Uh, if you never heat cycled the motor, you don't need to buy all new gaskets.

 

Correct I brought them all
the parts but they did machine + assembly.

I'm not going to put them on blast just yet.
I'm going to attempt to get all or most of my money back first.
If they can't then......

 

The heatcycle theory is debatable.

one the head is torqued to yield and the headgasket crushes it's done. If you reinstall the crushed gasket it may not seal properly or could slightly crush even further

although after motor is run a few times the studs do loosen up. the best thing to do is warm the motor up fully, shut it down, and immediately pull the cams and hot torque the studs.

 

Although if this shop couldn't do something as simple as install the pistons properly, most even have IN or intake laser etched onto the top of piston on the intake side.. If not the larger valve reliefs indicate the intake side of the piston, then I would doubt the rest of their work

 

The engine has never been started.

 

I may be late on the reply, but those pistons are in backwards. I just scanned the thread did not read all posts.

 

 

Watch "Chicken bandit first startup" on YouTube
Chicken bandit first startup:

 

Got all my lil issues fixed except a small coolant leak. Should be able to get back on it this weekend

 

nice!
ill be making my video next week when my coil gets in!

 

Nice. Ive been watching your build too

 

Things going good.
First oil change looked great.
Compression test coming this weekend

 

Next step rebuild spindles with new bushing, bearing, joints, tie rods& abs axles

 

nice build going on here. by any chance, are you from Arizona?

 

Yes

 

Has anyone dealt with traction bar to balancer clearance.
They're very close to each other and im wondering whats going to
happen while accelerating and shifting.

Please ignore my leaks.
They were being fixed when I noticed
the clearance.

 

Haven't done much of anything to the car lately. Just catching up on bills.
I have noticed that after a longer period at idle, it wants to run pretty warm.
So the next step I want to take before tuning is to coat & wrap everything with heat wrap (mani,uppipe,)
I also want to have a block off behind my intercooler on the turbo side in an attempt to force more air thru the intercooler and radiator. Right now I have a FAL fan (not sure the model) At idle my ECT reached 205 while I was bleeding the system for about 15mi.
Any other recommended tricks would be appreciated.

 

amazing build.

 

Maybe I missed it, but your driving it untuned to break it in? Also, what happened with the pistons being backwards?

 

Thanks sik tag.
You're from PHX right?

King06 haven't done much but driven it around the corner. (All motor) still ran horrible.
A lot of idle time.
Need to have it tuned immediately. Due to recent events I'm gonna need a car for work until we get another.
Piston issue was fix awhile back.

 

YUP!

I love this build. I came close to buying the car when you were going to sell the shell.

 

I feel like I know u. You know mickey aka dead bird off azht right?

 

Probably do and probaly don't, lol. I met him a few times when he had the green hatch, before the white integra.