Building for the road course...again

The damage would’ve been from the metal throw out bearing tang that went wild in there.

Im thinking this is purely cosmetic damage. I’ll see what the machine shop says today

 

Picked up few things from the machine shop today.
He was happy to tell me my parts were so close right out of the box. Very little work was needed to balance the rods and pistons.

He also told me the shop that did my block did a fantastic job. Everything checked out perfect.

My crankshaft/flywheel/pressure plate still need to be balanced.
I will bring him my cylinder head when my new valve train arrives.


Bottom end assembly can begin when I get the crank back. For now I’m gonna move stuff from my old engine over to this one
removed for NDA compliance

 

I thought this was cool.
Oem k20 rod vs my BC lightweight rod. People make 500whp+ on this tiny little oem rod! Very impressive.
My BC rod is small in the world of forged rods and it still appears to be double that of the oem rod. Cool! BC rods are rated at 150hp per hole but I’ve also seen 200hp per hole. These rating appear to be random at best


short stroke + short rod = relatively low side loading. Explains some of the strength these k20’s have. Well flowing head = low boost required. Keeps the torque in check.


Still wild to think this skinny ass rod is capable of a lot. It wouldn’t last forever but they seem to get a pretty good wrap

 

Not much going on here. Some machine shop work. Waiting on valve train still. decided to rebuild my calipers while i have nothing going on...never done this before but it was very simple.

Hopefully they still work come spring time LOL

Pretty straight forward process. Used my sprayer and a rag to seal it. Popped the pistons out. Sometimes 2 would come out. Sometimes 1. I used cardboard blocks I built and a pad spreader to help with piston removal



Silicone plugs i bought were fantastic. Worked beautifully to keep all my brake fluid from draining


These calipers really don’t have much going on. There’s a piston seal which sits in a machined recess and there’s the piston itself. That’s it. The piston seals again the square o ring and that’s it



I gave the brake pedal a bunch of good pumps to confirm nothings leaking. I didn’t spot any leaks but I didn’t get a firm pedal either. Tons of air in there I bet.

I will use my 1 man power bleeder tool later this week to do a bleed. Hopefully no leaks anywhere.

All my pistons came out nice except one. One had a tiny nick on the side of it. Fingers crossed for no leaks!

 

Couple results posted here by my local track. This is just a collection of “frequent fliers” and respectable lap times. I’m pretty happy I made the list!!


Best part is all the cars above me are either 6 figures, have forced induction, or are completely gutted race cars. I’d say I’m in decent company here with my 210hp of fury

Goal next year is to shoot for top 10 on the technical layout and top 8 on the mod layout. NA power let’s goooooooo

 

i wanna know more about the escort and crown victoria

 

Ahh the crown vic is basically stock I believe?
The escort had a bit of a build done but the owner is the definition of dickhead. He’s just an ugly personality and one of the people I would more then likely end up having an issue with.
Guy just seems like a total prick.

 

Stock? Wtf who is driving it.

 

Haha. The owner is a casual i believe. Just wanted to get into track days and that’s all he has. Run what you brung type of thing.

I’m all about being inclusive to newbies who want to hit the track but I will say there are some vehicles that just shouldn’t see the race track

 

Some reputable cars south of your standing for sure. Driver makes all the difference.
I too would like to see the Vicky wallow its way around. It would be fun to watch, like the old Aussie racing with the Galaxies vs the Minis!
A P71 Interceptor package with a 5 spd conversion actually moves really good in a straight line.

 

He was faster than some cars that "should" be faster and didn't seem too far behind the rest

 

I just realized on the technical leader board there’s a Mazdaspeed 3. It’s a gen2. That’s the guy that bought my bilstein’s

 

For those still fallowing along,

have received a nice package from Japan today. Contents look real, real nice.

Also, the machine shop called me. My block is all good. He has confirmed with the torque plate we are round as can be. Final piston to wall(piston to liner) clearance has been set with just a little extra expansion room. I think we are perfect there.

I need to go pick up my block. Need to start gapping my piston rings.

I am still waiting on the crank shaft balancing.

