Built Engines....

[pampadori]

does anybody have a built engine? how much did you hone or bore if any? what pistons and rods? anyone using sleeves?

i've heard taht 86.2mm is the most you can go without sleeves. 87 is bad for flex of the walls. is there any truth here? can anyone point me in a very very technical direction on a sr20 build up? shaun

[GraySilvia]

I'm having my block honed and custom pistons made for it. I was going to go iron sleeve route, but the nikasil lining is just too far superior to iron sleeves, even if that means it'll be a 600hp capable motor instead of 700 or 800hp. The nikasil is much harder, has better wear properties, and has much less friction than iron. The shop i took my block to does mainly offshore powerboat stuff and he said that they go to GREAT pains to keep/reuse the nikasil lining when they get motors built and spend tons of money to have the cylinder recoated when they do blow something up. Yes, an iron sleeved block will be stronger than a comparable aluminum block, but are you willing to sacrifice friction and wear qualities? You might if you were building an all out drag car that only runs 7 seconds at a time, but my car is and will remain a daily driver, so i chose to keep the nikasil.

On another note, the FSM for the USDM SR20DE says that the service limit on the stock bores is .008" overbore, which comes out to .2mm, which is where the 86.2mm figure came from. There are plenty of people (well, at least 2 or 3 that i know of) that are running around on SR20's with 87mm bores and NO CYLINDER COATING. This is bad, as bare aluminum and ringed pistons don't go together well. You'll go through rings very quickly. Also, aluminum is pourous and won't have good oiling properties, which exacerbates the ring problem.

Hope this helps....just my $.02...keep the nikasil!! If you want iron sleeves, turbo a KA!

[pampadori]

very good stuff here. but i think my cylinders are ovaled more then the servicable range. a slight hone still will get rid of much of the nikasil i've been told. anyhow, with oval walls, i pretty much have to go the sleeve route. i'm sure the hks sleeves would have some technique to make them better or at least comparable to the nikasil stock item. anyone else have thought? by the way its not even a street legal car, so i don't think it will have more then 1000 miles a year on it.shaun

[hokiruu]

Great topic. I have several questions. My SR will be my daily driver too. The only pistons I have found for it are Arias and Toda. The Arias area good price but only come overbored, at least 86.5, and I don't want to bore it over, just drop in rods and pistons. Obviously TODA is ideal but the pistons alone are $900! Phase2 offers an Arias Piston/Eagle Rod package, but once again, this means boring to 86.5 or 87mm. I have not seen any TODA rod offerings, besides their 2.2L stroker kit, which is WAY more than I can afford. Do you think I could use Eagle rods with the Toda pistons? Even that would be really expensive for just pistons and rods. Would it be worthwhile to just get the TODA pistons and leave the rest of the bottom end stock? Any Ideas?

[GraySilvia]

I bought eagle rods and plan on using them with CE pistons. A machine shop can pretty much make the eagle rods work with any piston when it comes down to it. So I see no reason why you can't use eagle rods and TODA pistons. You could just get the eagle rods and get custom pistons made for ~$500-600, which isn't a whole lot cheaper, but they'll be made to the exact bore size that you require. The only bad thing about the eagle rods is, since they were originally made for the SR20DE, they have no oil squirters in them like the stock rods do. You'll still have a squirter in the block, but you lose one squirter with the eagle rods.

I guess you could just put TODA pistons on stock rods...but isn't that kinda silly as long as you're in there anyway?? I mean, I got a set of eagle rods on Ebay for $300! And wouldn't it suck to throw a rod and ruin your nice new pistons because you still had stock rods?? Course, then again, maybe i'm wrong and you'll get yeras of reliable service out of the stock rods. But I tend to think you should bite the bullet and do it all at once.

[pampadori]

if you can find a set of gtir rods, they are a cheap upgrade. weisco makes pistons, and crower makes rods. the crowers are supposed to be a lot better then the other offerings. hk2 sleevescrower rodsarias pistons (maybe 9.1:1) (made for 300zx 87mm)arp bolts and studsbalanced 3 angle valve jobgreddy springss4 cams (already have them)tomei rasnot sure on what headgasket yet.

thats my recipe. the block is apart and ready for the trip to the machinist to fit the sleeves. just need the sleeves. shaun