RomRaider

My wife and I have fun working together. She is very good at organizing, ripping stuff off and putting it back on without missing stuff (or breaking things like I tend to do). Once it is back up and running, we will be hanging out more. I need to find a good used VF39 or VF43 for cheap for Tessa's car with a WG actuator that works. Using the TAD settings as a restrictor plate works, but not very well (no temp compensation, so when it is hot it runs really low boost). Hopefully my parts will come in this week (they should).

So, it had something to do with the ring?

Yeah you can't install them upside down. Comp rings are beveled in a way to scrape oil away from the combustion chamber instead of into it. I was basically pumping oil into that cylinder and pumping gas into the crankcase, lol. It will still pass a comp and leakdown though!

My father in law guessed it right when I was thinking it was the oil control ring. He didn't think so and he was correct. I swear I got those things in the right way, but I pulled the piston to find the secondary comp ring upside down. At least it was cheap to fix! Re-hone it and re-ring it.

Well now, that's a low-cost fix... that takes lots of work!

Glad nothings broken...

It is actually not that bad. It took my wife and I about 3 hours to pull the engine and get everything off that had to come off to inspect the head (which I did first). Then it took about 2 hours to pull the piston (that thing is kind of heavy with one head still attached). Then 3 more to re-ring it, hone it, drop the piston in and re-assemble everything else we could until the new headgasket comes in. The good news is that the whole intake mani came off as one unit (no full disassembly this time) as well as the exhaust mani and the turbo. It will be easy to re-assemble and drop in once the gaskets come in. Probably about 6 more hours of work.

The cool thing was that I had broken a ring installing #2 (other side of the engine, got the piston stuck as I accidentally installed it sideways, scuffing the wall some) and I had to re-hone that one already so I had 3 extra sets of rings (you have to buy a 4 piece set).

That's great news! Can't wait to hear that all is well. I have to admit though that your coated pistons are almost too nice to hide inside the block.

Yeah I was thinking I should have bought 5 so I could have one to look at.

Got the email this morning that my gaskets will be here tomorrow. UPS second day air, arriving tomorrow. Of course I ordered them last week. They did not have the headgasket in stock at the time. Oh well, near perfect timing. The only other thing I can finish up right now is putting the plastic timing cover backing on one side. The LH side cams are in and the valve cover is on. Tomorrow night I'll put the RH side head on, cams, valve cover, timing belt backing plates, crank pulley, coolant pipe, timing belt, timing belt cover, intake manifold, exhaust manifold, power steering pump, AC pump and the turbo. Then Saturday drop it in (hopefully).

Well, the build is on IWSTI with pics.

http://www.iwsti.com/forums/members-jou ... ect-3.html

But, we have made good progress.

I think this time its gonna be alright.

Thanks to my wife (Tess, the one who says "f*** amazing" in the first video) who built it with me.

WoooooHooooooo! Awesome news!

So... it's been a little over two weeks Gabe, how is she running?

A tad over 500 miles. Runs fine, doesn't burn any oil. Still messing with fueling (goddamn, these 750CC injectors need a s*** of latency to get the curve straight). The 20G hits 13.5 PSI and 2.6 load at 5.6k rpm at WG boost.

Nice! Can't wait until you turn up the wick a bit...

Keep us posted!

272 ft/lbs wtq @ 14.4 PSI. 255 WHP @ 5400 RPM @ 14.4 PSI (10.5:1, 19 degrees timing at peak HP, 12 degrees timing and 11.5:1 at peak TQ @ 3500 RPM).

Yeah it is conservative, for now.

No knock events entire drive to work.

Beats a stock STI.

No Meth injection (yet), 6000 rpm fuel cutoff.

My car is making some screwed up noises when I start it lately and now sometimes when it is just running. Been doing this for about 2 weeks. I thought it was piston slap, but the noise got worse. It was metal on metal ratlling noise. First I thought I had not Tq'd down a connecting rod bolt or something stupid. But then yesterday it did it in my garage. Run out to the car, looking around for the noise, its my damn exhaust has a loose bolt and a leak. 1000 miles on the new motor. Pulls 19 inches of vaccum. Time to crank it up!

Oh and I am no longer banned on Nasioc as of today.

You can close this now Bill.