KA-T project finally about to get rolling

[Kaleo55]

Well it's been a long time coming and I lost the whole summer on a dead deal. So the long process of gathering all the neccesary parts for the build is finally coming together. The doner block has been stripped and is ready to go off the machine shop to get hot tanked, decked and squared, head will get a mild port and polish job. The crank and rotating assemblies will get polished and balanced. I'm still waiting on the AMS rods, but that's about it. My living room is starting to look like a auto parts store so I'll be happy to get this stuff mounted and running as soon as possibe. Some of you may have seen some of my earlier post, but I'll just post everything here again... so be patient there's a lot of pics.

I will try to maintain this thread as I progress... here's the start.

Here's the engine bay the new motor will be going into...





The doner getting stripped







Stuff in my living room waiting for their new home...

Polished intake and fuel rail



The turbo and IAP manifold and down pipe

Arias





Powder coated motor mounts (Candy Orange like my brake calipers)















Tons of stainless steel nuts and bolts

So let the build-up begin... thanks for looking

Kal
Modified by Kaleo55 at 8:57 PM 1/16/2009

[DammitBobby]

Nice, looks like you have spent a lot of time and money!

[hannibal]

Good looking motor!

[GlacierFreeze]

Looks nice. What cams and turbo??

[kings_blend]

haha i love the pic of the nuts and bolts. going all out is the best way to do it.

[Florida240sx]

Hopefully I drive down to tampa saturday and get mine tuned... I'm running the IAP kit. What you doing for management, and what's your goals?

[rlvq35de]

what water pump pulley is that?

[torque2go]

Hopefully I drive down to tampa saturday and get mine tuned... I'm running the IAP kit. What you doing for management, and what's your goals?

btw, good luck in tampa, ive read some of the post of problems youve had.hope it turns out good

[Kaleo55]

Looks nice. What cams and turbo??

It's a Turbonetics T3/04 .50 Trim .63 A/R, and S13 hot cams. I'm looking at 375 to 400 hp. It's also a daily driver so it has to be civil. That's a Unorthodox underdrive waterpump pulley used in conjuction with a Nismo thermostat and Unorthodox underdrive crank pulley.

[WDRacing]

Looks like it will be an excellent project when its all said and done. I like to see guys going into all the details. I don't have the patience. You should have a very nice ride...not that it isn't already, I just hate NA.

Definitly keep this thread current, I'll delete any BS posts that don't need to be here so it stays on track.

WD

[Kaleo55]

Damn, just got my DSL back up and running. So here's a a few pics of the progress. I had a bit of a wait on the rods from AMS, but the wait was worth it.

So I am very pleased with Jeff Beezer of The Engine Shop in Upper Darby PA, he's really taking his time and using his years of experience to do the job right. I wish I could spend more time at the shop to document the process a little more comprehensively for you. Any way here you can see the some the head work that has been done. Jeff gave the head a beautiful three angle valve cut on the intake seats and a clean radiused cut on the exhaust side.





Here can see how material was shaved away...



The valves stems have been eased and the seats machined to match



Here's the head on the machine



I had to acquire a new set of pistons instead of the stock bore Arias from AMS, this time I got Wiseco's, here's a shot of them and you'll notice the nitrous coatings on the skirts. Thanks to AMS and Frank for working with me on this.



Here's the top of the piston where you can see the orientation mark indicating forward position.



Jeff is lubing the rod to install the pin and through piston



Just plain Redline Assembly Lube



Nice and tight...



Here we're testing the rod tolereance and clearance



And stretch torquing the ARP rod bolts...



Here's the crank that's been micro polished and balanced.





A close up of the polished main bearings on the girdle



The block and girdle were line honed and bored for eveness. The short block got painted and assembled today but I couldn't stick around to get shot of the build. I've ordered a set of Supertech valve springs upon Jeff's insistence which set me back another 300, but well worth it at this stage. Think of it this way, in a 5mph rain shower a regular umberella may be fine, but under boost and 50mph winds something a little stronger is required. Thats' what keeping your valves from making mince meat out of your brand new psitons... more to come...next week the long block should be done!

Modified by Kaleo55 at 11:09 AM 12/15/2006

Modified by Kaleo55 at 11:12 AM 12/15/2006
Modified by Kaleo55 at 4:14 PM 2/17/2007

[WDRacing]

AWSOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Great writeup so far...I'll probably put you in for Ride Of The Month when you're all done if its cool with you.

I looked at your Home Page...nice site man. Had me reading for quite awhile.

WD

[Kaleo55]

Thanks man... I am just anxious to get this motor built after waiting so long for parts. I have great confidence in my builder and know it's going to be a well built motor that'll whatever I throw at it. More pics to come... in the meantime Happy Thanksgiving to All!

