My Engine Rebuild Thread!

Jit · September 12, 2006, 04:05:36 PM

Ive finished studying now...I was studying at Hertfordhsire Uni (same uni as D1 WTF and dubber91 off here)
Automotive Engineering is definitely a good course...as long as you are decent at maths, I cant see any reason why you wouldnt do well. Its a course which definitely opens a lot of windows for once youve graduated.

If youre expecting it to be a doss on any level, trust me it aint! I used to find myself in the library at seriously stupid hours scrambling to get coursework in...and i used to be at uni all the time!!

iaint · September 12, 2006, 04:19:30 PM

Quote from: one2watchIf youre expecting it to be a doss on any level, trust me it aint! I used to find myself in the library at seriously stupid hours scrambling to get coursework in...and i used to be at uni all the time!!

The student union bar doesn\'t count :Giggle

Jit · September 12, 2006, 05:25:43 PM

lol, actually thatll put it nicely into perspective...I went out about 3 times over the course of my final year....(although having a demandin gilrfriend whos already graduated one year earlier doesnt help)..first year I went out quite a lot...well itd be easier to count the nights in....

Jit · September 15, 2006, 10:50:12 PM

Another update...last 3 days have been spent scraping and cleaning the plates which I got from Tim @ RX Motors.

By scraping I mean, the O-Ring Grooves for the Coolant Seal o-rings to remove all traces of old o-ring. I used a small soft screwdriver to do this. I then used Normal Engine degreaser on the rear of the plates to remove all the grease and grime!

I also used a trimming knife blade to remove all the traces of sealer around the water jacket area and mating surfaces with the aluminium rotor Housings.

Next step was to use brake cleaner to soften off any bits of o-ring left in the O-Ring grooves and remove it all!

This process was done on all four surfaces of the plates (front, rear and intermediate). The plates are now ready for inspection! Its already looing good for the inspection since the walls for the water jacket area are nice and thick!

Heres what 3 days worth of scraping and scrubbing has got me!

http://jitesh512.fotopic.net/p34081175.html
http://jitesh512.fotopic.net/p34081172.html
http://jitesh512.fotopic.net/p34081173.html
http://jitesh512.fotopic.net/p34081174.html

Job for tommorow is to clean up the Stationary Gears and a few other bits including the Oil Pump and accessory Gear and counterweight. Tommorow I will also be re-die-ing the Threads on all of the Bolts on the main block.

Grizzly · September 15, 2006, 11:15:48 PM

Whilst your Scrubing and cleaning the Water seal grooves keep an eye out for any Pits (they can be sorted with liquid metal) they are quite comon (check the Rotor housings too).

Also it would be a good time to run a tap down the Main bolt holes on the Front Plate (helps get an Acurate Torque)

Jit · September 15, 2006, 11:25:56 PM

Cheers!

I have found a few pits in the grooves and was wondering what to do with em!...do you mean just apply a small bit of liq metal and then file it back?

Im getting brand new housings. I was gonna redo the holes on all the housings just to be safe!

Grizzly · September 16, 2006, 08:23:04 AM

What i did to fill them in was to get a Plastic Car body filler spreader, then cut a strip of it that fit tightly into the groove (its important to get it a nice fit and with sharp corners so you don\'t get lots of liquid metal in the corners of the groove) it may take a cupple of atempts but once its a good tight fit put a small blob of Liquid metal in the pit with something like a Match, them smooth it in with the spreader.(take your time and get it as neat as poss becouse you dont want to be sanding it too much)

Then once its gone off (proberly take 24 hours) get some flatting paper (i used 240 grit) and smooth it in so there is no rased bits or sharp edges (make sure you get in the corners of the groove becouse this is where the Liquid metal tends to build up)

Easy..... But the Secret to it is to get it all clean and dry and also to get the Liquid metal in as neat as poss before it goes off, Don\'t panic if its still a bit low you can always go back and do it again, but you don\'t want to over apply as you want as little rubbing as poss (you don\'t want to open the Groove up)

Jit · September 27, 2006, 05:05:29 PM

Right, I havent updates in this some time..probably cos I havent actualyl doen much mainly due to nagging girlfriend, trying to sell said nagging girlfriends car, trying to sell my van and general laziness etc :flamed
Oh that and Im generally broke lol and still need to buy a few bits!

I also sent my Injectors to be cleaned and flowed about a week ago to reworx so should hopefully have those back soon!

What I did manage to do today was measure up the plates which I got from Tim @ RX Motors.

