HarrisRacing

Just got my car very roughly tuned in enough to make a decent 10 psi pull and I AM LOVING THIS TURBO! Sounds frigging awesome, responds very well, seems to spool strong at around 3700-4k rpms (I'll log it soon). And I assure you I have a little lean spot on the bottom and I haven't touched timing yet, so I'm sure it will get better! Quick little video.

-10 AN to the REAR drain.

And yes extremely happy!!!

Nothing changed at all. I'm telling you it had to be the bolt in the fan or something with an accessory. I didn't take pistons out. I did all this work with the engine in the car. I stand behind my engine building still (my dad's a machinist, I learned a LONG time ago).

https://youtu.be/FII2MfZLzto

Back together! Frigging runs GOOD too! The only issue I saw anywhere was a bolt in the fan shroud. Very well could have flung around there and then got caught in shroud and was being hit by fan? No clue because sound is 100% gone. Got everything checked and bled (wow it's easy to bleed with a swirl tank) and warmed up. Found out one part of my tune was setup wrong and off we went driving! Quickly tuned in a mild pull (10 psi) after about 30 min of roughing it out. I AM LOVING THIS COMBO! It's going to be a nasty street car!!! https://youtu.be/P5Txo9O4DXg

Couple of questions: 1) are pumps staged at all? Or on any kind of pwm? 2) what kind of filters are you running and what size fuel lines? 3) can you get us actual fuel temps? 4) how much power are you or do you intend to make? Those 044s are pretty big pumps. You have enough fuel for 1200HP on E85 or 1500HP on gasoline. If I were you I would stage one of them to where it comes on past 4k rpms and only past 15 psi boost. But make sure you have check valves on them.

Well I almost had it all back together but couldn't get the trans stabbed by myself so I should have that all done by tomorrow afternoon and we will see if the ghost knock still exists. I did find a bolt in the bottom of the fan shroud. Silly of me not to look there but I would find it hard to belive that where it was it was causing this noise. L

Harmonic balancer is tight as heck. Squirters looked good lots of clearance. Cam gears tight. Timing belt lined up and tight. Only things I can think of is some sort of valve spring issue (but sounded too quick for that) or you are right wrist pin or some kind of head contact (again which is totally doubtful imo). We looked in cylinders. No issue pretty dark from running rich. We will look again for signs of contact

Every single main bearing, Rod bearings, cam cap, and anything we can see looks literally brand new. There is nothing wrong with this engine that I can see. My brother thinks it had to be some accessory making the sound or maybe something with a valve spring or lifter (in which case putting the oil pan back togethEric makes no difference now. I'm fixing oil pan and going back together with it all this weekend. I can't believe it honestly but dang like I said I have never had a bottom end problem...everything measured out perfect upon assembly.

We can't find it yet. Pulling exhaust cam cover now.

Here's the second "worst". The others literally look brand new. Few metal shavings in pan are aluminum...like porting aluminum. Like from my diff install. But dang I cleaned the hell out of that thing before having welded and putting diff in!

This is the "worst " one. And here is the journal

Rod bearings are PERFECT. One has a tiny dent or impression of something soft in it. Journals on crank are perfect look brand new. Dare I pull the girdle to check mains? A few shavings in oil pan look like aluminum

First day - sinking feeling, followed by a pitcher of beer and some pizza...and NO sleep. Yesterday - Felt real good and progressed quickly until I realized the trans and flywheel have to come off. Today - Hey man this thing isn't going to fix itself and the oil pan had to come off anyway to be properly welded so we really aren't that far behind yet. Who knows what tomorrow will bring? I really think I should order some main bearings real quick just in case it was trash I could swap the front main out. Actually let me do that real quick!

Not yet. Went to the shop after work: Pulled axles, oil pan bolts, then remembered there are those (3) 6mm bolts you can't get to unless you pull the trans, clutch and flywheel so I changed plans to start pulling engine and ran out of time. Makes me want to modify the pan to make those accessible in the future, but I'd like to look at it all apart again first to make sure it could be done (I'm thinking allen head screws?). I did, however, get 2 sets of Rod bearings sent over. One set of ACL .000" and one set of +.001" in case I'm close and just need a polish. The more I think about it, though the more I just want to tear it all down and clean it all up again. Since oil pressure is so good, What I'm worried about is maybe 2 things: 1) A bearing was too tight (which I find hard to believe because I really thought I spent my time measuring everything). 2) trash was in an oil galley and I didn't get it all cleaned out on initial assembly. No 1 rod and main would be the first to take trash that was in the main galley so that could be the cause. Sound REALLY sounded like it was coming from the front of the engine. Low oil pressure would have seemingly affected no. 6 first.

