I thought I would share my NA rebuild with you guys. Anti was pushing for me to share my rebuild, so might as well let you guys in on what I'm doing for a new motor for my car. I'll get you guys caught up on to what has been going on since the motor developed rod knock back in the beginning of October. Please pardon all the copy/ paste entries, as they are all older entries from another forum. I will keep this thread more updated as I start reassembling the motor, now that I have a majority of the parts. Day 1 It's a 90 VG30DE with about 212k miles on it. A bit dirty, but it won't be for long. Picked it up with the intention of doing a full rebuild on it and not leaving anything to chance. The last motor I put together reused the bottom end of a previously running motor I had that was "rebuilt" before being swapped into my current Z by the previous owner. I can only assume the rebuild was pretty crappy, as the motor had a ton of blow-by and developed rod knock after a few months of my driving it around. Day 2 Started with the basics on this motor for full tear down: Plenum pull, removal of water pipes, fuel rail removal. Removed the EGR as well and all the PCV hardpipes as those are getting eliminated also. Day 3 Went to remove the front coolant pipes in order to remove all the timing belt components, but ended up stripping one of the allen bolts (shown in the picture with the still to be removed lower coolant pipe) Removed all the accessories except for the AC, the upper coolant pipe, and the bypass hoses as well. Day 4 Ended up borrowing an extractor kit and removing the stripped bolt. Removed the lower coolant pipe and called it a night. Day 5 Received my order from Coz using their New Years Day Special of free shipping and 5% off. Ordered some BDE billet motor mounts to replace my dead OEM ones and ordered a full engine gasket kit since I will be needed nearly everything for this rebuild. No pic of the gasket kit, but here are the mounts Started removing all the timing belt covers and timing belt components. Discovered one of the idler pulleys was BEYOND dead. Hopefully it didn't cause any funky stuff to happen to the timing belt. Also discovered this motor came with "adjustable" VTC cam pulleys which are compatible with older style cams (The adjustable style pulleys are more common in the later model motors). Looks like I'll be sending these in to BDE to be made into fully adjustable pulleys as well as having them refreshed to pretty much eliminate the VTC tick that our motors are known for http://bde-performance.com/vtc_late.htm Should help with getting the most out of the motor with my JWT cams. I've had my TT heads machined, so the timing might be a bit off with all the cams, so this should help get everything timed properly as well. Everything from the front of the motor was removed, AC compressor and bracket was removed, and the stock headers were removed as well. Ready for pulling the heads off Day 6 This brings me to tonight. Started by removing the valve covers and removing the NA heads. Luckily it seems like the timing belt didn't do anything weird and the valves didn't make friendly with the pistons. Awesome. While I was at it, I removed the oil pan and started removing the rods/ pistons. Removed the oil pump as well. How she currently sits, just a block, with only the girdle, crank, and oil squirters installed. I did run into some curious issues. Pulling off rods 5 and 6 I noticed this... Bearings for rod 5 The bearings for rod 6 has heat marks, but no scoring. Thoughts? Here is the crank: Seems like the crank is fine. Will inspect further tomorrow once I completely remove the crank. Now I run into a new dilemma. Will the rods be ok to reuse? And if not, do I just replace 2 rods with OEM rods, or replace all 6 with new aftermarket rods and keep the stock pistons? Plans for this motor build are as follows: -New OEM rod and main bearings (WPC treating these) -New OEM rings for all pistons (WPC treating these as well) -Hot tanking the block and honing the cylinders -Installing my freshly rebuilt TT heads with JWT S1 cams installed -Installing BDE Bullseye exhaust cam gears and more than likely BDE VTC pulleys as well -Transferring my ceramic coated Stillen headers -Tuning the car at SpecialtyZ once the motor is broken in Possible additions to the build: -knife edging and balancing the crank -installing a crank scraper and windage tray -boring out the stock TBs and mating those to my current short dual intakes with Selin kit Should make for a fun and super responsive NA set up. Pair that with the 4.3 final drive I have yet to install, and it should definitely be a fun car to drive around in
And for those wondering why I'm doing all this work for only a lowly NA motor? Well, why not? My original VG30DE lasted me till 244k or so miles. I drove that motor since it has 103k miles on it, and since it was in my possession, it saw a lot of abuse both on the track with near monthly track events, both drifting and road racing, and abuse on the streets while daily driving it. It was super reliable, and never gave me any issues until it died a viking death on the track due to a dented oil pan and oil starvation. I am looking to regain that reliability that another properly done NA motor can give me. Also, not many people have gone into trying to extract more power out of the NA and responsiveness with all the plans I have in store, so this is also an experiment I am excited in carrying out. It also gives me the experience of tearing down and putting a motor together, an experience that will be valuable once I finally get the 1JZ motor I desire since I plan on tearing down and rebuilding that motor as well. Also, a properly rebuilt VG will hold it's value better than a used VG30 will, especially if it dyno's favorably. So here goes for the 5 motor set up I will run in my current Z
Talking to a buddy right now who works for a shop that does one off billet cranks. Might be able to do the work and balancing for me Day 7 Pulled out the crank, girdle, and oil squirters. There are the main bearings. They definitely show 200k+ miles of usage. Very tempted do clean out the flashings in the casting... but I've never had an issue before. Lazyboy problems, lol. Looks a little dirty, giggidy, lol Shot of the cylinders. Nice and shiney, but with visible crosshatching still. Won't be shiney for long... All naked! She goes to the machinist tomorrow for honing and hot tanking.
