On 9/18/2019 at 1:27 AM, Captain Obvious said:

Nice!! How's it feel on the road?

Lovely ! The cam makes for a very exotic sputter at idle. Trying to be patient before thumping on it too hard. Hasn’t seen more than 4500 rpm yet. Much more torque than the 2.4 for sure . 

Just love breaking this engine in! The torque is very strong. I’ve limited myself to 5500 at this point, but still pulling very strong. Have to be careful not to hit it too hard in lower gears or I just break the tires loose. 

Able to run 35 degrees timing so far, but probably close to the limit. Need to break this bad boy in and and get to the dyno to dial it in. Running very similar tune I did with my 2.4, just more fuel. Seems to be doing rather well on the MPG- beauty of EFI. On the dyno I will probably advance the cam a bit too if I can get away with it. I’ll see where the power curve comes in. 

Took a peek at the cam and everything looks peachy.

Just finishing up the install of my old motor in to the customers car. After it’s gone I can devote more time to tuning. Right now just driving around and letting Megasquirt do it’s thing.

Great stuff! You need ITB's soon  ?

Not sure I will do ITB’s. I have a custom plenum I’m building for NA or turbo. One TB to mess with and tune . I do like the look and maybe I’ll go that route some day . I have a diesel manifold that I would love to run also - just something different . 

  On 9/16/2019 at 2:18 AM, Zed Head said:

What cylinder pressure do you get?  CR is the calculation but cylinder pressure is the detonation cause.  As I understand things high CR needs to be matched with "big" cams.  I think that some people think of the whole package in terms of "dynamic" CR.

210 average by the gauge 

Well I’ve developed a noise down below. Not sure what’s going on, but more than likely it’s time to pull the pan . Runs good, but maybe a rod didn’t like the initial abuse. It sucks , but this was a budget build so I can’t expect miracles . Might get lucky and find something came a little loose, but nothing wrong on top. The head is what I’m worried about - too much time invested there. The short block is stock . 

My helper is available by the end of the week to give me a hand for whatever I decide . I was planning on swapping transmissions anyway, but now it looks I’ll be pulling everything . This kid is good and we will have it on a stand in less than 3 hours . Takes a little pain out of the sting when you have a sidekick that can throw down a Snap on wrench faster than you can. 

I really want dyno numbers on the stock flat top so I and going to continue this mission before dropping in the 3.2- besides that short block is not finished. I’m determined to see 200 rwhp with his combo. 

Rut roh. What do you think is going on? Spin a bearing?

  On 9/25/2019 at 1:54 AM, Captain Obvious said:

Rut roh. What do you think is going on? Spin a bearing?

No way to know until I look . Anything is possible. 

Woof. Well here's to hoping it's not serious.  

  On 9/25/2019 at 2:05 AM, Captain Obvious said:

Woof. Well here's to hoping it's not serious.  

Well - it’s serious . Weird stuff , but I will take all responsibility. #5 main journal bearing was going away quickly, which contaminated others like #6 rod. It would have to be dirt or a shavings I missed maybe. 

The pics of #4 piston is something different . Somehow there was/is welding splatter balls in the intake runners of the head. One of these that was stuck/melted to the runner wall let loose and thus tearing up my piston , head and a valve seat on the way out . The head has been sitting around for a while , but the odds that I was welding close enough with enough splatter to fly into the runners is mind boggling- but it must of happened . Unless it happened at the machine shop and didn’t see the splatter . Just weird .

Only good thing out of this so far is I have found no real damage from detonation running 11.5:1 . Everything is at the machine shop getting touch ups 

Glad you found the problems. It will be a great engine!

Yuck. No fun.

I don't get the weld spatter. Anything else you think of that it could be? I mean, I gotta admit that nugget on your valve guide sure looks like a weld spatter bead, but honestly.... How? Really? Still hot enough to stick there down inside on a valve guide? Are you sure it's metal? Is it magnetic?

I'm going to build myself a clean room when it comes assembly time.