Another weekend and another quick update on the progress. The good news is the head is almost complete and ready for installation of the valves. I took the head to work to skim it on monday. First off I set the block onto a surface plate and used a DTI gauge to check for warping and it was fine, only 0.003mm variation. Now was to get the mill set up and perfectly leveled to the mills tool head. I used a DTI gauge for this process as well. Now for the clamping down of the head to the bed, I used T bolts and bridge clamps to secure it.
Now with the DTI gauge fitted to the mill tool stock, I checked the cylinder head was flat to within 0.001mm. Using a tungsten carbide fly cutter I made a three passes along the head and took off 0.3mm finished to a mirror finish, ready for an MLS gasket.
(I hope you understood the process, plenty of youtube videos if you didn't)
The only other thing I did this week was spray the oil cap satin black to help with the stealth look
looks ace IMO
Before.
After!!!
A quick pic of the oil cap
UPDATE:
A lot has happened this week on the engine. First off was removing the piston squirters so the bores can be honed. These proved to be a right pain in the arse, mole grips just didnt grip enough to remove them. After some advice on here I started by drilling a 6.8mm dia hole into the top of the squirter, I followed this by tapping them with an m8 x 1.2mm tap, and using a 1/4 inch extension on top of the tap, this gave me enough room to rotate it to cut the thread. Once the holes had been threaded I screwed a slide hammer into the squirter and with a few knocks, hey presto they came out
Now with this taken care of the block is ready for hot bathing, honing and pressure testing next week.
I also made up a crank puller tool to finally get the crank pulley off and gave the lifters a good clean to get there "springness" back, then left the in clean oil ready for re-assembly.
A few photo's:
With all the block work done it was back on to the cylinder head and valve lapping. I managed to get all the inlet valves lapped in. Im using the oem inlet valves as I dont think the forged ones are worth it due reduced rev limit on the megane engine. I am however waiting on some supertech inconel exhaust valves, the reason for this is I think the increased heat from the increased power could have an effect on oem exhaust valves.
With the lapping I used a course compound for most the work, then used a fine compound for refining the edge of the valve.
Before:
After:
And now some engine p**n
Haven't updated this in a while so here goes.
Ive got all the loom checked for continuity and wrapped back up. There were a few frayed wires that needed repairing.
I ordered some cat cam valve springs and new gasket set. Installed these with little problems, making sure I kept the keepers and retainers in the same places as they were before. Once these were in, I poured some petrol into the inlets and outlet ports and checked for leaks. In two of the exhaust ports there was a slight weep at around 30 mins in. I subsequently took them out cleaned them up and lightly lapped again. This has seemed to solve this. The valves will seal further after initial start up anyway.
A few weeks back I also purchased a little treat for the car
ever since owning the car Ive wanted recaros, this opportunity arose when mr @
smoggy mark had some for sale. So it was a long drive (8 hour round trip) to pick them up.
They took a bit of getting used to due to them sitting slightly higher than standard seats but now I absolutely love them! Really make the inside a nicer place to be with the leather retrim
Cheers guys!
Haven't been on here in a while with Xmas and such.
First thing is I decided to take the plunge and install nitrided inlet valves as it was just playing on my mind, last thing i want is a valve breaking and destroying the engine and over a grand's worth of con rod, piston and crankshaft and the whole point of this build is "Reliable Power".
When they arrived they only sent 7 for some reason
hopefully the 8th one will arrive this week. They were installed and inspected easily, all within spec and leak free which is fine. The head will now be put in storage once the last valve arrives until the block is finished.
While I was waiting for the valves I had a tinker with the tiny Td04l 14t turbo, while I was going to just strip it for something to do and then sell it on with new bearings etc, and then just buy a hybrid from rs tuning. I have decided to just build my own improved version, since the ones ktec and that sell are ludicrous price for the man hours in them.
I am going to make a td04hl 19t with help from "Turbo dynamics" in Christchurch as they'll be building the CHRA and do all the balancing. Ill machine all the compressor and turbine housing myself as I am a machinist by trade, it should be easy. The only thing Ive had to do it saw the inlet pipe off the compressor housing in order to fit in my lathe, Ill then weld it on after (This is what ktec do I believe). I hope this upgrade should produce 320hp without overboosting. Im sure ill knock up a tubular manifold and get a garret in the future but this will do for now.
