Matt's S12

matt, when we gonna get together?  gotta be sometime in may, i wanna see the car without an engine once i get back from Florida.  Oo speaking of florida, i need to send a PM to grant with my phone number so we can meet up.

Too bad you're gonna miss import wars in Great Lakes this weekend Matt, I bet you'd have suprised a lot of people.

Xanomatt, when we gonna get together?  gotta be sometime in may, i wanna see the car without an engine once i get back from Florida.  Oo speaking of florida, i need to send a PM to grant with my phone number so we can meet up.

Big BrotherToo bad you're gonna miss import wars in Great Lakes this weekend Matt, I bet you'd have suprised a lot of people.

Some new engine bay pics
(https://i.imgur.com/x9LiecF.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/bsDqDMN.jpg)

seishukuThanks

It's going slow, as usual bills are taking up what was hoping to buy a head gasket or a cylinder hone, or even save towards pistons. It sucks.
It'll get there eventually.

Hone stone or ball hone? I prefer ball...

seishukuHone stone or ball hone? I prefer ball...

Hm... I'll let you know, it all depends on measurements from the bores and pistons.

All the bores are already the larger grades, which I'm hoping can be honed to spec for the pistons I want to use, but I need the pistons first. lol

seishukuSome new engine bay pics
(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y59/seishuku/Bay1.jpg)
(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y59/seishuku/Bay2.jpg)

looks awesome man!

dude that steering rack = sex

Thanks guys

Ok, some more work on the engine... I pulled the mains and looked over the bearings, they all look in ok shape (about normal for ~80k miles).
My problem is the bearing grading though, according to the block (23333) and the crank (01111), I would need one STD2 and 4 STD4 bearings... However, all the bearings I pulled out are STD0.

What's the deal with that? I know they're all original from the factory parts, the engine has never been opened until now.

EDIT:
Ah, nevermind! The part number on the bearing apparently doesn't carry the grading, and I did manage to uncover the bearing color mark on one of them, and it does indicate a #4 grade (it's from the #2 main).
So that makes me feel a little better.

But the question now is, do I use Nissan bearings, or go with an aftermarket "standard" bearing set?
I'm thinking OEM.

Looks awesome man. Fucking clean engine bay.

seishukubut I need the pistons first. lol

seishukuBut the question now is, do I use Nissan bearings, or go with an aftermarket "standard" bearing set?
I'm thinking OEM.

I'm thinking that's the way to go, since the standard aftermarket bearings usually only cover grades 0 to 3.
That would be on the looser side of the oil clearances, and if anything, I want to tighten things up a bit.

I guess the right thing to do would be measure the clearances now, see where they are. I'll have to see what the plastigauge I have covers, I think it's the right range for the SR.

I would plastigage and go oem from there to get the closest to tolerances...

let Justin know if you need OEM bearings, he'll hook you up with a real good price.

<Beavis>Heh heh, FIRE! FIRE!</Beavis>
(https://i.imgur.com/kARONHO.jpg)

seishuku<Bevis>Heh heh, FIRE! FIRE!</Bevis>

Oops, oh well.

seishuku<Beavis>Heh heh, FIRE! FIRE!</Beavis>
(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y59/seishuku/Mobile%20Uploads/05-24-10951551.jpg)

Ya, burning out the remaining rubber bushings.

SIR, UPDATE YOUR THREAD!

i concur...it has been almost a month...what happened with that trailing arm?

Waiting for prothane bushings, they'll be here tuesday, then I can get the rear suspension back together and have it rolling again.

Otherwise, I still don't have money to get the rest, but I've been busy working overtime and should have more to spare and hopefully get some more parts ordered.

matt, give me a list of parts besides pistons and rings and I can check here for good prices too.

1 - Pistons + Rings (9.5CR Sentra SR)   <- eBay $75.95 - $93.09
2 - Main bearings? (ACL)      <- eBay

3 - Thrust bearings         <- RockAuto TW590S $5.40

4 - Rod bearings? (ACL)         <- eBay $38.99

5 - Head gasket            <- eBay $22.76
6 - Front main seal         <- RockAuto 224650 $7.62
7 - Trans oil gutter          <- Nissan, or fix the original
8 - Slave cylinder         <- RockAuto CS37493 $9.13

XX - Main+Rod bearings (King)      <- eBay $73.69

3x $7.50 32oz, Pennzoil Synchromesh Oil
1x $6.80 32oz, Coastal 75W90 Gear Oil
4x $3.00 1qt, Advance Auto Parts 10w30 conventional oil
2x $7.00 1qt, Synthetic 10w30 oil
2x $12.00 1gal, Peak Antifreeze
2x $4.50 Purolator Oil Filter

Total: ~$290

Bought:
 - RCA bolts (Nissan)
 - RCA bushings (Prothane 300zx)

Well? Chop chop man.

