S2 Stagea RB25DET NEO stockish rebuild thread

[RBW49N]

Have you had a look at it yet?  Best to unbolt the converter bolts and loosen the gearbox bolts and see if you can push the converter all the way into the gearbox. Do it while rotating the converter it should noticeably click or clunk into place. Then bolt the gearbox to the engine correctly so there is no gap. And then bolt the converter to the flexplate. 

[QLDR31]

Yeah I took a three day holiday, and worked on car on hoist. Working over the weekend on it as well.

I took the auto box out. Tailshaft off, Pipe at the back off, Gear selector out of the way, Exhaust off (not sure if required). Had a transmission jack so made it pretty nice (Pro tip someone said its good to strap the gearbox to the jack).

I found that the one piece sandwich plate was the correct one. RWD auto sandwich plates don't have cut outs for AWD sump etc. Unfortunately I put the top of two piece sandwich plate on it before I compared or thought about it. So I cut the bottom off my original one and used that.

I learnt the hard way a couple times not to bolt the torque converter until the gearbox is bolted to engine properly.

While exhaust was off, I dropped the fuel tank, replaced 25YO fuel lines. Drained the tank had like 20L, thought I pumped it out previously. Treated rust above tank and exhaust. Sprayed black stone guard. Tow hook, rear exhaust hanger and rear heat shield are being powder coated black.

Remaining jobs:

-Fit A/C, Power steering  pump, connect starter motor, Drain some oil (put too much in), 

-Hook up heater hose. It has a oil head drain so I can't use factory hard pipes. Going to try silicon hoses from kit I got. with alloy joiners, clamps and silicon hose to link them. Putting some heat shielding wrap on as well.

-Replace fuel filter and front fuel hoses. Going to use a cheap filter run it for a bit then replace with a Nissan one. When I was draining fuel tank I used a paint filter and caught a lot of what looked like tobacco.

-Fit new belts.

-Fit radiator and pipes, fan and coolant. Check for leaks.

-Got to workout how to plumb transmission cooler and radiator to gearbox and do that.

-Find airbox and AFM and a bunch of clamps. and fit them. Add pipe from intercooler and turbo to airbox etc.

-Fix exhaust. Down the track I will replace it with a Jap one, once mrs ok with that.

-Fix some wiring VVT plug is broken so I don't know which pin goes where. Might have to drive up (three hour round trip) and see my R34 RB25DE NEO for pin colours. I probably have more parts I need anyway. 

-Grey six pin plug hanging off intake. Had three broken wires. Someone replaced them with bullet connectors. I don't know what connects to what. I assume that plug is something for auto box. It seems to have two black wires, two red wires and two white wires. Closer examination required. Other connector has different colours.

-Fit front CVs. Find CV joint Nuts and split pins and washers etc. No idea why I separated them from CVs. A boot needs replacing also.

-Turn engine over with no fuel. Check for bad noises.

-Going to run engine with portable fuel system to check before running from fuel system.

[QLDR31]

Got most of it together now.

I tried to fill the coolant, but leaked out the back of the engine. I removed the heater hoses, for now and bypassed the heater core. Found the small elbow behind the engine had loose clamps. Hopefully that will be the leak fixed. I find out today.

I had a crack at turning it over yesterday with my portable fuel system.

Battery was dead, but used jump starter.

Seemed to turn over ok, but seemed like no spark or fuel?

AFM plug doesn't click or fasten itself. But seems to be on ok.

Not sure if alternator belt too tight.

Ways to check oil pressure?

Any tips?

[QLDR31]

Maybe I should do compression test.

Buying a new battery and coolant today.

[Duncan]

well, re oil pressure, you can either rely on the dash light going out, or while you are gabbing that battery grab a handheld oil pressure gauge at the same time and screw it into the oil pressure light sender port.

The battery is always a killer when trying to start a car after a while....its the last thing you think to prepare but really critical.....just need to go back in time 3 days and put it on a charger  

If you are worried the alternator belt is too tight, back it off....the screaming when running will tell you...better than damaging the water pump or alternator bearings. Because the belt is so short you should be able to get about a half twist out of it when it is adjusted properly

 

[Duncan]

Ha, had to go back to the start to check....4 pages and 3 years, sounds about right for a quick RB rebuild

Re no spark or fuel.....can you confirm this is a rebuilt engine being put back in the same car, and that it was running fine when removed? Lots of potential reasons for it not to be triggering properly....

[QLDR31]

4 hours ago, Duncan said:

Ha, had to go back to the start to check....4 pages and 3 years, sounds about right for a quick RB rebuild

Re no spark or fuel.....can you confirm this is a rebuilt engine being put back in the same car, and that it was running fine when removed? Lots of potential reasons for it not to be triggering properly....

Yeah same engine going back in.

The engine was previously over heating, pitted block.

But been off the road about five years now.

[QLDR31]

Fuel ins and outs were swapped, so swapped them back.

Topped up coolant. No more leaks from coolant today. I will bleed it once the engine gets running.

Battery was replaced. This new battery leaked acid so got another replacement today.

After work with a bunch of guys from work observing we manged to get the engine running. I think it seemed to run pretty well maybe not all cylinders. A little smoke started to come off the exhaust manifold. The we shut it down.

Unfortunately we couldn't get the engine to run again.

I had a hole in transmission hoses, this has been fixed.

Alternator belt was loose today. Had the wrong belt on alternator etc, put the middle sized belt on.

Going to fix some dodgie wiring, tomorrow (The grey 6 pin plug, think its for auto transmission).

