I have been away for the past 5 months working in much warmer climates, so have not been able to get much progress with the car, although slightly painful to be leaving clear water and glorious beaches I was excited to get home to the stack of parts I have gathered up whilst away.
I took a head stagger when I first left to stick another 1JZ into it, deciding on a 1JZ VVTI for ease of install I set about buying one, then got my time wasted twice in a row and had people trying to sell me scrap constantly, I almost seen it as a sign. After some more thinking I decided to stick with the SR20 which I already have and keep it simple to hopefully enjoy more seat time instead.
First a list of things I have purchased as not all of them are pictured:
- Nismo 740CC Injectors
- Tomei M7960 Turbo
- HPI mid mount manifold
- Blitz NURSpec exhaust (Turbo back)
- 180sx Engine harness
- HKS 1.5mm head gasket
- ARP Head bolts
- BC Racing uprated valve springs
- ACL Race bearings
- OEM Nissan gasket set
- OEM Nissan Piston rings
- ARP Flywheel bolts
- New OS Giken clutch release bearing
- HKS 60mm Gauges x3
- HPI Air Filter
- Z32 MAF
- Aero Bumper (FRP)
- Genuine Aero Spoiler
- Modified Knuckle setup
- FMIC
- Stock 180sx ECU
- HKS Pipe work
Still to buy I have the following:
- Up-rated Cams
- Link ECU
The plan is to run the engine in on stock ECU and cams leaving me a little bit of time to save up some more money to buy the ECU and Cams, some parts such as the Z32 MAF will be able to be sold on at this point.
I have been working on cars for a long time, done many things and tried many things but this will be my first time building an entire engine, I am very much a give anything a go and get stuck in sort of a person so I quite liked the idea of being able to teach myself the basics to building one anyway.
As seen previously in the thread I already have the engine stripped down, so it came to time to start cleaning stuff and getting everything ready for building, first up was the head.
I degreased this with some Gunk before pressure washing it, using a tooth brush around the hard to get areas, the valve side was all coked up with carbon, again with a scotch pad and alot of time I cleaned out the dirty exhaust side. At this point I applied some paint to it making it look nice and fresh again.
Then I cleaned the valves before re-grinding them to make sure they were not leaking. Also cleaned the rocker arms and cam caps.
Next up was starting to put it back together, first I started by opening my lovely gasket kit and putting in the new valve stem oil seals, quite easy, just tap them over the valve guides with a small mallet and a socket. After this, I placed the valves in as I numbered and ground them earlier.
With the help of my friend Hamish again we then put the new valve springs, retainers and collets in, a bit of a pain in the arse with a cheap valve compressor tool, but we got there.
Then I tested that my valve grinding had worked and the valves were seated correctly, I done this by putting water into the side of the head to the corresponding valves, intake side and exhaust side both with no leaks.
Hydraulic lifters need bled and installed next, submerging the lifter fully in oil and using a small allen key you compress the lifter and remove all the air from it, then keeping it upright you place it back into the head full of oil.
Finally I placed the correct shims into the top of the retainers and placed the rocker arms on making sure everything was fitting correctly.
The cams will be placed on once the bottom end is built and I can time it all up together.
I wanted to continue today building the bottom end but unfortunately I have been delayed until next week due to having to wait for my new crank to get here. Instead I decided to do some work to the car itself, a quick clean after sitting in a shed for months and put the new spoiler on. Still awaiting delivery of my Aero bumper mid week.
Once the rest of my stuff arrives I can hopefully crack on with completing the bottom end and getting the engine whole again, then it will be the push towards putting it into the car and getting it running, more to come next weekend hopefully.