admS15

It's done now, the sump is on and buttoned up. Went with the .8mm, engine builder suggested 1mm and shook his head when I said 2mm. Time will tell. If it's not enough, can always run this stuff, lol

Getting there That's as far as I got before having to go do dad things. I'm thinking on going with a .8mm washer to shim the oil pump relief valve. I could double up and run 1.6mm. Just trying to keep the oil pressure same as before as the bearing clearances are bigger now. Do you guys reckon .8mm should be sufficient? Don't want to over do it. I've kind of settled on the idea of .8mm but the pan hasn't been put on yet with sealant so can change it.

I don't think he'll ever be able to look at me the same again, lol.

I received a package the other day from @Komdotkom he said to me I hope your wife has a sense of humour (not sure her sense of humour would extend to this). A few days later this turned up. Thankfully Im usually home before the wife so I could intercept the parcel. That particular day I got home and nothing had arrived yet. An hour later I heard something at the door so I opened up and there's my 8 year old daughter holding the above box, she hands it to me and says daddy you've got a parcel. Thank god she didn't read the return address or give it to my wife. Dragon lady crisis avoided, lol. I don't have a pic on hand but inside the package was a RB head drain. Funny looking 3xl rectal probe that. Going along with the theme of this build which is budget focused (tight arse), I found a couple of hydraulic fittings from work with sufficient ID to use on either end and some 19mm nitrile rubber hose. Working in a rubber factory has it's perks, occasionally. It's not pretty but will do the job.

My last mower didn't get an oil change in 11 years. Still ran like a champ. Now my dad has it, he has changed the oil now. As far as break in oil. I would prefer cheap mineral oil for break in and would rather not waste 6 litres of Castrol edge 10-60 not cheap these days. The penrite break in oil cost me a total of $2.92 after eBay plus discount and $30 eBay plus voucher. Considering I'm going to dump it after 1-200km it's still expensive, lol.

Now, if only sparesfailbox could deliver the break in oil I ordered 15 days ago, I'd have everything I need. In fairness they shipped it a day after I ordered it and the train wreck that is couriers please lost it, "apparently" anyway.

Yes have heard about Vaseline but was concerned about how it will dissolve and thought there's enough ass lube left in the tube and it's probably better to only have 1 type of ass lube mixing in with the oil. Lol

Anyone see any issue with packing the oil pump with assembly grease? Theory is to avoid any potential air locks and difficulty in getting oil pressure for first start up. I've done it now and I've got about an hour before the Loctite sets and Thor's hammer won't be able to remove the bolts.

Thanks I thought so when I was looking at it this morning and have heard that not much flows through them. It's been done now and is on the intake side. Yes Nissan dealer, some are more helpful than others. Just ring them with the part number and see what they say. A lot of the little bits and pieces fit multiple models including some adm so they generally have them in stock. They can also import from Japan, never gone through that process with them. You can get most of the common genuine Nissan pitwork parts through places like EFI solutions, kudos motorsport, just jap etc.

Nissan rang me yesterday to inform me the 2 piston circlips I'm waiting on had arrived. I duly went over and picked them up. I made a phone call to the engine shop to find out if the head was ready to go and it was, so went and got that too. The guides did fit but needed to be trimmed down as expected. Engine builder said my clearances are fine and that he would run them looser than that. When I got home, I removed number 1 piston, put the new circlips on and torqued up all the rod bolts to 45 Ft-lbs. Then started stripping the oil pumps. My Supercheap auto impact driver struggled against the Nissan Thor strength Loctite on the screws. Took me a while but got there in the end. 3 of the screws on 1 pump had to be drilled, I managed to extract 1 with vice grips, the other 2 are going to be drilled out and threads re tapped by the machinist at work. I don't have the patience for that shit. Both pumps are in good shape and well in spec according to the clearances specified in the fsm. New circlips and Allen key screws for oil pump Head job, only got the 4 valves, guides and seals replaced. Didn't weld the dent, just smoothed it out, engine builder was confident it wouldn't be an issue, he's only been building engines for 38 years so I'll happily listen to him on that. Didn't need to machine the face either as surface was still flat and I'm only using a stock gasket. Took the head to work today and put it through the hotwash a couple of times. Surprisingly the engine shop has the exact same hotwash machines. Piston getting the circlips installed Neo head gasket next to R33 gasket. As expected no difference whatsoever other than being cheaper and different part number. Got busy after work today, head and cams are installed. Also drilled the head for a head drain. Going to get a bung welded onto the sump tomorrow, am planning to put it on intake side to avoid getting close to the exhaust mani. I've noticed most guys go to the exhaust side. Is there any reason why going to intake side may be a problem? Planning on shimming the oil pump relief valve with a 1mm washer. Is that the commonly accepted amount?

Hey mate, I have 11 good 2nd hand RB25 S2 conrods here. You can have 1 if you like. No charge, other than shipping if required.

Got the pistons and rods in this arvo. Was pretty straightforward using the adj tapered ring compressor. Just like anything there is a method to use it correctly. Basically don't over tighten it, it's got to be just right and then the piston slides down and in by hand. No tapping with the handle of a mallet. Was a bit of a ball ache lining up all the rings as described in the fsm, was fiddly and took a while to get right. There's little locating holes or indents where you line each ring up. I can't see them staying there but if that's what Nissan says, I'll just do it. Diagram of said arrangement And assembled bottom end Moving on to oil pump strip,clean, check and shim up relief valve spring.

