Top Hat Engine

[offroadbob]

Well I just installed one of tophats crate engine into my 96. I havent been on here in a while (because of time and $ to work on my car w/ a trashed head) and wanted to share some pics of the install. Im still breaking her in NA with only 400 miles on the odometer. Once I replentish my funds ill be adding on the turbo. So far everything is great except all the stupid evap emissions crap and the damn check engine light because of it. [P1445 code] once the new canister purge volume control valve. comes in hopefully there will be no more codes I hope, damn obd2.











rock on, any questions let me know

Matt

[480sx]

Never heard of that company, can you post up a link?

What are the specs of the motors build, i mean did they just put fresh rings and bearings in it and call it a day or what?

Also what did you pay, did they take your old block as a core charge?

[hannibal]

Top Hat is based in the Atlanta area. I met the owner Mike at NOPI 2005. Pretty cool guy!http://www.tophatperformance.com

[offroadbob]

Yea they are pretty chill guys. Their brand is name is core. its all built i just got the basic crate cause of $. i know i could have built on up cheaper but i dont have enough time to build it. I barely had enough time to put it in luckily it only took a little less than 2 days

[pooptown]

tophat is a pretty good shop, they're makin the intercoolerpiping for my buddys rb20 s13, I'm only about 40 minutes away so it's good to have someone kinda local and all, but yeah they do good work

[offroadbob]

Yea, so far so good... today I just finished up installing a set of electric fans. I modified some off of an intrepid hooked up a thermastat and its working great once it is light out again ill take some pics and stuff...

[johnnycham]

wow. do any of u know if the tophat swap prices includes the motor as in full swap?

[rb26tommy]

well i did my swap through them... the car runs great....... nice motor man... i am going to do there create motor to... well for the swap the swap doesn't include the motor....

[offroadbob]

well today my car started smoking. this freaking sucks!!!! it is still N/A w/ only 3,000 miles on it I've done 5 oil changes 3 with just standard sae 30 and the last ones w/ amsoil synthetic. i have no idea what went wrong w/ the motor. I'm hoping tophat can do something for me. we will see

[DammitBobby]

Where is it smoking? If smoking out the tail pipe what color?

[Florida240sx]

How many miles on synthetic oil?

[Brandon93240]

i tink dat sombitz got blow'd up

[offroadbob]

its burning a mixture of oil and gas (Freaking wierd i know) i started on the synthetic after 2,000 miles the first three were reg. im not sure what to do now it blows!! the oil is dirty but has no water in it so its not a blown head gasket. the only thing i can think of is that it is feeding too much gas into the chamber and allowing the rings to float and let oil by or something like that.

[gukdoebabdoe]

i think the engine costs 3000 but thats with the labor of installing it. do u get any hp gains from it compared to the old one?

[Chezedik]

1) a head gasket can fail w/o water in the oil.

2) what is compression?

3) what is oil pressure?

4) what kind of head gasket do they use?

[offroadbob]

Well the compression is 110. 130. 127. 110. ( 1 2 3 4 respectively)Oil pressure is good! also they use a cometic head gasket.

It is just weird even the very fist oil change I had lots of stuff in the oil and it was really dirty. I just just guessed that it was just all the shavings from the initial start up so I dismissed it the second oil change wasn't any better and the oil was actually dirty (about as dirty as my 84 720 truck's w/ over 185,000 mi) and tis was only after 500 miles. the third oil change was the same as the second.

Im guessing it is the rings in the #2 and 3 cylinders went bad some how or didn't seat right or something. hopefully I can get a hold of tophat sometimes they answer and other times it just their machine. if I cant get a hold of them by Wednesday I am going to just tear it apart myself re hone the block and re ring it. I just dont really want to pay for all the parts myself since it only has a few thousand miles on it.

peace

[Chezedik]

I would send it back.

BTW, it isn't the rings in 2 and 3 I would on the worry about, but the outside cyls. Have you checked any of the basic internal engine tests? Leak down, coolant pressure check, oil temp, etc? Also, I would use Litmus paper to check the Oil's pH if at all possible.

[red boy]

I was at tophat 2 weeks ago they seem like they know there stuff. O well they just started on my motor. Ill let you guyz know how it turns out. I got most of my parts from AMS.

[offroadbob]

I am taking it into a shop tomorrow to get it leakdown tested. I would do it myself if i could find a leakdown tester anywhere here in flagstaff. Yea i will be figuring it out as soon as i possibly can. Yea they guys at tophat are super cool. they are going to help me out as much as they can. So ill let you all know.

Matt

[ShallowPockets]

iirc a member on 240sxforums had his motor built by tophat, took forever to get it done and then just to have the rings fried due to a crappy tune on their part.

its always better to do yourself...

[offroadbob]

Eh, **** happens man. Sometimes things go wrong even when you do it yourself. I just want my car to be drivable I have 4 more days till my lease ends and I am moving to Tucson. So I will be here in flag fixing my car and living on couches for a few which really is a bummer. Like I said things happen. at least they are being super cool about it and helping me out with as much as they can.

[rotorimp]

With compression #'s like that--Did you specify a really low compression motor? Depending on what hone and rings they used I wouldn't have gone to synthetic that quick.

[Chezedik]

Still that doesn't explain the uneven compression.

[WDRacing]

I was gonna say, when I was running 7:1 compression in my RB20, I had static numbers like that.

They should all be in the 150's bro. Did you run the test when it was hot? TB open all the way? Fuel pump fuse pulled and fuel purged from the lines?

I definitly wouldn't blame breakin, unless you drove it poorly, like lugging uphill etc.

WD

[offroadbob]

I got a bum tester, the damn valve that holds the reading was all messed up. so it was letting out air. I got it leakdown tested at local shop and I am getting air past the rings on the #2 and #3 cylinders. so we will see once I tear it down. whats really going on with it.

[eazye2000]

Well damn.... Bad luck all around...

Keep us updated bro. And if you need anything, you know to just ask! We're all here to help.

[Florida240sx]

Wait so the 2 cylinders that had more compression on your bad tester are the ones that are bad?

[offroadbob]

Well got the block torn down tonight.... I have extensive pictures I just forgot my camera at my buddy's house... Well what happened is the C-clips that hold the wrist pins in on both the #2 and #3 (yea both WTF HUH) one the eyes on both broke off and decided to play lets ruin the piston then why not the rings while we are at it. It destroyed my cylinder walls also chunked out little pieces of metal and ruined my exhaust cam and journals. So pretty much at the moment I have a hunk of metal that I could melt down and re cast another block with or use it as a very large paper weight. On a finer note, FYI don't buy XTD clutches we all know that but I bought one just to try it out (why not its only 150 bucks). It ruined my flywheel and it ruined the pressure plate that came with it. I'll have pics of everything tomorrow posted so if anyone has dial up, sorry! Yea man I hope tophat will do something for me cause this blows! Pics up tomorrow.

[WDRacing]

Is tophat rebuilding this?

[offroadbob]

I'm still waiting for a call back. I'll have the pictures posted after my friend get off work.