Frick Remans - Going Built

Snagged this beautiful piece from @amnesiac
Also believe it belonged to @AYOUSTIN

Didn’t plan on getting one so soon but I’d shoot myself if I passed it up for the price. Gonna install it tommorow because I’m a ricer and probably find out I forgot something or some wack shit. Tryna get it on before cars and coffee Saturday.

Probably call the machine shop Friday or something idk, I don’t really care about the wait at this point lmao

 

Sooo I got my stuff back.... dude charged me 150 bucks. Which leaves me worried. Cause I was expecting around 500ish

Also this shit is dirty asf which I guess is whatever as long as everything is good but doesn’t help ease my mind.

I also asked him to check bearing clearences for me but my bearings are still in the box unopened.... I’m very sussed out right now and honestly thinking of taking it to this other shop that has built a mazdaspeed motor before. Just to check this shops work.

Lmk your thots

 

You could have the other shop check clearances for piece of mind. I would likely do that. My block and head were very dirty as well even after the hot tanked them. I cleaned them again thoroughly. I used engine cleaner and wd40 after to help it not rust. Don't forget to clean the head stud holes too , mine were very dirty and likely would have messed up tq spec on the head if I did not get all the crap out of them.

 

Good advice on cleaning the bolt holes.

 

Yea it being dirty isn’t the concern for me it was just the price and the customer service being questionable. Will probably end up taking it to the shop mentioned even if to just meet them cause chances are I’ll take my head over to them instead once my shortblock is done.

also good tip on the holes, one of the things I would’ve overlooked if it wasn’t for your thread lmao.

 

Alrighty, dropped it off at another shop down the road that looked way better. Spoke to the person at the front desk (front desk, good sign i guess) and he went to get the owner who came and took a look at my block. He knew the original machinist and said he couldnt believe he gave that to me. We talked for a bit about what should be done so hes gonna go ahead and deck the block properly and balance everything. Said the bores looked good. Also gonna mag and polish/clean the crankshaft.

Overall im confident this time around. The dude explained everything to me and answered the questions i had and the place itself just looks a lot more professional. Im sure itll be a lot more expensive but i dont give a shit at this point as long as my block doesnt look like it was decked with 60 grit sand paper.


tl;dr
Stuff is at new machine shop. Very promising

 

That's great to hear. Always nice when people care about helping you and know their stuff.

 

Tl;dr fucked my throttle body connector

In fixing my manifold leak I also was stupid and didn’t know how to properly take the tb connector off, I didn’t know you had to push down ASWELL as do the red tab so I’ve just been yeeting it off thinking mine was fucked. Had to get a new throttle body cause the tab broke and realized my connector wouldn’t seat, it would kinda bounce off. So I bought a pigtail mentioned in one of Johnny’s threads and crimped it onto the wires making sure each wire went to the same place. Crimps seemed fine, gave them all good tugs and they were covered individually. Took it out for a drive and ran actually noticeably better, did a pull and as I was pulling back into my neighborhood it just constant stuttered like a very fast cam, turned it off and back on and was able to get back into my garage and now most of the time when I start it it just sounds cammed lmao. P2100 I believe is the code I’m getting and it’s an open circuit

So yea I’m pissed cause I hate electrical shit and just got my exhaust after 4 months. I bought some self soldering connectors and am going to attempt to redo the connector. I’m assuming WORST CASE I can just get a new harness? Idk whatever this blows

Also @Cold Lotion youd love this lmao

 

Now this was what I was expecting the first time lmao.

Very happy with the results. But I do need new undersized rod and main bearings (atleast I think that’s what that means, I’ll call)

 

https://mazdaspeeds.org/index.php?threads/harness-plug-and-other-useful-connectors.7659/

You can de-pin it and put a new connector on it.

 

Yea I realised that after I already cut it, there wouldn’t be enough wire to reach the throttle body tho i don’t think.

 

So I got the motor on the stand and started going to town as my undersized main bearings arrived and my rod bearings arrive today.

