Engine works,

By Bob Legere.

I'm actually 'de-camming' the current engine by a lot....
Replacing it with a mild hydraulic cam. .441" lift and 214 degree duration @ .050", with wide 112 degree lobe separation.
You'll barely notice it now.
No roller cam. Roller rockers of course though.

Very little to report on. I'm basically burned out from this project, I'm literally falling asleep standing up.
Hopefully tomorrow will be better. Just need to catch up on some sleep I think.

Anyway, got a chance to go to my machinist's shop and glass bead an old flywheel I had laying around, then had him resurface it.
It was previously lightened and balanced, and it now weighs 15.5 lbs.
I'll be using a heavy duty pressure plate (30% stiffer) with a semi-metallic friction material on the disc.
This is substantially stronger than the factory Sachs 2.0 litre HD clutches I used to use, but also costs less.
Had it built by Action Clutch Exchange in L.A., they do nice work at a reasonable cost.

I'll be using a fairly standard AE head gasket for a 2.0 engine.
My normal procedures apply,
I'll be using copper spray sealer on the gasket, and will torque it incrementally.
Should be no problem with 12-14 psi boost.
The killer is leanness or detonation.

It's looking worse this morning as far as a completion date is concerned.
I finally tore the engine down, and it has issues.
Scratched cylinder walls, piston/valve interference, signs of coolant freezing at one point, etc.
With only two weeks remaining, it ain't gonna happen....

Game over.
Engine requires freshening up.
So I'm pulling the plug on the Carlisle show as of today.
Maybe now I'll get some sleep. *sigh*

Since I'm now physically incapacitated (at least temporarily), this project has slowed even more.
I can't even pick up the engine parts to bring them to the machine shop.
These are the photos from about a week and a half ago when I first pulled the head off the shortblock.
If you look carefully, you can just see the indentations at the valve notch edges from piston-to-valve interference.

The scratched cylinders, but not in the normal place.
Note they're in line with the pins, and not on the thrust contact surfaces.

The wear patterns are admittedly odd in the bores, but they're consistent.
All the bores were worn in the same way, and on both sides of the pin area.
The ring gaps were not in line with any of the scratches however.
There was noticeable removal of the moly coating at the rings in these areas, typical of dirt ingestion.
No apparent lack of lubrication, in fact the scratches while visible.....barely can be felt.
Pistons are not scratched on the skirts, or even on the ring lands.
No signs of detonation on the plugs (lots of carbon though).
Very odd wear indeed.

Otto, regarding the tubing beader, I got mine from Williams Lowbuck Tools.
I used to deal with them a lot, so I gave them my business.
As far as Carlisle is concerned, I've decided to attend. I need the break from reality.

The combustion chamber of the head as it was removed from the shortblock.
It has a full-on port and polish job I did about 8-10 years ago, with 1.85" intake and 1.50" exhaust valves.
It'll need some rework I'm sure.

Seems it will be some time before the turbo engine will be together, I need to order a bunch of new parts for the head.
The valves have some odd wear patterns, retainers are wrong for use with roller rockers,
Springs were way too stiff for use with a mild cam, etc, etc.
So I will be having some new custom valves made, and will be upgrading to titanium retainers and lighter tension valve springs.
And the head will need a valve job of course.
The timing cover is questionable too, there is one huge scratch in the gear housing, and the gears are scratched up appreciably.
On the other hand I picked up a larger ball-bearing IHI VF22 turbo today, so I think 250 wheel hp will be a cinch.....

I decided to make a custom engine stand that mounts the engine transversely by the engine mount holes
Rather than the normal front-to-rear mounting by the rear flange of the block.
I could've just modified an existing stand, but decided to make one from scratch that was more compact, stable,
And had polyurethane casters that will roll over debris more easily.

Well, I got the shortblock parts back from the machine shop today.
The block got decked, honed, and washed.
The crank was polished and washed, and the oil pan and timing cover got washed in the hot tank as well.
The head is still awaiting new valves, which should arrive later this week or early next week.
Once I have those, hopefully the head can be completed within a week or so.

