Finally started to actually build my KA today.

Got the block mounted the the stand and started masking off the machined surfaces...




Since every other surface - the front covers, valve covers, and intake are all powder coated flat wrinkle red it took a while to find the right color for the block itself...



I'm thinking it'll be easy to deal with touch ups later on.
Followed the directions on the can with regard to coat thickness and spray pattern, basically paint it like a retard that wants it to look s*** and you end up getting the best results...LOL.




After the initial 2 hour drying session




Now the money shot, super clean, can't wait to start stuffing new parts into this thing...

vht paint on the block :eeeek
You may want to invest in your cooling system. I had a block I did up very similar even took money shot pics eerily similar to yours. Could not keep that son of a b**** from overheating, the move vht I got off the cooler she ran lol. This was with vht ceramic high temp not the wrinkle stuff( not sure if its ceramic filled).

but man it looks good!!!

Its not ceramic.

Even their "Ceramic Paint" is not a real ceramic.

If you were having overheating problems, it was due to some other issue, the block is not a significant radiation point of the cooling system. I'm going to be running a bigger radiator, with ducted fans, and a ducted thermstat controlled oil cooler.

If this paint does anything but look awesome, I'll paypal you $10.

no that was the issue unless a crack in the block occurred, in my case. head was shaved and block was perfect, overheating was reduced after stripping the majority off.
I hope it does nothing but look awesome.

This is not an air cooled motor, the block doesn't "radiate" enough heat to effectively cool anything. Thats why you have a giant water to air heat exchanger with a ducted fan in front of it.

Your problem was def not due to painting the block. Its just paint, 1 to 2 mm of paint - on a huge 90 lb piece of cast steel is going to drastically alter how your engine dumps heat? That boggles my mind. You def had other issues, painting you block does NOTHING to the cooling system.

Even if you paid to have the block ceramic coated with a coating that actually works I doubt you would see a huge rise in temps. The thickness of the block compared to the thickness of the paint is like 35 to 1 in the thinnest places.

More of an issue with transmissions then engines, professionals have been painting blocks for as long as there has been an aftermarket for automobiles. Looks friggin sweet dude.

IDK man after removing the manifolds and removing 85% of the paint the overheating stopped and that was the only real change, motor finally died a few ringland failures from boost.
I understand what you are saying, the stuff is made for engines ffs. No need to emo explain it, I am just stating what I have experienced...

Dont take it personally, I'm an engineer. I get hung up over small little details.

Either way, it looks even better in person. Most likely going to put the internals in on the 2nd, once I get back from Canada. more pics to come.

not taken personal, it was a strange experience..

looks pretty good on screen as well

I need to freshen up my vc someone did rattle can on bare aluminum... crack flake fest

The VHT wrinkle paint actually recomends taking ot down to bare metal prior to painting - not sure what is in the paint, but it did not glob or run, and self leveled amazingly. The thicker I painted it on, the better it looked.

I got to thinking that a base coat of the black would let you do the wrinkle finish in pretty much any color - assuming that you paint over it.

So.....

I've been stuck in Florida/Canada for almost 2 months - have not had a chance to put my motor together, which makes me very sad.

However today I realized that Osaka JDM is like a 15 minute drive from my hotel. Gotta say I was both under and overwhelmed by the place. Tons and tons of cool parts, and JDM only **** lying in random piles. It looks like a large part of their business nowadays is Hondas and Subarus.

Both of the guys I dealt with were real quiet and super UNexcited about any of the cool one off stuff - I guess thats what happens when its a business not a hobby.

Anyway, without writing a book - I scored a super fresh set of S15 seats, and an R32 steering wheel for almost nothing.

$50 for the wheel and $300 for the seats - even with the ****ty CAD to USD exchange rate I still come out ahead by over $100 USD - now I just need to go through US customs on my way back....not super excited about that. Anyone have any experience bringing parts across the boarder? should I bend over and prepare my anus?:sad:

Pics of the seats

Also, picked this manifld up in October and have been playing around with using it or not - I also have a Q45 TB lying around, but its overkill for the current turbo build. When I was trying to decide on a manifold, my main concern was Idle air control.

