admS15

They must have heard you and want to prove you wrong, I received a notification from them today that my order would be shipped from their warehouse, half an hour later auspost notified me my package will be delivered in the next few days. Let's see.

At some point I did a U turn on this and this has almost become a full diy as most have noticed. It is for now anyway, we'll see what the future holds.

Tried honing the scrap block using one of those three arm stone hones. The first 2 cylinders didn't go so well. The cross hatch just wasn't happening, too horizontal. The drill I was using was too fast. Switched over to my trusty cordless on slow speed and varied the technique. Got good cross hatch but now too steep an angle, around 60° The factory Nissan looks like closer to 40° Technique was adjusted again and got something pretty close. The key was slow drill speed and fast up and down strokes and plenty of lube. Got fairly confident and decided to do the good block. Went pretty good, went bit by bit trying to only take off the minimum required to deglaze the bores and create the cross hatch. It's pretty hard to get an image that can show the cross hatch clearly, don't know if it was the sun, quality of camera but I only managed to get 2 pics that are even viewable and don't do the cross hatch justice. So, that's done. I'm balls deep now. Got to order some more parts and move on to cleaning everything.

Yes I did measure at various angles. The shoelace thing was done with bugger all pressure and very little with the rougher 400 grit. The amount removed would've been 1/10th of stuff all. I've also measured it against the untouched scrap crank and the difference is almost unnoticeable. Thanks for that link, going to try some 220 grit stones on the scrap block a bit later and see what happens.

Finished polishing up the mains on the crank today. They where pretty good so just used metal polish. Came up nice. Measured up all the journals with a micrometre. All within spec, the mains where toward the lower end but still within. Standard size bearings should be fine. I will verify clearances with plastigauge once fitted. Surprisingly the Nissan fsm lists plastigauge as one of the methods of checking clearances. If it's good enough for Mr Nissan it's good enough for me. This is the worn upper main bearing at the front that is most probably worn from overtightened timing belt. Next, I'm going to try a bit of home honing. Going to have a go on the scrap block and see if I can produce an acceptable cross hatch. If not will leave to a pro.

Thanks for the response, good to know there's been no issues. There's no such thing as budget pistons anymore. Ross are $1700 now. I think Mahle are the cheapest at around $1500. Barina hey, I know a British dude here in vic who's crazy about them and building one ATM. Zippy little things and run on the smell of an oily rag. Compared to a skyline anyway.

I pulled the trigger on them, they should be here by the end of next week. They will be thoroughly scrutinised. Pistons will remain stock for now. That may change if I find a bargain somewhere.

Also started on cleaning up the crank today. Managed to polish up all the rod journals, they came up pretty good. I watched a few videos on YouTube where they used some lubed up Emery paper wrapped around the journal and then a shoestring wrapped around the paper a couple of times. You then use a sea saw type action where 1 string is pulled up and the other down. The paper then goes in a circular motion and the lace keeps pressure around the whole surface of the journal. I went through the process using 400, 800 and then 1500 grit paper followed by metal polish. It doesn't take much time, a minute or so with each grade. Rod journals are looking pretty nice now. Before After And the process Pretty happy with them, will do the mains next opportunity I get. Eagle eyes will notice the clearances for the mains written on the pan gasket area of the block. So the front clearance is the largest and has upper main bearing wear. I was telling this to someone yesterday, his reply was that's most probably caused by an overtightened timing belt. That makes a lot of sense, it's the only bearing with upper wear.

Did a bit of mucking around today and did an experiment with one of the rods from the exploded engine. The idea was to see if the bore of the big end would change or go out of round when pressing out and in rod bolts. I borrowed measuring tools from the machine shop at work. The bore was measured and then proceeded to press (bash) out the rod bolts. They where then turned around and pressed (bashed) back in. Was not easy and had to resort to using the nuts to screw in the last 15-20mm once there was enough thread to get the cap on and start the nuts. They pulled in easily at that point. Very dodgy I know but the point was to see if the geometry would change with hamfisting. The conclusion of my back yard bro science experiment was that nothing changed. Mr hammer didn't make an impact, lol. So I figure if you can treat them like that and they're still round, then pressing them in and out properly should be fine and won't need resizing.The bore specs for an O grade Nissan rod are between 51.000mm and 51.007mm. The measurement before and after copping a hammering where the same and around 51.003 so in spec, not bad for 30 year rods. After doing all that, I'm thinking I won't be happy with just new OEM bolts and considering getting some cheap forged rods. I'd never ever thought I would consider maxpeeding rods but here we are. Apparently the quality is pretty good and about as good as the spool h beams. I was told of a guy who is running them in an otherwise stock engine in a drift car that gets absolutely belted, limiter bashed and has been for years without issue. I believe one of our own here at SAU @hardsteppa has them in his engine and did a review saying he was quite happy with them. Hopefully he's still around and can let us know if there still going strong. They certainly do look good, come with arp 2000 bolts so solve that problem and should be better than the factory rods. The price is also right, with a current eBay offer they can be had for around $550 delivered. They fit the moto of this build. What do you guys think? I think I'm sold on them

Hahaha, I know. I would've ordered everything from partsouq which is the go to these days but they didn't have stock of the exh valves. At least all the valves are being supplied now.

