Engine out

Another quick update and a couple of photos for you all. Today we spent a couple of hours finishing off last weeks prep to drop the engine out. Little bit tricky in the confined space but it went without any major problems! Essentially we had a big hoist and some chain secured to the engine and dropped it to the floor and then lifted the shell up and pulled the engine under it and out of the way. It was suprisingly clean in the engine bay but still a little bit grubby so a pressure wash is in order at some point. We can keep both the standard engine mounts in the hope that they will come in handy for mounting the RS lump when the time comes. Here's a couple of photos, nothing fancy and the photo of the Ka pointing to the sky once the engine was removed didn't come out so well but hopefully you'll get the idea ;)

A long break.

Evening all, a long time since my last post but hopefully we will keep some momentum and get some more work done shortly. Todays task was to try and get the Ka engine out. We set about removing anything unnecessary from the engine bay and disconnecting the multitude of hoses that would prevent the engine from coming out.

After that the driveshafts were removed and that is where we've had to leave it for now. Next step is to drop the engine off the mounts and then lift the car over the engine.

Quick photo of the engine bay after everything had been removed.

New EFi Head and a blasted inlet manifold

As the title suggests I have recently purchased a new cylinder head. WE were going to machine the original but this would have required quite a bit of fabrication. We found an EFi conversion kit on eBay and I won that for a very nice price. Came with literally everything we need to get the top end of the engine running all bar the cam we want to run etc. I stripped the head down and then gave it a nice clean up with some lovely smelling solvents :) everything came out well and I'm very happy with its overall condition. My brother also very kindly grit blasted the EFi inlet manifold down to bare aluminium, looks lovely and I think I'll keep it that way! I want to colour the EFi lettering the same colour as the block to keep things co-ordinated :)

Here are the pics taken throughout the day, enjoy!

Grindy Grindy.

Well I have this week off to help get the shell prepped for when the engine is ready and to also have it seam welded and ready for the roll cage to be installed. Task for the day was to remove as much sealant as possible. This was done with a wire brush attachment for a Dremel. If anyone has done this before you will know full well how shitty a job it is. Fortunately the sealant comes away pretty easily revealing bare metal. I called it a day with about 80% of the sealant gone, there are some bits I can't get to with power tools so it will have to be done manually this week when I can bear to look at the stuff again :) Couple of Images of the Ka itself and the piles of sealant that I collected.


















Also the steering wheel appears to be harbouring intelligent life. Daren't touch it without gloves on :)

Progress, Progress, Progress..

Today me and Wayne spent a few hours applying the final touches to the bottom end of the engine. We fitted the oil and water pump and also cleaned up and fitted the oil pickup. The oil pickup has attempted to be cleaned before by leaving it to soak in petrol for a couple of days but it didn't fully remove some of the crap oil that had been left to harden inside. We decided to cut it open to properly get at it and the had it Tig welded back up. We then sat the sump gasket in place but the sump itself will likely be fitted tomorrow as it is currently being painted (I'm told it will be pink but I shan't hold my breath :)).

Here are a couple of images from the end of the building day.

Brief update

Hello all,

Building up the bottom end was delayed as we decided to have bushes installed into the small ends of the con rods. This aids oil flow and should hopefully prevent premature wear and overheating.

The bottom end was built up on Saturday but took longer than expected due to the spring clips being awkward bastards! Eventually the pistons were attached to their rods and the crank was installed followed by the pistons and rods. Plenty of oil was used in the bores and the bearings to hopefully prevent any premature wear when it comes to starting the engine first time.

All that is left to complete the bottom end is to attach the oil and water pumps to the block.

For now here's a couple of images of the assembly for you :)

ARP Con-Rod Bolts

Just a little photo update, got a set of ARP Con Rod bolts for the engine build. Just making sure the pistons don't try and make a bid for freedom out the block :)

Bottom end ready

Good evening.

Today Me and Wayne spent a few hours making more mess and making more progress.

We measured how much the piston protruded from the block deck at top dead centre. It was approximately 0.75mm so we removed that amount from all 4 pistons. This will give us our 7.68:1 C/R and concludes pretty much all the work that needed doing to the bottom end. All that's left is to assemble it with plenty of oil and then we can begin modifying the cylinder head to accept electronic fuel injection. Hopefully the bottom end will be assembled tomorrow morning and another small update will follow! for now here's the block setup with a DTI guage.

Getting there,,,

Another couple of hours were spent at the workshop today to make the measurements required to the cylinder head to allow us to calculate the compression ratio. First of all Wayne machined a new angle into the exhaust ports, making a step from ~30° to the standard ~45° as opposed to the exhaust gases charging right into a 45° angle. This will just help everything flow and hopefully make the turbo more efficient. After this the outer edge of the combustion chamber is given a bit of vaseline and a squared piece of perspex with a tiny hole is placed on top. The vaseline is used to provide a seal so a liquid can be poured in with use of a burette, and thus we can measure the capacity of the chamber. The chambers turned out to hold 53cc and this figure was than used to calculate alng with the swept volume, the compression ratio with a flat piston. The end result was 7.68:1 which is pretty much ideal for our application.

Anyway, here is a photo taken today of Wayne making a mess, and making noise while blending in the valve and combustion chamber.



Next on the to do list is to find a suitable cam for the engine...

A brief, green and shiny update

Good evening all.

Today Me and my Brother spent a couple of hours dummy building the bottom end. A matter of putting the main bearings in with the crank and attaching a piston and rod to it so we can make accurate measurements to work out compression. Everything went together nicely and with a little oil everything moved smoothly. Next up we need to get the head to the workshop and measure that too. The pistons are +1.5mm so the overall capactiy will be 1659 - the additional torque over standard 1597 will be very welcome.