My small Winter build starting early

[fabrisuzu]

Hey everybody,

Well for the last few months i have been collecting parts for a small build this winter. Unfortunately i am burning either oil or coolant (an by either i mean sometimes i'm burning oil and sometimes i'm burning coolant), so i figure what better time than now to tear the engine apart. I'm not 100% sure what the problem is but my guess is either head gasket or turbo (possible valve seat but who knows).

My car is a 1992 240sx coupe with a silvia front end and an s13 sr20det motorset. I have the turbo off of a gti-r along with fmic, oversized oil pan, electric fans, new rad, freddy intake manifold, megan exhaust manifold, rocker arm stoppers, boost gauge, safc-2, and wide band 02. The rear end is locked and i have a short shifter.

So far for the build i have collected the following parts:
-hx35 turbo
-new compressor and exhaust housing
-peak boost topmount turbo manifold
-turbosmart waste gate
-750 cc topfeed injectors with fuel rail
-full new gasket set
-bc 264 cams/springs/retainers
-ported head

Right now im in a pretty tough spot. My car is my daily, but sooner than later i will have another car to use for the winter. I dont have the capabilities or know how to tune the car, and have never worked with turbos at all. I have rebuilt old small blocks before, but nothing like this. Really i am hoping that the head gasket is the problem so i can leave the current turbo on until i can afford an aem ems or something similar and maybe the bc 2.3 stroker kit.

Any suggestions or comments are greatly appreciated and welcomed. Within the next day or two i will start the tear down and will update this thread with more pics. One question i do have right now is what turbo lines have you guys in the past used for the sr20/hx35 combo, because i have read a few threads where the hx35 was used but didnt see the specifics. Thanks for looking, have a good one. Below are the pics of what i have now (minus the head, its in transit) and where the car sits.

[fabrisuzu]

Does anyone know a place that carries the correct turbo lines for the HX35/sr top mount combo? I'm leaning towards just doing the turbo swap now while i have the car taken apart and i have a little free time.

As for an update:
didnt have much time last night but i got the valve cover off and the cams out. I dont really think i needed to do that but i like taking stuff apart to get a good idea of how it works and goes together.

-NB

[fabrisuzu]

ok so not much news, just took off the intake piping, intake manifold, and intercooler piping.

I do have another question though. If you've read above you'd know i am burning oil sometimes, well when i took off my IC piping i found a nice coat of oil on the walls. i have some pics, but im at work so i cant upload them just yet. The first place i noticed oil was on the couplers between the different piping sections, but its even on the walls of the vertical sections. Does this pretty much mean my turbo is leakin oil? I checked my oil catch can and nothing is in there, it was pretty dry, so i dont think that was shooting oil into the intake. Also, i was driving the car as of monday so i figured (please correct me if i am wrong) if it was the catch can putting the oil into my intake, wouldnt there still be some oil in the catch can or the lines if there was oil in my ic piping (which there is)? Thanks

-NB

Ok so I have been doing a lot of searching now and am still worried about the turbo lines. What i would like to know is what size an-3 or -4 has anyone used, what did you do about oil restriction, and what other adapters/connections did you use. Any help or links to help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks

[fabrisuzu]

anyone got suggestions for turbo lines?

[S13AL]

Good luck with the rebuild/finding your turbo lines..

[fabrisuzu]

i take it theres not just a "kit" i can buy, this is going to be more of a piece together something?

[fabrisuzu]

ok so small update. Two things happened:

1: I called ILL garage and they are willing to help me out with the turbo lines. They happen to have a s13 redtop out of a car that they will use to mock up my lines. So i will be dropping off my turbo and mainfold after work today.

2: Last night i finished removing the turbo and exhaust manifold, got the head studs out, removed fuel rail and injectors, and the turbo elbow (all while managing to spill every type of fluid on my garage floor lol).

A new set of questions for anyone:

-are there any "hidden" bolts or nuts holding the head on? My buddies and i removed all of the main studs, and the two 10mm bolts on the drives side front and rear, yet the head wont come off. I hit an edge with a rubber mallet (in the front) and saw a slight bit of seperation at the head gasket, but with the intake manifold still in the bay (but not connected to the head) i didnt want to screw anything up if there were still bolts or nuts holding the head down. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

-Is there a good way to test to see if a turbo's seals are shot without taking it apart? With oil all over my ic piping, i assume thats the problem, but i want to test it to make sure.

Thanks much!

oh and i guess i never really introduced myself either.

