Here I Go Again

[Mark Halligan]

With the new pistons here now, I've got all the parts and its time to start builing up the new engine, but first the old one has to come out less than a year after I bolted all the go faster bits to it.
I learnt something there; 400 or so horses will wear out an old engine quickly, I should have done it all last year in one go......oh well. Its skinned knuckle time again .

I started taking the old engine apart yesterday I'll strip it down to the block and then take it out. Most of the bits I will need to use again as its just a bare block I am building up. All of these parts are filthy and will be cleaned/blasted and either left bare or painted. The cam cover will be finished in the same black crinkle finish high heat paint that I have used on the WG cap and coil pack cover (not too bling for you Tom?? ).

I hope this is all worth it, I am begining to think I am clean off of my rocker .

[Mark Halligan]

The pistons are off to the shop (Cheers Steve ) for the block to be correctly bored and honed to their size using a torque plate, and then its off to the balancer to balance all the rotating parts, then hopefully in a week or so I can start building it all up.

[Doug_RS2]

I hope I don't have to do this again in a hurry - good luck.

Bag and label everything up - you think you will remember where everything goes but you will not! I had everything in about 20 jars but still wondered what have the bolts were!

Are you taking it out as one lump or taking the head off Mark?

[S2 Ant]

Doug, its when you end up with spares afterwards you should be worried!!


Looking very good Mark, cant wait to see that going.... hopefully very very soon!!

[Greg_S]

I had same prob doug, was even worse for us because one of the other mechanics took the engine out and all nuts in one box.

so not only did we have to work out where the bolts went but was made worse because we hadnt taken it out in first place.

Greg

[timucin]

good luck!

[Mark Halligan]

I hope I don't have to do this again in a hurry - good luck.

Bag and label everything up - you think you will remember where everything goes but you will not! I had everything in about 20 jars but still wondered what have the bolts were!

Are you taking it out as one lump or taking the head off Mark?

LOL, too late m8, just took the head off tonight and I realised about half an hour ago that I already dont remember where half of the nuts and bolts go .
Tell you something all that aircon crap is staying off the car, it weighs a f**king ton .

Mark.

[audiman]

Keeps you cool in the summer tho!! LOL.

Good luck mate, if you need any help then you will have to ask someone closer to you! Nah, seriously if you need/want any help doing it then give me a shout.

[Mark Halligan]

Keeps you cool in the summer tho!! LOL.

Good luck mate, if you need any help then you will have to ask someone closer to you! Nah, seriously if you need/want any help doing it then give me a shout.

Cheers Tom.

[SteveH]

Mark, All your engine bitz are at the machine shop
Should be ready in 7 days, then they'll be off to the balancers. That's going to take the best part of a week too, so you should be ready to start putting it back together soon

[audiman]

If you stop taking holidays, too much bloody money i tell ya! Fishing with the lads hey! I dont know, will be needing to rebuild mine very soon, its running very badly. doh!

[Mark Halligan]

If you stop taking holidays, too much bloody money i tell ya! Fishing with the lads hey! I dont know, will be needing to rebuild mine very soon, its running very badly. doh!

Cheers Steve , maybe we should all take our hols at the same time, I just got back and its taken me ages to read through all the posts .

Mark.

[Mark Halligan]

Finally getting on with it!

Well I’m well on the engine rebuilding band wagon now, I’ve spent the last couple of weeks modding the AAN IM, now that’s done, and I can finish the rebuild and get it into the car and running again, I haven’t drove it for well over a month now, and I miss it!
It’s a bit depressing really as I was doing the same sort of thing, short of a full rebuild, the same time last year, the result – around 400 horses, was a lot of fun but it knocked the ***** out of the stock 120K mile engine quite quickly.
Credits first - big thanks to Steve H who sourced me an RS2 block and crank, and did a lot of running around for me.
He also put me in touch with Aelred Smith ex of Dialynx who has a torque plate and arranged to have the block bored/honed using it for a very small charge. In fact he arranged the machining and took the parts to the machine shop and balancer too, all I had to do was drop it all off and then pick the bits up too.

So cheers fellas .

I’m using the same coated JE pistons as Doug, Timucin and Dave Kase. Arrow 129 rods, the crank has just been crack tested and checked and polished, I would have liked to have done more, knife-edged, lightened etc. but money ran out.
The block was checked for straightness and all threads were checked too, once I got it back it was cleaned up and painted ‘bling’ silver, I’ll be able to see the oil leaks if there are any.
All the rotating parts were balanced to within half a gram, according to the bit of paper that came back with the parts.
The head has been fully ported and polished and fitted with 7A cams (inlet and exhaust), with the same SQ ex man and Garrett turbo I had on it before.

Here’s some pics of the rebuild so far, I hope I’ve done it right

Cleaning the block up before machining:

[Mark Halligan]

The block after it was machined, cleaned up and painted……..bling!!!

[Mark Halligan]

Five soldiers