Building for the road course...again

[gotovato]

Today I finished up the rotating assembly. Only did the first piston yesterday.


Learned quickly that much like the speed and wiseco combo, oil squirters needed bending here. Piston 1 was close but not hitting.

Go to load piston 2 and I cant get it all the way to bottom dead center. Flip the engine over. Oil squirter is hitting!

I ended up clearancing all oil squirters as they were just way too close. Not a big deal but this is definitely something to check when using aftermarket pistons

 

[Enki]

Make sure you have an even amount of sharpie coverage per cylinder; don't want that compression unbalanced.

 

[gotovato]

Clayed the engine today. Was a really cool process. If you don’t know what this is, it’s to measure piston to valve clearance

Pinned the VTC gear at max advance 50*. Swapped the vtec pins around to lock vtec on. We have essentially worst case scenario here


Intake is a bit spicy at approx 1.71mm
Exhaust is well over 3mm so plenty good there



I’ll see what my tuner says and go from there. I am thinking he’s gonna want a little more P2V on the intake side. Keep in mind my heads been decked 0.015” and if I run a 0.015” thicker head gasket that will also help.

this was done with a used oem thickness headgasket

 

[Enki]

What flavor is that playdoh?

 

[L337TurboZ]

What flavor is that playdoh?

Looks like mint

 

[Enki]

Looks like mint

Could also be guacvacadlime too.

 

[gotovato]

What flavor is that playdoh?

Green apple

 

[Enki]

Green apple

Shit, that's a good one.

 

[gotovato]

Cleaning the vtecs


Soaking the vtecs


Soon, installing the vtecs

 

[gotovato]

Received final sign off from my tuner for assembly. He is very specific and very calculated. Measure 5 times cut once type of guy. I feel like I passed an exam once he gave the final OK. I have a pretty detailed blueprint spreadsheet that I needed to share with my tuner for sign off. He also provided 3 separate check lists he wants me to go through during assembly. Real professional like.

Looks like the long block will go together this weekend.


Spent sometime yesterday chasing all threads in the cylinder head and doing final clean up. Also pulled my oil pump apart and gave it a cleaning. Dropped a little assembly lube into the gears just to aid that first start up.

It’s cool that Honda has a service spec listed for this thing as well as all torque specs for the bolts holding it together.

As for the rest of the build…details are gonna be a bit limited going forward. At my tuners request. There are some principles being applied to my build that are to be kept confidential as well as the absolute combination of parts and all detailed specs. This covers my header as well as it’s not an off the shelf piece…anymore. I’m under contract as of last week so the updates are going to be limited on what I can share.


Sounds dumb but the Honda game is another animal entirely over the disi stuff. There are many players in the game all trying to squeeze out the absolute most. Competition is tight and in Europe especially, the 2000cc class racing is on another level so any and all advantages are worth a ton. I never realized how serious this all was till recently. Totally get it

 

[gotovato]

Ready to go. Gonna leave it inside for 2 days and let all the rtv cure then I’ll get a buddy to help me lug it into the garage where I’ll bolt on all accessories.


My tuner still needs to get me the header dimensions he wants. Once we have that I’ll mod the header then everything’s going in for first start!

 

[gotovato]

Header is being left alone for the time being. I’ll go custom later on.

First start will be on the dyno. Break in on the dyno then it’ll get towed back to my garage where it’ll wait for spring. Have a few other little mods going on as well.


Soon.

 

[Easter Bunny]

Is it in?

 

[Enki]

I don't feel anything.

 

[gotovato]

Hopefully Sunday. If not, next weekend. Then just need to setup time and date for break in time. Tuners gonna remote in and do some tuning

 

[jsmith]

Enki should feel something when he powerfists it in.

 

[Easter Bunny]

I don't feel anything.

I feel like you get that a lot.

 

[Enki]

I feel like you get that a lot.

Do you have any idea how long it takes to remove all of your soul when all you have is a swiss army knife, an ifixit kit and a spare 10GB SFP+ to RJ45 transceiver?

 

[Enki]

Enki should feel something when he powerfists it in.

 

[gotovato]

Engine hoist acquired. Throw out bearing? MIA. Gotta get a new one. Engine will go in next weekend.


As a side note: going back to the classics here. No control arm installed at the moment so it looks odd but I have confirmed fitment. This is a big boi wheel and it fits under stock fenders. It’s impressive.


17x10 +18. This wheel has some history. It’s my shop owners. The other matching wheel was smashed on track 10 years ago. Turns out Enkei doesn’t mind making another one for us. This color / size combo is a bit rare