Finished!! Forged piston block, Custom valve head (flowbenched)

[boostedshadow3l]

nice numbers, good job, cant wait to see how long it holds up for

[Tim_K]

If we had someone who could write a decent baseline MegaSquirt calibration to get a Turbo 3.0 started and running we might see more stock 3.0's with turbos bolted on to them!

Seems like fueling the thing properly is the only really serious issue.

[Staticworth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ondonti even if its still installed in a minivan ;) I know you are saving your pennies right now but I jokingly called this last night "great depression" racing since i cant fix my motor yet.

Mine were leaky when i bought my 91 iroc, it was annoying but was an easy fix

I've very curious as to how you did this build, i've been looking at making my 3.0 a beast but im a little scared as im new to the engine, im reading this whole dang thread practically

[lookin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ondonti even if its still installed in a minivan ;) I know you are saving your pennies right now but I jokingly called this last night "great depression" racing since i cant fix my motor yet.

You definitely have a point.

Things being what they are though, we just cannot justify the expense. Dang apocalypse anyway. :(

[Ondonti]

I think my video is much better ;) Includes pics and video of first startup

$90 Junkyard Runs 11's on first pass- Video

[SpeedyEd]

Hey Brent,
Do you think the stock cams are a better choice with your turbo?
SpeedyEd

[irocelectric93]

Weezer.

[Ondonti]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SpeedyEd Hey Brent, Do you think the stock cams are a better choice with your turbo? SpeedyEd

No, its just the RPM range that they make power is more suited to the stock RPM limiter.

My HP dropoff wasn't so much about boost but the cams. I was going from 500+hp to 300hp on my 2-3 shift. Bog! and I was shifting slow so I would lose all boost. Losing all boost means I wasnt getting 300hp when I shifted lol. Much less.
IMO the big difference between my 12.7 and my 11.9 was that I nailed the 1-2 and 2-3 decently.
Video of my freeze plug blowout last year. Not putting it on streetfire lol. Even the DJ tells me to "keep goin man" between 1-2.
Racing against AMG 63. He giggled about my car the previous week so he was repenting after he crapped his pants.
The first smoke pouring out is the fact that I didnt have an oil/air separator on my oil pan exhaust vent so it was sucking oil like crazy.
http://www.facebook.com/v/31589845985

[lookin]

WOOOOOOOO!

Finally, I got to see your video Brent, and it was incredible! I bet that guy in the lane next to you was surprised.

[Ondonti]

He was busy checking his gauges/laptop after the run even though he has never run an 11 lol! Still gotta act like its broke.
BTW I found out today that my driver side axle boot is sheared and has probably been running dry since last year. Not even clicking yet. I found it because this afternoon I decided to build an oil catch pan for the motor/trans.
A little "flirting" over the phone with the local yard guy and I pulled a used good saginaw axle for $10 in 14 minutes!. Cheaper then a new boot and I don't really have the tools for that job anyways.

Probably have pics of the oil catch pan posted tomorrow :)
I used scrap sheet metal left over from when I removed my spare tire well. So it was free. My track requires it for cars running faster then 11.5 and I figured that fixing every single oil leak would get annoying so for now I will run the catch pan and not invest countless hours into a motor that might blow up soon if something goes wrong.

Contemplating adding more ignition timing since I am out of fuel pump.

[lookin]

I wonder who he was trying to convince, with his "little datalog show", himself or others?

It will be interesting to see how long this engine holds together. Maybe the conventional wisdom will prove to be too pessimistic. That would be so cool. I love it when stuff like that happens.

PS

Brent, do you think any of the NAPA replacement axles they sell compare to the OEM ones? Are all the aftermarket axles weak? My motor is still NA. So that is probably not a concern anyway. I may need to replace the drivers side axle though ... one of these days. Not sure yet. Doing head gaskets next week though. Tiny bit of oil in the coolant and steam at startup. One of those little intermittent ones. No water in the oil sump at all though. That's niiiiiice. Lookin on the good side. :)



I love watching your vid. Best vid ever.

[Ondonti]

7 second legal requires it to be 2" deep but there is no way I was going to get clearance so its slightly more then 1" deep and its not quite level with the ground. Thats fine with me cause it now sorta acts like a belly pan. I had to cut out the corner to allow my wastegate to dump properly to the ground.

Since my e85 motor is a stocker and I dont know how much it can handle, I figured building the pan was better then chasing oil leaks in a motor that might be dead tomorrow.

Cost = free, which is why there is a seam in the middle cause the scrap sheet metal was not wide enough. I came up with the idea around 4 yesterday and after failing to find a good piece of sheet metal (places closed) I went with what I had and finished this around 1 AM. About 5 hours of total work. Looks crappy but I am pretty excited to run my motor now without getting booted from the track, and I know the track manager will be happy about it cause they made a rule that all cars 11.49 or faster must have them. Not quite fast enough to be required but I am actually happy that I have it now even though I complained last year with the new policy. The NHRA rules for a 7 second pan are pretty ridiculous, because they flat out would not work on our cars...we would have tires hitting a "legal" pan. I was originally going to try to tuck it into the engine bay and then i decided to let it hang below so it could catch drips from the edge of the K frame too (just barely reaches pas that inside edge).