Started on assembly on the weekend. I checked the mains clearance with plastigauge. Was surprised to see bigger clearances with the ACL race bearings. Was concerned the readings weren't right, so I disassembled and reassembled numerous times, measured with micrometre and bore gauge. The mic readings where close to the plastigauge but slightly tighter. I did the readings 3 times and although they where a tiny bit different each time, they where close enough for me to be confident what I'm seeing is correct. Clearances on the mains are between 2 - 2.5 thou or .050-.063mm I was initially concerned as that's outside of Nissan's ideal range so I stopped assembling and considered running a -.010" bearing on 1 side in a mixed pair arrangement, sounds dodgy but apparently it's a done thing. You obviously need 2 sets of bearings. I have since been told that my numbers are fine, between 2-2.5 thou is good and I don't need to change anything. The avge across the 7 is around 2.3thou. The rod bearing clearances where checked with the mic and they're a bit tighter at 1.45-1.77thou or .036-.045mm. Again I'm told that that's good and even a little looser would've been better. Will see what engine shop has to say about these clearances when I pick the head up. Atm, the crank is in and torqued down, will start putting the rest together when I get time. So the plastigauge turned out pretty close, if only I trusted it initially, could've saved hours of measuring, cleaning and unnecessary stress. Better to be sure than find out the hard way I suppose.

Most parts would be available through suppliers like partsouq, amayama, nengun, Nissan themselves. Doubt you'll find a rebuild kit as such. There are some parts that are shared with other Nissan engine families. Things like bearings, valves, valve guides etc. Partsouq/amayama will be your friend when it comes to part numbers and price.

You mean dropshipbox

Final numbers are in after ring fitment and arrangement. Variance is down to 0.12g worked out well, may be able to improve a tiny bit more with the arrangement of circlips once they all arrive. Billprinting almost complete I've ended up with 3 pistons from each motor. The 3 that came out of this one will go back to their original locations, the others will be measured up and a spot selected for them. Opened up the box of goodies from EFI solutions yesterday. Must say they're a well organised mob and everything they said was in stock actually was.

She will be sent and rattled hard🤣

Most probably true but what's done is done Yolo lol

Geez man, where do you find 5 grams to remove. I only took .2 of a gram and was scared I was taking too much off. Pic of my work Shaved Will clean it up and a bit with some fine paper tomorrow. Unshaved Rings are all installed now, will re weigh all pistons tomorrow with rings fitted up. I doubt there's much difference in the ring weights but you never know.

Just checked the ring gaps. Thanks Mr Nissan for being spot on and not needing adjustment. OEM is life. Around mid spec for all. Starting to assemble the pistons now. Got 2 done so far, will continue at next opportunity.

Oops, my bad. Lol. I decided to leave the pins in original spots but went ahead and shaved around 0.15g from the 2 heaviest pistons. Going to take 0.10 off one more and call it done. BILLprinted baby. This is the area I shaved material off from As above decided to leave them in original locations.

The piston pins are within 0.24g across the 6. With some rearranging of the pin locations the total piston/pin weight comes down to 0.46g Once the rod weights are factored in the variance comes down to 0.2g. if I shave a tiny bit of 2 pistons I can get it down to 0.07g. I know this will make stuff all difference but I'm here and will take bugger all time to do. Question time. Should I even bother with rearranging the pin locations or leave them in their original homes? If I don't the variance will be 0.43 with rod weights accounted for. Or do I go all out, shave a few pistons and end up less than 0.05g variance and call it balanced and BILLprinted. Anyway here are my workings. Thoughts gents.

Sorry for delay guys, been busy. May be a quiet day at work tomorrow. I'll see if I can get those pistons under the big lit magnifying glass our sparky has on his work bench. Head was dropped off yesterday, shop says I should have it back by the end of next week. Nissan stuffed me around with replacement piston circlips. Ordered 12 (was showing heaps of stock) but somehow they only had 10. Should get last 2 by next week. I hope anyway. I mentioned to engine builder that I had 11 pistons and asked if I should aim to run the 6 that came out of the motor that's being rebuilt. Before I could finish my sentence he said he would pick out the best 6 from the pile. So that's what I've been doing. Out of the 11, 2 where ruled out because of the maybe or maybe not cracks. 1 other was ruled out due to a tight 2nd ring groove (I may or may not have dropped this, lol). Out of the 8 useables, they where weighed and then the 6 closest weights where picked. Nissan did a damn good job casting RB pistons. They're within 0.7 of a gram. Could have been 0.5 but I didn't like the look out of 1 of the other 8. There was 1 outlier that was over 1.2g heavier The 6 selected range from 404.08g to 404.78.

No way camera is going to pick it up. My eye is questioning what I'm seeing or not seeing. I'll give it a shot but I don't think it'll show.

Gave all the pistons a thorough inspection today under various lighting and I saw a couple things that I can't unsee and make me uneasy. It's probably nothing but 2 pistons have what looks to be the start of a micro crack. I don't think it is but just appears that way, both pistons have it in the same spot. It's right where a crack would start, around pin area inside the piston. Again, I think it's just an appearance thing but I'm not taking any chances. I've decided that the 5 good pistons from old engine will be going in with the best looking 1 from the other 6. Thankfully all the pistons are the same grade. I gave the old engines pistons a thorough look and they look great and much cleaner. I had considered using these before but my OCD of putting things back where they came from overtook logic. Now pondering why I spent 2 hours cleaning the other ones. Fcuk Also received a shipment from EFI solutions that @Dose Pipe Sutututuhelped facilitate. Thanks mate. All parts I need have now arrived, will be picking up piston circlips/locks from Nissan tomorrow and with a bit of luck and a heap of hard work this thing should be running by Christmas.