swflastang05's build thread

[05stroker]

Nope. Going to order the 07+ service manuals with the correct diagrams before I spend any more time screwing with it

Good luck.

 

[swflastang05]

Got a little more done, almost ready to crank, just need to jack it back up and do a few things underneath, hopefully get it running again before the new year..

 

[weather man]

Nice!

 

[Wild White Pony]

Amazing thread, don't know how I missed this. Good luck on the startup and wish you success cause you really earned it. I think this thread covers everything anyone would ever need to know on installing a built engine in a 3v. I know I learned a ton, thank's for your time making this thread.

 

[loots06]

Best of luck today!

 

[swflastang05]

Thanks to everyone for your support and comments, I never would have been able to successfully complete this build without the help of this forum and its members! Well today was the BIG day, I finally got everything in order and ready to crank for the first time, after priming the new motor with 4 quarts of 10w-30 Castrol for the break-in oil I cranked it over and it fired right up! I had an issue at first where it was in failsafe mode, but quickly found where the MAF wasn't completely plugged in, I took care of that then went for a drive! The first pull was amazing, I forgot how crazy this thing pulled when all of a sudden I heard a loud blast of air, damn must have blown a SC pipe off, went back to the house and sure enough I found a coupling where I forgot to tighten the T-clamp! Oops! Fixed that then went for another drive and all went well! I did 3- 3rd gear pulls from 2500 - 6000 and it ran like a raped ape! Like it never missed a beat! I sent the datalog to Lito, he confirmed it looked good, so far so good with this 2nd round build. I will make a few more pulls this weekend, then change the oil, run it until it has about 250 miles total on the new motor, then switch to Gibbs Racing DT40 oil & FRPP filter. So far so good! Here's some more crappy pics, one of these days I'll get some good ones! lol



New deck lid panel, one of my Christmas presents, to myself, lol


More updates tomorrow! Happy New Year Everyone!

 

[swflastang05]

Almost forgot to mention I picked up 20 gallons of fresh e85 yesterday, or actually e83, after testing! lol



This is about the same concentration as my previous fill a couple months ago, so the tune should be fine.

 

[AutoXRacer]

Awesome!!! Congrats!!!
Great to hear success!!

Man so you went all out on the break-in to 6K...? You are brave!! lol

 

[swflastang05]

Awesome!!! Congrats!!!
Great to hear success!!

Man so you went all out on the break-in to 6K...? You are brave!! lol

Yea I guess, 55k / 6k, its not all that different, lol needed to load those
ss rings no matter what!

 

[AutoXRacer]

Yea I guess, 55k / 6k, its not all that different, lol needed to load those
ss rings no matter what!

True that!! lol

 

[BeachMonkey100]

First pull I ever made with the fresh SS rings I went to 6300k, not one bit hesitant about it lol, they need load and I sure gave it to them

 

[RCrumb]

"ran like a raped ape", thats fucking hilarious. Great looking ride, sounds like a blast to drive.

 

[05stroker]

Good to see one of us running again! Congrats.

 

[swflastang05]

I made couple more pulls this morning, then found a stupid oil leak up front somewhere, jacked it up and from what I can tell its leaking right out of the oil pan gasket behind the balancer. I looked super close and it doesn't appear to be coming from the front seal or the key way slot in the balancer but rather right out of the freakin' gasket! I cleaned it up and put some RTV on it for now, hopefully that will slow it down for now so I can finish breaking it in. I'm not looking forward to dropping the oil pan with the motor in the car. How bigga deal is it? I have a UPR K-member... I know you need to move the steering rack, does that leave enough clearance? Is it possible to mark everything to reinstall the rack in the exact same place and then not be necessary to get an alignment?

Argh... that's what I get for trying to reuse that gasket! Mind you the timing cover was pulled several times on the previous motor with that same gasket, knew I should have ordered a new one.

 

[loots06]

Congrats and Happy New Year!

 

[cm581978]

Vids?!

 

[swflastang05]

First pull I ever made with the fresh SS rings I went to 6300k, not one bit hesitant about it lol, they need load and I sure gave it to them

Hell yea!

"ran like a raped ape", thats fucking hilarious. Great looking ride, sounds like a blast to drive.

Thanks man, it is a blast!

Good to see one of us running again! Congrats.

Your next!

Vids?!

I'll have to figure out how to embed video..

 

[swflastang05]

Okay I have a series of good news / bad news. First off, the RTV has zero affect on the leak. Good news is I found the source, I think, it looks like it's the front seal after all. I cleaned everything up and ran it again on jack stands and observed oil running down directly from the center of the seal. I have no effin' idea why that happened, I installed a new seal during the assembly, but it is what it is. I guess there's a chance I didn't lube it good enough when I installed it, I doubt that happened but I have no other explanation. In any case I pulled the seal, did not see anything out of the ordinary. Bad news is I tried to install a new one without the "Special tools" and quickly realized that's not gonna happen! The entire crank started turning before the seal went in! Now I get to bite the bullet and order those ridiculously over priced special tools.. I've installed the seals a few times with the timing cover off, but not with it installed. So more good news is its NOT the oil pan so I don't need to pull it, bad news is I already ordered a new gasket & bolts, lol!

Here's the flange on my ATI balancer, you can see there's a wear pattern, but you cannot feel it with your finger nail so it should be okay.


front seal out. Maybe that ding caused a problem during install, I will file it down before installed the new seal

 

[swflastang05]

I finally stopped the oil leak, details are here in the other thread I stated on that topic http://www.s197forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=119768&referrerid=163812

In any case now I can finally log some miles and finish breaking in this new motor. Will try to record some video and attempt to embed it here too, lol.

 

[swflastang05]

Here's a video I just took with my phone, the audio is kinda crappy though, not sure why. In any case, here's something. I gotta wash the dust off the car now too from sitting so long.