[Ondonti]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lookin I wonder who he was trying to convince, with his "little datalog show", himself or others? It will be interesting to see how long this engine holds together. Maybe the conventional wisdom will prove to be too pessimistic. That would be so cool. I love it when stuff like that happens. PS Brent, do you think any of the NAPA replacement axles they sell compare to the OEM ones? Are all the aftermarket axles weak? My motor is still NA. So that is probably not a concern anyway. I may need to replace the drivers side axle though ... one of these days. Not sure yet. Doing head gaskets next week though. Tiny bit of oil in the coolant and steam at startup. One of those little intermittent ones. No water in the oil sump at all though. That's niiiiiice. Lookin on the good side. :) I love watching your vid. Best vid ever.

If you want a strong axle, the only ones I suggest are the saginaw. You can tell its a saginaw because the inside hub is not round, there are half moon cutouts and you can imagine where the tripod sits from the outside.

I only go with those because they cost the same. The thing is I believe they are only available at the junkyard or possibl dealer????????? I have never heard of a new one. Easy to find them because almost all 3.3 and 3.0 cars have them and 1992+ 4 cylinders. I got my recent replacement drivers side from an a523 4 cylinder shadow.
I would rather rebuild a saginaw then run the others. But strangely I have heard there are some new chinese ones that people actually think are strong. They are the normal round inside hub but I heard some compliments about them. Those might be the autozone ones (but if they have old stock like my store, stay away). I have had to replace 2 axles now but still have not fully broken one :) Just replaced them for safety.

My sheared boot axle still looks good inside. The boot seems to have pulled itself out from under the clamp and is missing some material so you couldn't just reclamp it.

Do you have brown crap in your coolant at all? Maybe yours has not been leaking long enough to contaminate the coolant enough to make things rust. My Spirits motor has been going 3 years with the small headgasket leak and I even had it overheat when my thermostat split in half (stuck closed) and it wont overheat from the headgasket. I am confident that rusty coolant = headgasket leak cause my duster was always clean until i started pushing coolant from the head flexing under boost.

I am avoiding my built heads for now because I am going to do a partial fill on them and that will be a LOT of work. The TIG repair will be incredibly easy in comparison.

[lookin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ondonti If you want a strong axle, the only ones I suggest are the saginaw. You can tell its a saginaw because the inside hub is not round, there are half moon cutouts and you can imagine where the tripod sits from the outside. I only go with those because they cost the same. The thing is I believe they are only available at the junkyard or possibl dealer?

Thanks for the good info. :) (I trimmed your post a bit for space)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ondonti Do you have brown crap in your coolant at all? Maybe yours has not been leaking long enough to contaminate the coolant enough to make things rust. My Spirits motor has been going 3 years with the small headgasket leak and I even had it overheat when my thermostat split in half (stuck closed) and it wont overheat from the headgasket. I am confident that rusty coolant = headgasket leak cause my duster was always clean until i started pushing coolant from the head flexing under boost.

I remember your rusty coolant and dissolved thermostat. That was so weird. Hope you got it sorted out. No brown stuff in mine. It has been very slowly using coolant for about 9 months. Then suddenly it started steaming out the back at startup. A few days ago, a small spot of oil also showed up in the radiator fill neck, about the size of a dime. No water in the oil though, .... thank God. :)

While the heads are off I am going to put in a set of NGK Iridium IX plugs, and I am going to try your idea and index the lil buggers. I'll take pics of everything. I imagine the plugs in there now, will prove you were right about indexing, because they will all be a hodgepodge of misalignment.

I will be lightly sauteing my crow, in peanut oil, with shallots and white wine.

Man I sure hope my valve guides all have clips and healthy seals. I really can't afford to do the heads as well right now. Hate to not do them too. ummmm :(

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ondonti I am avoiding my built heads for now because I am going to do a partial fill on them and that will be a LOT of work. The TIG repair will be incredibly easy in comparison.

Are you partially filling the jackets with something that reacts to heat more like iron does? I am guessing that helps even out the thermal coefficients between aluminum and iron. If you want to, then please elaborate on that. :)

Oh yeah.

MORE VIDS PLEASE.

[Ondonti]

Well when i was at my Supra buddy's house, I was looking at the coolant passages cause he thought I should fix the root of the problem, and I found that the entire area above the combustion chamber/quench area, etc, is hallow. its all coolant passage. There is probably half a liter or more of coolant in the darned heads. That makes the combustion chamber weak. We will partially fill the bottom of the head with some sort of cement (probably the kind used for filling blocks in race motors that have weak blocks) and then I will drill out holes in the cement to allow some coolant flow. Won't be super great for heat transfer but It might be necessary.
I have not researched the materials for filling so I dont know what the best material is for an aluminum head.

Most people fill using Gravity but I am thinking about taping over the bottom of the head and then...injecting filler through the tape. That way I would have more control over where the fill goes. I dont want to fill too high or fill the top of the chambers because I still want plenty of area above for coolant, I just dont want the big hallow space on the edges of the chamber where the headgasket is supposed to be clamping.

I wonder if I could use straws or something in the cement to avoid having to drill. something that could be removed after the cement set. Maybe something that a chemical would dissolve.

I know someone who has pictures of a cut up 3.0 head so i am going to beg for those. Its just not my top priority right now. I may go with the built head on a stock motor sooner then I ever get another built shortblock. I sorta like not burning oil.