[KATwo40]

Excellent build-up!

Looks like your crank didn't need to suffer the knife as much as mine did. Good ol' Nissan parts. lol

Keep us posted.

[Kaleo55]

Here's a few shots of the block decked and bored. Block's getting painted and ready for building.






Modified by Kaleo55 at 11:13 AM 12/15/2006

[jrivera]

Nice work.

[SeVa-S13]

Great build/choice of parts, and nice pics too.

[Kaleo55]

The short block finally got assembled today, after we received the proper rings from Wiseco. I've added a few pics to show the progress.

Here you can see the block with pistons 1, 2 and 3 already installed. Jeff is test fitting the final ring for piston 4. you can see the inside cylinder 4.



After grinding the rings to .020 the ring is gapped and ready for installation.



with the rings installed they are ready to dropped into the block.



The piston assembly is lubed along with the rods.



Using the compression tool the piston assembly is gently guided into cylinder 4, and tapped into place.









Turn the motor over and the rods are ready to be torqued. Remember the arp bolts were already stretch torqued, now with a little paste the are torqued to 60lbs.







In this last shot you can see the gauge zeroed out on piston 4 TDC of the newly decked block.



With any luck the springs from Supertech will be in tomorrow and the head can be assembled. I am hoping the long block will be complete by weeks end. Fingers crossed... hope you enjoyed.

Modified by Kaleo55 at 11:14 AM 12/15/2006
Modified by Kaleo55 at 11:16 AM 12/15/2006

[Florida240sx]

Nice. You goign to be tuning the car? Or have the shop do it?

[Poor_S13_Driver]

I cant describe what im feeling, but man that is absolutley gorgeous. As was the engine bay already with the n/a motor in. Again absolutely wonderful. Excelent quality pictures with good descriptions. Keep up the hard work

[Suicide.Veteran]

wow, thats really nice bro.

[lsxavier]

great job, nice pics!

[crash n burn]

dang

how much did all of that block work cost you, boring, honing..crank balance..etc

[Kaleo55]

dang

how much did all of that block work cost you, boring, honing..crank balance..etc

All told, I figure around 1,200 for the machining and rebuild of the long block. Add in all the internals including timing assembly, pistons, rods, ARP studs, gaskets and bearings figure another 1,600. You can get a kit from AMS or IPP, but it'll all come out around the same unless you got some super connections. I pieced it together myself and ended going to a number of sources and had to change form Aria's to Wiseco's mid stream. It took a real long to get all the parts together. I had a donner KA block with 79k on it which I got for 500. For all the other goodies, including turbo, manifold, down pipe, wastegate, BOV, FMIC, fuel management stuff like fpr, Walboro pump, fuel rail, injectors, ss hoses and fittings you're looking at close to another 2-3,000. You can do for less if you cut corners and go with cheaper or used products. It all adds up and no it aint cheap. The list can go on, cams, new flywheel, clutch, e-manage, gauges, wideband... and so on... and on...

[Kaleo55]

Here's a few pics of the the long block completed and ready for shipping to my shop for the final build-up.







The Cometic gasket sticking out precariously...



Will have more pics next week when we start putting it all together. Again I wold like to thank Jeff Beezer and the guys at The Engine Shop for their expertise and enthusiasm. My motor looks like a toy compared the some of the high performance engines they build. They were very respectful of my needs and plans and never me feel like I was 2nd class...Thanks again. Be sure to visit their site or call them if you're thinking of building your motor the right way! Ask for Beezer...

http://www.theengineshopinc.co....html

[wild_maxx]

"After grinding the rings to .052 the ring is gapped and ready for installation."

Why do you have a ring gap of .052" was that the spec the manuf. called for?

Shouldn't it be around .018" for the first ring and around .020" for the second ring?

[Kaleo55]

Yes you are correct sir... I seriously typoed... pardon my error...

[DRFT(kinda)]

Dude, you are running damn near the same setup I'm building right now. Minus the work done to the crank and the shiny-ness. Same turbo kit, same pistons, same ECU. Kinda funny. Today was the first day of the engine build and we got done all the way up to the cames.

[Kaleo55]

Dude, you are running damn near the same setup I'm building right now. Minus the work done to the crank and the shiny-ness. Same turbo kit, same pistons, same ECU. Kinda funny. Today was the first day of the engine build and we got done all the way up to the cames.

That's kewl... Good luck to you. I'm really not trying to recreate the wheel here, I just want a good reliable motor that will kick some ***. So as much as I rather not be spending tons of money on this build up, I'm committed to it.

[wild_maxx]

Yes you are correct sir... I seriously typoed... pardon my error...

haha its cool man. I was kinda worried when you said .052 ring gap.