We cranked forever. Even broke fittings at turbo to make sure it was clean oil and flushed before sending any break in lube there. This video is just minutes before the noise. https://youtu.be/2zFD_4tLqQA

The picture in the bath is hot (oil cooler receiving oil). Picture out is cold. Entry would be on table side coming through the port with the hole that gets covered when heated (which forces through the cooler). Oil pressure was strong. Never noticed an issue even during knocking sounds.

And yes greddy thermostat and then a greddy oil relocation on top of that. It's mostly closed off when cold but there is a tiny bypass.

The metal in the pleats (valleys in the picture) are definitely from the inside of the engine...not from cutting. Oil was clear but lots of shimmery metal. Could be normal for break in honestly.

Well I had an issue. A major major issue. After getting everything up to temp and going well on coolant and oil pressure I started on the throttle body and cracking it for more airflow as well as setting TPS. I got the car idling and then started setting base trims and revving the car a bit (didn't want to just idle a new motor) so I started revving a bit up to 5-6k...light revving only no loads. Well it was sounding good and trims coming in great and then I heard a noise. First was a bit of a "clunk" noise that both my helper and I heard (backfire in intake of sorts) then I heard the knock. Rod knock...shut down, checked oil again - level is good (halfway up dipstick so some air came out). Cranked back up breifly and really decided not to give any more rpms and shut it down. This bothered me to no end all night. I can't sleep and it's really getting at me because this is the first bottom end I have ever put together (measuring all myself etc) that has ever given me such an issue. So I am writing now to say that I completely overlooked filling my oil cooler and my oil cooler feed lines. We primed FOREVER without the plugs in to get pressure but I didn't even think about the greddy thermostat. What the hell total oversight. I'd bet the farm that while we were doing our little revs the oil temp finally got to temp and opened up and sent a half quart of air to my bearings. I'm really scared the clunk was the camshaft starting to seize. I have no clue why I didn't think to pump through the cooler with a fluid pump to prime it but I didn't... Since I need to pull the oil pan anyway to fix the last leak I'll start there and check no 1 rod. It should be noted that the oil pressure was stupid good. Like incredibly high. On the stock gauge at idle just under the '4' at idle! Also backed up by haltech pressure gauge. But pressure is only part of the indicator...as this is close to the housing after the pump...and this would have pushed the air in the cooler straight to the bearings in the event of oil thermostat opening. I attached my oil filter insides. What do you guys think?

OK so the epoxy worked pretty well. There is still one that I simply just missed covering up, but I think I can fix it later when I permanently fix the pan. BUT the car runs!!!! VERY IMPORTANT: When using GT101 (or any other cam and crank triggers) the signals are backwards in the Haltech for the AEM "24 and 1" setting that is the other default choice in the Haltech Platinum pro plug n play. The GREEN/YELLOW signal wire is for the CAMSHAFT HOME signal (1 click per camshaft rotation). The other wire works for the crankshaft on a 12 groove crankshaft.

It was the tiniest of pin holes. Had 5 of them. Welder said he did the water test and checked it but there's no way I believe that. I could have spot fixed it, but I figured they may not all be visible at room temp so I went on with coating the whole weld. I used belzona 1111 metal epoxy. It is rated for temp and made for metal repairs. I just need it to stay sealed. And I am not planning on this being permanent, I just need to get the car tuned and tested on. Of course I will fix it correctly later but I'll see if I have any other issues first.

Greddy trust

Haltech is saying that their software doesn't care about highs or lows (teeth or gaps) just changes in voltage so it's likely getting noise somewhere else. I'm going to check my cam bolts depth by greatly exaggerating the longer bolt from the shorter 3 tomorrow. Halfway embarrassed to say but I tried an industrial metal epoxy on the oil pan. First drained all oil. Then pumped thinner into the sump through one of my oil drain fittings (so as to not wash the whole engine with it - only the sump area where the welds are) and watched it rain thinner out of the holes. Then drained that, took heat gun and sweated out remaining thinner / oil. Final rinse and reheat then applied epoxy to the all of the welded areas. I hope it holds if not I only lost a couple of hours (compared to pulling engine or pan this is nothing really). Prayers welcome