Bills 33 Gtst Streeter/track Car

[admS15]

I've ended up ordering 4 of the 40mm length guides and an additional 2 of the 42.9mm just incase. Hopefully they are suitable, if not engine shop can sort it out.  

#nomoreheadachesf*kn

[admS15]

Picked up the guides this arvo, I'm confident they'll work. Spoke to engine shop and will drop head off some stage next week. Coincidentally, they did an rb25 head this week so they should be in tune.

Going to take block and crank to work tomorrow and use some of the workshop facilities. We've got 2 hotwash degreaser machines. One for degreasing, the other rinsing. Going to chuck everything in for a couple of cycles. We've also got another process thats a tank using a chemical called nbp. Pretty much evaporates any residue left over after degreasing. The crank may get a cycle in there too. Unfortunately the block is too heavy for it. Will do a final clean, blow out at home.

[admS15]

Cleaned the block, crank and sump. Block and sump copped 2 cycles in the degreaser and 1 rinse, each item done separately, followed by a dunk in a hot water tank for a few minutes. Block is ready for paint.

 

Crank got a degrease and rinse and then went through the npb tank which is more like a gas vapour cleaner rather than a liquid degreaser. Following that, it was degreased and rinsed again followed by a hot water bath.

Both crank and block where sprayed with wd40 afterwards to prevent any rust formation.

 

 

 

 

The idea of putting the crank through was to get out of drilling and grub screwing. I'm hoping that the degreaser and npb done the job. Guys at work reckon it would've.

I've come up with a way to check. It involves sacrificing 1 piston oil squirter. If I file the end down, the piston squirter actually fits into the oil galleries in the crank. I'm going to line it up with the galleries behind the plugs and blast them with degreaser. If any debris at all come out, then drilling out plugs will happen.

 

 

[admS15]

Piston oil squirter sacrificed, still have an additional 4 spares anyway. OD was a touch too thick, sandpaper and file sorted it in a couple of minutes.

 

All rigged up and ready

 

 

Good thing I decided to try this. It proved that the washing machine and chemical treatment didn't do enough to get rid of what was hiding behind the plugs.

 

The first gallery on the back end was clean, the next not so clean. This is the stuff that was coming out

 

 

The plugs closer to the middle had the most crap behind them. It was all soft sludgey stuff, better out than in though. I've used 1 whole can of degreaser so far, going to hit it with 2 more tomorrow and if no more crap is coming out, I'll skip out on drilling.

I reckon the washing machine and npb helped to soften up the crap but obviously couldn't wash it out.

Pretty happy with myself for coming up with this backyard bush mechanic diy cleaning method, LoL.

[No Crust Racing]

Nice

[MBS206]

19 hours ago, admS15 said:

Piston oil squirter sacrificed, still have an additional 4 spares anyway. OD was a touch too thick, sandpaper and file sorted it in a couple of minutes.

 

All rigged up and ready

 

 

Good thing I decided to try this. It proved that the washing machine and chemical treatment didn't do enough to get rid of what was hiding behind the plugs.

 

The first gallery on the back end was clean, the next not so clean. This is the stuff that was coming out

 

 

The plugs closer to the middle had the most crap behind them. It was all soft sludgey stuff, better out than in though. I've used 1 whole can of degreaser so far, going to hit it with 2 more tomorrow and if no more crap is coming out, I'll skip out on drilling.

I reckon the washing machine and npb helped to soften up the crap but obviously couldn't wash it out.

Pretty happy with myself for coming up with this backyard bush mechanic diy cleaning method, LoL.

I'm going to err on the side of caution for you with a recent adventure of mine...

 

We bought a 2010 Kluger, everything checked out that I could on the test drive.

However on the way home, after 20 minutes on the freeway, a small prod of the throttle and it was an epic smoke show out the tail pipe.

This engine gunks up the valve covers with oil crud, exactly like your describing.

Off came the covers, and I love the spray degreaser and find it works really well. Cleaning in behind the oil separator plates as well as I could, soaking it, even bathing it in petrol. I blasted it all through with the garden hose to blow all the shit out.

Nothing else would come out, it all looked sweet as, I thought it was clean...

Then I decided, I've got a 5 litre bottle of degreaser ( It's a bit like soap, it'll even make bubbles!). 

I decided to get inside these baffles soaking with the degreaser would be a good back up. Lots of swishing and swirling and letting it soak, doing heaps of thing.

I then hit it with the hose.

My initial thoughts of "it was clean" were VERY wrong. This new degreaser REALLY got some shit loosened up. It dumped out about 2 times more shit than had already come out.

I then dig the degreasing bath again and blasting it. More shit again came out.

Eventually I got to the point no more shit came out. But it took a LOT, and what I learned was, the spray on stuff is good for light grease, but getting sludgey, not so great.

 

For the cost vs risk, PLEASE drill and replug the crank after cleaning. Even if you keep with the DIY and get those NPT plugs, and buy yourself an NPT tap. (You still had a spare crank to test on don't you?)

