[tsiah]

well...its taking way too long...but its finally close to happening
I ported and polished the head
3 angle valve job (I wanted to go 5...but I didnt have the tools and I didnt want to pay someone to do it...)
b16 pistons
reconditioned rods
total seal rings
new bearings
micropolished crank
chikara header (man those guys are cheap....you'll see pics in a sec)
Im trying to get some ARP head studs...but its proving to be more work than I thought it would...I may just go with the OEM ones
anyway...I'll let the pics tell some of the story

this is why I said chikara is cheap...these welds are solid...but DAYM can you smooth the ports out some PLEASE!!!!
what can ya expect for 170 bux tho? :? its taken me about an hour and a half, but I got 3 of the 4 smoothed out...only problem is that I opened the ports up a bit and they were already matched to the gasket very well...*Shrug*

doin it chris.nl style 8) this is my water dist pipe...I decided it was too rusty, so I took a wire brush to it and some new paint ...I've also been cleaning the block and the tranny...gonna paint the starter solenoid...its gonna look nice

anyone have any recomendations to grinding this off? I just want my plenum to be smooth...who needs to open the hood and see that PGMFI thing :? :lol:

 

[luda17]

time, beer, and plenty of dremel bits

 

[tsiah]

lol
I would use a hundred dollars in those bits!
well...I have this rotary file...but it chews up steel pretty good...I dunno if I want to see what it'd do to aluminum :?

anyway...got my pics to upload...but I dont have as many as I thought I did
expect more in the next couple days

heres the crank after it got polished...sooo shiney

one of my pistons...they are in the block now, I'll get a pic tomorrow

the head before I put the valves back in...
that was such a pain...first, I put on the valve guide seals before I put the spring seats on...destroyed 6 of the seals pulling them back off (30 dollar mistake...) then we couldnt find a valve spring compressor that would work, so I did it all by hand with a broken o2 sensor socket. that really sucked ass and i spent about 4 hours reassembling the head that way...I know I coulda just waited til the next day and gone to get the proper compressor, but I wanted to just get done

 

[cudaboy]

Damn that crank looks sexy! Lookin' good man. So are you just using 1 size bigger main bearings? What about the valve guides? did you luck out and not have to replace them? What about the valves?

As far as making your intake looking like Chrisnl's the best thing I can think of from experiance would be little "tootsie roll style" sanding cylinders and cones. You can buy them at Eastwood but the last time I polished a v8 intake I just went to the local branch store of MSC Industrial supply. Screw the dremel (i never liked them but they have improved some) :roll: These cones will fit on cheap arbors that will fit in a die grinder. Go air power! woohoo. I think it was like $25 -$30 for a 5"x5" box of them and 2 or 3 arbors. Unlike a sanding drum these are layered so that when you sand through one layer it just goes on to the next layer until you have no more layers. Its just sandpaper glued in a roll like paper towels with glue. Then to polish use clay polish bars & buffing wheels and cones. Cones sold at eastwood too.

 

[Chris.nl]

Re: some 'o my progress on the engine...

anyone have any recomendations to grinding this off? I just want my plenum to be smooth...who needs to open the hood and see that PGMFI thing :? :lol:

First:

Then:

Finally:

Good luck :wink:

 

[tsiah]

Re: some 'o my progress on the engine...

First:

and what is that? ...I wonder if one of my neighbors has one I'd love to buy one but not a whole lotta $

 

[88ludeguy]

If your not going to use it alot go to home depot and get one of the cheap ones theya re like 30 bucks and will do just fine fo rya

 

[Slipslap]

Thats an angle grinder. But spray it aircraft stripper and use a wire wheel on a drill. Thats what I did to some of my parts. But I would clean the block real good and then spray it with hiigh heat paint. The aluminum color paint. It will make the block look shiny and should be easier to keep clean. All you would do is spray some degreaser on it then hose it off.

 

[Slipslap]

And conmetal has an ARP head stud kit he will sell ya I think. PM him and see what he wants for it.

 

[tsiah]

hmmm....nice 8)
I looked at home depot
28 dollars for a 4" angle grinder and a little more for the wheels

wouldnt a grinding disk be to rough for aluminum? I would imagine it would chew through it pretty easy if you werent careful...but on the same token, sanding disks might take all day
:?

I will get ahold of conmetal
thanks slip

 

[dano]

That's why Chris also showed the files. Just use the grinder for the bulk removal of material. Then dress it up with files.

Engine looks great ... Muffin tins to keep everything sorted. I'll have to remember that trick.

I really like the way Hedman (Chikara) uses preformed collectors instead of welding pipe to pipe.

Many thanks. Keep the pics coming.

 

[Sofast88Si]

Re: some 'o my progress on the engine...

First:

and what is that? ...I wonder if one of my neighbors has one I'd love to buy one but not a whole lotta $

I smoothed and polished mine with ease. I used an air die grinder with some roloc sanding discs. I used brown discs to take the uglyness out then purple discs to smooth before I polished it with 2500 grit wet sand paper. Total time was 1hr 30 min.

 

[metalman]

damn dude, thats gonna be pimp as hell when you're all done. cant wait to see it!

 

[team123luder]

An angle grinder is a great tool to invest in. Love em. Great work man I love that header. Looks alot like a airmass. Since you bored the ports more then the gasket.....why not port match the head!!!! :wink: HA

Love it man. I kinda wish my intake mani had those letters. But after a 10 min date with simple green they ran away with the water. sigh! Anywho. Once I get my Toofast manifold it should look better down there. Hope he decides on doing something with that empty space.

 

[ConMetal]

As previously discussed with tsiah:

I used a B18 Head Stud Kit. The bolts were modified & installed by a professional machine shop, so I am not aware of the extent of work required for them to work.

 

[luda17]

did you use that duplicolor high heat paint on the header? im wondering cause i want to paint my heatshield gloss black, but i dunno how hot the shield gets.

 

[team123luder]

Don't they have 1700 high heat paint at autopart stores now?I think they do

 

[luda17]

ive only seen 500 and 1200 by duplicolor

 

[tsiah]

yea...I used the 1200
we'll see how it holds up
it got scratched on the front, so it'll need another coat or 2 (I might have to sand it down and start over on that one pipe...but only if I cant make it look good by just cleaning it and painting over)

some say it'll hold...others say no
I think it should be fine
its all in the prep work...

 

[cudaboy]

yeah why didn't I think of that. I have a 4" or 4 1/2" grinder, I've just never used it on aluminum. Seriously you won't be able to use it for very long though. If money is tight I would try finding one to borrow or rent one for a day if its like $4. But if you want to do the whole thing including nooks and cranny's and have access to air I would get the die grinder. There cheap and you can use it as a cutoff wheel etc. I just figured you had one seeing how you did port and polish on the head.