beaterX project thread

[scheides]

Originally Posted by Mark Leasure

Did you get it back together this weekend?

Hell yea! JUST got back from ripping around the neighborhood. Total, about 4 hours apart, couple hours (ok like 4) of cleaning and getting parts run around, maybe about 6 hours to get it back together. I made a few boneheaded mistakes but hey I caught them before it was too late

Yanked the cams to bolt the head to the block (dumb design imho but whatever):



Freshy fresh:


found a few nicks in the headgasket I got, not sure if that was from me or mitsu or what but I sure wish they would put these things in cardboard packaging, would be worth the extra $5 cost imho


I cleaned it up as best I could and used it anyways, it looks worse than it is I think.


gasket on, head bolted down, cams bolted in, gears on, timing chain mounted and timing set, chain tensioner set(this was one of my oopsies, put it in but forgot to tighten the bolts! doh!), and timing cover cleaned, RTV'd, installed, uninstalled, re-rtv'd, and re-installed



More freshy-fresh parts! I put in the revised timing chain from the 2010's:


New on the left (mounted), old one on the right:


After all the belt problems I had, bought a new tensioner and pulley. The pulley was like $65 and the tensioner + pulley was only like $30 more so I just got the whole assembly (still plastic but goes nice with my nice metal hyundai pulleys!)



So that's about it! Fired right up, no leaks yet, changed oil, fresh coolant, ripped it around the block a few times and parked it. Undertray, heat shields, and strut tower go back on tomorrow and it's back to DD duty for this pig. Car still sounds kinda diesely on cold start (but it always has a little) so its part injectors and maybe the rings on #1 are part of the problem. I'll just check the oil every 100 miles (as I have been all fall) and see what happens. Gonna check logs (did some quick pulls but with all the snow there's no traction!) and drink a beer.

THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR YOUR INPUT! Thank you MAP for the parts and coordinating with Wagemon Bros machine shop, total downtime was only *three* days, not bad!

[95talonracer]

Did you have to mess with checking clearances on bucket to cams on these cars? The 2jz's are the same whee you have to remove the cams to install the headstuds as well.

[scheides]

Originally Posted by 95talonracer

Did you have to mess with checking clearances on bucket to cams on these cars? The 2jz's are the same whee you have to remove the cams to install the headstuds as well.

Yup. I did it myself last time and it took two weeks (had to order a bunch of different ones). I let the machine shop do it this time and it took two hours. :P

[Halon]

Nice, and good choice on the GSC springs

[scheides]

Originally Posted by Halon

Nice, and good choice on the GSC springs

Honestly GSC Beehives and GSC S2 cams were my first choice for this car but they were on *uber* backorder so I went with the Supertechs based on a few recommendations and the Kelfords kinda the same. I had Kelford 272's in my evo8 so I knew they would be decent, but considering they idle *almost* like stock and are only 270° / 262° (exhaust cam is only 10.3mm of lift!) but make 600whp on a dynojet I gotta say I'm pretty damn impressed. I was pumped to go to the S2's and hope to pick up 15-20whp or so but maybe I'd be just dreaming. This setup was real nice, I'm sorry I had to mess with it but I'm glad I got the beehives now!

[turbotalon1g]

:woot:

Glad to here it's alive again! Way to bring in the new year!

[C3L1CA]

That's awesome it was only down for 3 days!


Think you'll do some even crazier build down the line sometime?

[rose0529]

Glad to hear its up and running!

[scheides]

Put about 80 miles on it yesterday, no issues other than I need to gap my plugs down a tad. Car fucking rips! Everything else just seems like a compromise to this car. For a lot of reasons I'm stuck with only one car so the whole summer/winter car is really not an option for me. Everything else is more expensive, only RWD, or doesn't have near the power potential.

[cmspaz]

Originally Posted by scheides

Put about 80 miles on it yesterday, no issues other than I need to gap my plugs down a tad. Car fucking rips! Everything else just seems like a compromise to this car. For a lot of reasons I'm stuck with only one car so the whole summer/winter car is really not an option for me. Everything else is more expensive, only RWD, or doesn't have near the power potential.

James was saying last night that what surprised him the most wasn't how much power it has, but just how smooth it was. He said he'd never have considered a X but now it's for sure on his list of cars that he'd be willing to own based on sheer streetability with that kind of power.

You done good, sir.

[scheides]

Compression, leakdown, and cam bucket measuring tonight. Remember Cyl#1 had the light broken spark plug damage to it:

Compression: 134 149 135 145

Leakdown: 30% 20% 20% 15% (cheap harbor freight tool--#1 def leaking past rings, but not horribly)

Head clearances (specs are intake .008 exhaust .012 both +/- 1):
Exhaust: (.009 | .009) (.010 | .011) (.010 | .011) (.011 | .012)
Intake: (.005 | .007) (.010 | .009) (.007 | .007) (.008 | .006)

After 120 miles no leaks, oil consumption is nil, and spark plug #1 looks ready for misfire (lots of carbon build-up probably from before head rebuild?). Happy-ish with compression, leakdown is not so bad but still makes me sad, and head clearances are not perfect but not horrible. I think next time I will request they end up more on the loose side but its fine for now.

Time for a little virtual dyno (if the snow melts) and moar boost, we'll see how she runs (snow or no snow) through the rest of the winter. She's not perfect, but fuck it--it's a DSM! :P

[turbotalon1g]

Why is it a DSM?

It's not some old sports car that everyone beats the fuck out of and then is all surprised and cries when it breaks.

[A//// Guy]

Scheides you are a beast! I couldnt handle this much work on a regular basis haha. Also whats wrong with rwd! Get a cheap old vw for DD and a fun veeight summer car.

[Kracka]

Only 2 of 16 valves are [barely] within spec...is the machine shop going to take any responsibility for this?

[scheides]

Originally Posted by A//// Guy

Scheides you are a beast! I couldnt handle this much work on a regular basis haha. Also whats wrong with rwd! Get a cheap old vw for DD and a fun veeight summer car.

Only one car for me! Some day when I have a bigger house, less expenses, etc I'll consider it but not gonna happen where I live now. Leaving a car outside for a few nights is no biggie but over time stupid shit happens in the city.

Originally Posted by Kracka

Only 2 of 16 valves are [barely] within spec...is the machine shop going to take any responsibility for this?

I'll talk to MAP and see what they want to do, I'm not super impressed but with everything else going on in my life I'm just kinda done worrying about it.

Originally Posted by turbotalon1g

Why is it a DSM?

It's not some old sports car that everyone beats the fuck out of and then is all surprised and cries when it breaks.

Tell that to murlo, trogdor or any other evoX owner (or me 2 years ago when the motor threw a ringland). :P

[JET]

Yeah, the exhaust is WAY out of spec.

[scheides]

fuck! Just noticed I had intake/exhaust values reversed in my post. Please review They're not *that* bad.

[Kracka]

Hey, now 7 of 16 are within spec. We're almost halfway there

IMO, machine shop owes you a redo, or a refund. I assume of course they had everything needed to properly measure/machine to these specs though? It's too bad MAP didn't have their machining equipment up and operational, unlucky timing for your vacation and their move

[goodhart]

Any reason you had wagamon do it and not gosh? just curious

[Kracka]

I probably shouldn't speak for Scheides, but I think it was basically who ever could get it done ASAP same/next day.