As I am starting to rebuild my Speed3 I decided I would start a thread to document my progress and collect input from the experts along the way.
In December of 22 I spun a rod and parked it for a few months until my garage was prepped and ready to support a build. Over the last two weeks I've pulled the motor and I'm ready to begin rebuilding.
A little backstory on this car, my father picked up new in Dec. 2006 and daily drove it until roughly 2014 when it picked up a misfire that was never fixed. I believed it to be bad injectors, but they were never fixed, and the car was parked until I bought it off him in February 2021.
(Car in 2014 when it was suffering from misfires)
When I got the car, it has been sitting in a field for quite a few years with a broken window and was in rough shape. I towed it 500 miles home and tore it apart.
After tearing it apart, I found that two of the injectors were "uncleanable" and after fresh injectors, a new ITFP, and lots of cleaning I ended up with a presentable car that ran well and was reliable enough for a car with 151000 miles.
The car had ended up gross inside and I stripped the interior and scrubbed the entire floor, carpet and every trim piece I could.
After a few months I was able to detail it and ended up doing some SCAA TrackSprints to get a feel for the car. Car never skipped a beat and was doing great considering how long it had sat.
This brings us to the end of last year. In September I stripped out all the suspension, replaced all the bushings with Poly; rebuilt the brake calipers with new seals and Damond Bushings, added a White Line bumpsteer kit, replaced my front hubs, wheel bearings and ball joints, cleaned up my coilovers with new strut mount bearings and got it all back together just in time for a short trip to the Texas Hill Country.
Less than three weeks after I got it back on the road from the suspension refresh, tragedy struck.
I was cruising home from work, thinking the car next to me sounded like shit; until I realized that it was my car making that horrible noise. Ended up flat towing it home the last 1/2 mile and tried to barely start it to get it in the garage.
Now into the engine tear down. This has got to be the easiest motor I've ever pulled once the crash bar is out of the way. Took just three week nights to have the motor out.
Clutch looks to be in good shape for an original with 170k miles on it
Diving further into the motor this was TDC on Cylinder 1 and TDC on Cylinder 4
Getting a little further into it, I found the cause of the issue, this was the cylinder 1 connecting rod
Getting one cylinder over I found the source of the horrendous noise that this was making, Cylinder 2 had spun a bearing
And the Cylinder 4 rod bearing did not look like it had much left in it :
As it sits now I am trying to determine the next steps for my build. I'm trying to be reasonably budget conscious, but I would also like to build it once. I am tentatively thinking about the following, but am open to any suggestions
I'm debating the necessity for Exhaust and Intake Manifolds or if I can get by on stock for now and upgrade in the future.
Additionally, I'm trying to determine the best route for machine shops and measurements. I'm leaning towards getting a full set of micrometers, bore gauges, etc and determining all my required measurements myself and verifying the machine shops work. I've posted in local Houston Nator & Texas groups but have not found any recommended machine shops in my area.
In December of 22 I spun a rod and parked it for a few months until my garage was prepped and ready to support a build. Over the last two weeks I've pulled the motor and I'm ready to begin rebuilding.
A little backstory on this car, my father picked up new in Dec. 2006 and daily drove it until roughly 2014 when it picked up a misfire that was never fixed. I believed it to be bad injectors, but they were never fixed, and the car was parked until I bought it off him in February 2021.
(Car in 2014 when it was suffering from misfires)
When I got the car, it has been sitting in a field for quite a few years with a broken window and was in rough shape. I towed it 500 miles home and tore it apart.
After tearing it apart, I found that two of the injectors were "uncleanable" and after fresh injectors, a new ITFP, and lots of cleaning I ended up with a presentable car that ran well and was reliable enough for a car with 151000 miles.
The car had ended up gross inside and I stripped the interior and scrubbed the entire floor, carpet and every trim piece I could.
After a few months I was able to detail it and ended up doing some SCAA TrackSprints to get a feel for the car. Car never skipped a beat and was doing great considering how long it had sat.
This brings us to the end of last year. In September I stripped out all the suspension, replaced all the bushings with Poly; rebuilt the brake calipers with new seals and Damond Bushings, added a White Line bumpsteer kit, replaced my front hubs, wheel bearings and ball joints, cleaned up my coilovers with new strut mount bearings and got it all back together just in time for a short trip to the Texas Hill Country.
Less than three weeks after I got it back on the road from the suspension refresh, tragedy struck.
I was cruising home from work, thinking the car next to me sounded like shit; until I realized that it was my car making that horrible noise. Ended up flat towing it home the last 1/2 mile and tried to barely start it to get it in the garage.
Now into the engine tear down. This has got to be the easiest motor I've ever pulled once the crash bar is out of the way. Took just three week nights to have the motor out.
Clutch looks to be in good shape for an original with 170k miles on it
Diving further into the motor this was TDC on Cylinder 1 and TDC on Cylinder 4
Getting a little further into it, I found the cause of the issue, this was the cylinder 1 connecting rod
Getting one cylinder over I found the source of the horrendous noise that this was making, Cylinder 2 had spun a bearing
And the Cylinder 4 rod bearing did not look like it had much left in it :
As it sits now I am trying to determine the next steps for my build. I'm trying to be reasonably budget conscious, but I would also like to build it once. I am tentatively thinking about the following, but am open to any suggestions
- Manley Platinum Pistons
- Manley H-Tuff Rods (potentially with 625 Rod Bolts, not sure if it's worth it)
- Potentially CS Cams or Kelford 247-B Grind - Not sure if this is really worth it for my power goals, but I don't want to open the motor up again
- Valve Springs to suit; would like to rev it out to ~7-7.5k
- Mid Frame Turbo (CST4/5, BNRS3/S4 or equivalent non stock flange)
- Would there be any pro/cons on staying stock flange or running an EFR or PTE instead?
I'm debating the necessity for Exhaust and Intake Manifolds or if I can get by on stock for now and upgrade in the future.
Additionally, I'm trying to determine the best route for machine shops and measurements. I'm leaning towards getting a full set of micrometers, bore gauges, etc and determining all my required measurements myself and verifying the machine shops work. I've posted in local Houston Nator & Texas groups but have not found any recommended machine shops in my area.
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