My name is Nick and i live in the northwest suburbs of chicago. This is my second 240, i had to sell my first one to pay for a study abroad trip to germany for my junior year in college. I recently graduated MSOE with a bs in mechanical engineering and work in Elgin as a design engineer. My first 240 was a red hatch i picked up off a buddy with a stock single slammer (179,xxx miles i believe) that wasnt really running. I pulled the ka and dropped in an sr, but sold it before the swap was complete. My current dd is a 1992 240sx coupe from AR that i bought from a friend when we got back from germany (we studied together). When i bought it it had a silvia front end, red top sr (painted blue), fmic, freddy intake manifold, and a turbo from a gti-r. Most of the work i have done to date has been aesthetics such as painting it, replacing the wheels and tires, fixing up the interiror, and trying to fix all of the little bugs. My future plans for the car are somewhat unclear. I really like the idea of the ls2, but at the same time i have seen (here on nico) how much potential the nissan engines have. Once i get a truck i can start building the car slowly and not have to worry about how ill get to work. The reason i bought the car in the first place, other than i love the looks of these cars, is that i really would like to get into racing. Watching videos of people racing like mattblancarte have always made me what to race on a track, and so thats what my end goal is.

[fabrisuzu]

seeing as how it seems like few are interested in my build (must be too standard lol), this has become more of a log for me. However i do still have some questions if anyone knows the answers or could offer some sort of advice it would be greatly appreciated.

update:
last night i finally got the time to pull the head off. The head itself looks fine, nothing majorly wrong just a little dirty. However, my pistons look like Sh*$. they have a huge amount of carbon deposits and there looks to be a decent amount of old dried up coolant on them (whiteish powder in the center of 1,3 and 4 if i remember right). So now that the car is parked for winter (i am sending the turbo out to be rebuilt at majestic turbo, and still need lines made so its not worth hurrying to put back together just to drive for a week) i am planning on doing a total engine build.

questions:
is it worth it to just upgrade the pistons, rods ect to stock bore or would it be worth it to go with the bc 2.3 stroker kit? I mean the hx35 isnt a huge turbo but i can see where having the extra displacement would be useful. However, i dont want to get further over my head here. Now the rotating assembly part i am alright with, but i wouldnt even know where to begin on getting the block machined or bored out to the correct size. For the people that have done it (stroker), how much did you end up spending, what else is needed, were the gains worth it, and would you suggest it to others (specifically me lol) or if you could do it again would u just buy some replacement upgraded pistons/rods/ect? In my mind it seems like now is the time because i have the car sitting in my garage with no time constrains, i have most of the tools needed, i have a little bit of money to spend, and i will have to have it retuned for the new head/cams/pfc anyway (sort of a why disassemble/reassemble and tune twice kind of deal).

Any insite into this is greatly appreciated, thanks and have a good one.

[Hijacker]

I can't provide any insight on the question of stroking the motor.

I would recommend not using the Cometic HG if you've been having leaking issues. Unless something has changed with their QC in the past few years, you can either get a good gasket, or get one that will leak no matter what you do. I ended up going with Cosworth as it's a well designed head gasket and you get great bang for your buck. You can find some of the research I did here. A lot of the links the JDM Inside I linked aren't working right now, but that's probably a temp thing server side for them. I'm not trying to shill for Cosworth, nor am I trying to say bad choice in the Cometic. But you may want to look at the Cosworth as an alternative to the Cometic.

[fabrisuzu]

Hey i appreciate the advice. I have heard the same thing several times as well. the only reason that i think i will stick with the gasket (to tell the truth i thought it said cosworth when i bought it because i bought the "Head swap kit" from enjuku) is that my buddy is running one on a 20 something psi sr with a gt3076r and its holding up fine. With my luck it'll leak and i ll have to start this all over again lol. Is there a specific way that i could improve this gasket at all? I mean is there anything i can do to help it not leak? thanks again.

-Nick

[Hijacker]

Check and deck both the block and head, and then do a retorque of the head after a 1000 mile break in.

[fabrisuzu]

will do. I m really leaning towards the stroker kit anyway so that would require machining. The head is new and was just ported/polished and has been decked so that end is good but ill make sure the block is also decked. thanks again

-Nick

[Hijacker]

even if you weren't doing machine work, the block is aluminum. It should be checked/decked just for that fact alone.

[fabrisuzu]

good to know. This is def a learning experience for me, i have done engine work before but its mostly been small engines (like 50cc and smaller) and older v8's which were cast iron. I am def getting pumped for this though. even though it kinda sucks, as i keep removing stuff from my bay i keep seeing things that i need/want to do, so this will really transform the car into MY car, which is huge to me. Thanks again for the help.

[fabrisuzu]

hey everyone here is what i was talking about on my pistons. Let me know what you think. I am still leaning towards the bc 2.3 kit but every time i see the price tag i second think it lol. I guess go big or go home.




thanks

[fabrisuzu]

o and a note about the pictures of the pistons. The car was running as of sept 7, and the head bolts were not removed until the day i took those pictures, so its not like i unsealed the headgasket and let it sit for a few days. Does anyone know what those "whiteish" markings are on the pistons?

