I'm very excited, I just finished my first complete engine rebuild.

Before the rebuild my compression test results were 200, 100, 125, 200, so I figured it was time for a headgasket...and upon further examination, I decided it was time for a rebuild.

it's a D16z6. Nothing too major; it's balanced, overbored .25mm, mild port matching on the intake. I spent a lot of time following every torque setting & sequence, checking and double checking clearences and making sure that there were within spec, and that the differences in the clearences were negligable.

I just finished putting the motor in the car, it immedialty built oil pressure, and after a quick valve adjustment, it was running quietly and smoothly.

It was a fun but long process. I really learned the value of bagging & tagging all the parts, and keeping a manual on my work bench.

I must have went through 100 pairs of latex gloves too.

So needless to say... I will be hitting the NASA HPDE circuit again very soon.

Hoping to move out of HPDE2 and into HPDE3 and continue to get faster, and hopefully move up to HPDE 4 and Time Trials and get into Honda Challenge H4 within a few years.

 

Good job, Dave!!!
Can't wait to see the car out on the track again.

 

Curious what you used to guide you through the rebuild. I have a Z6 I am going to pull out of my car very soon that is going to need freshening up.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by tmit &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Curious what you used to guide you through the rebuild. I have a Z6 I am going to pull out of my car very soon that is going to need freshening up.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I went to http://www.redpepperracing.com has an online Service Manual that you can use.


I used this, printed out the important pages .... bearing clearances, torque settings, etc



Modified by Crazydave at 2:51 PM 5/23/2007

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Andrie Hartanto &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Good job, Dave!!!
Can't wait to see the car out on the track again.</TD></TR></TABLE>

yeah I can't wait......


I did get dawn to let me keep my cylinder head in the office once I got it back from the machine shop... once I showed her that there was no oil or dirt ....
but she flat out refused to let me build the motor in the living room

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Crazydave &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

but she flat out refused to let me build the motor in the living room

</TD></TR></TABLE>

Dude, no need to tell in advance. Do what I did. Bring it home and say, Honey, I need your help getting parts out of the car into the living room.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Andrie Hartanto &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Dude, no need to tell in advance. Do what I did. Bring it home and say, Honey, I need your help getting parts out of the car into the living room.</TD></TR></TABLE>


Your right.... I carried the head into the house, as she was watching life time,

Heres the conversation:

Dawn: "whats that"
Dave: "it's a cylinder head honey"
Dawn: "uh-no I have bunko tomorrow night thats not going to be in the house"
Dave: "Its gotta stay clean, so it needs to live on the desk"
Dawn: "So is your office gonna be clean like the cylinder head, is that thing clean?"
Dave: "Yes baby look, now can you bring in the block too?"
Dawn: "No! You are not having that in the house too"
Dave: "But if I want to be a national champion I need to build my motor in the living room"
Dawn: "[laughing at me] Maybe when you *are* a national champion, and if you buy new carpet for the house, I will let you build it in the house... "

 

Haha

Sounds like you did a nice job on the build. Did you reuse or replace the rod bolts? If you replaced them, did you have the holes rebored after pressing in the new bolts? If so, how much (if any) did that change the bearing clearances?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by FlyZlow &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Haha

Sounds like you did a nice job on the build. Did you reuse or replace the rod bolts? If you replaced them, did you have the holes rebored after pressing in the new bolts? </TD></TR></TABLE>


[beavis&butthead voice] Uh... huh huh...huhh [/beavis&butthead voice]

I actually never removed the rod bolts from the rods. I undid the nuts and seperated the rod from the rod cap. Now you have me worried that my rods are gonna go flying out the side of my block.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by FlyZlow &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
If so, how much (if any) did that change the bearing clearances?</TD></TR></TABLE>

I don't know what the clearances where before I took the motor apart (stupid me was too excited and took apart everything and didn't put the used bearings in an order that I would be able to reinstall then and see my clearances.

So all I had was what the manual says about them:

It gives specs for the 2 outside mains:

1 & 5 0.0007 to 0.0014.... so these I set to 0.0010 (I got REALLY lucky and nailed these)

and the three inside mains

2,3,4 0.0010 to 0.0017.... so these I got under 0.0015 and well above 0.0010

the plastiguage isn't precise... but they were all similarly "smashed" -&gt; assumed this meant they were equal clearances, but not measurable by me and plastigauge. But they looked pretty close. Since the platigauge precision moves in 0.0005, I am guessing that my tolerences are within 0.0001 or 0.0002 of each other

for the rods.... same procedure. The fcking motor gods were shining on me, with the bearings I ordered, they were all simillary smashed at under 0.0015 and over 0.0010 manual says.... 0.0008 to 0.0017

If you have any feedback or want to call me an idiot, please do so. This is a learning process for me, and I would love to know what I did wrong, and if anything was horribly done wrong, I can still fix it before I oil up a racing surface and push my car onto a trailer.

