My latest project - Page 2

Terri Kennedy · 10-30-2014, 10:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by John V

I don't really know how many miles. The car has about 7,400 on it, but the engine in the car was built in 2005. I suspect the majority of those miles were on this engine. But they were hard miles, all competition and track use (the car saw a bit of time trial use and the previous owner owned a private race track that he and his buddies would race on).

Funny story - the Brammo "mule" Atom went to the GM proving grounds without an engine. GM said they would supply the engine (2.0L LSJ). When Brammo got there, they were pointed to an engine partially buried in mud near the entrance gate. They asked if there was anything wrong with it and how many miles were on it, and were told "don't know" and "maybe 42,000".

That engine went into the mule in 2005 and that car and engine are still going strong today, making 300-ish HP (factory is 205 HP, this one got the smaller supercharger pulley).

John V · 11-01-2014, 07:26 PM

Well, after extensive measurements, the block I have isn't going to be usable. Piston to block clearance is far over the upper limit of the spec. I guess now I make a table out of it?

So I got this. A low-mileage, stock bore M54B30 block. Machine work starts on Wednesday.

John V · 11-02-2014, 12:02 PM

While the block is getting machined I figured I'd start working on the cylinder head. Basic measurements of wear in the valve guides and a check of all the valve seats and valves.

The seats all look really good, but the valves are a bit recessed in the seats. I suspect this is because the guides were re-cut when the head was milled the last time.

The exhaust valves, as expected, were really dirty. Intake valves get cleaned by the incoming fuel mixture. The exhaust valves don't get that benefit so they get lots of carbon buildup on them.

First pic shows what they look like before and after cleaning. I used a brass wire brush on my bench grinder. You can see though that there is a lot of pitting on the valve sealing surface. Second pic shows what they look like after they've been lapped in with valve grinding compound. It took about an hour to do six exhaust valves

. Fortunately, all the intake valves look really good. I'll probably just cut them with the fine compound paste and re-install.

The head is going out to get some port work done on the exhaust side after this, I wanted to get all of this work done first since they're going to hot-tank it for me afterwards which will flush out all the grit from the valve grinding.

bren · 11-02-2014, 01:28 PM

I had the machine shop tank the heads, intake, and all the runners. I kind of felt bad bolting it back on the car.

My intake runners in particular were full of nasty carbon build up.

11-01-2014, 07:26 PM	#12
John V No more BMWs Join Date: Apr 2005 Carmudgeonly Ride: Ram, MS3, CX-5, RX-8 Location: Glenwood, MD Posts: 14,753	Well, after extensive measurements, the block I have isn't going to be usable. Piston to block clearance is far over the upper limit of the spec. I guess now I make a table out of it? So I got this. A low-mileage, stock bore M54B30 block. Machine work starts on Wednesday. Attached Thumbnails

11-02-2014, 12:02 PM	#13
John V No more BMWs Join Date: Apr 2005 Carmudgeonly Ride: Ram, MS3, CX-5, RX-8 Location: Glenwood, MD Posts: 14,753	While the block is getting machined I figured I'd start working on the cylinder head. Basic measurements of wear in the valve guides and a check of all the valve seats and valves. The seats all look really good, but the valves are a bit recessed in the seats. I suspect this is because the guides were re-cut when the head was milled the last time. The exhaust valves, as expected, were really dirty. Intake valves get cleaned by the incoming fuel mixture. The exhaust valves don't get that benefit so they get lots of carbon buildup on them. First pic shows what they look like before and after cleaning. I used a brass wire brush on my bench grinder. You can see though that there is a lot of pitting on the valve sealing surface. Second pic shows what they look like after they've been lapped in with valve grinding compound. It took about an hour to do six exhaust valves . Fortunately, all the intake valves look really good. I'll probably just cut them with the fine compound paste and re-install. The head is going out to get some port work done on the exhaust side after this, I wanted to get all of this work done first since they're going to hot-tank it for me afterwards which will flush out all the grit from the valve grinding. Attached Thumbnails

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11-02-2014, 01:28 PM	#14
bren lawn boy Join Date: Oct 2003 Carmudgeonly Ride: e46m3, f25x3,C5 Z06, C4 Vette, 06 CTD Ram, and a trailer Location: Maryland Posts: 14,029	I had the machine shop tank the heads, intake, and all the runners. I kind of felt bad bolting it back on the car. My intake runners in particular were full of nasty carbon build up.