Thanks
-Nick

[Hijacker]

Not sure TBH. Excessively rich would be my first guess since it's in the shape/spot of the intake valves. Other than that, the carbon build up looks normal for an older SR. It does look like some oil was burning in cylinders 1 and 2

[fabrisuzu]

ya i was def burning oil. Had the nice blue smoke and oil lined ic piping, it was just the white stuff that i was worried about. Idk, the last engine i tore apart had been siting for over 10 yr and it didnt have that, but it was a small block 302, so i dont know how much i can really compare them. Once i get the block out i can clean the pistons and make my decision from there. thanks for the input.

[fabrisuzu]

ok engine is out, and i ordered a power fc. All that i can think of left to buy/spend money on before putting this thing back together is: Machine work on the block (if i go stroker kit), turbo lines, turbo rebuild, and paint (the bay, block, and trans). Here's a pic of my dirty bay:

[S13AL]

Good progress. Is this your first time pulling an engine?

[fabrisuzu]

Pulling an engine like this yes for sure. Last time i got to work on a car like this it was my dad's 1965 mustang. There was a lot less to disconnect lol. But i do have the engine out and started getting that apart last night. I hope to get it down to a bare block by tuesday next week. That way if i want to get new pistons i can buy them and clean everything up whey they are shipping.

[Beems240sx]

nice progress man! i live in the northwest suburbs of chicago as well. im about 15 minutes away from ILL Garage. if you ever need any help lemme know! im also doing my SR/Holset build this winter. it just got put on hold because this old lady t-boned me the other night.

[fabrisuzu]

Aw that sucks man sorry to hear that. My plans are to go slow. I just started a new job, so i get about 2hr a night max to work on the car, and my gf lives in WI so most weekends im up there with her. I just stopped into ILL Garage the other day, and its maybe 30-45 min from my house. I appreciate the offer, and i just might take you up on it, but same goes for you. I love to wrench and though im not the best with this stuff an extra set of hands never hurts lol. Good luck with your build too, and come spring we should meet up with some other chicagoland 240s and cruise or something. Have you started a build thread, it'd be nice to compare parts and such. Have a good one!

-NB

[fabrisuzu]

I've got a new question for anyone who wants to give some insite.

For money reasons i think i am not going to get the bc stroker kit, and from what i gather it doesnt make enough of an improvement to warrent the cost. So now i am looking into new pistons incase mine are damaged (I havent got them out and cleaned yet). after reading a lot of build threads and such, cp pistons seem like a pretty good piston and they are not too expensive. So the real question is what size and compression should i go with? I know enjukuracing offers them in the stock bore, but would it be worth it (or more important has anyone done it) to go with a 89mm piston (the same as in the bc stroker kit)? The pistons themsevles are the same price, but i know if i went bigger i would have to have the block bored out so thats extra cost, but not as much as the stroker (which also required boring). Do i need to sleeve it then or would i have enough material in the walls to run say 4-500 hp (one day, not in this build lol)? Another question is would i have to replace the rods as well? I know the short stubby rods of the sr are very good for stock, but would they be a good match for the cp pistons? I really havent searched the rod issue much but i know ive read about people putting down 400 hp on stock bottom ends. Thanks for the help

-NB

[Dano]

This thread is worthless without pics

Really cool build though!

[fabrisuzu]

Haha well i haven't gotten to much done lately on the 240. I'll post some pics up as soon as i get the pistons out which i hope will be tomorrow night. Weird story but i was cleaning out my closet this weekend and i found the clutch kit that i bought a few years ago (act unsprung) and def forgot about so ill get some pics of that up too. My power fc is at the post office so ill prob pick that up tomorrow or Tuesday. I'm still undecided on my piston/rod situation, so i'll prob be calling ILL garage for some advice seeing as how they are who im going to for tuning. ill keep this updated as i get work done.

-NB

[fabrisuzu]

ok so works been super crazy lately and it was the bears vs. packers game last night (and im from the chicagoland area) so the car hasnt been touched in a while. I did however get my power fc in and i went to ill garage today to order my pistons and rods. I ended up going with wiseco 87mm 9:1 compression pistons and an eagle rod kit.

Here are some pics just to prove that some progress has been made since i parked the car a few weeks ago lol.

[fabrisuzu]

Hey everybody, i have a quick and possibly dumb question:

where can you pick up a "3 squares" socket or wrench? I am trying to remove my flywheel and the local napa and autozone dont have em (and thats what the guy at napa said they were). Also, any idea on size or suggestions for removal of flywheel? I would like to pull the crank and pistons tonight, but this is kind of a snag thats preventing it. Thanks much

[breadbox]

your flywheel isnt held on by 6 bolts? I used a chain from on of the trans bolts to the fly wheel to keep it still.

[fabrisuzu]

right, its held on by the 6 bolts, but dont i need to remove them to remove my crank? I might be missing something here (new to this motor) but when i rebuilt my last motor (302 v8) we seperated the flywheel and crank. I also will probably need to get the flywheel resurfaced because im putting on a new clutch, so it would be nice to remove it now. Plus i cant remember 100% but i thought you were always supposed to removed pistons from the bottom and install them from the top because of the build up at the top of the cylinder wall. i could be wrong thouh. Thanks