 

You might be fine. We rebuilt my buddy's H4 B18B and reused the rod bolts just as you did. He's run 5 or 6 weekends on it (including weekends at Cal Speedway and Buttonwillow) and it's been a stud so far. We just ran a 90 minute enduro in 90* heat in Phoenix last weekend and it didn't even hiccup. I wouldn't sweat it too much, but I might worry a little if you're planning on pushing much past the stock redline on a consistant basis. In his case, he actually had the new bolts, but we elected not to press them in for fear of warping the rods and having no way to rebore them. His motor was a Friday night special and had to be running and on track by that Sunday IIRC.

Since you didn't do that, then all of the stock sized bearings should have worked just fine. It sounds like you just used the casting marks to order all of the same sized bearings as stock and nothing had changed significantly. You should be fine with that. Don't sweat the rod bolts too much. I was just curious to hear how much reboring the rods would change the clearances if you had done that.

 

lol, my wife came home to this one night
my first build. Boy was she pissed.

 

I don't C anything wrong with that unless it is the bedroom you sleep in.. .

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by FlyZlow &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I wouldn't sweat it too much, but I might worry a little if you're planning on pushing much past the stock redline on a consistant basis.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

I don't plan on going past redline... besides I still have the stock ECU in place.


<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by FlyZlow &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Since you didn't do that, then all of the stock sized bearings should have worked just fine. It sounds like you just used the casting marks to order all of the same sized bearings as stock and nothing had changed significantly. You should be fine with that. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Pretty much, I used the block/crank codes, and then went from there to get the clearences I wanted.

Did you go and another AZ guy go to the April Buttonwillow event by any chance?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Crazydave &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Did you go and another AZ guy go to the April Buttonwillow event by any chance?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah, that was Erik and me. I have the black/red DA teg and he has the all red DC2.

 

I remember you... You guys pitted next to Thawley... I'm his pit guy.

 

Ahhh ... cool ... I was the one trying to bum an axle.

 

Unless the rod bolts are stretched you should be fine. Sounds like a good build. For those asking what guide to use, I'd highly recommend getting a factory service book for your car, from helms. It's worth every penny, and covers everything on or in your car.

http://www.helminc.com

 

yes, Dave, you did check the rod stretch tolerance, right?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Andrie Hartanto &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">yes, Dave, you did check the rod stretch tolerance, right?</TD></TR></TABLE>

no,

can you please elaborate .

or are you talking about the rod bolt stretch?



Modified by Crazydave at 12:45 PM 5/24/2007

 

yes, the manual should specify how to measure the rod bolt stretch and if it is still within tolerance.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Andrie Hartanto &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">yes, the manual should specify how to measure the rod bolt stretch and if it is still within tolerance. </TD></TR></TABLE>


I check the removal/installation section of the manual and it did not say anything about that:

http://www.redpepperracing.com....html
then I checked the specifications section and it did not mention anything:

http://www.redpepperracing.com...dex=1


The only place I saw that even talked about that was the ARP website, where they say do not use torque settings to install the rod bolts, use a rod bolt stretch gauge.

I didn't feel like buying a $125 tool, and rod bolts, having them bored, and then installing new bolts..... so I followed the manual, and torqued the bolts to the manuals instructions.

 

I can't find it in that manual either.

But in B series, and more recently K series, there is a procedure to check the rod bolt for stretch. They require using caliper measuring diameter in different locations of the bolts.

If I am you, I would replace all the rod bolts with new stock bolts. Inexpensive enough, I would think for D-series.

Easy to do too, just drop the pan.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Andrie Hartanto &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I can't find it in that manual either.

But in B series, and more recently K series, there is a procedure to check the rod bolt for stretch. They require using caliper measuring diameter in different locations of the bolts.

If I am you, I would replace all the rod bolts with new stock bolts. Inexpensive enough, I would think for D-series.

Easy to do too, just drop the pan.</TD></TR></TABLE>

How easily do the rod bolts come out of the rods?

especially when doing this with the motor in the car? Do you do one bolt at a time, and just tap them up?

FlyZLow mentioned re-boring the bolt holes in the rods? is this necessary? He also mentioned that boring *might* have an effect on the a clearnances.. any thoughts... thanks

 

I'm not sure about D series, but I assume all stock bolts, just bolt to the rod from the bottom.

Just unbolt it and bolt a new one.

re-boring the bolt holes are only needed if you change it to ARP. Which I don't think you need to for H4 motor.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Andrie Hartanto &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
If I am you, I would replace all the rod bolts with new stock bolts. Inexpensive enough, I would think for D-series.

Easy to do too, just drop the pan.</TD></TR></TABLE>

It's true that the new bolts are cheap enough (~$35 total), but unfortunately it is not as easy as dropping the pan if you want to do it right. The bolts should be pressed out/in and I've read that you risk warping the rods. I suppose you could get away with just hammering them in and out w/ the pistons still in the cyls, but I'd probably feel better about running the old bolts than I would about that honestly.