3CTE engine rebuild

[ClintJ]

Well thanks to a great friend made on the .org site I have managed to get all of the spare parts necessary to get build my economical/miser and also performance durable engine.
I have machined down the standard auto flywheel from 8Kg to 4.4Kg from memory. I have had it balanced to a spare crank.
You would of seen my head work being done on my head mod thread but I will cover the whole engine assembly and work in this thread.
Today I dropped the head back to the Head guy for him to seat the valves to correct clearances and assemble the head.
So today when I picked up the head at the ceramic guy I had a chat about the coatings. I thought that the dull gray finish was the finish. this is only a left over film to show that parts have been coated. I was worried because some of my pistons looked liked they were scratched on the combustion face.. The guy showed me some of there demo coatings and said that they had just scotchbrited the dry finish off.
He said that in my case of the diesel engine that The coating should last forever. I dont think he knew how hot the combustion temps might get...
Anyway here are the pistons

[Ian]

Good stuff - can't wait for the result...

[ClintJ]

Well I still havent found that spare set of rods I had left out for this engine rebuild..
So yesterday and today was spent clearing the garage to make space for the van and the engine stripdown to take place.
I have it to the point that the engine is on the floor with only the sump and bottom alloy case plus oil filter and pickup that needs to come off. the crank rods pistons water pump head oil pump and rear seal that have already come off.
The bearings in the big ends looked to be fine. the mains as well. The only thing that I found was a crack in the second ring land of number 3 piston. 3 and 4 pistons had residue coolant on them. The bores are slightly water marked. Ths was from the previous cracked head....
this has worked out well. This blocks bores have smaller holes than my other block.
No.1 bore is marked for mk1 piston
No.2 3 & 4 are marked for Mk2 pistons.
My ceramics pistons are all Mk2 pistons with an extra thick coating on the skirts.
I will seperate these rods and take the rods pistons and parts to my head guy who also does performance work( with a name like Racetek, Im guessing that he would ) to chemical dip the block and hone it so that the new pistons are a snug fit. He will also balance the rods and pistons to the crank.
I dont know if I will assemble it just yet as I have plenty of other things that I want to tend to.
Like my new mission of getting rid of the sads shaft all together. Ive seen some 200amp plus alternators from the USA that I have plans to mount to the side of the engine. I might mount the std alternator there as well to run a 36V permanent magnet motor to run the power steering and aircon pump.
I started the engine without the sads shaft connected and damn its smooth.
I hate that shaft........ Ive replaced the doughnuts once already and there already split and playing up....
Will have some more pics soon.
Clint

[ClintJ]

Guess what! I found those rods the other day when I was looking for something else!! but it was already too late....
Id already raised the van up, dropped the motor and box out and completely dissasembled and off for balancing and machining....

Another update was that I had my stall convertor massaged. When held the brakes on and flattened the pedal to floor with it in drive my stall was around 2800rpm.
I talked to the guys at Kayver engineering (sydney australia) and they pulled it appart to check it there and then. there was no obviuos signs of wear so they said that they could change the angle of the turbine blades so that it would reduce the slip.
I picked up 2 days later already done. the said that it should drop about 500rpm meaning the stally should peak around 2300rpm which is great as it seemed to not be doing anything there before.. Apply a little bit of pedal and get a marginal increase in speed ( I mean 1 or 2Km/hr increase when climbing a slight grade)
Anyhow the work has cost me $275AUD for the stall convertor repair/mod. the replaced a couple of worn plates and shim that float the stator.
I dropped my block, crank rods pistons and spare head of to the head guy for the machine work to be done. My spare was taken there for them to get te seated depth of the valves so that there are no clearance issues with pistons and valves.
Hopefully I should see the engine back next week. I can then reassemble it and bolt it back in place.
As for my SADS removal(bye bye) I have a 36V dc permanent magnet motor rated at 3/4hp. This should be ample to run the power steering pump and aircon.
I will connect 2 alternators to the engine. One to run the 2 pumps and one for the cars ancilleries. The alternator only needs slight mods to change its output...
Will post more thorough stuff as I get through it...
Clint

[ClintJ]

I thought that Id damaged the bearings in the bottom end and thats why I was getting noise from there..
When I dropped of my harmonic balancer to the head guy so that the whole assembly could be balanced I also picked up my head to bring back home.. The old one..
The head guy pointed out something that I hadnt noticed..

Number 3 cylinders cam lobe was worn out and the shim and bucket were hollowed out. There was excessive clearance meaning the valve was operating at way reduced lift.. How much??? From what I could see there looked to be about 6~7mm worn out of the bucket, not to forget the 3 or so milimeters worn off the tip of the lobe...
Id managed to get 7.98lt/100km or 35.4mpg
New engine, new torque convertor, no SADS drive shaft... Hello 40+MPG...
or look out toyota prius!


Will post pics on to this later of the damaged bucket and lobes. Batteries were flat on the camera.

[ClintJ]

Well I went to pick up my engine today from my engine builder at racetech.
He told me last night that 3 pistons had a deck height 26.5thou of an inch over the deck and 1 was 13thou less....
Of course I done my thinking on the drive out there to get the motor and thought " hey you used the rods from the hydraulocked motor, the rod my be bent"
So we pulled the rod in question out and checked against another rod and sure enough there was 13thou difference.
The rod had a different casting number as well so its either slightly bent or different????

So I will take my other set back to him and balance them and put them back in........
So hopefully by the end of this week.
But you cant not love a new built engine for looks, everything is clean and looks brilliant!

[ClintJ]

Slowly been putting her back together with all the other bits and pieces that have been going on...
So far it reads like this
Ceramic coated piston crowns
Teflon coated piston skirts
New sleeves machined and pressed into the block
Completely balanced bottom end
Lightened Flywheel
Ceramic coated Head ie.
inlet and exhaust ports and valves
Ceramic coated combustion chambers
Ceramic coated combustion face
Lightly deburred and ported head
New rings and bearings on VGC second hand pistons.( Thanks Mohammad )


My engine on the floor before the jackup into the engine bay.





3CTE engine minus water pump and cambelt etc etc



Delphi water trap and fuel filter with holley red electric fuel pump.. No More priming!





My Skyline turbo on my own self made custom stainless manifold


I know I have mentioned my mate from ****stan before but I must thank him again for offering me his time and help in sourcing most of the parts needed in this buildup.
Again many thanks to Mohammad.

ClintJ

[captain emina]

looking good clint

[ClintJ]

Well all I can say is that I have been very slack or lacking in the motervation departments. I will be packing my toys away for 6months whilst I go live in Japan and look for work and try something new.
The move could be permenant depending on the work and level of happiness or is that depression from missing my toys??
Might get the chance to do a little bit more to the van before sunday night as I fly out on Monday again to my wifes suprise as she thinks Im coming a week later.
Wish I could of got all of the projects finished and found out the new found promises that I hope these packages should bring but unfortunately they are going to have sit and wait...
In that time I am sure that my motervation will make a massive comeback.
It just depends on wether I come back next year for good or to pack up and move over to Japan indefinately...

Will still be looking fwd to questions and other peoples triumphs in thier endeavours.

ClintJ

[paul9]

try and keep in touch clint from japan.