Here's the beotch as she stands today. All I have left to do is gasket match the exhaust side.

Nice, it should look even better when its in your DSM!

That's next weekend. The colour scheme matches the car too! My GF's dad cleaned and painted my engine bay also(it's in his garage)
The valves were so gummed up they wouldn't close all the way. Seals were leaking like a mad bastard. If Shaun Maclary pulls the pistons from the old block out, we'll see what the rings look like.

they'll be out this week.

LOOKS SWEET there Mike. I can't wait till my engine is done.

I am just trying to decide what to do with my engine. I just painted the engine bay as well. I need to pressure wash my engine before I can continue working on it though. So my question is, how? What is the best way to pressure wash the engine? My concern is that even if I clog the exhaust ports with rags that water will get in. What is the best method for cleaning my engine and what precautions should be taken?

Ahhh.. Tyler, water evaporates bud.

Brake Cleaner. Water also creates rust....

Since were doing motor pic's

No I didn't take it out again, this is from last summer's rebuild.
Used the VHT paints from CT and no peeling of paint anywhere. I just scrubbed the outside of the block with a wire brush, degreased with simple green and cleaned up the other area's with a rag soaked in WD-40

I already thought about the brake cleaner....however, that will be step two. The motor needs to be power washed. 15 years of dirt and grease!
I plan on doing the smae thing I did with the engine bay. Degrease, Power wash, Degrease, Scuff, Paint.

I took my head to a car wash and powerwashed the sukker. The head doesn't rust(it was totally stripped tho)

Hmm, I wonder if the colour of the block/head any way contributes to the absorbtion or dissipation of heat? At least, an any significant way...

Looks great Mike!

The chemical reaction of metal rusting takes a long time. Power wash the engine in the Sun and let it sit a couple of hours.

Galdang guy!!! That is noische!

This makes me want to paint up the one I have sitting in the garage! VHT it is.

Here here... very very nice to both of you.

In regards to the engine washing, Castrol Super Clean and either a power washer or a pressure steam cleaner... I will vouch for that Sh1t till the day I die... that stuff is great.

What about rust on a block, what are you guys doing about it before you paint it?

the block i put in a huge rubbermaid container and scrubbed it with a wire brush and some simplegreen.

Wow...Very nice tim...That's one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.

Awesome work Tim, Mike. You can only hope that everyone that gets into DSMs has the same care and attention to detail that you guys do.

Tim, now I know never to underestimate high temp CT paint. Good stuff.

wow... so nice!
I wish I had some sort of car related skill so i could make my engine nice and new!
question, will the paint hold up to the hot temperatures of the engine? I know of those heat resitant paints or what ever theyre called... but constantly really hot..... would that not have some sort of effect?

VHT stands for Very High Temp. Its made specifically for these types of applications.

Thanks for the compliments guys. I had to rebuild the engine, so why not just do that little bit extra? I love Tim's colour scheme. Looks awesome. I went black so when the oil eventually leaks, it won't be so noticeable.

It's funny because it's true...

Last spring I used some of the high temp paint (can't remember brand but it was the highest temp reating they had) from CT on my exhaust mani, heat shield & O2 sensor housing and after a summers use they still look the exact same as they did when I painted them. I'm impressed considering the heat those parts take.

^^^
Same here, and it was VHT 1600.

Aluminum doesnt rust

Did you put new frost plugs in the block?

Let me know when its going in... I havent had my hands on a dsm for a bit...

Going in this weekend.

I know aluminum doesn't rust; that is why the head doesn't rust.

If I come down will you supervise my post engine help beverage consuming activities so I don't get into trouble?

If I come down will you supervise my post engine help beverage consuming activities so I don't get into trouble?

It is possible. Can you stop people from deleting my useless posts?

I've always been to afraid to paint my engine black. When the oil leaks start I'd have a harder time finding where they're coming from.

Anyhow, I think it looks awesome!

The sukker is in. I'd like to thank Shaun Mac for his help. He worked long and hard for a pittance(breakfast) I still need to adjust timing. I don't have a timing gun. BUT she's running and will be driving home in an hour or so.

Glad to know you got it running! You did tell me to throw out that bearing right? Oh well, it couldn't have been that important

The engine sounds nice and tight too. Nice supercharger-like whine. I'm very happy.

Congrats mike. What oil are you running? Good compression and 10 40 always gave me a nice tight sexy whine on startup.

I'm using 10w30 for breakin. Then will go Mobil1. I'm not even boosting right now. Wastegate is wide open.

A little boost is good for the piston rings, just don't go nuts.

BOOST SHMOOST!!!!!!

Mobil1 schmoble1, Amsoil >*

took it for an e-test tonight. After an hour+ of waiting, it was done. I get out and try to start it...dead. I was on a hill so i push start it. Starts up but i still have all those nice dash lights on. What a pain.

Couple questions for you since installing my engine shortly. Did you put it in thru top or from bottom.Can I leave my trannyin there and just take engine in and out. Never did any of this on a dsm before.Most said it was easier to take out engine and trans at same time.I do need to install my new clutch but dont really need to take out trans.

Take them both out at the same time. it will save you alot of greif. I did the clutch off the car while it was on the ground. It is the easier way.

I take it it passed, where did you take it?
Why isn't it starting? Did the shop drive it out or push it out?

The alternator was uberfukt. Now I'm running a 1g alternator. 14V baby. I took it to the huge dodge dealer at oxford and wonderland. They are open till midnight. I don't know how they got it out, but it's working now. That's all I care about.

