Fenda's uber garage Engine Build

[TitaniumTT]

I popped an engine on the dyno due to oil starvation... the engine seized @ 7k rpm and the dyno sheet actually went backwards Which actually makes total sense.... either way.... the amount of oxy/acy heat and pullers that were needed to get this thing apart was ridiculous.... needless to say, the only thing salvageable on the engine were the mani's

[Fendamonky]

Ouch... I hadn't really considered that it might be a chore to physically dismantle the engine. I'm hoping mine won't be *too* fucked since it traveled maybe a minute without oil, then less than a mile (keeping below 3krpms) after more oil was added..


Odd as hell though, I kept smelling vinegar while cleaning up the garage today. I'm hoping that was just coming from an old beer that had been left open WAAAYYY too long, which we discovered while cleaning

[Whizbang]

hope the bearings didn't spin

[Rotary Evolution]

if the engine still ran after adding more oil and didn't smoke like a train then you probably got extremely lucky.

[Fendamonky]

I can only hope... if this motor has turned into a boat anchor I'm gunna be WELL gutted...

[Fendamonky]

Ok... Pic dump from last night.

Disassembly of the front stack:







Off goes the front CW, looks good, slides around fine, everything seems good (aside from the stat gear bearings, they need fresh ones pressed)



These guys look just fine



Some surface marks, but I don't think it's outlandish...






Like new... for the most part



No whirling dervish's here!!





Each part went into it's own sandwich bag, then came (gently) into here.. NOT planning on misplacing anything



Left with this in the front.


After the front was disassembled I pulled up the FSM and started loosening nuts to get the studs out. (And yes... it would seem there was a slight coolant leak


By the time I got the studs out my wife was getting aggravated with me... She had gotten home about an hour earlier and wanted Chinese food for dinner (I needed to go out and get it ... A happy wife is a happy life, so I obey when it comes to fattening her up ). I went slightly out of order per FSM disassembly and cracked the rear stat gear off before removing the iron. A couple (relatively) gentle blows from the hammer/block of wood unseated the bearing and it came right off.



I don't know about you... but that bearing looks pretty damned good considering it ran without oil for a minute or so!! (I'm still gunna swap that out though, not taking any fucking chances!!)






I did notice some odd marks on the stat bearing though... It looks like it either received pitting (without any sign of rust) or it did not fully smooth down a roughed finish on the metal.. I have no idea if that's normal or not..





Again though, the bearing looks remarkably un-mangled!!



Here's the view I was left with last night when I left the engine for the evening..



This morning said "fuck that shit" and pulled the rear iron off while waiting for the car to warm up..

Rotor looks good... and it lifted on the e-shaft easily, so at least I know that THAT bearing isn't completely fucked and fused to the e-shaft..



You can tell that it looks like the e-shaft may have blued slightly though... BUT!! The Oil Control Rings look fine to my novice eyes (god PLEASE let them be good!!! Too many monies..)



The Iron looks fine, though I didn't get a picture of it uploaded. Thank god for race clearanced rotors!!!

[Rotary Evolution]

unless the irons are majorly scarred up they can be resurfaced and re-nitrided. the rotors normally don't take any major wear to the sides so they should be usable(hopefully, normally i would use a rotor from that scenario to race clearance them but yours already were).

worst case the irons will need replacement or salvaging, bearing seized can be repaired with the oversize goopy rotor bearings, stat gears and e-shaft are cheap enough.

years ago when the parts were more readily available in good condition i would just replace them, now i would try to rehabilitate them.

i have a feeling you got lucky though.

[Fendamonky]

Yeah, I was talking with Brian last night and I'm thinking I'm one lucky SOB on this... I'm thinking I'll just swap to rx-8 eshaft and stat gears, I'll press new bearings in my current gears and sell them asking for around 1/2 cost for new ones (since they've really only got 3,000-4,000 miles on them) and hopefully be able to come just about even (or on top) for the 8 running gear swap..

[Fendamonky]

Here are some random Before/After pics of my garage, and it's clean up

Before:








After:





Just gotta pick up some storage shelves and make a work table, then I'll be ready to get down and really start!! lol

[JL1RX7]

You sure you have the same place? Let me know when you want to tackle that pig. I need some snuggle time with Brian under a car.

[Fendamonky]

UPDATE TIME!!!!

So I've finally gotten a bit of work done, was slowly stripping down the engine bay to get ready for pulling her out. Here's a few shots from that..

Inside the water pump housing.



I'll give you three guesses (and one hint) of what that residue is...