Day 7: Redid the threads in one of the plugs in the oil passages in the block. Stock, it is 1/8 BSPT pipe threading. Was going to install an aftermarket oil temp gauge in there since it is directly in the pass of oil within the block itself. So I retapped it for a 1/8-27 NPT pipe thread. Worked perfect! Also took Corey's advice and got to grinding. Made a MASSIVE difference. As shown. Before pics are in the previous page.
Day 8 Decided to pull the rods and pistons apart. Apparently these are also know as Jesus clips. I learn something new everyday lol. Pulled the rings off as well, since I bought new ones. And the old wrist pins. Taking your guys' advice and putting in TT ones. Now to clean these up! Tomorrow I should be picking up all of my parts from the dealership
Ran into some "issues" with the stock pistons. Did not like the pitting at all on the surfaces of the oem pistons. So.... I did this. 88mm bore. 11.5:1 compression. And weight comparison with stock. Time to get the block bored out, and get the crank worked on. And got these as well.
so, I spent more money while I was waiting for the crank to be finished. completed the set. The motor I bought actually had the new servicable VTC pulleys with the built in adjustment for the 90-93 cams. So I sent them to BDE to make them fully adjustable from the front, and for the redesign of eliminating the VTC tick. They look great in person. Can't wait to show before and after of the cam tuning of both the intake and exhaust cams. I hope these small details push me over the 250whp barrier. Now I wait for the crank to come back. Should come back looking very similar to Mike Kojima's crank. Cept he cryo treated his, whereas I'm WPC treating mine
Got a few parts back from WPC treatment. Did all my main bearings (shown) and rod bearings (not shown). Here is a close up of the metal after treatment. It has this cool dull titanium finish afterwards. Should help a lot with bearing life and reducing friction. Awesome voodoo magic available nowadays. I also got something non-engine related WPC treated. Bought a rebuild kit for my Carbonetic 2-way LSD and got the cone spring disk and the clutch disks WPC treated as well. This will help reduce noise, reduce wear, keep the diff cooler, and extended oil change intervals. Win win win The crank is also done at the machine shop from being bull nosed, balanced, and all the other fun stuff I had done to it. Now it's also getting WPC treated. Hopefully I can start reassembly next weekend. A few articles on WPC treatment: http://www.motoiq.com/magazine_artic...about-wpc.aspx Article on real world benefits on WPC http://www.motoiq.com/magazine_artic...ur-engine.aspx http://www.motoiq.com/magazine_artic...nion-gear.aspx
Got picture of the crank work done. Just needs WPC treatment now and we're good to go! Before (excuse the shitty pic) And after (bull nosing, tack welding of bolts to middle counterweight, and full rebalancing) The machinist actually opted to not teardrop the passages, as in his experience, it is not really required. I'm going to go ahead with his experience. The WPC treatment of the crank and bearings should help with oil retention and reduction of friction anyways. One more week and I should have this bad boy treated and in the block.
Which leads me to yesterday and bringing this build thread fully up to date. Got the crank in my possession now. And man, does it look brand spanking new! Close up of the bullnosing Tackwelds, even grinded flush with the counterweight And a shot of one the of journals with and without flash to show how the WPC treatment looks Time to get this thing together! Only waiting on the crank scraper and new oil pick up tube to get the bottom end completely assembled. At least I can get the rotating assembly in now! Even got the car washed in celebration!
Fantastic stuff, I'm loving this build! What did you use to clean your original pistons? They came up looking almost brand new (well, aside from the detonation pits).
I used something called Chem-Dip Carburetor cleaner. It's a tin bicket with a plastic basket in it. You place the part/parts in the basket, and leave it submerged in the chemical for a period of time. Pull it out and scrub off.
Ah, Chem-Dip. I looked into getting that here in Australia, but it seems there's no local distributor and no US-based sellers will ship it over here. Very keen to see how your project pans out. I've got an NA build of my own that's a (very) long-term project, so it's good to see someone else is doing a big atmo engine build too.
right now, just 40P twin turbos heads with JWT regrinds, mated with the BDE adjustable VTC and exhaust pulleys. The heads have also been recently rebuild with Viton valve stem seals and the valve seats redone for a proper seal. Anything more will require way more money than I am willing to spend.
Fantastic work, loving the look of your crank. Can I ask why you opted for TT heads? Because they're less restrictive? Had a look at the link there, from my understanding it's $585 AFTER a core exchange. You'll also need later model cams for it all to be compatible, correct?
only the 4.3 final drive I have to installed. And rebuild my clutch differential. Hence the new clutch disks I got WPC treated as well. apparently TT heads flow more, so we'll see. Why not right? And the motor I have came with older model servicable VTC units, so they have the adjustment build in, and are compatible with older model cams. I sent those in and had BDE modify those for the VTC tick fix and for adjustment. http://bde-performance.com/vtc_late.htm 3rd paragraph.