I'm workin on it! I gots bills to pay though.

290 nots bad...my brother wants to spend like 400 or 500 on rebuilding his 4age...

Yeah, I had to cheap out on the pistons... For now.
I'll get something forged later on, I just gotta get it running again.

SCREW BILLS MAN HAHA

I wish I could, but I like living in a house!

Anyway, Prothane RCA bushings came in, look good... But I thought they came with new inner sleeves and only reused the old outer?

Not that it's a big deal, two were trash anyway (seized bolts)... So I guess I'll look at work, see if we have any scrap structural tube or solid stock that I can drill out that's close enough.

Progress!

I have the solid subframe and driver side control arm back in!

The solid frame really stiffens up things in the rear, it'll be interesting to see how it and the prothane bushings change how the suspension reacts.
Some stiffer springs would be nice too, but I just gotta get the car back together and running again.

Only thing though, is apparently the subframe mounts on the chassis were just a little bit wider than the subframe... Not sure what's going on there, BUT a little work with the jack and a little tapping with a 3LBS hammer got things into place.
I could probably jack the rear up by the subframe now... Without the diff bolted in!

it will feel a hell of a lot better tho.

looking good man!

u weld in big washers?  i did and it works good.  def more noise.  u will always be thinkin ur diff is fucked up lol

Yep. Though with the solid diff mount in the rear, it already was transferring a lot of the noise... But I already had a whining diff, I reshimmed it, so hopefully that'll fix that.

no more solid subframe posibility for me  

You should give me the old subframe though

Sorry man, the old one got hacked up to save the control arms.
It was bad anyway, one of the bolts was seized to the frame and tore while trying to break it free.

I suppose it could have been saved, welded back up, but I already chucked in the scrap bin.

Edit:
I can always make another one though, it's really easy to do. Just need four 1.25" USS plain finish flat washers, and the original inner sleeves from the bushings.

haha its all good, I was hoping for a blank subframe to sand down and clean up and paint and all that, more so than the solid thing

I've got my MSA bushings to put on my car someday, I just dont feel comfortable doing it myself.

Maybe sometime this fall I'll drive her up there and bring a case of beer, and me and you can get it done on my car

Just, having to daily drive the beast means I cant take it off the road for large amounts of time ya know.

Yea, we could do that.

I know what you mean though, I didn't want to take my S12 off the road, but I didn't have a choice!

Got all the holes honed, now I just gotta get the rest of the parts.
(https://i.imgur.com/XRwHReT.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/ghXofwG.jpg)

Just for reference, here's what it use to look like:
(https://i.imgur.com/POAJhSq.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/sZJyaaE.jpg)

wow...i am surprised a hone could do that much for some reason! Keep at er man!

Question is....  How out of round are the holes? and there are still heavy scratches visible in the one image. those will leak.  If those two are the only bores with damage, just have them sleeved, prolly still cheaper than a re-bore, once you factor in the new hardware and all.

Why would I sleeve them? I can safely bore it out to 88MM, and even .5MM over would have more than cleaned it up, but why would I do that when obviously honing it (which needed to be done before rering anyway) cleaned it up.

Yes, there is still a very faint line visible, and I'll probably go back over it again because I'm picky. The camera flash makes everything look way worse.

It's just cylinder one, two different views.

Also, at only 65k miles, it's not going to be out of round, even though it's low miles, I did already check with an inside mic, and all is well within spec.

It's only rubbing damage, it didn't chew up anything. Aluminum is softer than steel ya know.

Your right, damage looks worse, if you checked it with a mic then that is fine.

You did not put that little detail in. There can be tons of damage from softer metals.  You clearly have scratches from the old broken rings. Those scratches are going to have an affect on the end result.  I put a scratch in one of my cylinders during rebuild, I took it all apart and had that cylinder sleeved because I do not plan to open my motor for several years.  YMMV.  I do not like to build motors half ass'd, honing to repair cylinder scratches is just that in my book.  Just my opinion.

Good luck. Like the thread.

How can I have scratches from broken rings, when none of the rings broke?
It was just a seized ring.

seishukuHow can I have scratches from broken rings, when none of the rings broke?
It was just a seized ring.

Actually that was all from the piston skirt, the ring was seized compressed in the groove and let the piston rattle around in the bore.

https://youtu.be/qv5Wvfy7sCI

Found a good deal on pistons, rings, and bearings on ebay for less than $150, so I ordered that.
Hopefully I'll have a short block put together soon, then I gotta get the head gasket ($30 shipped) and a few minor misc items (a few o-rings, from main seal, and a clutch slave).

It'll be a little lower compression before, since it was either 4 new Sentra 9.5:1 pistons or one new 10:1 piston, so I opted for the lower CR (plus it was a nice package deal). It'll make me a little less nervous while working on the tune.

Then I can start saving for forged parts and then really start kicking things up.