Hint: It might start with a "B" and ends with "earing residue"


I was disconnecting the downpipe from the Turbo/Manifold and I think I may have figured out why I was getting an exhaust leak here..



Here's the way she looked after everything attached to the car was disconnected from the engine. I know it's not a proper short block, but it's good enough to pull out.



And yes, this time I made sure to get ALL the tranny bolts out first (the handy-dandy spare rear iron was stellar for making sure I had them all... they came out of the tranny, and went into the spare iron. Not only did this ensure I got them all, but it also will help me remember where they go when it's coming back together!!)

One more for posterity sake of how she looked yesterday when Bianca and I left for the afternoon to look at houses/places to rent. We're moving in like two weeks so figured it would be best to make sure we know where we're going to




Vlad (Max_Spd) and his buddy Si (I NEVER know if I'm spelling his name right, I feel really bad, but it's pronounced like the ninja weapon that could double as a hand-held rotisserie) came over when Bianca and I got home that evening. They brought some toys, we fed them dinner (traditional/typical Brazilian fare of Rice, Pinto Beans, and Steak cooked in a pot... Pretty goddamned good imo!) and then we got a little more progress done.

They went home after a couple hours and we went to bed...

































This morning Bianca and I woke up early, and this is what I had waiting for me in the garage.



That bitch got EVICTED last night



I spent a decent chunk of the morning bleeding the clutch in the Miata. It needed it BAD!!! I'm fairly certain that if samples were taken from the fluid in the clutch line they could grow some sort of new, mutant, Transformers Penicillin.. It was UGLY. And there was TONS of air in the line... A full flush with ATE Super Blue (and what felt like a couple hours of Bianca bitching about being cold) later I was able to start stripping down my engine to a short block.

Shit was DUUURRRRTTTTYY!!!



It's hard to believe that this engine only had 3k-4k miles on it.. I guess a catastrophic oil loss will kinda attract dirt and grime though...

Even though I *thought* I had drained all the fluids it seems that there was still some water in the engine..

YAY!!! Bearing Juice!!!



We've struck GOLD Captain!!! Bearing Sea gold...



Bearing material was everywhere...







After getting the engine stripped to a short block today I took the Miata out for a test drive to make sure my mystery issue of the clutch slipping BAD when the engine bay heated up had gone away... I drove to Vlads neck of the woods and picked up the Rotary Adapter for the engine stand he left at mine last night.

While further stripping down the engine I "accidentally" and removed the front stack before dislodging the rear Counter Weight.... I suppose the plus side is that the front stat gear slid out with no complaints

The bearing material was clearly trashed where it meets the E-Shaft, it looks like I should be able to press fresh bearings in and either reuse this, or sell them to recoup a slight bit of cost..



(disregard Bianca in the background... )



So yeah... now I've got me a handy-dandy square of 2x4 to help smack the rear Counter Weight free with. Tomorrow after work I'll reassemble the front stack, reattach the Flywheel, pop loose the CW and continue with the strip down.

Here's how I left the engine tonight:

[chibikougan]

Making me want to leave mine together.....

[RXtacy]

Originally Posted by Fendamonky

Inside the water pump housing.
I'll give you three guesses (and one hint) of what that residue is...

Hint: It might start with a "B" and ends with "earing residue"

YAY!!! Bearing Juice!!!

That's not "bearing juice" in the coolant. That's rust. There's no way for bearing material to get into the coolant system.

The bearing material was clearly trashed where it meets the E-Shaft, it looks like I should be able to press fresh bearings in and either reuse this, or sell them to recoup a slight bit of cost..

If you can't reuse them how are you going to sell them?

So yeah... now I've got me a handy-dandy square of 2x4 to help smack the rear Counter Weight free with. Tomorrow after work I'll reassemble the front stack, reattach the Flywheel, pop loose the CW and continue with the strip down.

Here's how I left the engine tonight:

Watchoo talking about Willis? You already have the nut off you can remove the rear counter weight as it is.

[chibikougan]

Originally Posted by Fendamonky

Was slow starting to move on it Tharek, but now that its out I should have her fully apart and assessed for all damages relatively fast (provided nothing is fused together).

Cheebz - yours didn't die from oil starvation did it?

No I am unsure if it is even damaged at all. I have a 2 psi blip on one face of the rear rotor. Turn fine ran fine started fine so I don't know. Haha

[Fendamonky]

Originally Posted by chibikougan

No I am unsure if it is even damaged at all. I have a 2 psi blip on one face of the rear rotor. Turn fine ran fine started fine so I don't know. Haha

Wait, you've only got a single blip on the rear rotor and that reads 2psi (and the others read 0psi) or two good blips and one reading 2psi?