GIVE ME ATTENTION!! (AKA my build)

I thought that title might get attention. So, this past July I bought my first 240, a 1989 hatch from a guy in Lake Zurich. It had an SR20 with some very solid upgrades done to it already. When I bought the car, it had the following:

1993 180SX Blacktop SR20DET and 5 speed trans
Custom 1 piece aluminum driveshaft
R32 Skyline GTS-t rear end (LSD and beefy 6 bolt axles)
Cometic 1.1mm HG
Ferrea +1mm intake and exhaust valves
Ferrea Dual wound valve springs
Ferrea titanium retainers
Stock cams
GT2871R .64 A/R
Z32 MAF
Ebay intercooler (pretty decent actually)
Stock TB, intake manifold, and fuel rail
Nismo 740cc injectors
Walbro 255 pump in tank
Sard adjustable FPR with return line
Z32 fuel filter
CX Racing aluminum radiator and dual 12" electric fans
Megan Racing 2.5" DP
Apexi N1 3" exhaust
Tein Adjustable coilovers
Tein tie rods
Cusco strut tower bar
Stock ECU Touge Factory tuned in Elk Grove Village, IL
Apexi SAFC II
Apexi AVCR
AEM Uego Wideband
Tuned to run E85, running ~16-17 psi, 18* advance, making ~400WHP (never dynoed, only estimated, so take it for whatever it's worth)

I drove the car for about a month and then it started leaking coolant from those damned heater hoses that run UNDER the intake manifold and are a total pain to get to. It overheated once because it was before I noticed the coolant leak. Got them replaced, tried starting the car and nothing happened. Tried push starting the car and my rear wheels locked up. Not good. Tried turning the motor over by hand, it turned almost all the way over and then locked up, same thing the other way. Had to be something fell into one of the cylinders when the intake was off, or something with the rotating assembly. Pulled the motor, tore it apart and found cylinder #4 had a nice bent rod (I think the overheating had something to do with it...). That would do it. So what do we do with a torn apart SR20 and a bent rod? Build it stronger! So I sent the block out to get bored .040 over to 87mm and the crank to get micropolished, and I got my hands on some

Eagle H beam forged rods
Probe SRS Forged Aluminum 87mm 10.5:1 CR pistons
OEM Nissan main and rod bearings
Hastings piston rings
Cosworth 1.5mm HG

I also plugged up the oil squirters in the block for a few reason. Forged pistons don't have the heat dissipating problem like cast ones do, and the squirters were mostly used to cool the cast pistons. Also, stopping them up improves oil flow to the head, which is always nice. So I, in my garage with just a jack, stands, and all hand tools, rebuilt it. Just last week hit 500 miles on the rebuild after breaking it in. Changed the oil, turned it up to 18 psi and 20* advance and this thing rips. I love it. I'm gonna go back to Touge to get it retuned, but in the meantime I monitor the wideband closely and at anything above 50% throttle I'm right at .79-.82 lamba, which is just perfect. I have ZERO knock, even when I overboosted once and hit 22 psi. The motor just took it. Once I get it tuned and dynoed, I'm hopefully going to hit ~24 psi on just E85, guessing at least 450 HP. We'll see what kind of timing I have to run. I don't have an EGT gauge so that's going to be a big factor because of the higher compression, although E85 is like God's fuel. It resists knock so well and runs so cool compared to gas, I have no doubt that I'll hit 24 psi.

So yeah, that has been my adventure into the world of 240s over the past 4 months. I hope you like it, and I can't wait to see some of you guys and gals out on the road!

Brian

pics?

Well I need to take some better pics of the whole car, but let me try to put up some of the build pics...

[img][/img]

[img][/img]

my half torn apart motor

[img][/img]

my 1992 bumper

[img][/img]

nightmare... lol

[img][/img]

my friend Matt helping with the engine removal

[img][/img]

almost out...

[img][/img]

free!


[img][/img]

empty engine bay, dirty trans lol

[img][/img]

starting the tear down

[img][/img]

oil pickup, main girdle

[img][/img]

girdle off, crank and main caps shown. At this point I kind of stopped taking pics, don't really know why. I was just really caught up in the build and forgot so the next pic is of the engine rebuilt lmao



[img][/img]

I'm disappointed I didn't take more pics with the engine apart. But the block got sent out to Worth Machine Shop to be bored .040 over and honed and the crank to be micropolished. And the finished product going back in, fresh black paint in the engine bay. Looks a million times better:



[img][/img]

[img][/img]

engine back in place, looking good

[img][/img]

here's the little bastard bent rod that caused all this headache. not a bad bend, but just good enough curve to cause the engine to not turn over. oh well.


