lan's engine build and engine build how to

[longassname]

Bill, the rods are eagle rods and use arp 2000 fasteners. Neither the factory rods or factory rod bolts would suffice for this build. It would be way too easy to stretch the rod bolts or deform the caps. The factory block bolts however are just fine. They don't see as much stress as the rod bolts and are much larger. The high balance of this particular rotating assembly is likely to result in a reduction of stress placed on the block bolts rather than an increase. My rotating assembly is balanced out past 12,000 rpms--which it will never come close to seeing.

[YourConfused]

Would you be able to tell me a ballpark figure of what the machine cost have summed to during this build? Also, were you able to get the cylinders machined with a torque plate bolted up? It took months for a local shop to find one for my L28 (now L30), and I assume it would be even harder to find one for the EG33.
Thanks,
Shaun

[longassname]

The machine work on my short block was $987. That price should have included (and supposedly did include) the caging of the bearings which I ended up having to do a couple times myself anyway. A torque plate was used for the cyllinder honing (and the cyllinder honing was a two step hone with standard hones--that one is real easy to tell visually by the finish quality of the crosshatch, if you look at some of the photos posted by others you'll see their cyllinder finishes are much coarser).

Originally Posted by YourConfused

Would you be able to tell me a ballpark figure of what the machine cost have summed to during this build? Also, were you able to get the cylinders machined with a torque plate bolted up? It took months for a local shop to find one for my L28 (now L30), and I assume it would be even harder to find one for the EG33.
Thanks,
Shaun

[YourConfused]

What about the head work $? Did the short price include the coatings? I can't remember it all. You had chambers, valves, pistons and what else coated? I like the pics btw.

[SVXRide]

Originally Posted by longassname

Bill, the rods are eagle rods and use arp 2000 fasteners. Neither the factory rods or factory rod bolts would suffice for this build. It would be way too easy to stretch the rod bolts or deform the caps. The factory block bolts however are just fine. They don't see as much stress as the rod bolts and are much larger. The high balance of this particular rotating assembly is likely to result in a reduction of stress placed on the block bolts rather than an increase. My rotating assembly is balanced out past 12,000 rpms--which it will never come close to seeing.

Michael,
Yep, I thought that was the case (bolt wise). What do you mean your engine won't see 12 grand? What are you going to use as your upper limit via the ECU software, 8-9 grand?
-Bill

[longassname]

I think retail on the coatings I had done is nine hundred something--I have $974 in my head. I did the porting on the heads but typically porting is $100 to $150 a cyllinder. I don't have a sum total for the dissassembly, cleaning, blasting, surfacing, and valve job yet.

Originally Posted by YourConfused

What about the head work $? Did the short price include the coatings? I can't remember it all. You had chambers, valves, pistons and what else coated? I like the pics btw.

[longassname]

I fitted the rings today. The picture below is of the fitted top ring on cyllinder 3. The oil control rings were already at 0.***" end gap and didn't require grinding. The second rings were at 0.***" and I ground them out to a 0.***" end gap. The top rings were at 0.***" and I ground them out to a 0.***" end gap.

[YourConfused]

I think you forgot the piston.
Seriously though, is the amount of gap going to close up any measurable amount due to thermal expansion? I don't know the gap spec for various motors or anything to use as reference but that's almost a 1/32" gap and seems rather big.
This may be a stupid question as it seems I must have overlooked something here.

[longassname]

Yes .*** is a relatively large end gap. For a naturally aspirated build the end gap would be .*** or .***. The more power you are running/the more heat you have in your combustion chambers the larger your end gap needs to be because yes the gap closes up due to thermal expansion.

Originally Posted by YourConfused

I think you forgot the piston.
Seriously though, is the amount of gap going to close up any measurable amount due to thermal expansion? I don't know the gap spec for various motors or anything to use as reference but that's almost a 1/32" gap and seems rather big.
This may be a stupid question as it seems I must have overlooked something here.

[longassname]

Before I sent the pistons out to get coated I measured each piston and each piston bore to determine sidewall clearances. The post with that information is quoted below for comparison with the after coating information. Now that the pistons are coated I measured them again to check our new sidewall clearance. I got .0005 thick anti friction coating on the piston skirts along with the thermal barrier coating on the piston top. The idea behind both is to be able to reduce our sidewall clearances. Fitting of forged pistons is critical and almost an art.

The same features which make forged pistons superior to cast pistons make them harder to fit. Because they expand more when heated they require larger sidewall clearances. The larger your sidewall clearances the more you depend on your rings to seal cylinder pressure and the more likely you are to have piston slap. Because of this forged pistons are generally considered loud and often times those with performance engines that are equipped with knock sensors must go to extra lengths to isolate the knock sensors from picking up the sound of skirt slap.

