Build Thread The Hoopty Chronicles - New House, New garage, New Car?

It would be a sloppy mechanics style "stick it in and let it eat" type deal. Let it eat as in, I'm going to drive around and not make any boost. I don't know how I'm going to come up with $2400 yet either. It's not just couch change.
I'm assuming the extra 400.00 is for new rods..
The jy engine thing is a bandaid. There's probably cast, or hyper u craptic pistons in that engine with a ring end gap set tight for the n/a combo it was intended for.

Too much heat from boost, or One rattle from detonation will end that option in a minute.
 
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I'm assuming the extra 400.00 is for new rods..
The jy engine thing is a bandaid. There's probably cast, or hyper u craptic pistons in that engine with a ring end gap set tight for the n/a combo it was intended for.

Too much heat from boost, or One rattle from detonation will end that option in a minute.
Yes - A band aid while I save for 10 years to come up with the $2400. Keep the boost down, but more importantly, keep the damn thing on the road!
 
Im just throwing sht at the wall at this point. I don't know where the $2400 is gonna come from. I was prepared for $1500-ish. But then I got talked into new rods and I feel like the $350 is money well spent to have them throw the motor on the dyno and make sure everything is A-ok.

OR

I buy the cheap $179 rods, say no to the dyno, im all in for $1830, but here I go cheaping out again and we know what happens then.......
 
After thinking about it for a minute,...I just don't get it.
Putting an engine together isn't rocket science. It's true that there is some skill and special tools required to do it right, and make it easier ( a tapered sleeve ring compressor comes to mind) but putting an engine together is basically just a bunch of bolts and nuts that are tightened and torqued.
Once you fix the damn crank rod mismatch, and balance that engine, you're done.
It's one thing to want to be sure that you have done things right by farming out the work to a pro...its another to have to wait several months to be able to afford having him do it.
It'd be different if this was something that required a " learned skill", but it isn't. Anybody that knows you can't pound a square peg into a round hole ( and doesn't try to do it) can assemble a short block.
You just have to follow a process, and don't cut corners, and it'll run just as good as if you paid to have it done.
At a fraction of the cost.
And.....if money is an object....i wouldn't be spending it on rods that are over twice as expensive.
 
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Mike I understand your point of view, but since I’m on version 3, i want to rule out any possible source of error i can. Yes, i can assemble it. I just can’t guarantee it will be right.

I’m confident i can do a lot of things, but not this, with the tools and skills I’ve got in my garage. Allen offered to come assemble my motor too, and i greatly appreciate it, but at this point I’m just going to leave it with the shop.
 
You said earlier that your wife was allowing you a $500 per month budget, should have enough to get it done by summer. I think the dyno is a good idea, if it blows apart on the dyno, they own it.

Joe
 
After thinking about it for a minute,...I just don't get it.
Putting an engine together isn't rocket science. It's true that there is some skill and special tools required to do it right, and make it easier ( a tapered sleeve ring compressor comes to mind) but putting an engine together is basically just a bunch of bolts and nuts that are tightened and torqued.
Once you fix the damn crank rod mismatch, and balance that engine, you're done.
It's one thing to want to be sure that you have done things right by farming out the work to a pro...its another to have to wait several months to be able to afford having him do it.
It'd be different if this was something that required a " learned skill", but it isn't. Anybody that knows you can't pound a square peg into a round hole ( and doesn't try to do it) can assemble a short block.
You just have to follow a process, and don't cut corners, and it'll run just as good as if you paid to have it done.
At a fraction of the cost.
And.....if money is an object....i wouldn't be spending it on rods that are over twice as expensive.

Mike, have you ever took the time to measure clearances throughout the engine, or have you always got away with bolting it together?

I know a lot of guys get away with doing it, but I think it's a little misleading to think you can just bolt it all together.

Collin, have tou tried a fresh filter and some run time to see if the engine is eating itself or of you just got left over trash?

Joe
 
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@RangerJoe this filter was the 2nd oil change - as in i ran it for a couple hours in the garage, changed the oil and filter, ran it ~100 miles, and the bearing pieces were the results of that.

There’s no noise and the oil pressure is what it’s always been. So other than the debris, it seems healthy. Also, no glitter in the filter. Just those 5-6 pieces. It’s definitely bearing material though
 
Mike, have you ever took the time to measure clearances throughout the engine, or have you always got away with bolting it together?

