Thread: B13 Rally Car Build

Got the head and block back. Cut the oiling grooves in the mains journals (to use the DET 5-hole bearings), installed ARP mains studs, the ACL bearings, crankshaft, caps and girdle last night. Going to torque it down tonight.

Haven't gotten the pistons milled yet, so I'm kinda limited in what I can do for the rest of the bottom end, but I'll start reassembling the head once the new spring seats get in.

Debating ordering a VE oil pump and an N1 water pump while I'm at it. Money though, spent too much already.

And the spring seats arrived today, win!

They're not the right ones (seats for a double valve spring, I need stock), fail.

I missed pulling them out before the head went to the shop and they lost two. Anyone have some laying around they want to toss in an envelope and mail to Minneapolis?

In retrospect, the only seal from the entire lower set worth using is the rear main seal. The only two which really should be used (instead of liquid gasket maker) are the front and rear main seal, and new oil pumps come with a new front seal. Shoul dhave just bought the upper gasket set and ordered a rear main separate.

Crank installed, SR16VE pistons on SR20DE rods in, valve in, head on. ARP studs & bolts in mains, rod ends and head in and torqued. HLAs, rocker arms, cams, and rocker arm stoppers installed. Need to track down one cam cap bolt before I can torque done everything and start on the timing chain. Starting to look like an engine again.

Still waiting on the SR20VE oil pump though

Well, called and it turns out the pump had come in, but wasn't shipped out to me. It'll be on it's way today, so should be able to finish the rebuild next week.

Well, Fedex says my oil pump was delivered today, so we can finally get this engine together. Have some welding work to do tonight (a broken trailing link for my brother's car, and some non-car stuff), but hopefully over the weekend.

If you were closer ill be there giving you a hand , hope it all works out for you and better that did for me
Gus

And I basically dropped off the face of the earth car-wise for a few months.

Monday, I finally found the missing cam cap bolt. Tuesday I installed the timing chain, guides, torqued down the intake cam and realized I had no RTV for the last exhaust cam cap (where the dizzy installs). So I rebuilt the dizzy (new bearing & internal seal) and called it a night.

Last night I torqued down the exhaust cam, then installed the oil pump/front cover. When putting the crank pulley back on, I discovered what I should have known before I ordered the VE oil pump. The pump is thicker and won't work with the standard DE oil pump spacer and crank pulley. Today I also learned that the pickup is different. Order for all relevant parts called in with Greg V this morning.

Also found out that at some point over the winter, the trickle charger I had on the car was unplugged and the Optima drained down and froze. F'n $200 battery, less than a year old, is toast. I know the Optimas are bad about self-discharging, but figured I was good with the charger

So, I have three weeks to OFR. I need to:

#1 - Replace the bearing-destroying driver front knuckle. I have one I rebuilt over the winter that I can just swap in, so that's not a huge deal.
#2 - Replace the battery
#3 - Replace the rear springs and shackles in my tow vehicle (which requires dropping the fuel tank and pulling the tow hitch, thanks GM!)
#4 - Figure out the camber problem in the driver rear suspension - probably just one of the cam bolts on the Hotbits slipped. I hope.
#5 - Replace the fuel tank guard I tore off at LSPR.

Ideally I'd also swap the engine for the new one and tune it, but I dunno... Might be stuck with the exceedingly tired current engine for one more event. I would honestly be shocked if I'm getting more than ~75hp to the wheels at this point. I bet the new engine is terrifying the first time I take it out (hoping for ~200whp) in comparison.

I should also remove the extra cat in the exhuast. Which might even be collapsing and adding to my power loss. Maybe this should move to the "need to do" section...

Hey vector Where did you mount the reservoir tanks for the coil overs and do you have any pictures of how you mounted your seats? the link above doesn't work.

The rear reservoirs are strapped to the roll cage (bars coming from the foot of the main hoop up to meet the rear stays at the rear strut towers. This means I can reach them easily to adjust them.

In the front, they're mounted under the lip on the side of the engine bay, right under the edge of the hood.