Ranger's motorswap thread

#81

I might be done. I’ve primed the oiling system using the R. Patton method. My battery’s pretty flat so I’m letting it charge for a couple hrs.

Later today I’ll put the plugs back in, pop in the fuel pump relay and see what happens. I had to do a lot of this in the rain, and their is a layer of muck on the cement under the car.

You know you aren’t a teenager anymore when your fantasy is a big clean garage with a lift.

I can’t believe I did this myself. But if it turns out to be a big cock-up, well, then I’ll believe that I did it myself.

#82

So does it run? The world wonders…

#83

It runs. Woohoo. How very surprising. I’d a bet money that some godawful mistake was going to come to light.

Oil pressure is fine but valve gap sounds awful. Downtubes need to be bolted on. All easy. Then hook up all the oiling crap and sensors because right now I have OEM cooler off and the oil filter right on the block like an e motor.

It runs. No one is more surprised then I.

#84

With respect to the gearbox install, the next time you get something off BimmerWorld, grab one of their clutch aligning tools. Costs almost nothing ($9.99), and an invaluable tool to have when removing transmission.

#85

Ranger wrote:

After all the crap, feels good, doesn’t it?! B)

#86

rrroadster wrote:

[quote]Ranger wrote:

After all the crap, feels good, doesn’t it?! B)[/quote]

Congrats, Ranger. You are insane. Admirably so, though.

See you this weekend.

Steve D.

#87

Err…stoopid computers!

Deleted duplicate post.

#88

When do you go to the dyno? Chuck

#89

run the motor a little while with that oil filter/oil set up and when you install the cooler, change the oil and filter. You can use the oil in your beater or lawn mower etc. There will be plenty of contaminents after a rebuild.

Al

#90

FARTBREF wrote:

[quote]run the motor a little while with that oil filter/oil set up and when you install the cooler, change the oil and filter. You can use the oil in your beater or lawn mower etc. There will be plenty of contaminents after a rebuild.

Al[/quote]

Hmm. That’s a good thought. It would have been better to do my break-in freeway effort before I started tearing the oiling system apart. I’d just as soon I don’t get a bunch of crap into the new oil cooler and the Accusump. I might try to jury rig something tonight and head out to the freeway.

#91

Things have taken a turn for the worse. There is a clanking sound coming from the motor that sounds exactly like a really loose valve. I’ve checked my valves 2X in the last couple of days and their gap is perfect. The frequency of the clanking is also right for valves. I’m going to have to trailer it into the shop that helped me build the bottom end and see if they have time for it tomorrow.

I have a bad feeling that I have a problem with a rod bearing. God only knows how. I checked my rod cap bolts 3X. They were perfectly torqued down.

The sound is coming from high in the motor and the freq is wrong for a rod bearing. But I’m a loss to understand what else it could be.

One guy said “don’t worry about it. The noise is probably just piston slap. That happens sometimes with new pistons.” Anyone buy that?

I had a bunch of oil pressure measuring problems tonight that didn’t help my troubleshooting. I came up with a number of scenarios where my plumbing could have gotten defeated by a checkvalve or an oil filter adapter that was labeled wrong. Fortunately I’d accumulated 3 sensors and 2 gauges so I could test each possible failure point. The oil pressure measuring problem turned out to be a ground, or lack thereof. If you remotely measure pressure or temp, you have to figure out how to ground the sensor.

As I was closing up the garage I noticed something behind my brake master cylinder. I reached behind it and pulled out half of a piston ring. Recall that my motor was built on a stand, not in the car. I’ve no idea how that piston ring got there. Is unsettling.

#92

I read that piston slap can go away when the motor is warm so I ran the motor for 10min, by far the longest since the rebuild. The clanking did not go away.

#93

Damn man, you can’t catch a break :ohmy:

To identify rod knock vs piston slap, pull the plug wires one by one (at the distributor so you’re not holding a hot wire in your hand). If it’s rod knock, the noise will change when you pull the plug from the bad piston. The theory behind this is that the forces of combustion will make the rod knock worse, and without it the noise will change. If there’s no audible change on all the plugs, then you’ve got piston slap.

This technique was useful when diagnosing the cylinder #6 rod knock on my LeMons car.

#94

Damn, Ranger. Just damn.

#95

Car is at the shop now, they’ll check it out. My inexhaustable supply of optimism is being tested. Cross your fingers.

#96

Piston slap occurs with forged pistons…the clearances for stock cast are too close to cause that…or damn well should be.

How did you address the excess bearing clearance noted in an earlier post?

This is why I like an Oberg filter…you could have interference with your crank scraper. It sounds like the whole motor is going to die. You can tell by inspecting the filter for minute steel particles. So, remove your oil filter and cut it apart and inspect…with a magnet. Also pull your oil drain plug and check the magnet on the end.

BTW, crank scrapers are self clearanceing:laugh: Chuck

#97

Pistons are the cast .020 over’s that BW had on special, so they’re not forged.

Re. Excess bearing clearance. I disassembled the motor, mic’d everything and could not account for the main bearing being ~.002 out of the median of the clearance spec. So I reassembled the motor with plastigage and the excess clearance went away. Therefore the cause of the initial excess bearing clearance is a mystery. The cap bolts were indeed properly torqued down.

#98

Chuck’s on to something…how much did you grind on the crankscraper?

I’ve found that each one has had to have about 4-5 tangs ground back 1/16" for my liking.

Not sure how to fix if the clearance only slightly touches.

RP

#99

Ranger wrote:

Hang in there, dude!

FWIW: I have a brass tee for my remote OP gauge and warning light - I soldered a big honking dedicated ground wire to that (rather than separate grounds for each sensor). It’s held up really well.

#100

Patton wrote:

[quote]Chuck’s on to something…how much did you grind on the crankscraper?

I’ve found that each one has had to have about 4-5 tangs ground back 1/16" for my liking.

Not sure how to fix if the clearance only slightly touches.

RP[/quote]

That would be excellent if it was only a crankscraper clearance problem. We did a decent job of clearancing we thought. Who knows, maybe the little beastie shifted a bit.