Gary's Tampa Build Exocet #304

[garman]

I'm on the fence on the engine build now. Since I already have the engine out and on the stand I could go ahead replace the internals without too much trouble. I'm reluctant to turbo the engine yet but I'm wondering if I should just go ahead build the engine now and turbo later. I don't have any experience with tuning so I'll need some education on that side of things. I have all of the parts for the engine build sitting on the shelf so I'm itching to do it. Any thoughts?

[jwagner]

At 155K miles and turbocharging on the horizon, I might bite the bullet and refresh the motor. As a minimum, I would pull the head and have that rebuilt and take a look at the bottom end. There's no end to the "since I'm here, I might as well..." list of things to do. On my car, since the head was off anyway, I ended up building a '99 head with the BP5A intake cam, shim under bucket lifters and undercut valves, etc.. With the bolt ons, Megasquirt PNP and a tune, the car dyno'd about the same as my NC (rated 167hp?) which was enough power to be amusing. In any case you should check valve guide clearance, put new valve oil seals in, oils seals, hoses, etc. - the normal maintenance type things likely to be a problem on a 155K motor. BP bottom ends are very robust as long as they're cared for properly.

I would consider an aftermarket ECU sooner than later since something like a Megasquirt will work on your turbo setup and would unlock a bunch of HP on the stock motor.

[garman]

Here's the list of parts I already have sitting on a shelf for the engine and the turbo:

SuperTech forged pistons
H Beam forged rods
ACL rod bearings
ACL main bearings
ARP head studs
Cometic head gasket
Adjustable cam gears
Gates Racing timing belt
MS2 standalone ECU
Garrett T25 GT2560 Turbo
Innovate MTX-L Wideband
HKS BOV
Flyin Miata manifold and downpipe
XSpeed and Godspeed cheap intercoolers (not sure which one I'll use yet)

Every part torments me when I walk by in the garage. 

All of the engine internals are new but all of the other items are used. I'm desperately trying to keep my build costs down so I don't run out of money before I even pick up the frame. BTW I should be picking that up on April 6th. 

[garman]

So, I'm pretty sure that I'll rebuild the engine but hold off on the turbo until I get the car sorted out completely. I still need injectors, coils, clutch, damper, piping, etc. before I'm ready to go there anyway.

[garman]

Jwagner- I checked out your build. Man, you’ve put in some serious work! I can’t wait to twist the key for the first time. I expect my reaction to be very similar (with beer in hand!).

[garman]

I just got off the phone with Kevin at Exomotive. Looks like April 20th is the day we are shooting for to pick up the Exocet chassis. I'm driving up to Atlanta to pick it up myself. I'm excited to see the place where my new baby was born.

[garman]

Transmission is cleaning up nice. I'm definitely not painting it like I had planned.

[blacksweeper]

Garman,
I am about to buy a kit but I have never seen an Exocet in flesh. Do you have your kit? If you didn't mind I would like to check out your car some day. I am across the state from you in Vero Beach. text Jerry 772-485 4016 Thanks

[garman]

So, I picked up the Level 2 Flyin Miata clutch and lightweight flywheel this weekend along with some Deatschwerks 700cc injectors and a Godspeed intercooler. The date to pick up my frame has now been postponed until May 4th, unfortunately. Not because of Exomotive but because of my schedule. I can't wait to get the frame home so I can start assembling everything. Engine teardown and rebuild has also been postponed the last couple of weekends Between home AC Repair, water softener repair, spring cleaning etc. it's been hard trying to carve out some time to work on the engine. It's amazing how fast normal life stuff piles up while you're only focused on the Exocet. I think I'm caught up enough on my husband chores to get some garage time this weekend.

[garman]

So, I got some additional work done this weekend. Not as much as I hoped but I kept running into problems with special tools that kept getting me sidetracked.

I finally cracked into the engine:

[garman]

I'm not sure if this is uneven wear or just varnish on the lobes:

[garman]

I cannot for the life of me get the crankshaft lock bolt to come off. I do not have the fancy Crankshaft Lock Tool SST# 49 D011102 so I'll be making my own at work today. I tried an impact driver and doused it with PB blaster but it's not budging. 

Since that defeated me I moved on to disassembling my brakes so they can be powder coated.



The fronts went nice and smooth. The pistons popped out easily and looked to be in good condition. I ran into a problem with the rears though. The piston came out fine but to get the parking brake assembly out of the caliper I need a freakishly long set of snap ring pliers. The set I have doesn't reach far enough inside to reach the C clip. So, I need to either order a special pair of snap ring pliers or leave it all together and hope the seals make it through the powder oven. I'm sure the seals are rated for higher heat than what the powder oven would reach but I'll probably bite the bullet and just order the pliers and do it the right way. 

[jwagner]

I've seen the cam lobe wear on a '99 head I had. Not sure it's a problem.

As for the C clip, I managed to get mine off and back on without any special tools. Used a long scribe and long/thin needle nose pliers IIRC.

[garman]

Apr 9, 2018 15:55:20 GMT jwagner said:

I've seen the cam lobe wear on a '99 head I had. Not sure it's a problem.

As for the C clip, I managed to get mine off and back on without any special tools. Used a long scribe and long/thin needle nose pliers IIRC.

I think I'll try to grind down an old set of needle nose pliers and see if I can get it out without paying for a new tool. Every penny I save right now helps. I still have so much left to do. 

[kiwicanfly]

Apr 9, 2018 15:27:30 GMT garman said:

I need to either order a special pair of snap ring pliers or leave it all together and hope the seals make it through the powder oven. I'm sure the seals are rated for higher heat than what the powder oven would reach but I'll probably bite the bullet and just order the pliers and do it the right way. 

Powder coat is around 200-210c I believe, I reckon that would melt seals.

Cost of pliers could be cheap v the cost of replacing melted seals plus any damage caused by melting.

It is a pain buying special tools for one off operations but at least you will have good pliers for other jobs.