nickz32

Goodies courtesy of CZP and SZ 2.5” turbo intake kit BDE low profile engine mounts CZP replacement lower rad hose, clutch booster hose and intake valve cover crush washers Gates Kevlar belt Upper plenum gasket New turbos have already been ordered, hopefully be here before the end of the month

I’ve had the same issue mate, had to back fill the lines from the oil cooler and remote oil filter housing Make sure you prime it without the spark plugs in, much less strain on the starter motor and effectively no load on the bearings as it’s not building any compression

Bottom end is now complete. Hopefully get it back to my unit soon so I can start work on the heads and get the long block complete

Pistons and rods installed. Just waiting on a set of STDX King rod bearings to make some adjustments to my big end bearing clearances…. Unsurprisingly, the STD size bearings EPR used produced 0.0017” clearance not the 0.0035” quoted in the build sheet. Targetting 0.0025” for this build. Also reinstalled the @brettdempseyengineering oil tree. Oh and I will never use a ratchet piston ring compressor ever again, these ring compression sleeves are SOOOOO much easier to use!!

Crank back from OCS and happy to report she’s straight as an arrow with less that 1 micron of runout. went with Torco MPZ assembly lube after numerous recommendations from engine builder friends of mine. Main bearing clearances came up nice and even at 0.0026” give or take a couple of ten thousandths, and the crank spins over nice and smooth

May have missed it, but what turbos are they?

New bearings arrived Now waiting on the crank to come back from OCS. I checked the run-out and while it was in Nissan spec (0.0039” limit!), it had too much runout for my liking, so OCS are straightening the crank to get it as close to 0 runout as possible

If in doubt, count teeth on the belt between the marks

Very very true

Well a rather annoying twist in the tale. Installed the crank the other day after completing all pre assembly prep. Everything seemed ok bar a slight bit of clearancing needed on the girdle plate. Took everything off and found a whopper of a scratch on one of my main bearings. Annoyed doesn’t come close! I know the block and crank were crystal clean so I can only assume that my old pot of assembly lube had become contaminated with a bit of grit or who knows what. What are the odds?!? So, yet again, a thorough clean of block and crank before sealing away on clean bags while I await new bearings to arrive….. and a NEW bottle of assembly lube by @torcousa via @nimbusmotorsport

JWT lifters??? Are you sure about that?? I can’t find any trace of JWT lifters on their website or anywhere on the net

Block prep is now finished. Primered and painted in VHT Cast Iron Grey and new freeze plugs installed. Picking up a set of micrometers this eve to take post micropolish measurements of the crankshaft and then assembly can begin!

Make the Hour drive to PowerZed in Bristol mate

UPS are awful for importing stuff. I insist on fedex every time I get stuff from the states, never had a problem with them and import duty is paid on your behalf and then you’re invoiced after delivery

Well after a 6 week intensive course with work, I’ve managed to collect my rotating assembly from OCS. All balanced up to 0.1gram. Dropped my heads off to get a suitable surface finish (unlike the 127ra finish by EPR!) so they should be good to go in the next week or so. Still waiting on block paint and freeze plugs to be delivered, then I can start the assembly process

Take some time off work this week, so enjoyed the day cleaning and degreasing a variety of parts. Engine block is now ready for painting (hopefully paint will turn up tomorrow). Donor Crankshaft cleaned up really nicely, and pistons and rods are also ready to go. Bloody love Bilt Hamber Surfex HD degreaser, by far best commercial degreaser on the market in my experience!

Bought them from Performance Unlimited. They’re the UK approved retailer. 88mm CP pistons. I had to give dimensions of rings as well as my anticipated power/boost pressure, that TS then matched to their products to spec the rings

After many hours research and consulting OCS, I decided to try something somewhat new with my piston rings. I have decided to run Total Seal Gapless pistons rings. The setup includes a gapless top ring, with conventional second and oil control rings. To my knowledge I’m the only person in the UK to be running gapless rings on a VG30, but I know of at least one other in the states that have shown very positive results. The term gapless is a bit of a misnomer. It’s a 2 piece ring, with their individual ring gaps rotated 180 degrees from each other, effectively making the area around the ring gapless. The positives include virtually 0 blowby (so a 0-1% leakdown vs 5% on a conventional ring), increased vacuum and reduced oil fuel dilution. The other benefit is you can run a larger ring gap on the 2 pieces, allowing the a wider margin for thermal expansion without the downside of increased blow by The only real downside that I can see is the cost, at around 30% more than a CP Piston ring pack. Hopefully this will help with slightly improving my idle vacuum (due to my cam profile) and a generally more efficient engine.

Also spent a bit of time with the burrs to clear out the casting debris and stress risers from around the bottom of the block around the crank journals. This casting debris is from the imperfect casting mould that leave small sections of iron/sand mix still attached to the main casting. In certain situations, harmonics can release bits of this debris which then has the potential to destroy the bearings, an engine, by being circulated by the oil system. Stress risers are similar. They’re very fine ridges in the casting that can form a weak point. Simple remedy is grind them back flush.

Well I got my block back from OCS last week and have started on the block prep for deep clean and assembly first job was to clear the excessive casting flash in the centre coolant channel and smooth the entry point out. Out came the long shank tungsten carbide burrs. A small but positive improvement

Nice to see all those upgrades make it onto the car, congrats!

Happy to say work on my engine block is now finished! Billet main caps were found to be up to 4 thou out of round. This time they have been machined using the ARP’s that will be used during assembly (unlike last time by EPR!) Cylinders were rebored to suit my 88mm CP pistons and cross hatching angle, depth and surface finish all set up for the Total Seal gapless piston ring pack I have chosen to use. I think I’ll be the first person on the UK to use Total Seal’s gapless piston rings on a VG30, so I’m looking forward to seeing if the live up to the hype

245 on an 8J will look like a balloon on a 8j….. an 8J is only 204mm wide The tyres you currently have a 2% smaller in diameter and circumference that the OEM wheel/tyre combo Personally would be looking at a 225/45r17. Plenty of very nice tyre options and only 0.4% different diameter from OEM size

If I’ve built and installed my engine by then (which I bloody hope I have!) I’ll be there