I measured each plate face for Side Seal Wear, Side Seal Overlapping Oil Seal Wear, Side Seal outside Oil Seal Wear and Oil Seal Wear as per the FSM. These were done using the dial gauge with magnetic base (kindly lent to me by Carl - Bobfish). I also used a micrometer (borrowed from bobfish again lol:Thumbs-up ) to measure the thickness of the coolant o-ring walls so as to make sure they werent too thin. I also used an engineers square and a 0.015in Feeler gauge to make sure the plate faces werent warped. None of the faces were found to be warped. I dud have a photo of the square and feeler gauge method but my digicam threw a woopsie and deleted it! :spank

I found the plates I got from Tim to be in extremely good shape..its as though they had hardly worn!! A very happy man to say the least!
Ive summarised the specs at the end of the post for the plates Ill be using.

Heres a couple of random pics of a dial gauge and micrometer I used:

http://jitesh512.fotopic.net/p34519374.html
http://jitesh512.fotopic.net/p34519375.html

And here is the spec found for the plates:

Rear Endplate:
Side Seal Wear: 0.01mm (Mazda Specification 0.1mm max)
Side Seal Wear Overlapping Oil Seal Wear: N/A (Mazda Specification 0.01mm max)
Side Seal Wear Outside Oil Seal Wear: 0.01mm (Mazda Specification 0.1mm max)
Oil Seal Wear: N/A
Minimum Coolant O-Ring Wall Thickness: 2.03mm

Front Endplate
Side Seal Wear: 0.01mm (Mazda Specification 0.1mm max)
Side Seal Wear Overlapping Oil Seal Wear: N/A (Mazda Specification 0.01mm max)
Side Seal Wear Outside Oil Seal Wear: 0.01mm (Mazda Specification 0.1mm max)
Oil Seal Wear: N/A
Minimum Coolant O-Ring Wall Thickness: 1.72mm

Intermediate Plate Front Face
Side Seal Wear: 0.02mm (Mazda Specification 0.1mm max)
Side Seal Wear Overlapping Oil Seal Wear: N/A (Mazda Specification 0.01mm max)
Side Seal Wear Outside Oil Seal Wear: 0.01mm (Mazda Specification 0.1mm max)
Oil Seal Wear: N/A
Minimum Coolant O-Ring Wall Thickness: 1.82mm

Intermediate Plate Rear Face
Side Seal Wear: 0.01mm (Mazda Specification 0.1mm max)
Side Seal Wear Overlapping Oil Seal Wear: N/A (Mazda Specification 0.01mm max)
Side Seal Wear Outside Oil Seal Wear: 0.01mm (Mazda Specification 0.1mm max)
Oil Seal Wear: N/A
Minimum Coolant O-Ring Wall Thickness: 1.60mm

Tommorow, Ill be cleaning up both Rotors and measuring those (I hope...unless the missus has other plans that is:3Confused )

Jit · November 18, 2006, 07:11:58 PM

Its been er....over 6 weeks since i updated this thread..and the main reason for the lack of work is er...money. No change there then!
Ive been saving up the last few weeks for all the money to buy all the rebuild bits and then ordering them!

And thanks to my wonderful girlfriend (yes the same on who in the last post was a nagging girlfriend :spank) who bailed me out while my credit card got cloned

, I now have some nice new rebuild bits sitting in my garage:

I have also bought a few other parts which Im putting in the car to hopefully maintain reliability!!

I was having at one point having trouble deciding wheter to go with the atkins rebuild kit or the genuine mazda...however, a couple of conversations with Tim @ RX Motors and Carl @ Hayward Rotary swung it for me and I decided that everything was going to be genuine mazda....who else have put millions of pounds worth of R&D into the parts!

So far, I have gathered together the following bits:

12 x Genuine Mazda Corner Seals inc Rubber Plugs
12 x Genuine Mazda Corner Seal Springs
http://jitesh512.fotopic.net/p36197484.html

12 x Genuine Mazda Side Seals
12 x Genuine Mazda Side Seal Springs
http://jitesh512.fotopic.net/p36197482.html

6 x Genuine Mazda 2mm 2 piece Apex Seals
6 x Genuine Mazda Small Apex Seal Springs
6 x Genuine Mazda Large Apex Seal Springs
http://jitesh512.fotopic.net/p36197483.html

1 x Genuine Mazda Water Seal Kit (contains Water Jacket O-Rings plus all internal Engine O-Rings inc Dowel Pin O-Rings, Rear Stationary Gear O-Ring, Tension Bolt O-Rings, Front Cover O-Ring and a few others)
http://jitesh512.fotopic.net/p36197485.html

8 x Genuine Mazda Metal Oil Control Rings
8 x Genuine Mazda Oil Control Ring O-Rings
8 x Genuine Mazda Oil Control Ring Springs (not in photo awaiting delivery)
http://jitesh512.fotopic.net/p36199134.html

2 x Genuine Mazda Torrington Bearings (no photo..awaiting delivery)
1 x Front Cover Gasket
1 x Metal LIM to Block Gasket
1 x UIM to LIM Gasket
Various other Gaskets seen in the photo!
http://jitesh512.fotopic.net/p36199131.html

In addition to the parts Ive listed there, Ive also bought a Brand New 3 Piece Clutch Kit (pressure plate, Friction Plate and Release Bearing) to put in the car.