The first day I got it on the stand was pretty much devoted to cleaning. Cleaning the block, cleaning the journals up all that good stuff. Then found out I need 12pt sockets for the main nuts so I had to stop at that after getting the bearings in and crank/girdle on.

Started by using plastigage to (plasti) GAUGE clearences. Hah.

yes I know these aren’t accurate but I don’t need specific measurements, I just need to know whether its completely fucked or not and I’m pretty confident it can do that. It’s also better than not doing anything at all.

Went in dry except for the torque lube on the nuts, as per instructions online. took all my effort not to see the crank spin but didn’t wanna ruin the journals.

Here are the results.




not too sure why the ends came out a little tighter? From my understanding tho these are all within spec. .0015 being at the loose end for stock and .002 being at the tighter end for ARPs specs. If anyone has any thot into this lmk.

Engine bolt specs
Also wanna help out anyone not sure what bolts to use for the engine stand. Pretty much just copied Johnny’s layout but no one mentions the bolt lengths.
3 m10x1.5 70mm
1 m10x1.5 110mm
1 m10x1.5 nut
5 washers that fit, I used 3/8th I think.
You’ll need 2 washers on the bolt that has the nut

 

Got a good amount done today, I’m proud of myself so far but we’ll see if it pays off in the first 1k miles.....

got the crank in, spins nice. Also managed to put the rods and pistons together, wasn’t hard once you find your own technique.

 

You know. I thought my trouble with the first machine shop was over. I thought I escaped. But no. just when I’m making some headway they come back and fuck my ass.

I was checking clearences cause they were originally hesitant to let me ask them to gap them .020 top .024 second. They wanted manleys specs but I told them, hey, I don’t give a fuck I want what’s been proven on this platform. And they said okay.

took them 2 months to gap the rings. 2 months. I am checking them now and they are like flipped. The top rings fit .024 just fine and the 2nd can’t fit .024 at all, .022 pretty good and .020 loosely. I cannot believe they fucked up this bad. I made sure the rings were in there flat with my piston and a ring to stop it on the block. I checked like 4 times.

obviously I’m going to call them out Monday but I doubt these assholes will pay for it. If you’re in San Diego looking for a machine shop, don’t ever go to Action Cylinder Heads lmao.


Here’s a video showing both sets of rings

 

This build is coming to a pause for the time being,

Saving for a bike as a daily. Im 20, what can i say, i make smart decisions.

and im also saving for a new camera and i just bought a laptop for school. So yea this will have to wait. And my car has been working so i might as well put it on pause now while its not down every month.

will probably still be done before @Cold Lotion tho hehe

 

....did you just leave on the first honk?

 

Second actually, should’ve been ready

 

Yea so after the machine shop messed my shit up I kinda just gave up on building the motor. Sold it and upgraded all my camera shit. So I’m turning this into a normal build thread/maintenance thing

anyways, went on a canyon run and on the way down I’d floor it and go nowhere, afr hit 16 before I let off. Drove it home not noticing my HPFP pressure somehow. I originally thot maybe my clutch was going finally after 134k miles because I also heard a weird noise now, but that didn’t explain the afr.

Somehow I didn’t think to look at my HPFP Pressure, because I was getting none lmao… I’m extremely surprised I didn’t blow up. Here’s a picture of the log


So I ordered an e85 safe seal kit. Also a new PRV because I think that is actually what is causing the fueling issue. Haven’t pulled the pump apart yet but I don’t expect to find anything wrong, pretty confident it was the prv.

I also just pulled the pan and did a BSD cause I had one laying around. Also wanted to take the time to check my rod journal ODs and compare them to stock. God knows if it was machined or something, also gonna plasti gauge them.

So yea cars torn apart, just been dailying it. This is the first real problem since my EWG bracket coming undone.




Also there’s a vid of me blowing through the prv, I don’t think that’s suppose to happen

 

Pretty wild, I am surprised when pressure dipped like that it didn't do a fuel cut. When my PRV was going bad if I got into boost at all it would fuel cut.