The factory engine/piston combination for an SVX specifies a tiny sidewall clearance of .004 to .0012 or in technical jargon 4 to 12 tens. The ECUtune pistons being used are manufactured by CP who specifies a .0035 sidewall clearance. Some performance Subaru engine builders use a sidewall clearance as great as .0040. Those engines have audible skirt slap when cold that goes away when they warm up but on the flip side when the pistons swell up under extreme conditions they don't drag on the cylinder walls. In this build I am using the peformance coatings to isolate the pistons from the extreme conditions they will see and reduce the temperature range of the pistons and thus the range of size they will operate at. This allows me to use a tighter side wall clearance--though still nowhere near as tight as factory.

After coating I now have 5 pistons that measure 3.81** and 1 piston that measures 3.81**. Looking at my bores I will put the 3.81** piston in cylinder #6 and my sidewall clearances will be:

1)3.81**-3.81**=.00**
3)3.81**-3.81**=.00**
5)3.81**-3.81**=.00**
2)3.81**0-3.81**=.00**
4)3.81**-3.81**=.00**
6)3.81**-3.81**=.00**

This will give me quiet, smooth engine operation along with the ability to withstand extreme outputs.

[SVXRide]

Michael,
I think you should have titled this thread "How to blueprint an EG33"
-Bill

[longassname]

OH YA, you've got to blueprint it. If nothing else the crank experience shared in this thread proves the adage "If you don't measure it you don't get it."

Originally Posted by SVXRide

Michael,
I think you should have titled this thread "How to blueprint an EG33"
-Bill

[longassname]

Here's a basic outline of how each piston went in.

The rings were installed with the gaps in the factory orientation. Graphite moly assembly lube was applied evenly to the pin hole. A new factory circlip was installed on the side away from the access hole that would be used for pin installation. The piston was coated with engine oil.





A semi fixed bore size piston installer was used. These are much better than the type you get from the auto parts store that clamps around the piston. While there is a small adjustment range on a semi fixed bore piston installer you don't clamp it around the piston. It's a machined aluminum bore which is larger on one side and tapers down towards the other side. This allows you to simply push the piston right through.





The center pistons go in first, #'s 3 and 4. I prefer to rotate the block for each piston and work downwards instead of sideways. Either way you need access to the rods through the bottom of the block. The crank is rotated to bring the cylinder you are working on to bottom dead center while you adust the angle of the rod to line the pin hole up with the access hole in the block. Then you push the piston down until the pin hole in the piston, pin hole in the rod, and access hole all line up. Then you slide a pin in on your fancy custom piston pin installer. Then you install the circlip on the near side of the piston with your fancy factory circlip installer.

[longassname]

I cleaned up all the mating surfaces on the block, leaving them with a good chemical clean for sealants and gaskets to adhere too. I cleaned the parts that would be going on and unfortunately didn't notice untill about done cleaning it that the oil pump seems to have fallen victim to someone believing the missprint on the timing cover torque specs and has a crack. Time to order a new oil pump; we'll see how I feel tomorrow, maybe I'll pay the $20 expedite fee. I used blue threadlock on the bolts for the oil pick up and windage baffle. I did not put threadlock on all the bolts as I finger tightened them and then torque them all. It's really much better to put them all on finger tight and then take out one at a time, put threadlock on it, and torque it. It's an isocyanate after all and that way it isn't half dry and drying while torqueing it.







With the bottom of the short closed up I moved it over to the engine stand and reclaimed my work cart. You'll remember that this block has been given a step deck--meaning a couple thousandths were milled off the outer areas of the deck leaving the cylinders a couple thousands taller to really compress the head gasket with them and plant them solidy. While the mill barely skimmed over ther cylinders to make sure the deck was level they were left needing a cleaning which I gave them so that this mating surface like all the others was chemically clean. Then I got ready to drop on a cylinder head. I tapped new guides into the block and installed ARP 2000 studs.







Like all the rest of the seals used on this engine the OEM headgaskets from the OEM overhaul gasket set were used. The head was placed on the block before the lube was put on the studs. It's much harder to do this way but again I insist on a chemical clean on all mating surfaces--especially the head gasket. The ARP moly assembly lube was used. The washers and nuts were thoroughly cleaned of packing grease and then thoroughly coated with lube. The washers were installed and then the stud threads were lubed. The nuts were installed and torqued in the factory sequence first to 20 ft lbs, then to 40 ft lbs, then to 60 ft lbs, then to 74 ft lbs. Let me tell you, at 74 ft lbs with this set up the compression force holding that head down is much greater than the oem set up.

[longassname]

oh..here's the other side of the cyllinder head.