I decided to hold off on the Q45 TB for now - leaving it cracked partially open seems kinda half assed to me - and instead decided to alter the Godspeed manifold to accept the stock IACV and fast idle valve.

Things that everyone should know about before buying one of these:

THE CASTING IS s***!!!
- Casting flash everywhere - in my pics it looks clean, but I hit EVERY SEAM with that file
- Obvious areas where they had to reweld due to sand occlusions.
- Terrible finish on all of the mating flanges (between the 2 halves, the TB, and to the head)
My machinist said it looks like they tried to use a single end mill for the entire part, and it was def not set at the right speed.
- Undersized Thermostat Outlet - will require additional material to seal the stock hose

Basically, if you are thinking that this thing is in any way usable out of the box, keep moving. That being said, if you don't mind a little DIY, you can make it into a decently usable piece.

Mine is at my machinist getting pads added for the Fast Idle and IACV, and having the mating flanges trued up a bit - but I cleaned up all of the casting flash myself in about an hour with a course file.




Its amazing what a little time and a file can do...

As for the interior roughness, the stock manifold is not much better than this crap-tastic casting, but I was able to knock off all of the large flash with a cold chissle - sorry, no pics.

Then you get into the accessories:
I picked up a set of excessive's velocity stack inserts (they're compatable) for $60 and their remote IACV plate for $25 (having the machinist attach it to the underside of the intake and create a pad for the fast idle valve)

When its all said and done I'll prolly be into this thing for just under $400. I hear the excessive casting is a bit better, but still not ready to run outta the box. Both take a little elbow grease, the Godspeed just takes a lot more...

Thanks for the review bud. Sorry to hear your project is being put off, happens to all of us.

I just got a text from my machinist, the manifold is done - meeting up with him on Saturday to pick up the parts, I'll post some pics. With my current turbo (GT2560R), I'm not planning on doing anything else to the manifold - but in the future I'm planning a few mods:

- 3.5" TB flange so I can use my Q45 TB
- some port work to gasketmatch the runnners to the head, and smooth out the internal walls of the casting.
- I'm going to potentially add the egr system back. It really depends on if I switch to Nistune or stay AEM.

This wouldn't happen until next year at the earliest, whenever I upgrade the turbo.

Did you have any issues getting the stuff back from Canada? I've been stopped going IN to Canada, but never on the way back.

I'll find out tomorrow.

I talked to a customs agent at the VT crossing I'm goign to be using, and according to him, as long as I have my reciept, or a bill of sale I should be fine...I expecting to pay duty on the seats and wheel which should be in the 3-10 percent area.

If I get stopped, I'm goign to turn arround and find the nearest FedEx hub to ship them to myself - itll take longer, but I'm not leaving Canada without them.

Got the seats back no problem...didn't even need to pay duty.

Some more pics to compare the stock s14s, to the s15 bases...so much more comfortable.




And a shot of them installed....



Also the GTR wheel, still undecided on this...might just sell it.

yeah what are you doing with your old S14 seats? They look great.

I'm going to sell them on the local 240 forum - might list them here as well. need to recoup some cost so I can finish the engine build.

I'm heading back to Canada for 1 more week, then I have 9 days off - the motor build WILL happen between the 14th and 22nd. Wheather it actually makes it into the car is another story.

I threw them up on Nico as well

fs-ct-97-s14-front-seats-200-obo-also-t ... 60433.html

Teaser shot from today. I need to collect the actual build up photos from my friends, they were taking most of the shots.

Bottom end is together, but I need to get creative with the AMS 11mm head studs - I could not fit any of my deep 13mm 12pts into the head to torque them.

More pics to come tomorrow.



On a more serious note:

I noticed a bit of side to side clearance once all the rods were torqued. Its something I've never touched before, wondering how normal it is. All of my clearances came back within factory tolerances, and I used a set of std clevite bearings.

it takes almost no force to translate the rod side to side - I say translate because there is no other movement, except along he axis of the journal...I'm really hoping someone pipes up on this. I really dont wanna tear it down again.

