ok after been somewhat inspired but Pyroay's rebuild (hard not to be ) on the weekend I decided to pull out my engine and start on a ground up rebuild..

Story so far.

About a year ago I put a Snort Performance Stage one turbo kit on my EF. included a barrel manifold, T04E turbo, 1.0 exhaust and .6 compressor housing. Tial 38mm external wastegate, and a 12-1 fuel pressure regulator.

With standard engine management and injectors I managed to get 180 odd rwkw from 250,000 k old engine and auto.

I had some detonation problems with no way to adjust the timing so I installed a wolf3d, swapped the 12-1 FPR with a 2-1 and put a set of 360cc injectors in. Dynoed to 190rwkws but was running out of fuel. Next was to upgrade the fuel pump, in went a walbro 255, and power went to 220 rwkw's at 12psi.
I wasn’t all that keen on running to much boost as I was running the standard bottom end and compression. 9.3-1 isn’t the most boost friendly setup..
I was fairly happy with this setup for about 4 weeks, then I went back and read through Pyroay rebuild again and saw that he was making the same powers as me but below 3000rpm. And I had to try for a little more..


So the plan at the moment is
Cylinders Reboarded
Low comp Hypertectic pistons. And stainless steal rings (wish I could afford forged ones )
Shot pinned Rods
Balanced crank rods and so on..
O ringed block
Over sized Stainless steal Valves,
Port work done on head and CC combustion chambers.
Modified intake manifold.
600CC injectors
Large Auto oil cooler.

I’ve ditched the stage one Kit, and I’m in discussions with Snort Performance at the moment on what turbo combination I’m going to go with.
I know for certain I’ll be running with a full stainless tuned length manifold, with a 50mm external wastegate. Just not really sure of the turbo yet, Will see what Geoff comes up with..

I’m not hoping to get anywhere near the power Pyroay got, but will be very happy with anything over the 250rwkw. I’m still running with the standard 250,000 old auto, it has been fine up until now, but not to sure how much more power it can handle..

I’ll post some pictures, when I start to get some stuff in.

Cheers
Tim

Not much more power for the auto in standard trim! But sounds good, keep us posted with lots of pics etc, and good luck with it!

Why do you think you need a bigger turbo? I dont know what spec wheels are in it, but should be able to pull heaps more than 220wkws. And remember, that a decent sized garrett turbo will only just be getting into its eficiency range at 14psi, so if you start off by building a strong bottom end to take 20odd psi you will see 300wkws from that setup... if not then something is not right. 380 injs will be near 100% duty at 220wkws so get bigger as you mentioned

The current turbo will possible be fine, but I wanted to change the manifold to a tuned length one, and figured that it'll be easier to sell the whole lot together, and not just the manifold.

I'll see how long the auto lasts. I'm fairly luck, been from Albury/Wodonga I've got alot of friends that work at Ion(BTR) that can help me out with a strong auto rebuild. I've got a V8 auto sitting around that I'll start to strengthen..

i wouldn't even upgrade any of the turbo gear.
3" exhaust if not already fitted and a cam change with the rebuild would be the easiest way to go.

then if its not enough look into turbo/manifold changes.

Already have the 3" exhaust, and I've got it all off the car now, and I've sort off committed myself to got the full hog.. No point in doing half a job ...

I got a regrind cam from Clive's Cams a little while ago and found it didn’t make any real noticeable difference. I didn’t have an adjustable cam gear on it though. I will be adding one to the shopping list.

I’m a little unsure what to do about the cam. I’ve spoken to a few people that have said it wont make a heap of difference on a turbo engine, but I’m not to sure if this is true or not. I’ll possibly just run with my current cam, dial it in, and then see what happens.

Speak to EB6onboost about manifolds, he went from log to long runners but didnt get a huge result, 20wkws or so, but torque was up too, so on road would be quicker.

Good luck with it all, post up the results... always great to see what works with what and what gives improvements

Thanks Chef, I've been waiting for you to go berserk, then I could follow in your footsteps and not have any of the problems you experienced.
But I suppose I'm happy to be the Ginny pig.

How did you go with your auto? All fixed??

Yeah dude, auto is behaving now. 2 oil coolers sitting between intercooler and rad down low... adjusted the bands and its holding on tight now. Im keen to get on the dyno now that its holding over 4000rpm.

Sounds good, I've got a large cooler sitting in front of the right hand ducked in the bumper, I was thinking of putting a second one in between the intercooler and radiator, I just didn’t want to block any more air flow from that area. I've also crammed a 10" thermo in there so it might be a little tight..

I’m going to try and hock up a temp gauge to the oil temp sensors in the auto and keep an eye on what temps it gets up to..

temp guage on auto is a good idea. I had the coolers sitting in the front bar but they did bugger all there, behind the intercooler works really well... they accually feel only just warm, not burning like they did befor. And theres heaps less heat from the auto on the floor

ok, just a quick update and some pics. I've picked up the engine, and I'm starting to put it back together. So far, just the pistons, rods, crank and oil pump are in, and I've started putting the o-rings in, they take a fair bit of time to get right.
Ran in to a bit of a hitch, when I pulled the engine out I must of broken the centre locating lug on the torque converter, so I'm in the market for a new one, maybe a 2500 high stall..
I'm still tossing up on what to do with the intake manifold, I might just leave it the way it is, or maybe take the butterflies out and remove the dual runners.

Cheers

Last edited by tjb45 on Sat Jan 14, 2006 5:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.

mm looks good that is some seroius port work!!!

i know people hate answering but how much $$$$$ by the time you finish it all. Just want to know to see if i am in the range yet or even close to it.


Cheers

Well the engine rebuild has cost me a little over $2000, that’s everything from pistons to gaskets to new valves. Also included is a high volume oil pump, new timing chain, crow cam roller master adjustable cam gear, new runners, and a new timing chain cover, and tensioner.
Keep in mind that I'm doing alot of work myself.
The Wolf 3D cost me $1200, and so far about $2500 worth of tuning, $1700 of that was completely wasted on people who said they could tune it but couldn't.
Turbo and manifold setup I’m unsure of yet.. Will know soon,
Then there is all the little things like intercooler, piping, exhaust, fuel pumps. and so on.

Saying all that, I know a guy that bought a snort kit just like my old one, paid something like $3500 for the whole turbo setup, intercooler 3" exhaust, everything, And its been running like a dream for over a year now.. It sometimes depends on who you know, and what you can do yourself. For $3500 its the cheapest way to get 180rwkw that I know of..