[img][/img]

[img][/img]

[img][/img]

So there you go, my rebuild in a nutshell. Obviously I have about 9 million more pictures, but most of them are just for reference. As soon as the weather in Chicago doesn't suck I'll take some whole car pics. Any questions/comments?

+1 on turbo choice. Love the .64 AR not many go with that. Would love to find one for my CA build.

Yeah, I'm a big fan of this turbo. When I bought the car it was already done, but if I had to go back and choose one myself I'd pick the same. I don't know why the .82 gets more attention than the .64, it might add ~15 more HP but at the cost of more lag. As far as street turbos go, I wouldn't pick anything else.

when i saw this thread title I thought Kori was making another thread




good to see people tearing open engines.

Fun stuff

hey, nice enkeis... lol. Oh and that's my next turbo if I ever upgrade.

Whos the guy wearing that sweet robe hahaha

Sounds like a nice setup but I also got a few questions. You sure you don't have a GT-R rear? I was pretty sure the GTS-T was a 5x1 pattern.

Also how do you know you aren't getting any knock? 21psi out of a decent sized turbo, 20* and 10.5:1 compression is a lot of cylinder pressure, even for E-85. What are you monitoring with (I hope not the SAFC)?

You know, I asked the very same question to the kid I bought the car off of. He swears it's an R32 GTS-T. But it is definitely 6 bolt. So maybe he was incorrect. It's entirely possible.

And as far as knock monitoring, I am sad to say I am currently using the SAFC until I have the money to buy a standalone, but I also have a really good ear for knock and I hear absolutely nothing. I also check my spark plugs meticulously and I see absolutely no signs of detonation whatsoever.

I have complete faith in the capabilities of E85. It has a rough octane equivalent rating of 107, although that is under debate because the entire purpose of an octane rating is to give a relative resistance to knock. E85, since it is ethanol-based and has an entirely different chemical reaction when combusted, burns so much cooler and has a much higher auto-ignition temperature than any octane-based gasoline.

For example, gasoline auto-ignites (knocks) at 475–536 °F, depending on humidity, altitude, ambient temperature, etc. Ethanol, however, auto-ignites somewhere in the range of 740-875 *F. Now, that's pure ethanol, but using simple math, E85 should auto-ignite at somewhere around 675 *F. So even the best, 110 or 116 octane race gas cannot perform like ethanol can. That is why I have little or no concerns about running so much advance and boost with higher compression pistons. This isn't even getting into the charge cooling effect of running slightly rich A/F ratios with E85 like I am. If anyone wants to discuss the pros and cons of running E85 I'd be glad to, but I do not know if this is the proper forum to do so.

Sorry for the thread jack, just thought I'd inform you as to why I do what I do. I built this motor with the intent of running E85, it wasn't just on a whim.

And the guy in the sweet robe would be my dad. Lmao, I was waiting for someone to say something. I think he had just gotten out of the hot tub and wanted to see how progress was coming. Random, I know. Don't judge lol.

fastSRmedic wrote:You know, I asked the very same question to the kid I bought the car off of. He swears it's an R32 GTS-T. But it is definitely 6 bolt. So maybe he was incorrect. It's entirely possible.

And as far as knock monitoring, I am sad to say I am currently using the SAFC until I have the money to buy a standalone, but I also have a really good ear for knock and I hear absolutely nothing. I also check my spark plugs meticulously and I see absolutely no signs of detonation whatsoever.

I have complete faith in the capabilities of E85. It has a rough octane equivalent rating of 107, although that is under debate because the entire purpose of an octane rating is to give a relative resistance to knock. E85, since it is ethanol-based and has an entirely different chemical reaction when combusted, burns so much cooler and has a much higher auto-ignition temperature than any octane-based gasoline.

For example, gasoline auto-ignites (knocks) at 475–536 °F, depending on humidity, altitude, ambient temperature, etc. Ethanol, however, auto-ignites somewhere in the range of 740-875 *F. Now, that's pure ethanol, but using simple math, E85 should auto-ignite at somewhere around 675 *F. So even the best, 110 or 116 octane race gas cannot perform like ethanol can. That is why I have little or no concerns about running so much advance and boost with higher compression pistons. This isn't even getting into the charge cooling effect of running slightly rich A/F ratios with E85 like I am. If anyone wants to discuss the pros and cons of running E85 I'd be glad to, but I do not know if this is the proper forum to do so.

Sorry for the thread jack, just thought I'd inform you as to why I do what I do. I built this motor with the intent of running E85, it wasn't just on a whim.

