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Well, just a week shy of six months since I built the 12.5:1 SOHC VTEC, and I'm done with it. Tonight I tore down the whole motor, rebuilt the bottom end, and pulled the PM7s for my PM6s. It's tough to do after investing so much time and money into this build, but I'm just sick of it.
First thing, I should have listened to my own advice to everyone who asks me how to do it. TUNE IT RIGHT, and ASAP! Matt has tried many times to get the damn thing running right with Crome, but it just refused to cooperate. I really needed to get it done on a dyno, but I can't afford that. I've been driving it since the end of may first on a pinging stock P28, then soon after on a bad, too rich tune. It was terrible to drive, just boggy and slow and loud. Riding in Jared's stock A6 Si put it to shame (not that the A6 is bad, I wish mine never blew up!). So yeah, to everyone doing it, go spend the cash and tune it right. As a result of driving it with preignition, I pulled the pistons to find 2 of them had some cracked/broken ring lands.
Next, don't skimp on anything and don't rush. Another thing I tell everyone, of course I didn't do that. I thought I would have the motor together in a couple of days, little did I know it would be almost 7 weeks in the shop with my car. I re-used rings because I had a box of the wrong ones, and I again re-used bearings because they looked ok. The bearings still looked fine when I threw them away tonight, but the rings weren't doing anything, Matt can vouch for that. This time I went for all new stuff, ACL bearings for the whole bottom end, regardless of what everything looked like, ARP rod bolts, new OEM head bolts, JE rings. I cleaned the crap out of the PM6s and smoothed the tops to mirror shine. Even though I didn't have problems aside from the oil burning, I always was scared of spinning a bearing, now I don't have to be.
Last thing, have a plan, and reasoning to back it up. When I blew up my A6, I was on the way to RI that night to pick up an A6 block and Y8 head. I thought I would try out a mini me. Then we had the integra in the shop with a broken valve, and I thought it would be cool to toss in the PM7s. Now six months later I'm back where I should have been then. For a while I've just been crazy about running a high-comp D series to beat a B16 (and a few of my friends), but it's just stupid. I don't think the pain in the ass and the money is worth the little power I can get over running mid-11's on pump gas.
So what I'm doing now...
I got the motor in and running. No extra bolts this time! I did almost all of the work alone, Jared helped me getting the motor out, and I had a hand once in a while to hold stuff, like when I was torqueing the flywheel bolts. I was surprised how easy it was to get the motor back in by myself, I only did it once before and it was a pain in the ass. I must be getting better, it took about 10 minutes! Anyway, everything went smoothly, even the bitch pin (and I'm damn glad I have near-new balljoints!).
Of course though, there has to be a catch. I dropped one of the crush washers on the fuel filter into the abyss, so I'm dribbling fuel all over and I don't want to start breaking it in until I fix that. Needs a new filter anyway, so I'll do that as soon as NAPA opens.
So now I have a pretty basic A6/Y8 mini-me to drive around...
But I have an extra Y8 head! I stripped it down tonight, it's getting ported within the week, and shaved to acheive a low to mid 11:1 compression ratio. I'm getting *something* from Crower next week to go in it, and hopefully that will give me the power I was hoping for with the failed 12.5:1 build.
I think when this one lets go I'm going B... after all B is the new D
EDIT: wanted to thank everyone for helping me out with this pain in the ass engine! Especially thanks go to Matt Miner, helped me in parts, labour, tech stuff, and best of all let me drive his beast of a CRX in autocross when mine was broken
First thing, I should have listened to my own advice to everyone who asks me how to do it. TUNE IT RIGHT, and ASAP! Matt has tried many times to get the damn thing running right with Crome, but it just refused to cooperate. I really needed to get it done on a dyno, but I can't afford that. I've been driving it since the end of may first on a pinging stock P28, then soon after on a bad, too rich tune. It was terrible to drive, just boggy and slow and loud. Riding in Jared's stock A6 Si put it to shame (not that the A6 is bad, I wish mine never blew up!). So yeah, to everyone doing it, go spend the cash and tune it right. As a result of driving it with preignition, I pulled the pistons to find 2 of them had some cracked/broken ring lands.
Next, don't skimp on anything and don't rush. Another thing I tell everyone, of course I didn't do that. I thought I would have the motor together in a couple of days, little did I know it would be almost 7 weeks in the shop with my car. I re-used rings because I had a box of the wrong ones, and I again re-used bearings because they looked ok. The bearings still looked fine when I threw them away tonight, but the rings weren't doing anything, Matt can vouch for that. This time I went for all new stuff, ACL bearings for the whole bottom end, regardless of what everything looked like, ARP rod bolts, new OEM head bolts, JE rings. I cleaned the crap out of the PM6s and smoothed the tops to mirror shine. Even though I didn't have problems aside from the oil burning, I always was scared of spinning a bearing, now I don't have to be.
Last thing, have a plan, and reasoning to back it up. When I blew up my A6, I was on the way to RI that night to pick up an A6 block and Y8 head. I thought I would try out a mini me. Then we had the integra in the shop with a broken valve, and I thought it would be cool to toss in the PM7s. Now six months later I'm back where I should have been then. For a while I've just been crazy about running a high-comp D series to beat a B16 (and a few of my friends), but it's just stupid. I don't think the pain in the ass and the money is worth the little power I can get over running mid-11's on pump gas.
So what I'm doing now...
I got the motor in and running. No extra bolts this time! I did almost all of the work alone, Jared helped me getting the motor out, and I had a hand once in a while to hold stuff, like when I was torqueing the flywheel bolts. I was surprised how easy it was to get the motor back in by myself, I only did it once before and it was a pain in the ass. I must be getting better, it took about 10 minutes! Anyway, everything went smoothly, even the bitch pin (and I'm damn glad I have near-new balljoints!).
Of course though, there has to be a catch. I dropped one of the crush washers on the fuel filter into the abyss, so I'm dribbling fuel all over and I don't want to start breaking it in until I fix that. Needs a new filter anyway, so I'll do that as soon as NAPA opens.
So now I have a pretty basic A6/Y8 mini-me to drive around...
But I have an extra Y8 head! I stripped it down tonight, it's getting ported within the week, and shaved to acheive a low to mid 11:1 compression ratio. I'm getting *something* from Crower next week to go in it, and hopefully that will give me the power I was hoping for with the failed 12.5:1 build.
I think when this one lets go I'm going B... after all B is the new D
EDIT: wanted to thank everyone for helping me out with this pain in the ass engine! Especially thanks go to Matt Miner, helped me in parts, labour, tech stuff, and best of all let me drive his beast of a CRX in autocross when mine was broken