A little good news today with the valves. Partsouq has shipped the 1 intake I ordered the other day and amayama has the other 3 at their warehouse and will ship soon. Unfortunately I think shipping is by actual ship as they've stated delivery mid December. Partsouq will be here next week.

And probably one of the world's most awesome RB20's

This is what more than likely what will happen once I have all the required other parts Why you do this to me, how about these

Might just order the standard sized ones. May crack the micrometre out and see if I can remember how to do maths.

If you don't find what you're looking for in shootas thread, let me know. I have a busted gearset here with an intact 5th and can take pics if required.

I put the crank back in yesterday and checked the clearances as is with plastigauge to get an idea of where this engine is at. The spec for mains is 0.028 - 0.046mm with a limit of 0.090mm Across the 7 mains I got numbers ranging from 0.040 - 0.065 number 1 was the worse and that bearing had visual wear, the rest where 0.055 or under. I'm pretty confident, new bearings will bring this back within spec. I've been told and have read of running these clearances on the looser side. ACL have hx series bearings which are standard size plus 1 thou. Don't know if I should go with these or just stick with standard. I will stick with running a stock oil pump so don't want to run into issues where it can't supply the volume or pressure required. I understand that shimming the pump is a thing for a slight bump in pressure but not sure if enough for extra thou bearings. I managed to also check 1 rod journal on no. 1 before I had to pack up, it measured at 0.030mm right in the middle of spec for rods. That bearing did look real good. What do you guys think, where should I aim for as far as clearances go, bearing in mind it's going to be predominantly street car from now on with the odd track day here or there. I do have access to high quality micrometres and bore gauges from work when needed. I should be able to measure, I hope. Lol

Yes I know and agree but they're making it hard for me by not having a specific part number and it's messing with my head, lol. I was speaking to the engine builders apprentice yesterday and he was telling me I could reuse my existing bolts. Um, 30 year old bolts, yeah nah. New ones are on the table as an option. Let's be honest here, I'm doing a bargain basement freshen up, reusing 30 year old pistons and rods, bare minimum machining. I think there will be very little if any track work in the future, if any. Arp would be nice for peace of mind, will persevere with trying to make that happen. Yes I am certifiably insane, LoL. Something, something Nissan autism..

Just got off the phone with Nissan and surprisingly the OEM SR20 bolts are still available. They want $21 each. Nengun lists them at $6 each and $40 express delivery. Considering the bolts in my motor lasted 27 years and 8 years at 315kw and I was revving it hard when they let go, I may just go OEM again and drop the rev limit a few hundred rpm. The fsm notes to not remove the bolts from the rod, I wonder if this means that the rod will need to be resized anyway if the bolts are pressed out and in?

I did consider this and looked initially, non neo valves are hard to come by for some reason but gettable. I did prefer to have all OEM but one foreign intake is acceptable. It's the exhaust ones that are sodium filled or some such isn't it?

As expected, amayama screwed me over. I ordered 4 valves for the head. They where showing stock in hand, turns out they where 1 intake valve short, so they conveniently dropped that from the order and doubled the price on the listing. I now have 3 valves in the post. Partsouq was showing stock of 1, I ordered it, let's see how that goes. I've got a funny feeling that they both get from the same supplier and they're won't be any stock. Damn Japanese shitboxes.

Yeah the rod bolts. Upon looking further, Nissan does actually list the same part number rod bolt now as the SR20. RB26 is different.

I'm trying to work out exactly what I need so everything is ordered together. I've come across a problem with arp rod bolts for non neo RB25. No one actually lists them specifically for them. Most say RB26 and NEO 25 but not vanilla. I rang a supplier and they said they won't fit and that SR20 rod bolts are the same as 25 and I should use those and buy 2 packets. I've read elsewhere that the sr ones work but are a couple mm shorter and the nut doesn't fully cover the threads. Anyone have a definite arp part number to use for rb25. Arp only lists RB26.

So the plan is going to be an OEM+ budget freshen up trying to abide by the KISS method. Not sure at this stage wether it will be DIY or done properly at a shop. At a minimum there will be new OEM rings, ACL bearings, hone, crank shaft treatment, most probably arp rod bolts and appropriate resizing to rods. OEM head gasket, arp head studs. I'm thinking about crank collar, pump gears and head drain. Will have to go have a chat with engine builder, then decide appropriate action. I doubt much will be done before the end of the year, I've ordered 4 new OEM valves from amayama, delivery date is late Dec but only 3 are in stock so there will probably be a further hold up.

Due to past experience, that environment will be reduced to 7200rpm. Doesn't look like rust, I may be wrong.

So the rods came out, all the pistons look good. Ring lands intact, no visible cracks anywhere. Bores are excellent and cross hatching still evident. The rods themselves appear fine. 5 of the bearing shells where in reasonable condition. No. 6 however did have a thin line in the centre where copper was exposed. That rod journal has some witness marks, I'm hoping they'll be able to be polished out. All other journals look good. Will have to get some professional advice and then go from there.