Ken-chan's car blog

Reuse – Rebuild – Innovate

About me
I came up with the idea for the site to summarize some of my projects especially some modifications and things I learned - the hard/expensive way sometimes ;) Anything you see here - please use at your discretion. I take no responsibility whatsoever for anything you see on this site or use from this site - i.e if you blow up your motor, set your car on fire, flying squirrel falls off a roof and starts keying your door, etc. Otherwise - please enjoy the website!

Archive for the ‘DIY – Motor Rebuild’ Category

Posted by Jack

DIY: Ring alignment tool

Here is a good way to quickly fabricate an alignment tool for the piston rings…

To get your alignment print-out tool:

1. Open your factory service manual (FSM) to the engine rebuild page which shows the piston ring alignment.

2. Copy (hit print-system request button).

3. Open your favorite image editing application and select EDIT->PASTE from the menu.

4. Cut out rest of the image except the piston ring alignment diagram.  Enlarge the section about 200-250%, print a sample.  See if the center of the piston in the diagram roughly fits the real size of the piston.  It may take 1 or 2 guesses.

5. Once you have a final printout, use exacto knife or scissors to make a nice tight hole to slide over the piston.

6. Now put some bubble wrap around the rod bottom (to prevent any possible scratches) if you are using vice to hold the rod-piston in position when putting the rings in.

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Posted by Jack

KA-T3

Recent Addons:

Nissan ’93 Quest alternator upgrade, TurboXS Knocklite.

Stock internals +:

Felpro gasket, 9.2:1 compression altima 98+ pistons, ACL main & rod bearings, ARP 10 mm head bolts, Block cylinders honed & glazed, head rebuilt & tested in home garage…

Tuning:

Emance ECU, SAFC2, N60 MAF, 480cc s15 injectors, AEM Fuel pressure regulator, LC1 Wideband, and the rest of goodies to make it run…

Kat-3

Slight alterations to the stock manifold. No valve of any kind on it; pcv recirculated.  Changes to oil lines & vacuum block as well to make this more modular.

Just oil pan, fuel rail and some other pieces and it’s ready to go…  Started the swap already w/some changes to the setup…  Here is the picture of the motor together…  The hose sticking out is the new spare hose that will be going to a small vacuum manifold (not sure of the best placement yet).  Advantages:

  • Instead of teeing into fuel pressure regulator vacuum source with gauge – it can have a separate source.  I am hoping this would give FPR slightly more response when coming back to vacuum state (lower fuel pressure) as that’s a tiny 1/8″ line feeding gauge and fpr.
  • Running BOV from the vacuum manifold instead of brake master vacuum source (centralized).  Too many sources running off single limited size line will reduce the effective vacuum going to the devices.  Maybe it won’t make much difference but it’s an improvement never the less.
  • future addon: 1 spare port for GM 3 bar map sensor - for safc 2 LO->HI THR switchover point.

Short video snapshots of parts of build.. disregard the paint overspray on the bottom of the block – has been cleaned up.   Along with block surface.

KA-T3 Rebuild

Out with the old – in with the new…

Yey – she runs good – compression is 185-187 psi all across after 12 km drive.

Update – 8000 km after rebuild running 7 psi. Runs great. Slight build up of carbon on #1 & #4 — compression #’s for cylinders 1->4 (195, 189, 189, 191). Injector cleaner should be able to clean that up and gap spark plugs.

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