Thank you, I'll need the luck for sure

For my middle of the road performance build Charles at LN recommended the K1's. I am a fan.


I know, I know, but...but...unlike my new washer and snap ring for the IMS paddle, at the time of ordering I was being (feeling) cheap...Not that big of a deal to me as I won't mind the work associated with the changing of this wear part.

 

See the attached table from my JE piston ring set. Except for the rods and pistons, I am pretty stock with this build. My question is about my application.
High-performance street-strip - sounds more aggressive than the parts I am assembling and the balancing that I have done...
My 1999 is hardly late model stock

High Perf yields .0175 for the top ring and .0195 for ring 2 minimum gaps

Jakes's values for stock Porsche components I think are tighter than those figures.

Whaddya think?

 

How much tighter are they?

 

.015" on the top and .016" on the second is a safe end gap to run, however sometimes the gaps out of the box are already larger than that. Nothing really you can do there short of running one of TS gapless rings instead in either the top or second position.

 

Just a few thousandths


Thank you Charles - I can work with those.

 

Charles, What are your thoughts on gapless rings ? The additional pull on the intake stroke, blow by mitigation and minimization of contaminants making it past the rings into the sump seem like they would be a pretty good fit for these engines.

 

We have used them for years in both aircooled and watercooled Porsche engines. In fact, we stock them for the 101mm bore an an optional upgrade for our M96/M97 piston sets.

We can also do gapless top and gas ported rings, but we do those custom.

 

Nice, thanks for the response. Interesting info.

 

I was surprised to learn it has been a month since I posted progress. I was able to install pistons 1-3 successfully into the bank one case half. Gapped the rings per Charles's input. There was no grinding needed, most were very close to the tolerances provided, a couple were just a little loose. connecting the pistons to the rods was pretty smooth. I had practiced with the circlip installation tool and found it needed "breaking in" before it would seat all the way into the counterbore and against the land of the piston. Once I had sanded it down a bit it went together just like in Jake's video. Before installation into the case, I reconfirmed the orientation of both the rods and the pistons as well as staggering the ring gaps. Lubed the journals and the bearings, and the pistons, cylinder, and the ring compression tool...lotsa lube. They eased down the cylinders and onto the journals without hang-up. I moved them down slowly so as not to "impact" the journal. No drama here thankfully as there was plenty to come over the past week and a half which I will post shortly.

 

Great accomplishments!
Based on the things I see in your pictures you have followed my video verbatim so far!

 

I was feeling pretty good after getting the first pistons into the engine. I prepared for the next stages by installing the front console (just a couple bolts, loosly), IMS bearing, gaskets, and chain rails. The bank two case half went on reasonably well....I had my business partner assist and upon mating the two halves I had to fiddle with it a bit to get it to seat flat, which it did after a minute or two of fussing. I used loctite 5900 for sealant....wow is that s$*t hard to get outta the tube....trying to put a consistently thin bead on the flange in a straight line was difficult but achievable...took way longer than I expected and I was getting worried about working time. I am pretty certain of coverage with consistent and thankfully minimal material squishing out of the seam.

Up next was installation of pistons 4-6. My work area cools off at night and I have found I need to really heat up the pistons and cool down the wrist pins to facilitate smooth installation...Did all that...prepped the piston with rings and lubrication and installed #6 into its cylinder. Turned over the engine and got the rod and piston aligned...That took a few tries...wrist pin went in without issue. I confirmed it's placement with a borescope and was ready to tackle installation of the circlip. Inserting the tool into the piston counterbore took for F'ing ever! Jake calls it the happy spot...my tool resisted valiantly but I am tenacious and eventually got it all the way in, confirmed with the borescope...don't take your hand off of that tool! I got past my trepidation and slammed that clip into place - all the way in - Yay. Confirmed with the borescope before I removed the tool. But only part of the tool came out!

You can see in the pic below the sleeve of the tool was stuck in the counterbore. I tried some angled pliers and could NOT budge the sleeve. Amazon sent me a couple long funky needlenose pliers but none were up to the task of reaching all the way into the engine to get purchase on the tool. I finally decided to drill a hole in the sleeve and then come for it with a piece of hardened wire through the front of the engine. Baling wire was not strong enough - I broke it two times before moving to harder material. Thankfully, after a few worrisome days, I was able to remove the tool. I am ready to tackle 5 and 4 this weekend.

 

The mistakes you made here are common. I do address this in the video, and further in my classes.
1- Always permanently affix the sleeve onto the tool before doing any assembly! I dig weld (fuse) mine on, or at minimum use JB weld to lock it in place.
This tip (sleeve) was made to be removable because the factory would wear these tools out assembling engines. The tip could be thrown away, and the tube retained to save money. remember, the accountants are ALWAYS in charge.
The guys that copied the factory tools (Baum, SIR and etc) don't build engines or have any clue how the tools are used, they just copy them, and in this case they copied a flaw, which caused this issue for you.
It took me 10 years of assembling engines to wear out the first sleeve on one of these tools.
You will note that my "Faultless Piston Pin Tool" does not incorporate this sleeve, therefore it eliminates this issue from occurring. Why? Because I had this bite me in the *** 18 years ago, but I didn't have a video, or even a book to build the first M9X engine here at FSI.

2-You didn't fit the tool to the piston counterbore on the bench, or practice the install on the B2 case half before installing the case half onto the engine. Installing the #6 piston into the bore, and practicing alignment and delivery with the case half off of the engine is a golden nugget when it comes to this process. You learn the inadequacies and challenges before the case half is on the engine, and things are "real".

In lots of cases a brand new piston tool is too larger to fit the counterbore, because the surface is parkerized and this builds up a material difference. This is the reason why the Faultless tool is not parkerized, and is a smooth surface.
Good job, but a a lot of this could have been avoided with a little more pre- assembly procedure/ dressing of tools/ fitting of components. No big deal, you are learning the disciplines of this engine.

People think this is easy. They wonder why this cost so much. They learn when they try to fill my shoes, BUT the video has already saved you from at least 2 dozen other potential issues that kicked my ***. Its will save you from dozens more as you move forward, you just don't know that, since you won't make those mistakes.

Good job, this isn't suppose to be easy.

 

I really appreciate that you are following this process with me Jake and I do value each and every comment. I can't argue that more practice would not have improved my performance but I did practice on the bench with just the pistons and with pistons in the bank two case as well. As the bench practice proved to me, the tool did need to be dressed to fit the counterbore which is why my tool is shiny at the tip...sanded it down until it was smooth in and out of the counterbore. I think I pinched it (the sleeve) when adjusting the piston while searching for the "happy place". I did totally miss your instructions to weld the sleeve to the tool...will do that before the next operation fo' shizzle.

 

I'm just happy to see the video is guiding you successfully. That's what I consider my "payment" for all the time that we spent to create the series.
You have done really well following it so far :-)

 

The near failure of my work on piston 6 prepared me well for working on 5 and 4...after if fixed the end of my tool. Heated pistons and refrigerated wrist pins went together really well without drama. Aligning the piston with the tool bore in the cylinder wall was a lot easier on 5 and 4 and I had both in place in an hour. Checked the engine with a 1/4 turn of the crank and it was smooth. So nice to have this stage in my rear-view mirror.

I moved into the oil sump and installed its few components. Next is sealing the sump plate.