.06.jpg[/attachment]

I decided to use the stainless piano hinge I had to build the valves. I was trying to build it using a single 24" by 12" sheet so I made it a trap shape to match the cut part of the pan. In the end after I thought I got a good handle on welding aluminum the welding of the cast part to the plate kicked my ass. On the right side where the 2 met at an interior angle of 75 deg combined with the fact that the cast portion had oil impregnated deep into it made it impossible to even get it tacked on that side. I bought some of the “aluminum soldering rod”. It would have been great if it f***ing stuck to anything to seal up my holes. So between the box and the cast pan I got 3/4 of it welded and then let JB finish the rest. My cousin came by who was a CORR crew chief and is the ultimate fabrication critic and said it might last a few races before the JB falls of from the differences in expansion. Oh well I needed it done. I will build the spare pan in the fishman style for when mine fails.
[attachment=1789]2012-02-2922.33.31.jpg[/attachment]

#58

Someone please hate or love on my new oil pan. It’s driving me nuts.

#59

Nice work.

#60

You’re a nut. But I love you for it. Awesome effort.

WTG on learning how to weld aluminum . I can barely weld steel.