Finally, to aid reliability (of the sequential turbo system), Ive bought some HKS Intercooler Hard Pipes which will be sent of to be highly polished. Im also going to be buying an Efini Y-Pipe which will also be sent off to the polishers!

The reason im listing the above is mainly for reference and also so that if and when I decide to sell the car, any prospective buyer can see that this isnt no half arsed rebuild which was done on the cheap! Im estimating that by the time ill have finished, this whole exercise will have cost over 2 grand....certainly a stark contrast to the "rebuild" (if you can call it that..) which this car supposedly had! :flamed

On to what else has been done:

Since the last post, the first thing I had done was to clean up the rotors for inspection. However, from inspection even while covered in carbon, it was apparent that the apex seal grooves in one rotor were far too wide to be 2mm! The clearance was more than 20 thou! I shall have to take a trip down to Tims Den when I go to pick up the new Housings and see if we can strike a deal to get another 2mm rotor since Im not overly keen to use 3mm Apex Seals, especially not when I should be able to find a decent 2mm Rotor for less than the cost of the machining (well I hope! :Typing )

Cleaning the other rotor basically consisted of removing all the carbon from the combustion faces. For this I used a wire brush wheel since the faces of the rotor are very hard. I also used a brass wire brush to get into the pockets. The other step was to clean out all of the seal pockets to remove them of carbon (ie the apex seal grooves, side seal grooves, corner seal pockets and oil control ring slots). To do this i used an old side seal which I ground a point onto (to clean out the oil control ring slots and the side seal groves). I also used a small screwdriver to help with the oil control ring slots..
To clean out the apex seal grooves, i used an old Apex Seal which i ground to make a bit sharper. I used a small screwdriver to clean out the corner seal bores.

Tommorow the plan is to start measuring the good rotor which I have now finished cleaning (i know its good already! but ill post up the exact measurements so you can see it! :bandit ). However, Im not going to start grinding the side seals until I have assembled the Metal Oil Control Rings (which I cannot do until the Oil Control Ring Springs arrive!)

Hopefully in the next few days, I will recieve said oil control ring springs and then can start the dry assembly and grinding of the side seals!

In the meantime, Ive got to find a day when I can do down to Tims to buy the new housings and hopefully source a rotor from him! Ive also decided to send my plates up to Pip @ WGT to have them lapped (Pip has assured me that the plates will come back flat AND square with the bearings...i had initially been worried that lapped plates often came back flat but not square with the bearings and thus accelerating bearing wear!). Ho hum more money being spent lol :Talking1

Grizzly · November 18, 2006, 07:19:05 PM

Your looking good :yes

Oe Mazda is the way to go if you can afford it.

I just noticed you haven\'t got an Oil pump Chain on your List, Its well worth replacing that too.

O yeh and you have to do the vasaline run to the Chemist lol "can i have the extra large tub of vasline please" then watch there face when they think whats that for???

Jit · November 18, 2006, 07:24:10 PM

yp, im definitely in agreement with you! I am replacing the oil pump chain! I just havent ordered it yet. Ill be ordering that from the states together with my new Mazda OE Ignition Leads.

Lol, maybe I should go to the chemist where my girlfriends dad works.....

Joeh · November 28, 2006, 11:39:23 PM

How much were the mazda items?

Jit · November 29, 2006, 12:03:37 AM

lol!! VERY expensive...

I think i paid something along the lines of 850 for the lot inc vat

still need to get myself down to Tims to get my housings

on the plus side, pip has had a look over the rotor which i thought was dead and seems to think its good! so maybe i wont need one after all....although i could swear he must have got it mixed up with one of his good ones!!
And my plates are back from grinding and pip reckons theyre realy good! so all in all, im quite happy!

hairyhoover · April 18, 2007, 10:41:22 PM

hi, i wonder if you could do me a favour... have you got the part number for the water seal kit? you can just about see it in one of the pics, however the code is slightly covered!!

Is the engine back together now? is it still goin strong?