Slightly late build thread (update: the car runs)

[Michaelmoore]

About a month or two ago i bought a 5 speed 91' hatch SE with a 95' motor in it. paid 2200 (2000 for the car, 200 for clutch and flywheel)

Pros: no rust, no body damage, motor ran fine for the hour long drive home, hatch opens well, headlights work, got many extra suspension and brake parts with it (all the stuff off of his other 240), and most of the EGR system was already removed, and ALL the power options work (locks, windows and mirrors)

Cons: no a/c, only has at most 50% of the interior (and whats left isn't pretty), one coil is shot, exhaust is homemade, and the driver's door has a different lock (the key has to be wiggled around to open up everything else anyways cuz its so worn), the gas door has nothing actually holding it closed, the trunk latch cable isn't mounted so the handle doesnt open the hatch, all 4 speakers are in the car(only the passenger side front on works, the back 2 have the wires cut like 4 inches after the speaker)

BUT, overall, I am satisfied. Plans for now are to get it running reliably, fix up the interior a little bit, get some new coilovers, then save save save for the turbo and all the other goodies to go along with it.




This is the motor while its still in.

The air filter they put on (which happened to be put on wrong, the adapter plate was on upside down)

Tein Type HA coils, one is shot and they are completely unadjusted.

Spare parts.

Gauges that came in it, the oil and volts worked, water temp wasn't even hooked up.

Headunit that came with it. (its hooked up and works too =D)

Behind the front seat to the trunk is stripped.

Next post will have pics of the work we have done.

[badbob2121]

more pics..... your missing 31 lol

[Michaelmoore]

Here are the pics of the works we've done.

Her new home while her inerds get put back together.

Prepping it to be pulled.

We were going to pull the wiring harness completely out, but we got hung up here because its bolted down behind a lot of the a/c and heater stuff and its hard to get to.

transmission, Radiator, Intake Plenum, and Driveshaft

The block, KA24DE, Bored .020 over, decked, honed

Internal view of the cylinders.

Upside down block, painted

Head, 3-angle valved job, cleaned, decked

Upper and Lower timing-chain covers cleaned and decked to match the block and head

Crank polished

Intake all cleaned up and put together finger tight

Someone attempted to port the intake I'm asuming?

Throttle body cleaned up

I'm not sure what this pipe was for, question about the hosing for it though, Could I just find the right size rubber hose and use that? or do I need to buy new fittings for it?

IACV all cleaned up

You can see the exhaust mani stud that had to be drilled out.

the mess of wiring for the 3 gauges

lots of random stuff from the motor (mostly bolts and brackets)

Old piston

I know the KAs run rich but this just seems rediculous

Next post will be all the new parts, I have a new order coming in today so itll be posted then.

[Michaelmoore]

Here are all of my goodies.

My first order, waited 2 weeks for the pistons

Supertech 9:1 pistons

Eagle Rods

Together

Arp Head Studs



Second Order

Cometic 90mm .040" Headgasket

New timing kit

Arp main studs

[TimTurboZ]

KA-T Build... What are your plans?

[fame_s13]

looking good!

[Michaelmoore]

Sorry I should have said my plans.

Once its back together I do plan on turboing it. Can't decide between a s15 t28 or a t3/t04 setup, the tuning part I am a little lost on too, probably just going to run a Greddy e-manage and a JWT tune . But at the moment its just going to be put together and I am going to run it N/A until I get the turbo money.

Question about turboing it later on. Should I spring for a set of beefier cams and some oversized valves later on before the turbo? Or should the stock valves and cams work? I don't plan on going past about 10lbs max.

[s13sickboi]

sweet! your doing the same thing as me! lol but at a much faster pace...

[Michaelmoore]

Heh, ive hit a pretty big snag. Now pretty much every paycheck is gone by the time I get it because I've decided on the next order I'm going to make.

[Caveit77777]

KA-t ftmfw. Like someone else said, you're doing everything I'm doing just faster haha.

[badbob2121]

how much money have you dropped on all these parts? looks good

[motoman399]

looks good. to answer some of your questions.

the pic of the "pipe" the one with 4 outlets going to the intake manifold, that is the pcv system. you can just replace the rubber hose, or i think there is a write up how you can modify it to be better for boost.

and the ka head in stock form will do i 400+ so you dont need the cams and valves, but they would never hurt to have them.

good luck and keep on going

ps. go with a t3/t4. t2's are tiny, even the s15 turbo is small. and there is a lot of room to upgrade with a t3. plus the s15 turbo is about 1000 or more to get one new. you can get some sweet turbo's for that price.