Hmmm... I dunno man. I usually have the machine shop assemble my short block.

PapaSmurf2k3 wrote:Hmmm... I dunno man. I usually have the machine shop assemble my short block.

I don't, but then again I have not built one in 7-8 years.

I went back and double checked the clearances. They are right on the high side of factory limits - right where I want them to be. I also went to see my machinist, and the slight bit of movement is present on nearly every motor they had in there...so I think I was getting worked up over nothing.

Anyway...

Spent a few hours fighting with the oil pump and head studs today...

After striping the old pump, and cleaning



Installed loc-tighted and torqued - new valve too, kept dropping the damn washers.



There was a bit of a flash flood...the garage is at the bottom of a long driveway, it dried out in a few hours.



Pic from last night - rotating assembly in place reaady for the head



Close up of the clearance between the head and the 13mm deep 12pt needed for the AMS 11mm headstuds - **** barely fits



Head is on - tackling the timing tomorrow, if things go as planned we should be mocking up the manifolds by the end of the night.







More to come...

That is one fan f*** tastic looking KA.

It's aight.

Here's a little better pic. Maybe more to come, as we're working on it today...

Spent the entire day running around chasing the small stuff that I always seem to forget...

Teflon Tape
The Crank Pulley Bolt
Woodruff Keys for the Crank

I am missing the guide bushing for the idler gear...without that we can't really build anything else but the accessories.

If anyone out the has a spare KA24DE idle gear bushing, I need it and will glady bargain/trade/pay for it.


In the end we made no real progress. The fancy smancey tube of Three Bond RTV ruptured, so we could not even put on the front cover anyway

I settled for mocking up the turbo, and found some small fit issues

Mr Gasket in all his coppery goodness...



First fit of the KA flanged SR manifold....did not think I would need the angle grinder today


Test fitting the front cover, thermal gasket, and intake


GT2560 mounted to see where the hardlines are going to run....also did not have the right size gasket to fully install the turbo





Installed the dipstick, HKS wastegate, and Xcessive motor mount


we decided to put on the rest of the fun stuff just to get a taste of the finished product - water pump pulley and ATI Damper




I need to find the idler bushing, turbo gaskets, and get more RTV...

Like the color combo with that gold and red. which brand water pump pulley is that ???

what crank damper forget the water pump pulley.

ok this an awesome build, but why did you skimp on the turbo manifold? Its like awesome awesome awesome awesome failure awesome awesome lol otherwise awesome.

neverlift wrote:what crank damper forget the water pump pulley.

ok this an awesome build, but why did you skimp on the turbo manifold? Its like awesome awesome awesome awesome failure awesome awesome lol otherwise awesome.

I'm getting a ton of hate on the manifold...

1 - it packages smaller than any quality manifold outside fullrace (no need to shield BMC). I work as an engineer designing systems like this all day, I appreciate the simplicity of the casting.
2 - its cast and will retain heat better than a tubular sheet metal unit (faster spool)
3 - there are plenty of larger T2 turbos to choose from should I upgrade in the future to hit 400 plus hp (GT2871,76,2860,GT30xx) - for now this is perfect with my little GT2560.
4 - it lets me run a stock SR heat shield to keep underhood temps in check (still working on polishing it and nickle plating it)
5 - Down the road if I upgrade I can have it gasket matched, extrude honed, modified to accept an external gate, and ceramic coated (guys with SRs have done the same and easily netted 400hp on this thing, while keeping the OEM packaging. Even with all that work done, this thing will still have cost me less than a full race manifold.
6 - I like it cause it was custom made and very few people have it.

240hatchsx wrote:Like the color combo with that gold and red. which brand water pump pulley is that ???

its a pulley kit for an SR - there are a couple threads on NICO, including Greg's build where this set was used (mine's is a Touge Factory knock off of Cusco I believe). In their builds they mentioned that some modification was required to get everything to line up...I'm guessing it needed some shimming to get the belt grooves lined up.

I'll post pics once I mount the alternator and PS pump.