Bad news is, i am still waiting on my valve spring seats. They are out of stock from ferrea. ETA is end of November. Boooooooooooo


Hoping i can have an assembled long block here by mid december. Plan is to install it as soon as its together. Targeting first start up near the end of december.

We're getting somewhere!

 

Really looking forward to seeing the dyno sheet

 

I took am wanting to see dyno numbers.

 

Me too lol. More so interested in the torque curve though. I’m hoping for flat and never ending

 

Old header has been removed and sold. This is by far the most desirable header for the platform. People already think I’m an idiot for NA k20 build. Now I’m an even bigger idiot for selling this piece LOL


I got $500 cash for it. New header was 498 tax in. Worked out perfectly.

The new header is a short tube 4-2-1. The old unit was a long tube 4-2-1. It’s fantastic for mid range. 4-6.5k is huge gains with the skunk2 unit. Perfect for 99% of builds.

Where I’m going the shorty is much better. It carries the torque significantly further past 7000rpm vs the long tube which is mostly dead up there.

New unit


Comes with a test pipe to make up the difference


Everything’s bolted up hand tight. I can already tell stuffs gonna need to be moved around to fit the engine. Hopefully it’s not a major pain


The new header is cheaper by far. The quality is rough. Apparently it doesn’t leak or crack just the final finish is meh. I can tell. The welds look…functional lol. Lots of slag and crap left inside though. Will clean that up with a file and send it.
Long term goal is a custom header. Will do that in the future

 

Little update if anyones still lookin;


Setup my office for engine assembly. Spent sometime today measuring main clearances. We are targeting the looser end of the main tolerance. First attempt with king STDX bearings came out right around the max limit of 0.002”.


Next up I’m gonna measure again with king STD shells mixed with the STDX shells. This should get me dialed in perfectly


My setup. Yes I’m crazy. Yes I work from home in this room. No I don’t give a shit. Gotta do what I gotta do. Can’t be doing this out there in the cold. Floors layered up with drop sheets/tarp/cardboard. This setup worked great



Next up will be to grab a pack of STD size mains and measure again. My turner is not messing around. I have clear instructions for my target clearances. Now just trying to get as close as possible

 

I'm still following this. I like seeing the progress you've made. I used to do the same thing you're doing with building an engine or transmission inside the house. It was chill. Smoke a bowl, watch tv, and just wrench while doing it. Had my PC hooked up to my TV as a monitor so I could easily bring up torque specs etc.

Now that my girlfriend and her kids live with me I don't have that luxury. She'd probably flip if she saw that.

Instead of a cardboard box and tarp I would recommend using a long rectangular style water heater pan. Just get a plug for it. That way anything that drops won't seep through and you can easily dump it into a container since it will have a drain plug on its side.

 

This is the first time I’ve done a build like this indoors. It’s awesome. I’m lucky my girlfriend is OK with it. She gets it. She’s learned all about bearing sizing and oil clearances now haha.

Have my computer right there is great too. YouTube, forum, manual, whatever I need is right there. It’s chill for sure


Lately stuffs been moving slowly. Was just waiting on machine shop to finish up a few small things. All machining is done now and I have all parts in hand.


There was a few week delay as I waited for my tuner to provide bearing clearances. He had very specific tolerances for me.


The Honda oem bearings offer 6 different sizes so you can really dial it in. Problem? They’re 15-20usd PER SHELL HALF. Just for one half of a bearing. So they are stupid expensive. They are also back ordered until at least March and even that’s not 100%

I had my crank journals and block bores measured. I put a spreadsheet together for the blue printing. I used a formula and Honda bearing thickness which were measured by someone over on the k20a forums.


There is a formula you can use and it will spit out your oil clearance based on the measurements(journals and bores) and bearing thickness. I ran the formula and it turns out either the machine shops measurements were way off, or there is a significant temperature difference between my house and the machine shop.


We are targeting right on the loose end of the oem tolerance. This is making it challenging.

i went with king STDX bearings. The X meaning extra oil clearance. Shit came out too loose. Right at the service limit actually. I’m going to pick up king STD bearings and split the shells. This will get me approx. 0.0001” tighter then targeted but I think this is as good as it will get. Maybe I’ll have my crank polished as well? Not sure. I’ll measure tomorrow and see if the split shells get me closer to target