Thread: Operation SR24VVL IN PROGRESS ONCE AGAIN

to make this 2.4 work.
if you were asking me on the break-in, it was already covered in detail. call it gentle, yet progressive.

The break in is no different than any other motor.

1. Tune Idle AFR.
2. A few heat cycles at idle.
2. Oil Change
3. xxx Miles of spirited driving with part throttle AFR tuning followed by an oil change.
4. Dyno tune and enjoy.

In the case of your 2.4 I would:

1. Get a new block sleeved. Either Mazworx or CDP.
2. Buy a new headgasket ($260), bearings ($140) and pistons rings from CP ($125).
3. Have the machine shop check the crank journals.
4. Put it back together and forget about it.

my untrained eye could find no obvious problems, with 1 exception.
in the images where you see my finger at the seam of the front cover and block there is a definite ridge where the front cover is sitting higher than the surface of the block. the sleeves to block deck interface felt perfectly smooth to the fingernail test.
before the motor was installed i was warned about the front cover as a possible problem area...
anyone see any other areas of concern?
now that i think about it..i didn't have to scrape anything from either surface. there was NOTHING stuck to the block OR head. i just wiped the oil off both surfaces with a rag before the pix. where'd the black stuff from the hg go?
tomorrow the block goes to the machine shop for a final tear down and inspection.
so far i'm encouraged by my findings

im not liking the vertical marks in the cylinders. im far from a professional but all the engines i've ever torn down, not one has had markings like that.. but when i put a friends engine together when i was putting in one of the pistons i somehow messed up the oil ring (shitty ring compressor) and it caused markings like that..

It looks very light as though it was caused by dirt on initial assembly and startup. His motor has quite a bit of miles on it and use especially to build up that much carbon. I doubt the rings are anything to worry about. More than likely dirt scuffs and probably will find them on the skirt of the piston as well. Again nothing to even worry about.

hmm wonder why they sprayed the gasket. that copper spray wasnt helping seal anything.... also i dont understand why they didnt de shroud the valves at all, there is definitely more gains to be had by going over the combustion chamber and de shroud those valves.

those scores on the cylinder walls are not great, piston to wall clearance could have been set a little to tight for that specific piston or maybe ring gap was a bit on the small side...

and yes, the ease and simplicity of the metal gaskets, isnt it nice tearing them down, everything is so nice and perfectly clean..


good luck, really doesnt look like to much of an issue. i bet a fresh gasket, put on dry will do the trick.

i think the streaks yer referring to are oil. i cycled the engine to drop the pistons. the oil came from the deck and was running back down into the cylinders.
tomorrow i'll spray/wipe down the cylinders to get a closer/cleaner look-see

what im seeing is not oil.

Car is down over 55+psi on the comp test.

A new set of rings would be the first on my list, especially with the detonation experienced.

yep i remember the compression bein low, which is why when i saw the cylinder walls i mentioned the marks lol