Ranger's Dec09 motor rebuild thread (lol)

#121

Update.

Heavy rains today collapsed the EZ-Up on top of the car . EZ-Up. EZ-Down.

Chuck says that an unusual amount of oil seems to have been making it’s way into the combustion chambers. So either oil was leaking thru the valve guides, or past the rings. Yet the valves in chambers 1-4 (5 & 6 being suspect) did very well in the drip test. So there’s reason to be comfortable with the valves. But the motor did dynoe a little weak, and it’s compression test last week turned out a bit uninspiring.

So compression is getting out, and oil is getting in, somehow.

That all leads up to oil and air/fuel sneaking by the rings. So maybe the hone job or ring gapping wasn’t done that well. My local machine shop did that so it was kind of “out of site/out of mind.” Chuck apparently spends a lot of time to get those just right. That tells me it’s an art and maybe my clumsy inexperienced hand is the wrong choice. So I thought I’d try to find a local that can come over and help me do a terrific hone and ring-gap job.

That means that I’ll be removing the pistons so the rod bearings are going to get a look at after all.

I’m heading out of town for 9 days. When I get back I’ll take a couple days off work and get on this. Working at night in the dark, cold and wet, kinda bites, and there’s not much available day light hours on weekends.

Late breaking news: Head has a hairline crack near #6. Nice.

Sigh.

#122

the saga continues… sorry man. if i were you i’d just swap the spare motor in and go racing…

#123

kishg wrote:

No way man, this is my good luck engine.

I tried to keep a straight face when I typed that, but I just couldn’t.

#124

Keep fighting the good fight Scott!!! I mean that, I love your threads:)

#125

lol…i knew that’d be too easy for you… so what’s plan X now?

#126

The latest, but not so greatest!!! Chuck

#127

Ranger wrote:

[quote]That means that I’ll be removing the pistons so the rod bearings are going to get a look at after all.[/quote]Eh, you were gonna have to go in there for the #6 rod bearing in a coupla months anyway :wink:

#128

laz wrote:

[quote]Ranger wrote:

After all the energy I poured into the most fabulous E30 oiling system the world has ever seen, if I’ve got bearing wear, I’d have to take that personally.

I have to remove the pistons anyways, so they will get looked at.

Snowstorm socked in the Mid-Atlantic. That delayed the big Xmas roadtrip to CT by a day so I’m still home.

Since the weather was decent I got to work on the car a bit. In an effort to reduce my oiling system’s complexity, I removed a sensor and a switch. I decided that I don’t care about oil temp after the cooler, nor oil pressure after the pump. What’s important is oil temp before the cooler, and oil pressure before the galley.

Each sensor/switch had added a fitting or two the oil plumbing so removing the devices allowed me to remove 4 fittings from the oiling system.

I also removed two of the 3 remaining OP sensors/switch, and drilled out their sensor “ports”. The port on the sensors are really small and I think that makes the sensors respond sluggishly.

I also screwed around with attaching the coolant pressure sensor to the fitting on the block near the starter, but tapping the hose fitting for 1/8NPT didn’t work. All it did was chew up the hose fitting. Next idea is a 12mmX1.5 to 1/8NPT adapter. I think the threads in the block there are 12mmX1.5 just like the OEM OP sensor port.

http://www.2kracing.com/Product/10759.html

I thought about sticking the sensor into the block with some JBWeld, but I don’t have enough experience with JB Weld to have a feel for how stupid that idea might be.

If I guess wrong on the 12mmX1.5, then maybe I’ll put the pressure sensor in a hose adapter.

And finally, the mangled EZ-Up/Down got cut up and tossed.

#129

Tried to post a picture of Ranger’s head but I don’t have software capable of downsizing the picture…Scott, post one. CB

#130

are you saying Scott has a big head? :slight_smile:

#131

leggwork wrote:

Lol, ya that was my first reaction to Chuck’s post too. I took an ass whipping by some malcontent at R3VLimited yesterday and I thought “oh no, not here too”.

The picture below is from Chuck’s dye test of the head. The dye at center indicates a crack because the dye seeped thru the aluminum. This is the exhaust side of #6 and the crack goes to the water jacket.

Now, someone pls explain to me how this test is done. Really, I mean it. I can interpret the picture, but how do you do the test?

#132

Clean the head.
Spray on the red dye and let it penetrate for a few minutes.
Wipe off the excess dye.
Spray on the developer. The white chalky stuff.
Where there is a crack or open pores the red dye will bleed through the developer.

This method works on all metals and is especially good since it takes no special equipment.

#133

Ranger wrote:

Here’s the resulting simple version of the interior gauge setup:

#134

roflmao. Good one.

#135

I see you’ve added a new guage since I saw your car last. :slight_smile:

#136

I think Scott plans on having a helmet mounted HUD working soon. That, of course, isn’t visible in the picture.

#137

Actually we tested the helmet-mounted HUD at Road Atlanta. It worked pretty well until I accidently switched it to HBO…

#138

Between your driving and Scott’s car, HBO would give you something interesting to do while on track.

#139

Head is being repaired…if it passes the pressure test, Scott actually will get out fairly cheaply. Hope to have it back to him next week. CB

#140

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