My 1995 GTR project thread.

[cortexx]

Thanks Frankie , thats what happened when i try to do build updates while sat at my desk at work on the phone :P , i corrected my inaccuracy !

So last night was up to 3am working on making things look like new again and had a new Ally to help with the work , a 9 litre pail of Kleenflo Carb and metal stripper/cleaner.

I grabbed a few other nasty looking castings to strip and threw them in the can of foul smelling liquid - this stuff is nasty - need to wear eye protection and a good pair of chemical proof rubber gloves for this .



and this


that was very nasty ..... and this



the shaft is rusty and badley pitted , not sure how to tackle this - will consult the oracle (google)

Now the throttle bodies came out of the wash tank looking pretty sorry still so i stripped them and dropped them in the tank of toxic waste , only gave them 30 minutes because i didnt want to destroy the seals on the throttle shafts and they came out nice and clean , I then removed the buttterfly plates and removed all the junk and stains with salvol polish. They are made of brass which is relatively soft so I didnt go too crazy as i didnt want to remove any metal .

Did one at a time so that they didn't get mixed up or put back in back to front.

This looks alot better



I used red locktite on the butetrfly screws - these are screws you definately DON'T want to come lose while the engine is running ..




Before these were cleaned you could shine a light behind and no light came through , now they are clean , there is a thin rim of light around the butterflies that will be eliminated with a coat of throttle coat from Tomei ..

The throttle bodies already had this coat on them but whomever applied it used it on the worng side of the butteryflys so it wasn't 100% effective ...

The throttle bodies were then masked up with frog tape and the corrosion and stains sand blasted off the outside with baking soda ...



after blasting , cleaned with brake cleaner ( i swear to god this stuff is the most used chemical in my work shop , i buy it by the case load ) , and then sprayed with fluidfilm.

When the aluminium casting has been blasted the metal is exposed and porous - this is a good time to seal it to protect the surface from corrosion . WD40 or fluid film is great for this , i soaks into the metal pores and does the job....

A quick blast of throttle body cleaner and its all ready for the assembly of the linkages and throttle coat ( tonights project ).

[cortexx]

Here are the seals that everyone is paranoid about damaging , they are alot tougher than you realise ...



before and after cleaning of the throttle springs and spring stop plates ...



those were soaked in wd40 after to protect the metal from corrosion as per the throttle bodies..

STarting to get the subassemblies ready to install to the block - here is the tomei oil pump being preoiled before installed - the pump comes pretty much dry so this helps with the initial startup of the engine ..

[cortexx]

actually if you bolt the cam caps on the head without a cam and do them just less than finger tight you'll see there is a slight movement of the cap - this helps the cap seat over the cam jounal perfectly when it's being tightened down , with the tomei studs the caps were incredibly tight and without the cam in place you can feel a lip where the cap and head but together .

I asked the machine shop about this and they suggested slightly opening up the holes in the caps to allow a certain amount of movement again so that that caps can sit without binding on the cam. They told me the ideal way would be to start fresh with a new head casting , fit the studs and alignhone the caps to make it all perfect . I asked about the movement of the caps and they told me that this wont happen when running - if it was going to happen nissan would have pinned the caps like they did on the cam angle sensor bracket or the oil pump .

I'm either going to replace the studs with another kit if tomei step up , machine the head to take m8 bolts all around , or going back to the factory bolts ( which incidentally i put one in vice with a double nut on the thread and torqued it till it snapped which took over 20 lbs/ft to do - go figure lol ).

[PurpleStreak]

I second revisiting the torque spec on the different stud. torque will change with thread spec and more so with larger stud size (increased root area). You can back calculate the required tensile load for the stud and get the appropriate torque value for the new stud.

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk 2

[NismoS-tune]

Oh man, your story about the Tomei cam cap stud... been there done that haha.

I broke one last year (I was the other guy that broke one) but I had used a crappy Princess auto torque wrench (though I had a canadian tire one and a napa one too... oops).