Today however I tried solve the knocking noise in the rack, checked all swivel joints and replaced all inner and outer track rods as they had play in them anyway on the MOT last year. But the knocking still happens, looks like a new rack when i change out the engine, ill try and get a 200 one for the quicker turning.
Also sorted out the airbag light from fitting the recaros, soldered some pins onto a 3.3 ohm resistor and simply inserted it into the plug and this did the trick.
Did a quick enhancement detail on the steed and the mothers s2000 (Damn I love these cars) last weekend, honda paint is so soft compared to renault diamond hard bloody paint!
One last thing, toying with idea of getting my recaro backs done in gloss black, whats your opinions?
Quick update:
The missing inlet valve showed up eventually, so that's been installed and the heads been put into storage. At work this week I've started to make up a jig in order for me to hold the compressor housing in a lathe. This week I'll weld flanges onto the jig that bolt into the actuator holes. Here it is at the moment.
Evening all
Ive put the turbo on the side at the moment due to saving up for parts and a mountain of college work i have to complete for my HND. Started work on inlet manifold of the megane 225 engine. I used engineers blue to marked where the inlet lines up with the head ports, and wow! what a difference in sizes. About 5mm smaller in the width and 3mm in the height. This is shown in the photos. I grabbed my dremel again and went back to the process of grinding, sanding and buffing (oh joy
) Ive finished two of the ports so far which took around 5 hours. Ill finish the other two when i find time, hopefully next week end fingers crossed. Ill also open out the throttle body and plenum of the intake. This should hopefully result in some decent gains.
With the engine build on the side line I decided to give the interior a spruce up from that god awful silver. I went to halfords and picked up some black metallic paint the same as my cars colour. Gave 4 coats of primer, 4 colour and 5 lacquer. Then wet sanded with 2000 grit wet and dry and buffed out to get that mirror finish. I put a black renault sport sticker on the long dash trim for a subtle but stealth looking addition.
Next time ill hopefully get the inlet done and maybe make up a custom fuel rail done for the after market fuel pump ill put in the car.
PDATE:
First off I managed to finish all the porting on the inlet manifold which took an absolute age, but I always knew it would with 5mm to take off over the width of the port. Im really happy with it and the continuity between ports is all with 0.25mm which aint bad for a dremel I dont think
Ill get it painted some time using the same colour I sprayed the rocker cover in.
With that done I turned my attention to the fuel rail. This is because with a uprated inline fuel pump Ill need to run a regulator and return line, but with the oem rail being plastic I am unable to get another secure line into it. To make one I first got hold of some 18mm dia solid stainless round bar and turned up some injector fittings. I cut these at 25mm long and with a 13.5mm reamed hole through the centre. Then I used a dividing head on a milling machine with an 18mm end mill cutter to dish out the bottom of the to fit the 18mm stainless tube Im using for the rail. The holes were then drilled in the tube at 89mm centres. Using the silver solder I brazed these fittings onto the tube along with an AN6 fitting for the return line. I still need to figure out the position of the feed line which will be soldered on along with some support brackets. But here is how it looks so far.
Difference between the stock manifold and my ported one.
Cheers
As I had today off I decided to test fit my fuel rail with the manifold, head, block and throttle, then I could see where I am going to drill the hole for the feed line. Had a few issues, mainly being I forgot about the dipstick bracket being located right at the end of the fuel rail where I had my return line. To remedy this I ground off the welds on the bracket, I then ground part of the inlet manifold off so I could swivel the bracket round 60 degrees, the new position was marked with a pen and the bracket was cut to suit. Ill weld it all together when im back at work on tuesday. Feed line should be fine where it is in the picture, I would like it to run perfectly parrallel with the rail but unfortunately this isn't possible due to the throttle body being in the way, hey ho just my perfectionist side coming out there lol. I still need to paint the manifold and some of the brackets.
Pictures:
You can see in this photo just how tight it is by the throttle body, you can also see where I have ground off the bracket and repositioned it so it doesn't foul on the fuel rail return.
I do love a bit of braided fuel hose ;D will looks loads better when manifold is painted though
Stephen