Tiny update....
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Got a bright 'Opel yellow' coat of paint on my custom engine stand, and bolted the block to it.
The block was decked and honed, then hot-tanked.
The hot-tanking is a crude washing method for getting the majority of stuff off, but for final assembly I'll be wire-wheeling the outside completely for better paint adhesion, then scrubbing the block down with hot water and dishwasher detergent.
Solvents merely dissolve oils and spread them around without really touching dirt at all, while hot water and detergent floats the oils and dirt from the pores of the cast iron.
I have a bunch of rifle brushes for cleaning all the gallerys, and a soft bristled brush for the bores.
After cleaning it's rinsed off with a hose, and then quickly air dried.
The bores rust quickly enough however, and a quick spray with WD-40 will slow that process.
Once everything else is dried 100%, clean lint-free white rags are used with ATF to wipe the bores down, and remove all final traces of dirt. It takes about a dozen rags to get all the honing particulate out of the crosshatching in the cylinders with the ATF. There should eventually only be a reddish-pink color to the rags from the ATF, and absolutely no grey or black dirt on the rags. Yea, I know, boring stuff.....

Also tinkered with the oil pan a bit, mostly clean-up work.
There was a ton of old flaking paint still left on it, and some cork gasket on the rails,
So I used a wire wheel to remove all of that stuff.
Once it was clean, it became apparent that there were a lot of dents, so I hammered them all out,
And decided to add an extra skin to the bottom of the pan for a bit of reinforcement.
I still need to weld in a couple of oil pan baffles,
And the steel tubes for the turbo oil drain and for the custom oil vapor recovery system I built.
Finally it'll get a coat of POR-15 for rust protection, then a layer of POR-15 gloss black topcoat.

Finally got the valves from Manley for the head on this turbo project engine.
I've already dropped them off at the machine shop with the hopes they'll be able to finish the head in the next week or so.
For reference, I'm using 1.85" intake valves (cut down from 1.94" valves), and 1.5" exhaust valves.
Note the undercut stem area, both for greater airflow at low valve lift and for less weight.
Part numbers for you 'do-it-yourselfers' out there....

Originally Posted by Travis
Are you refering to having an off the shelf valve modified by the manufacturer or a truely custom valve? If the latter, why?
-Travis
The vehicle owner would like to use smaller stemmed valves.

Originally Posted by Travis
Do you think it's really worth the effort on a turbo motor?
-Travis
No I don't, but I'm not paying the bills....
I think using the 11/32" stems with the head cut down by Manley will be fine.
Two more psi of boost will more than make up for the heavier valves.
Not to mention time issues, a full custom valvetrain would push the engine build to the end of the summer I'm sure,
Most machine shops have a full workload right now, and custom parts don't happen overnight either.

Originally Posted by namba209
I'm curious Bob, did you or the machinist mark the valve stems before cutting them down at the valve seated position at the valve guide or were they marked at the fully open position at the valve guide?

Nope, that's just the way they are made, I didn't change the spec.
Stock length Chevy valves are indeed longer than Opel valves.
I know that TGSI has his cut down to custom length, I assume to stock Opel length.
I have run stock-length Chevy valves for years, the only real down side is the loss of valve lift.
This is a side effect of the longer valves: the geometry change reduces the valve lift.
In theory it will also cause uneven wear on the valve tips.
Sometimes it does, sometimes not.
This is dependent on the length of the lifters, and the base circle diameter of the camshaft.

Just another part number for those of you collecting parts/bits to build their own turbo system.
I like NGK plugs for any performance Opel engine, I've had great luck with them (can't say the same thing for all brands).
Worth noting is that NGK runs their heat ranges in the opposite direction of Bosch, so you want to be careful choosing your plugs! I'm running one heat range colder than stock for this turbo engine.
No problem lighting off colder plugs with the Compufire ignition however....
You won't want to run stock heat range plugs with any turbo engine producing much over 6-8 psi boost,
Or you're asking for trouble.

Well, good news. I finally got to pick up the head from the machinist today.
The irony as usual is that the head has been sitting down there since May, but the guy only started on the head yesterday.
Needed one valve guide, a complete valve job, and a surprising amount of milling to make it flat.
There was a 'dip' in the casting between chambers #2 and #3, so it would have certainly blown the head gasket under boost.
Maybe this week I can get back to work on this project.....

I snapped this photo while the head was still being milled....
After the first pass, you can see the untouched area (low spot) between cylinder #2 and #3....I can only assume from heat.
It took three passes to remove not only the low spot, but the corrosion at the coolant passage o-ring area.
Not enough anti-freeze in the mix!