Anyway, same story here but I didn't use any lock tite. I ended up drilling out the broken stud, tapping a slightly larger hole and using a helicoil (the tomei stud was weaker than the stock bolts which I tested in fact, 17 pounds before bust), I believe the tomei studs could handle more stress but over torquing was their fail point maybe. I think the fact that I used lube when torquing is why mine broke. I never did brake another but I did replace one that had streched funny, even at 7nm...

Best part was that I coudln't just get 1 tomei stud, I had to buy a whole new set at $200 some so I now have spares lol. I know your pain bro.

You know, I could probably send you the helicoil kit and a stud haha. I don't know if I'll ever need it if you've followed my build thread...

[cortexx]

So after agonizing about the cam cap all day I came home and ripped off all the cams and valve gear ( curses to who decided to make the RB a 24 valve engine ) . With the sheer size of the financial investment in this engine build i can't have anything be questionable when i turn the key.

I reinstalled the cams with no valve train to see how well they turned when the caps were torqued. I installed the end caps and the center one first and span it to make sure nothing was binding all was good . Installed the remainder of the caps and tested one by one and the second cap from the cam wheel on both cams caused a significant amoutn of drag . This included the cap i had drilled out and the same cap on the intake side .

So the head is all packed up ready to go back to active engines , the caps will all be align honed and the m8 bolt hole will be re-machined for a helicoil and proper stud.

Plastigauging the cap caps actually showed the 2 caps in question had next to no oil clearance , and 4 other caps had way too much (one of them more than 3 times the specified amount).

Holding off on the head progress and having this taken care of i'm pretty sure will contribute to the integrity of the build. Thanks to the guys who second guessed it and made me paranoid all day

Tonight after the head was packed up I installed the tomei oil pump on the block , 2 new woodruff keys on the crank , the cam sproket plate and a new cam sprocket ( holy crap almost $180 from nissan for that ) , New cam belt idler pullys and associated fasteners and the water pump. I also installed the ARP head studs into the block and checked stud heights to make sure each stud was at the correct depth and nothing was binding .

I'll post some pics up tommorrow , cam batteries were dead tonight and currently being charged ..

6Boost twinscroll manifold came today - it's very purdy and weighs a ton lol

[GTRADDICT]

Good call on the align hone. Might as well do it right.

[frankiman]

I love this build thread, quality workmanship


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[cortexx]

Ok a few pics as promised , I didnt make it into the workshop last night , too tired ..

Here is the block with oil pump , water pump , cam belt idlers and arp head stud kit installed .....




and the glorious 6boost manifold (that's about to get wrapped)



Should have some more updates tonight.....

[gAWDzla]

loving the build man. wish i could get parts like you guys can, very jealous.

[wideopenthrottle]

This thread is amazing. I can't wait for my R33 to get in. I have searched on a few topics and your build has so much information it's great. The only think that makes me a little sick is when the compression test gets done its a junk motor.

[cortexx]

10th Oct 2012 updates ...

Been a while and have been doing more work than keeping this thread uptodate so here's whats been going on.

I got the use of an ultrasonic cleaning tank for a while and have been putting that to good use to surgically clean parts prior to installation - it's great insurance to stop crap getting into the engine. Also switched to glass microbeads for a blasting substrate to clean aluminium castings that has the effect of shotpeening the surface of the metal making it less prone to corrosion , a bit less prone to cracking and alot easier on the eyes. Anything that gets blasted with the glass gets tanked in the ultrasonic cleaner to make absolutely sure no glass beads end up in the engine.

So after alot of jerking around with the head making sure that the valve train was assembled as perfectly as possible it was time to mate it to the block. Cleaning of the block deck , piston crowns and bore walls were done with methyl hydrate to make sure there was no grease or debris on the mating surfaces. They were then then wiped down again with a tac cloth to make sure no lint or fluff remained.

Of course after doing this we have nice clean bores and pistons but a dry bore is very bad so I lubed it again by carefully applying a generous coating of 20w50 mineral oil taking care not to contaminate the deck.

all shiney ready for the head ...