I know a lot of guys get away with doing it, but I think it's a little misleading to think you can just bolt it all together.

Collin, have tou tried a fresh filter and some run time to see if the engine is eating itself or of you just got left over trash?

Joe
the engine in my car only had ring end gap checked and adjusted by me. I've always had to trust a machine shop to do what they say they did ( a. 010 under cut requiring a. 010 over bearing)
I still don't think that you'll get anything more from anybody that doesn't have to. In other words....How do you know that machine shop that assembled the engine for you checked anything either?
I paid to have one engine assembled for me by a local machine shop here.
The crank trigger was incorrectly installed....it was so far out of time,..that we couldn't get the engine into boost... And we had head gasket leaks out the tail pipes.

They fixed it, ....but I still had to pull the heads back off.
The only person you can trust to do things right is you. If you choose ( like me) to believe that skirt clearances are right, and bearing clearances are right, then you take your chances......and buy the bearings, throw the pistons in the holes, and run it.

It may throw oil all over the place when it's in boost.......it may not.

Collin may get a shop that checks everything for what they're charging, and they may not...wholl ever know? If the freakin thing runs like its sposed to, then whose gonna check it after that?

The chunks, and the vibration are tell tales....it didn't do it before, it's doing it now,..something's fcked the fck up.

Half the guys here decide that their times' too precious to do their own work..Half the guys here have more money than the other half. It's okay for them when there's money in the " I'm too important to get greasy" account..but the other half has to do for themselves....or the car sits.

So you learn. You make mistakes, you do sht over, and you learn some more. Sooner or later, you come to terms..

Either you figure it out, or your sht sits waiting till you build up your " I'm too important to get greasy " fund.
 
I agree on the learning as you go. There were things I missed and did wrong when I built mine but I researched and talked to as many people as I could before I assembled. I bought some measuring tools and borrowed some others, but checked every clearance I could think to check at the time, verifying what the machinist did and adjusting bearings here and there. I am just afraid to recomend anything less to Collin as he is already peaking over the cliff and I hate to see him get thrown over by another failed motor.

Joe
 
I agree on the learning as you go. There were things I missed and did wrong when I built mine but I researched and talked to as many people as I could before I assembled. I bought some measuring tools and borrowed some others, but checked every clearance I could think to check at the time, verifying what the machinist did and adjusting bearings here and there. I am just afraid to recomend anything less to Collin as he is already peaking over the cliff and I hate to see him get thrown over by another failed motor.

Joe
And i get that..But it's like I said..I warned him not to use a stock rod bolt, and to definitely have all 8 rods resized. Now we got another spun rod bearing.

There's a difference between building an engine, and putting one together. Anybody that can swing a hammer and hit a nail can put an engine together (My cousin is a testament to that). I mean it took us a couple of times to figure his engine out, and he phcked some sht up while learning, but he managed to finally put two engines together that ran. As for me, I learned right along with him. I just learned.........better.

Building an engine is where you pay attention to the specifics. Building an engine is what makes the difference between an engine that runs as good as it can, and one that runs good enough. I believe that my turbocharger is the crutch to get me past the "good enough" hurdle.

As for Collin,......He can do it. He just needs to not let money or time get in his way. Not spending the extra time and money to do a small thing cost him a lot of time and money to fix it. While paying some guy to do it might have a guaranty that it'll run, that isn't a guarantee that he wont have to tear it back apart if it doesn't.

I paid a machine shop to do the work to my engine. I paid them to do the things they routinely do a bazillion times over and over,....and I had to tear the engine back apart after discovering that they had gouged the hell out of the #6 cylinder, and honed the cylinders tighter at the bottom and looser at the top.

Guess what I had to do?
 
I agree its actually easy to assemble an engine. you just follow the sequence and check your bearing clearances and torque everything correctly etc. Believe me its nerve wrecking and i check and recheck my work but i've built over 10 engines and its not a huge deal. Hey at least these aren't flat tappet engines because once its done and running there's still the stress of that cam flattening out which happened on my t-bird 390fe. There's never a guarantee something isn't gonna happen theres just too many variables. The difference is that you will be paying extra attention and not some guy who cant wait till 5:00 comes around so he can go home.