civicgsr209

I have recently rebuilt my 97 B18C1 and I am currently in the break-in phase. I reabuilt the motor with the following:
8.5:1 weisco pistons (0.020" over)
Golden Eagle H-beam rods, blockguard
ACL main and rod bearings
Crower dual valve springs and Titainium retainers
Skunk SS valves
Gs-R cams
JG Edelbrock intake manifold
Hondata intake manifold gasket
new timing belt, H20 pump, gaskets and seals

The block was decked and head was shaved (0.0015" off of both, I think) All of the machine work was done by a reputable machine shop. The motor was machined with the idea of going turbo (oh, by the way, I also have a T3/T04 turbo, spearco intercooler, vortech FMU, aeromotive fuel pressure regulator, hks boost controller). Because I am on the break-in phase, I have the stock injectors and OBD-II P72 ecu and I am only pushing 4-5 lbs of boost. On initial start-up, I filled the motor with Valvoline 30W non-detergent oil and let it idle for about 15-20 minutes at about 1500 rpm. After that, I gently revved the motor between idle and 5000 to help the rings seat (this was done at the advisement of a local tuning shop because this is how they breakin in all of their motors). Then, I drained the oil, checked for metal shavings (there were none) and refilled it with 5-30W synethic Mobile 1. I have since been driving it for a day or two and have put about 70 miles on it. I am still having a couple of problems:

First, i am still getting blow-by. The local shop said that they usually dont get this much blow-by this long after the rebuild. I did a compression check and i have 120psi accross the board.

Second, I am getting what sounds like a faint rod knock comming from the bottem end. After the car warms up, the knock goes away. I was very careful when putting in the bearings and cleaned and plastiguaged all of them (they were all within spec) and used a ton of redline assembly lube before the final torque. I was told that the knock could be the piston rattleing around in the cylinder when it is cold. Then, when the engine heats up and the pistons expands, it now fills the cylinder and the rattleing goes away. Could it be that I have already messed up my bearings and need to pull the motor again or is this normal.

Third, my idle is acting funny. It idle normally for a while but then drops down to 200 or 300 rpm and varys between that and 1000 rpm. I have checked for vacuum leaks and cannot find any. my fuel pressure is set to about 45psi.

Any help and or advice would help. If you guys want pics, I'll try and post them.

dustin

Have you checked oil pressure?

nonvtecD

What were the rings gapped at? Could be piston slap. At the least you could drop your pan and pull a cap off and check the bearings.

N20civicB18

I can tell you ur getting blow by because your rings did not seat and will not seat with synthetic oil in that, dont drive it anymore! you Probably should re hone the motor but try just putting in the cheapest oil you can and use a cheap non synthetic oil for the first 500-1000 miles then u can go synthetic. synthetic oil will NOT let the rings seat as it is to slippery.

There is an old trick that works on v8 engines that does work, with the engine idleing sprikle comet (yes the dry soap stuff) down the intake as it is soft yet abrasive enough to help seat the rings, but first I would try just changing oil.

How did you install your rings? What way are they pointing?


If you have 120psi across the board id say that is a bad compression but it is consitant so that shows the head gasket and everything are fine.

GDM Z28

with 120 psi across the boards and piston slap at start up sounds to me like u didnt gap the rings right.......time for a rebuild...

N20civicB18

Also when you file your rings make sure you go by the specs for the pistons for turbo if you are going to use turbo - you want a wider gap then for n/a

I would not run synthetic for 3000miles personally

civicgsr209

As far as the ring gap, it was done to weisco's spec by the guys at the machine shop. They assured me that it was with the turbo in mind. When I was installing the motor, i didnt have weisco's spec on ring gap placement so I went with the honda factory placement. I know now that the compression rings should have been put at 180 degrees apart instead of the factorys 90 degrees apart but I did the best I could at the time

120 psi sounds right to me due to the 8.5:1 compression ratio.

I havent had a chance to drop the pan but I am going to do that later this afternoon - I'll keep you guys posted.

Thanks for the comments

Tex Blackwell

Call up weisco and tell them your application, they can tell you exactly what you need. When you have the oil pan dropped, look inside the cylinders with the pistons at TDC and check out the cylinder walls.

Since the gaps are set at a honda spec, you might want to double check it before boost goes into it. Depending on how much boost, more temperature so those rings will expand more, otherwise the gap will close up and wear a groove into the cylinder walls. This happens with stock engines all the time with too much boost or timing.

civicgsr209

The gaps were set according to weisco's turbo specifications; it's the placement of the ring gaps at the time of intallation I wasnt sure of - so I set those to honda's spec.

GDM Z28

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by civicgsr209 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">As far as the ring gap, it was done to weisco's spec by the guys at the machine shop. They assured me that it was with the turbo in mind. When I was installing the motor, i didnt have weisco's spec on ring gap placement so I went with the honda factory placement. I know now that the compression rings should have been put at 180 degrees apart instead of the factorys 90 degrees apart but I did the best I could at the time

120 psi sounds right to me due to the 8.5:1 compression ratio.

I havent had a chance to drop the pan but I am going to do that later this afternoon - I'll keep you guys posted.

Thanks for the comments
</TD></TR></TABLE>

120psi is not 8.5:1

8:1~8.5:1 compression: 150-170 psi per cylinder

8.5:1~9.5:1 compression: 170-210 psi per cylinder

9.5:1~11:1 compression: 210-275 psi per cylinder

11:1+ compression: 250+ per cylinder (highly depends on cams being used)

Thats taken from jeef aka boosted-hybrids sit and he knows his ****

civicgsr209

So I dropped the oil pan and I checked the bearings - they still look new. while I was under there, I also saw that I have plenty crosshatch still in the cylinders. I really dont know where to go from here but to just keep driving it and put some miles on it (with regular oil).

Thanks for the help

civicgsr209

bump