As you can see the ARP studs are still in the head after being test fitted - this was to make sure no crap fell down the holes while waiting for the head install. I will remove them prior to head install because there is no way in hell you will drop a head over these studs on an RB engine , you will damage the threads on the studs.

The head gasket was test fitted now to make sure all holes were where they are supposed to be and that none were missing ( seriously i have had head gaskets missing stud holes and water jacket holes before when i was a mechanic back in the day) . This is a superstition of mine because the chances of this happening on a premium gasket are probably nill , i just cant assume it is so.




Now I know the gasket is all good the studs must be removed so that the head can seat. The studs can then be reinstalled once the head is in place - again - do not be tempted to install the head with the studs in place !



The gasket should stay in position because there are 2 dowels located on the lbock to make sure everything aligns properly . DO NOT install a head if they are missing ( i know i'm stating the obvious but i have seen it done before ).

I cleaned the head the same way as i cleaned the block deck - it is important to remove the grease because you want as good a seal as possible. The stainless type head gaskets have a nitrile coating on them that melts and bonds the surfaces together once the engine is started and heated up. It is this bond that gives the strength and resistance to high cylinder pressures that boosted engines are subjected to. The cleaner the mating surfaces , the more intact this bond will be. It is for this reason that you should never reuse a stainless head gasket once the engine has been started . You can remove the head and reuse the gasket as long as it was never started.

Head gently mounted and located on the dowels ...

[cortexx]

Now it's time to reinstall the studs one at a time with an extra long allen key. ARP saw fit to make the top end of each bolt have an allen key recess to facilitate this process, ARP product is very good quality - maybe the best you can buy for your engine.

The Studs too a turn in the ultrasonice tank to make sure they are as clean as possible , they are exposed in the heads oil gallery so i want no contamination .

Here are the studs coming out of the tank along with a few other castings i wanted to clean up ...





The studs are then treated to an application of assembly lube paste that comes with the ARP stud kit. This helps reduce the friction on the thread as you torque down the nuts so that you get a much more even torque setting. This is imperitive - especially with an aluminium inline 6 engine as it's so long and prone to warpage if the nuts are unevenly tightened down .




The nuts and washers also get the ultrasonic treatment before install for exactly the same reasons as the studs .




The studs are easily threaded down through the head and wound down into the respective holes in the block with a long allen key. They are tightened down finger tight , just enough to snug them. This is why i use an allen key for this rather than an allendrive on a wrench , you cant over tighten them with an allen key . I also didnt thread lock them down because i may redo another head some time and wanted to keep the whole assembly easy to remove again.




Once the studs are all in place once again, i installed the washers and nuts . The washers were installed with the same allen key but i attached a neonidium magnet on its shaft so that i could drop them into position without losing them down the oil galleries in the head . If you lose a washer or a nut when trying to position them over the studs , chances are they went sideways into an oil gallery, so have a handy magnet pickup available because i guarentee you will make use of it here no matter how careful you are.




Another tip just incase you ever attempt this insane journey - you can use a good glob of lithium grease on the nuts to hold them in the socket as you lower them down to spin them onto the stud, Lithium grease can be used anywhere in the engine assembly like this , it won't hurt anything and will get flushed on the first oil change after start up. I actually like to coat the cam lobes with it prior to start up as it prevents scuffing of the lobes and buckets . But it's great on my nuts








AND the nuts dont drop while you position them




Once all the nuts were snugged down by hand i torqued them all to 60ft lbs and left them over night. I am told that torquing it in stages isnot required with these studs etc because they do not stretch, I was also made to believe the tomei cam cap stud kits were awesome pieces that i must have and ...... well you know ... anyway , the guy that taught me most of what i know when i was an apprentice told me to torque in stages and give the studs , gasket , and head time to settle before final torque and that advice has served me well so that's what i'll preach

On to the cam belt installation .....

[cortexx]

Having seen the aftermath of a borked cam belt on an interference valve engine I did alot of research about the install of the belt on the RB26 - turns out there are no hidden secrets on this installation. Care must be taken to install the tensioner spring correctly. Once installed correctly the left side cam idler (one with the spring on its shaft) will attempt to rotate in an anticlockwise rotation (in doing so tensions the belt to the correct tension.

