Geoffrey

I now have everything for the engine except the camshafts which I will have made based on the head flow data by flowing the heads with both intake and exhaust manifolds on. I am in the process of installing the valves and preparing the heads from Ninemeister so they can be flow tested. Man they are nice pieces. In the meantime I have begun assembling and blueprinting the engine. As you may recall, I am using a GT3R crankshaft which required the design of a custom connecting rod. I have also changed some of the clearances from factory Porsche specs to better help the engine live in a racing environment. I did have some final machining on the connecting rods once I got them from Carrillo to bring them to the exact specs and finish I wanted. They have all been weighed and are within .2 grams of each other. The GT3R crankshaft uses a range of intermediate bearings based on the size difference of the journals. The red and yellow dots on the crankshaft note the proper bearing to use. I further measured all of the journals to ensure they were marked properly which the first picture shows. I have also used plastigauge to determine the crank to bearing clearance. In addition to the bearings being available in intermediate sizes, they are also heat treated where street car bearings are not. You can see the brown color from the picture.

After all the measuring was complete, I installed the rods on the crank and used the torque to stretch method. In my case, the torque of the rod bolts ranged from 65-73 ft/lb to achieve a .005-.007" stretch on the rod bolts. A simple measure with the micrometer will tell you the strech. This is the most accurate method of installing connecting rods and it will show you if a rod bolt is bad. You can see the picture measuring the rod bolt.

The intermediate shaft, oil pump, and crank have all been installed into the right case half and is ready to have the case sealed with the other half. The only issue is that my gasket kit is missing the locks for the oil pump bolts so I'll have to wait until Monday when I can get them.

Enjoy

pete000

Wow, as usual Impressive!

JasonAndreas

A Tech2Fr100, Lista cabinets, a Mitutoyo micrometer and something from Starrett? Forget about the engine, nice tools!

Geoffrey

I finally outgrew my toolbox so yesterday I bought a pair of used Lista cabinets for the garage which gives me some much needed additional storage and a nice work surface.

The Starrett is my 0-1 mic that I've had forever.

The Tech2FR100 torque wrench is one of those tools that I consider the best thing I ever bought. Unlike the clicker style, it gives you a rolling readout so as your are torqueing a bolt, you can creep up on it. It also gives you the max readout so you know exactly how much force has been applied to the bolt. The only downside is that the batteries don't last that long.

Actually, this is one of my favorite new tools, a 3/4 torque wrench for the centerlocking wheels. This thing is huge!

JasonAndreas

Excellent! I've been drooling over one for quite a while and now your little comment has "thrown me over the edge" so I just went on Ebay and bought a brand-new one for $200USD.

Geoffrey

Here is the bottom end fully assembled. When measuring the piston ring end gaps tonight they were all too tight, so I'll need to adjust them tomorrow before I assemble the pistons and cylinders. Here is also a picture of measuring the net dome volume of the piston so the compression ratio can be accurately calculated. The 9M heads raise the compression .5 pts over a stock head which is good news for me.

macnewma

Geoffrey-

Sorry to resurrect your old thread, but why did you use a standard outside micrometer to measure rod bolt stretch and not a proper rod bolt stretch gauge? I was under the impression that a rod bolt stretch gauge was preferable due to the fact that it is spring loaded and the point is designed to fall inside the dimples of the rod bolt.

Maybe it doesn't matter though and the tool is a waste of money. What do you think?

That is a pretty awesome setup, btw. I agree completely on the TechWrench. It is unbeatable. I need to get them in 1/4" and 1/2" too.

Geoffrey

You are right that there is a special tool to measure the rod bolt stretch which has a dial indicator on it. With the CARR bolts, you can use an outside mic without issue and that is what I like better. In this case it was more of a preference than anything.

macnewma

I am not familiar with this rod bolts. I am used to the ARP and Raceware bolts which have a very small dimple. Hmmm...I bet ARP does that just to sell the gauges!