The plug from the AFM doesn't catch. I might try another AFM, see if its the plug or the AFM. The plug looks OK.

Someone told me to remove the CAS and spin it by hand, with ignition on and see if injectors pulse. I assume the CAS normally spins anti-clockwise.

I'm going to bring a stethoscope and listen to each injector. Might also try tapping some fuel injectors to free up blocked ones.

Whats the best way to run an engine in? Someone said idle it for 24hrs. I am not sure about that.

Hopefully success will come for a change.

[QLDR31]

This photo is of an R34 GTT, not my car.

Fuel directions look right?

[RBW49N]

18 minutes ago, QLDR31 said:

Fuel ins and outs were swapped, so swapped them back.

Topped up coolant. No more leaks from coolant today. I will bleed it once the engine gets running.

Battery was replaced. This new battery leaked acid so got another replacement today.

After work with a bunch of guys from work observing we manged to get the engine running. I think it seemed to run pretty well maybe not all cylinders. A little smoke started to come off the exhaust manifold. The we shut it down.

Unfortunately we couldn't get the engine to run again.

I had a hole in transmission hoses, this has been fixed.

Alternator belt was loose today. Had the wrong belt on alternator etc, put the middle sized belt on.

Going to fix some dodgie wiring, tomorrow (The grey 6 pin plug, think its for auto transmission).

The plug from the AFM doesn't catch. I might try another AFM, see if its the plug or the AFM. The plug looks OK.

Someone told me to remove the CAS and spin it by hand, with ignition on and see if injectors pulse. I assume the CAS normally spins anti-clockwise.

I'm going to bring a stethoscope and listen to each injector. Might also try tapping some fuel injectors to free up blocked ones.

Whats the best way to run an engine in? Someone said idle it for 24hrs. I am not sure about that.

Hopefully success will come for a change.

Definitely do not let it idle for 24 hours. I can’t remember exactly what you did to the engine but a few heat cycles without driving then a few light load drives making sure it gets up to temperature properly 15-20 minutes. Then drain and refil the oil and change the filter, checking for contaminants like bearings. then send it

[Duncan]

So many questions in one post

You can tell if the fuel lines are the right way around because it will only run the right way. Also the feed should be very firm for about 5 sec when you turn the key on or are cranking and the return will be squishier. Also the feed has the fuel filter in it. Having said all those things, it is soooooooooo common to put them on wrong way around.

I had a problem on a recent rebuild where the injectors had gummed up sitting around....might be worth getting them run through an injector cleaner.

A rebuilt engine will almost always smoke enough to think you have set it on fire, from oily/greasy finger marks on the manifold....only stop if you see flame not smoke 

finally.....never let an engine idle when running it in, other than to get it up to temp and do some basic leak checks. Once it is running you need to get out and drive it at different rpm levels (say 500rpm apart up to about 5000) and with at least some load. A good dyno operator can do that in about 30 min but generally due to different conditions on a road you might need 100klm. Don't just drive on a freeway either, find some hills or something for load

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

15 hours ago, QLDR31 said:

Whats the best way to run an engine in? Someone said idle it for 24hrs. I am not sure about that.

please don't do this, worse advice!

Just go for a normal drive, then eventually start to introduce load - don't be shy.

 

15 hours ago, QLDR31 said:

Fuel ins and outs were swapped, so swapped them back.

Fuel Feed -> Fuel Filter -> Rail -> FPR -> (I think your car has an OEM dampener) -> Return to tank

[GTSBoy]

Neos have 2x dampeners and the reg. It actually takes quite a long stare and some head scratching to work out which way to hook it all up! Easier just to put it together and if fuel doesn't flow, you've got it back to front!

[QLDR31]

I got it running during the week.

Was the fuel ins and outs swapped again. They got swapped about four times on the build. Setup as per R34 photo above.

Seems very quiet the fuel pump is louder. Boys at work thought the exhaust output looked good.

Think its running on about five cylinders. So going to unplug injectors and see which cylinder is bad. Then workout if its gummed up injector or coil/spark plug etc. I'm expecting gummed up injector. Haven't done timing or anything.

Haven't bleed coolant yet as well.

I'm a bit worried i'm going to take a month or so to get it back on the road. So makes it hard to run it in. So far I haven't revved it over 1500rpm. Idles around 1000.

Lost my front shaft to hub fasteners. The nut, washer and split pin etc. I should of left them on the shafts.  Anyone got any spares?

[QLDR31]

Update:

Done:

-Running on 6 cylinders, one injector was gummed up. I made an injector tapper, bit of Teflon on the end of a metal rod.  That fixed the injector. Need to replace one injector plug, the fastener is broken.

-Coolant bleed

-Fixed 4WD warning light, bleed 4wd system

-Fixed electrical problems: alarm, brake lights, various broken plugs 

-Got all the parts ready to connect head drain. Head drain is fitted with a blocker atm

Todo:

-Fuel pump dead, Been cleaning out the tank, had a lot of tobacco looking stuff, think its OEM foam. Got a Walbro 460 to put in. Probably going to add a relay to give the pump a solid 13volts. Replacing all the fuel hoses, in tank etc.

-Front drive shafts still not back on. Waiting on parts. Would like to buy some new ones, but probably going to patch these up for now

-Replacing gas struts on back door. Waiting to be returned

-Headlights need a polish/repair

-Going to touch up the paint a little.

-Clean up the interior

-Connect up heater plumbing

-Cosmetic stuff, powder coat replace rusty parts, replace rusty bolts, wiper blades, silicon missing rubber

-A million other things