I do agree that the ~105 octane of E-85 isn't exactly indicative of its true resistance to knock. Much of E-85s extra resistance also comes from sheer volume and its ability to absorb the heat from the intake charge. But with that said I personally would never put E-85 on the same level as "the best" 116 such as C16. I have been able to get away with more on C16 then I ever did on E-85. I would put it about on the level of a 110 octane though... but also remember that E-85 is a little shaky some times you get E70 other days you get E90. So you have to be careful when pushing it on E-85 the consistency is nowhere near that of a true race gas.

I have been running E-85 on my RB26 for over a year and FWIW I wouldn't that aggressive timing. Remember in most cases it is knock that kills engines not AFRs or EGTs. So I tend to err on the side of caution. Especially when I don't have any good system to measure knock with. Right now you are literally tuning your WOT ignition by shooting in the dark. It is foolish to think you can hear pinging over the rest of the loud motor/exhaust/chassis, if you did that is LOUD beat your motor up type knock. Also the SAFC knock meter is a joke... it is rough DC time-domain measurement of the whatever voltage is on the knock sensor, which is NOT how knock sensors work. A true knock meter (such as a J&S safeguard) will do a perform all of the measurements in the frequency domain and do something like window the measurement around the time when ignition is occuring. That's the only good way to measure knock from an acoustical sensor. So personally I wouldn't rely on an SAFC or my ears to tell me when knock is occuring.

also remember that E-85 is a little shaky some times you get E70 other days you get E90. So you have to be careful when pushing it on E-85 the consistency is nowhere near that of a true race gas.

This is true, I can't argue with that. And especially since we're getting into late November the winter blend is probably at the pumps already. And for safety, I did bring back timing to 18*, and I maybe bring it back another degree more. Also, I RARELY hit 21 psi. I actually only hit it once when I overboosted. My high boost setting is actually not supposed to hit more than 18 psi. So I guess that makes it more reasonable, 18* and 18 psi running E85. But as the crap winter blends come out more, I'll keep it on low boost only, ~12 psi and back the timing to 17*.

I also cannot argue that the SAFC knock meter is laughable, and realistically I could only hear really bad knock over the engine and road noise. But at the moment I don't have any other way to do it. I haven't taken it to the drag strip since the rebuild because it hasn't been retuned. I've taken it fairly easy on the engine because I know I don't have any real knock meter. It'll be tuned over winter (if I keep it, that is).

Side note, you have an E85 RB26? In what chasis? That sounds like an amazing setup. What kind of work do you have done? I'm really interested in what you're running.

pretty nice build, keep it up.

fastSRmedic wrote:

also remember that E-85 is a little shaky some times you get E70 other days you get E90. So you have to be careful when pushing it on E-85 the consistency is nowhere near that of a true race gas.

This is true, I can't argue with that. And especially since we're getting into late November the winter blend is probably at the pumps already. And for safety, I did bring back timing to 18*, and I maybe bring it back another degree more. Also, I RARELY hit 21 psi. I actually only hit it once when I overboosted. My high boost setting is actually not supposed to hit more than 18 psi. So I guess that makes it more reasonable, 18* and 18 psi running E85. But as the crap winter blends come out more, I'll keep it on low boost only, ~12 psi and back the timing to 17*.

I also cannot argue that the SAFC knock meter is laughable, and realistically I could only hear really bad knock over the engine and road noise. But at the moment I don't have any other way to do it. I haven't taken it to the drag strip since the rebuild because it hasn't been retuned. I've taken it fairly easy on the engine because I know I don't have any real knock meter. It'll be tuned over winter (if I keep it, that is).

Side note, you have an E85 RB26? In what chasis? That sounds like an amazing setup. What kind of work do you have done? I'm really interested in what you're running.

Yea I don't mean to scare you about it to much just that I would hate to see a nice motor like that get hurt from pushing it a little too hard. A few extra whp (esspecially when you are already making ~400 isn't worth the risk in my eyes). 10.5:1 is really a lot of static compression for a boosted setup. But with the 2871, and that static compression, and a light S13 chassis your car would be a serious threat on a road coarse!

Yea I run a singled RB26 in a kouki S14. Also E-85d. I also LOVE LOVE LOVE E-85, like you said it is basically as good as race gas for almost the same overall cost as 93. I just tune it conservative to ensure that a little weaker fillup or a little overboost won't kill anything. There is some info/pics on the car in my intro thread here: https://midwest240sx.forumotion.com/intro-s-f4/new-member-from-milwaukee-t679.htm . I don't want to divert your build thread too much here here., so feel free to PM me if you have any other questions.