But first the challenge of making everything line up . starting by making sure the crank is in TDC position by aligning the markings on the oil pump and cam wheel ...



once that is done the belt can go on., the position of the cams will already be close because placement of the head on the block and the insertion of the studs/bolts would have been impossible if the cams were out of position.

I found it useful to remove the left idler wheel completely while installing thebelt. There is an indentation on the crank cam wheel and the 2 cam wheels that will align with the marks on the timing belt. If you get this right it's all correct. Luckily I am using cam wheels which negate the need to degree the cams as they are pinned for usage as direct drop in replacements for factory cams so this job is that much easier.





once the belt was on i reinstalled the idler , spring , 2 washers and the nut loosly so that the idler had movement for adjustment.

The method of adjustment at this stage is to spin the engine over a few times by hand to make sure that (a) nothing hits inside and (b) everything settles and the sprung idler settles in , the belt aligns and the belt is at the correct tension. I then put an allen key in the idler to hold it in position while i cranked the nut down that fastens the assembly to the block. spun the engine once more to check everything was good and called it a successful install.

One thing worth mentioning here is that the markings on thebelt will not stay aligned with the markings on the cam wheels , and drive gear, the marks are only there to help you align the belt on install, once the engine has completed one revolution of the crank the marks on the belt mean nothing , the marks on the camwheel backplate and oil pump should all stay in sync with each other though.

remember this?



5 minutes of bead blasting and 10 minutes in the ultrasonic cleaner followed by a liberal coating of fluid film produced this ..





You will notice my affinity for allen headed bolts for engine assembly . In my opinion I find it much easier to assemble - disassemble engines that are held together with these fittings, they are far less likely to get rounded off , and look much nicer installed and they take up less room that regular bolt heads.

It's also worth mentioning that the lower cam belt cover does not simply fall into the correct position when installed , it has to be gradually coersed into position as you tighten the fasteners. It is also worth mentioning that if you do not have it aligned it is almost impossible to set the staic timing on the engine with the mark that is stamped into the cover. take your time and get it right. The cover should intersect perfectly at the bottom where it comes in contact with the oil pump housing, and the gap around the cam washer should be consistant to reflect this.

[cortexx]

Another shot that shows the even gap a bit clearer ...





Now that is all installed and bolted down , it's a good time to install the ATI harmonic balancer .

Alot of research and deliberation went into decision of what harmonic balancer to use. The main concern was having one that could handle the future power this engine intends to make , and also what balancer fits the bill for the engine internals.

the crank was zero balanced by the machine shop , the oil pump drive clearenced to have 2thou each side of the crank drive , the rod, piston, pin, bearing assemblies all balanced to within 1/10th gram in a major effort to reduce harmonic frequencies and vibration as much as possible .

There were 4 available choices for me , 2 ATI models to chose from, a ROSS tufbond model , a fluidampr , and the factory unit.

The factory unit was shunned for it's age and cracking of the rubber ring , the ROSS unit was shunned because not enough people had expeience to draw from its usage . The fluidampr was originally my first choice until a had a chat with Mike at active engines in mississauga and he showed me what happened to an LS1 engine that used one , 1 2JZ engine that used one and a honda that used one. This left the ATI unit that is rebuildable and seems to have thebest track record on performance engines.

Having chosen the ATI unit I had to chose either the 600hp unit or the 1000hp unit - i chose the latter because i'd eventually like 600+ at the wheels and didn't think the smaller one would suffice.

so I installed the 1000hp unit ..






This was only torqued to around 100lbft as the crank started to spin so ill finish the torquing of this when it's in the car .

The ATI kit also came with an underdrive pulley for the N1 water pump, so i installed this with 4 6m allen bolts as I am not going to used the mechanical fan this time , i have an electric unit ready for install .





It's actually starting to look like the familiar RB26 now - we is making progress ( cribbed from hannibal Lecter i must confess ).