 

I'd hate to see you build this, and some shit you've loosened becomes dislodged under a couple of bar of oil pressure, blocking an oil feed to a bearing and the new motor goes kaput!

 

 

 

On a totally different topic, for all the smaller things you need to clean, even things like brackets, buy one of those cheap sonic cleaners. Like the vevor ones. It won't be big enough for things like a crank, but power steer brackets, bolts, nuts, screws, drop them all in.

 

Pretty much anything you can disassemble to just be a metal component (some people leave some rubber gaskets in their items, but I wouldn't risk it myself unless it's an easy to replace part, say like an idle air control valve).

Super quick, and super easy way, to get parts back to looking brand new!

For certain items you could then do some DIY powder coating too

 

But back to point one, please fully do the crank.

Based on your findings, I'd also drop the block and head off to a machinist place for them to bath and clean it properly, considering your crank got an extra treatment the block couldn't, you don't want some form of gunk left in it that could ruin your day in a few months time!

My thoughts are that machining, and cleaning everything, are two of the most important things to get right with a full engine build (and then taking your time to get everything built to spec being the next part to be precise on)

[admS15]

@MBS206 Appreciate your concerns.

I've got a dozen cans of degreaser on hand. Will spray a few until crap stops coming out. Will then hotwash and npb again followed by more degreaser, rinse and repeat until nothing more comes out. All left over degreaser will be used on block.

 

[MBS206]

4 hours ago, admS15 said:

@MBS206 Appreciate your concerns.

I've got a dozen cans of degreaser on hand. Will spray a few until crap stops coming out. Will then hotwash and npb again followed by more degreaser, rinse and repeat until nothing more comes out. All left over degreaser will be used on block.

 

That's more what I'm getting at... The spray cans of degreaser stopped being able to get the stuff out of the valve covers at all. Even though they appeared "all clean" 

Maybe the NPB wash will give you a lot more luck, but will it really cost that much to have the crank drilled and tapped for the caps to go in? (Or really, with your DIY skills and what appears to be access to some cool gizmos and gadgets, I'm sure you can drill and tap them yourself)

I can't see that being overly expensive to pay for a drill and tap to be done, and then at least you can get something in there to scrub with?

[admS15]

The drilling of the crank is easy, it's more I'm trying to avoid having to rebalance the crank.

4 cans of degreaser where pumped through it today and a lot more shit came out. After about 2 1/2 there wasn't anything more coming out. I was going to call it good enough but you know what it's no big deal to hot wash and npb it a couple more times and then degrease again for ultimate peace of mind. Will get that done tomorrow.

 

[r32-25t]

An advantage of grub screwing is you can run the pipe cleaners through all the oil galleries

[No Crust Racing]

I am big fan of the ultrasonic cleaners, I got a 10L one to give me room for carbies etc, but you can just part fill it or put small things in jars with the cleaning solution and the rest with water.

 

[admS15]

Re ultrasonic cleaners, have you guys been looking at my browsing history? Lol 

Continued with the crankshaft cleaning today. It went through the npb tank a total of another 4 times. There was bits of crud coming out after the first 2, nothing after the 3rd but gave it a 4th cycle just to make sure. I'm happy with that and calling it clean. It's wrapped up now and awaiting assembly day.

Rings, bearings and gaskets are at PO awaiting pickup. Head will be going to shop by latest Wednesday. Things should start happening soon.

[admS15]

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.

[Komdotkom]

I'll post that head drain to you tomorrow mate if I don't forget.

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

Skids for Santa 🎅

[No Crust Racing]

On 11/12/2023 at 12:23 PM, MBS206 said:

I'm going to err on the side of caution for you with a recent adventure of mine...

 

We bought a 2010 Kluger, everything checked out that I could on the test drive.

However on the way home, after 20 minutes on the freeway, a small prod of the throttle and it was an epic smoke show out the tail pipe.

This engine gunks up the valve covers with oil crud, exactly like your describing.

 

Just on this, GR Toyota V6s engines (mostly 1GR and 2GR) have known issues with sludging (I have a 1GR in the Prado). 

For people running the Toyota oil (made by Castrol) it's not an issue because that oil is spec'd for both the petrol and diesel variant Prados so it's got a healthy dose of diesel detergents. My car has 160ks on it now and the pickup and VVTI screens are still mint but it's only ever had the Toyota oil in it and at $45-$48 a bottle from Toyota its on par with other 10-30w semi synthetics anyway.

It's one of those things where it pays to stick with OEM or match the oil spec exactly to the book, which I think is only one Castrol oil anyway that's very hard to get. 



 

[No Crust Racing]

14 hours ago, admS15 said:

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.

Where pics? 
 

[admS15]

On 14/11/2023 at 6:34 AM, No Crust Racing said:

Where pics? 
 

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. 

[GTSBoy]

1 hour ago, admS15 said:

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. 

Try shining other light sources on there. Red or orange filter on a normal light, UV LED torch, etc.

[No Crust Racing]

Yes, $30 UV light from Jaycar has already helped me a number of times.