[Michaelmoore]

Moneywise, the first order was $919, second was $364 and the machine work for the head and block was $634. So $1,917.

Thanks for the info, yeah I remember reading somewhere, someone was trying to figure out how to fiddle with it in order to boost the KA.

So, a t3/t4 is still my best bet? Cool, now I know what kits to look for.

[Michaelmoore]

Just to update, tomorrow the pistons, rods and crank will all be assembled and bolted to the block, I'll get some pictures up if I get the time afterwords, if not Ill get them up monday.

[Michaelmoore]

So we have run into a bit of an issue.
The crank was polished (not milled or grinded or anything) and the main bearings that I got from the machine shop ended up being .25 instead of .10 (the box said .10), the crank will not turn at all on the 66ft lbs of torque that the ARP studs recommend, and the crank turned once on the 38 lbs for factory spec. I ordered some standard sized clevite bearings in hopes that they will work. Has anyone had an issue like this? My dad seems to think that the bearings are actually right and the arp main studs are the issue.

[motoman399]

sounds like you have oversized bearings and thats the issue. look on the bearing itself. i usually says if its oversized. the studs are not the issue.

[Justin35ll]

i used arp main and rod studs when i did my build and torqued them to whatever arp recommended and the crank spun nice a freely. i think your problem is with the bearing sizes. did you mic the journals to make sure they are standard size?

[Michaelmoore]

*Update* So, it turns out we had the right bearings, the issue was that we put the crank bearing girdle on backwards. Epic fail, but we figured it out, now I just have to send my main and rod bearings back to FRSport and order new sets in the size I already have.

[motoman399]

*Update* So, it turns out we had the right bearings, the issue was that we put the crank bearing girdle on backwards. Epic fail, but we figured it out, now I just have to send my main and rod bearings back to FRSport and order new sets in the size I already have.

lol

[Michaelmoore]

*Update* So, it turns out we had the right bearings, the issue was that we put the crank bearing girdle on backwards. Epic fail, but we figured it out, now I just have to send my main and rod bearings back to FRSport and order new sets in the size I already have.

lol

I agree, complete fail. XD

But while we are on the topic. Has anyone dealt with sending stuff back to FRSport? If you did how well did that go?

[costa_rican13]

will be watching closely, im buiilding my ka too. i got a t3 off a 300zx and just got an intercooler,

[Michaelmoore]

HURRAY!!! After 2 weeks of waiting for the wrong size to get here, then sending them back and waiting for the right size to get here my Main and Rod bearings have showed up.



Now hopefully some more progress can me made.

[xX RB Xx]

Nice build! Keep up the work!

[Michaelmoore]

Now for a slight update on progress.


Its almost a motor again. =D



Kinda hard to see but I ripped out the nasty stained headliner and used some stuff I bought from the fabric store and redid it. It looks 1000x better, but the light grey plastic pieces sort of clash, Aanybody know if there is a trim paint close to the dark grey interior trim color?

And Wednesday I am getting a big order that will all but complete my motor.

Koyo Aluminum Radiator
Koyo 1.3 Bar Radiator Cap
NGK Spark Plug Wires
OEM Thermostat
OEM Water Pump
OEM Motor and transmission Mounts

So hopefully next weekend everything can start to be bolted back up and we can start prepping the bay for the motor.

[USAF_S13]

nice work!!!! why a yellow valve cover...little unusual

[Michaelmoore]

Haha, thats kinda the reaction i got from my dad when i first mentioned it. Yellow kinda goes with the final paint job I am planning. There are a few interior pieces that are yellow and the brake calipers will be yellow. Its kinda ricey but im not going to overtop so its acceptable to me.

[MagikDragon]

i would recommend that before you put your engine back in you have a -10 AN bung welded to the oil pan and get a cap for it. This way when you plan on turboing, you dont have to remove the engine, just for a silly bung.

[OutToWinPAHC]

Looks like a cool build, but is that bottom end balanced?

[lupers3]

I kinda like the yellow valve cover. I just hope you dont start painting random crap yellow as well

nice build cant wait to see more

[Michaelmoore]

i would recommend that before you put your engine back in you have a -10 AN bung welded to the oil pan and get a cap for it. This way when you plan on turboing, you dont have to remove the engine, just for a silly bung.

Good point, I will definately have to get on that.

Looks like a cool build, but is that bottom end balanced?

Yeah crank was balanced at the shop when I had all of the other work done.