The next one...moving along.

[Steve V]

Now that Xavier's build is done. It is time for the next one. Another local GN owner. He started as a head gasket swap and then found some cylinder scoring, cam bearing wear. So he pulled it and brought it up to me. We found the mains waisted. Severe main cap fretting from a really bad tune. #3 cap was cracked. Had one bad rod. It had spun at one point and just the bearing was replaced. This was supposed to be a rather fresh build as Steve had recently bought the car. I don't have the step by step short block pics like Xavier's but it was blue printed the same way.

 

[Steve V]

Here's how the fel-pro gasket over hangs the oil galley feed. I sliced it with the exacto then carved it out.

 

[Steve V]

Now the latest err of the last build. There arm some replacement rockers that are mark L for left and R for right. All the L's where on the drivers bank. And the R's on the passenger side. The correct orientation is LR LR LR. So that was corrected.

 

[Steve V]

For some reason the mobile app won't let me post. All my pics are on my phone. But I will give an update. The engine is done. The car came in Sat, nice looking GN. I bead blasted the headers, then painted them with some Duplicolor high heat exhaust paint. A process I have found that works well is clean the part real well. Let it sit on the kerosene heater and get it HOT...then warm the paint can the same way, do not get it too hot it may burst. Then spray a few light coats, dries pretty much instantly. Then let it cool, then re heat it on heater. Looks killer. Will have to see how long it lasts. Think it will do pretty good.

Saturday while finishing the engine I found a surprise on the bench. The oil slinger so off came the front cover to put it on. Spent rest of Sat and a lot of today cleaning and painting brackets and lots of little detail items. Cam sensor was reshimed. Oil pump primed, cam sensor installed. Assembled the intake this morning.

Car needs upper control arm bushings, and the wiring harness looked at real close. Then I can install the headers and turbo on the engine and drop it in the hole.

 

[Steve V]

Looks like the mobile app is working again. Heres all the pics I have so far. I did upper control arm bushings on this car as well. Pretty much ready to drop back in at this point. Hoping thrusday nite I can get the wife to help me with that. EDIT. Attachments still no go..

 

[Steve V]

Ahh looks like we r loading pics again..

 

[Steve V]

Going behind previous owners fixing things. In this case stripped threads in assy bracket. Not impressed at all with this GN1 performance DP. Not a fan of cutting inner fendars. See how close it is to everything. Have H&R mounts on the engine.

 

[Steve V]

Wiring harness mess. Remove all old tape, refresh and repair as needed. Somebody cut the ends for factory idiot lights.

 

[Steve V]

After a long day playing electrician, plummer and mechanic....i was ready to start it about 7:15. Battery dead..damn it! I dont have a real charger or jump box here but a slow trickle charger. Gave it 30 mins went to crank them realized I ve yet to deal with his steering column mess. Rigged up the ign switch to get power and a quick crank but battery is too weak. I got fuel pressure and smelled a leak. Went on the hunt and found fuel line rusted behind prop valve...damn it again ...lol. wont be able to get back to it till atleast wed. Here are some pics.

 

[Steve V]

Off with the pipe that does not fit. On with old school Kirban pipe for now. Out with rusty fuel feed line. Tomorrow I install the new line and button up the engine side of things...hopefully. Then onto the steering column.

 

[Steve V]

It is amazing how an engine build turns into other things. So far suspension work, rusted out fuel lines, steering column issues and now rusted out brake lines. Had to disturb the brake lines while replacing the fuel line and of course it started leaking.

So I moved along to firing up the engine for the initial time after the rebuild. I noticed no scanmaster input and SES light on dash but it would crank. So I started it and it ran. Found the scanmaster issue to be a bad ground, then I see a light deep in the dash that is on (remember the column is in pieces hanging down) this must be the SES light that was not put back into the socket. I will fish that out later.

Engine runs good, got all the air out of the coolant system. Oil psi looked good, no strange noises. Top of ATF, at this point I am happy. Until I see oil on the floor. So I am like WTF. Take a peak and see the oil pump appears to be leaking. It is a Weber blueprinted preassembled front cover. I decided to put that off since I can handle that one way or the other till Sunday.

Off to tackel the steering column. Customer put in a new lock cylinder. Now it wont turn. He took it down trying to R&R the ign switch. I was starting the car using just the switch at this point. The rod from the column that's actuated by the cylinder is jambed. So major column surgery commences. Got it all the way down and the rod is in a severe bind. Fix that all up, put the IGN switch and hi beam switch on the column and bolted it all up. Car will start with rod now........put the till mechanism and pins back in. Start messing with lock cyl and sometime it works and sometimes it does not...DAMN IT! I tossed in the towel for the day back at it tomorrow.

 

[Steve V]

Few pics

 

[Steve V]

Finishing this one up. Brake lines are repaired...just a splice. Old gas drained. Fresh 93 fill up. Couple of road tests. Had a high idle that took some figuring out. Turned out tbody seals where toast. Somebody had TV cable jacked way up. Had some late slamming shifts.