Thanks again for the help man. I really appreciate it.

what do you mean by "I don't know how they got it out"?

anytime man

They must have driven it out, because it's a "drivethru" and it came around the other side.

oh that lol yeah, forgot I asked about that.

Amazing. The car feels like like my 1g did @16psi but at 8psi. What is going to happen when I turn it up to 20psi?

Explode? hahaha just playing...

probably somewhat due to the higher compression.

can you help me log, shaun? It just feels like it has too much power for the boost level. I dont want to blow the engine up.....yet.

^^^
Pull the plugs...
If they brown, lay mo' down

Thanks for the scientific advice.

Seriously.. Only 8psi...
If your plugs aren't white, it's not likely you are going to blow it up at that boost level.

I meant turning it up. I want to at least go to 15-16 for now. Right now it feels like my 1g did @18 psi on a big 16g. It shouldn't have that much power at stock boost.

Sorry man, miscommunication from all angles...
I meant lay more rubber down and not worry about the 8psi

If you want to turn the boost up now, then definitely get yourself some scientific measurements

Yeah thats not a problem, unfortunately I can't log duty cycle or pulse width but at least we can see what your fuel trims and o2 are

I'm a little bit removed from this. So it's a 1995, but with a rebuilt engine I'd take it you're not running the T25?

If you don't, then 8-12psi still isn't 'stock boost'. More people get this wrong than I can count... "I just put in a pie plate turbo on my all-stock car, but that's okay because I'm only going to run 11psi. That's stock boost, so it'll handle it." *Sigh*

The 2G 'felt' stronger initially because the smaller ports and turbo moved peak torque down a bit on the powerband. But what are the details of your engine/turbo?

I could answer, but I'll let mike since it's his car lol. But no, he's not running the T-25 lol.

it's a 6 bolt, 2g pistons/1g rods, no BS's. 51 trim borg warner, 550cc. MAFT. 3" pipe. ported head and 2g manifolds

'Kay. Now what mods had you done with the 1G and the 18G?

It's like computers. You can have two machines with the same specs, and one will blow the other away. All it takes is for something to be a little out of balance with your engine or turbo, and performance drops a lot. And it could be something normal tuning won't catch.

I did those same mods to my '90, 2G pistons with 1G rods, ported/polished head, BS' removed... but I had to be satisfied with porting my 14b with everything else stock since I had no money and did ALL the work myself except for porting the head.

Even with the stock 14b and fuel, the car felt a LOT more powerful than it had previously. Enough so that you could probably challenge a few lightly modded 2Gs through the mid-range and even take a 2G with a T2828 on the top-end...

I had the same mods, but with 450's. Now that I have it up to 15psi, the car feels like the car is lifting higher off the ground and just pulls like a 15 year old with a playboy.

Something could have been off with the injectors. Usually running too rich will feel more like less power than running too lean. But there's a few different things that can happen. (:

I'm unfamiliar with that turbo, but you should be able to go as high as 18psi with your mods as long as you watch your A/F and EGTs...

I heard some whining from the fuel tank with the seat out, and my sending unit doesnt go below 1/4. I'm inclined to think i have a walbro in there. With no fpr, I think my tuning will always be off.

Shaun and i did some logging and the results seemed inconclusive.

at WOT: the O2's were between .92 and .95,. fuel trims would stick at O (both long and short) and timing would retard back to between 10 and 13.

Inclined? I'd check. (: And an FPR is pretty cheap insurance. Even something like a cheapie B&M.

You know, I've never actually logged a car? It's always been seat of the pants for me. (Sold mine just as loggers were more affordable and wide-spread.) You can't fully trust the stock O2 sensor, but those numbers sound pretty close to optimum. Boost until you're down to .88 to .9 and you should be as good as you can go.

I'd be concerned if you raise the boost and not see some sort of change, though.

The timing is what bothers me. It should be somewhere around 20 degrees shouldnt it? It's retarding back to 11 @ WOT, so there must be alot of knock. What is the formula? 5 counts= 1 degree retardation?

Timing of 16+ is what you should be looking for on a 2G. The timing will almost always dip lower than that when the boost comes on at lower engine speeds, around 3k-4k rpm. Then, the timing should rise SMOOTHLY to a solid 16+ degrees. Any dips in the curve, or flat spots, tend to indicate knock.

Knock LED mod? (Or do you have a logger that can display that?) One of the cheapest and easiest things you can do...

Does anyone have a link to the LED mod? Search turned up nothing for me. I'm told you cant log knock on a 2G.

And that's why you tune for timing. What's your base timing set at?

Yes you can, you just need to put out a bit of cash for DSMLink. That LED mod is a waste of time.

Base is at 5BTDC

Grounded?

****.... Which wire is that again? Blue cap?

It's worthless for tuning, but useful to see if knock is why your timing is being pulled. But it's a 1G thing, dunno about it working on a 2G.

If I remember right, Base timing (grounded) should be 8-10 BTDC, isn't it?

It SHOULD be 5. The farther you go, the less room the ECU has to adjust.

^^^
Incorrect.
The ECU will adjust +/- by whatever it wants.
It has no idea what you set the base to.
For instance - if you set it to 8deg BTDC, then when the ECU tries to give you 15, you will actually have 18. Likewise, set it to 2 and you'd end up with 12.

I suppose you're right in the sense that the ECU has less room to advance before knock. However, the point is you should not knock at all

Exactly, it can't correctly compensate. The computer can only retard so far. It sees so much knock and compensates so far, but doesn't know it if you have changed that setting.

Sorry, but I don't totally agree with that either.
The ECU will correctly compensate based on the knocksum, as per normal.
It will still pull out the same X degrees for Y knocksum.

The real difference of off-stock base timing, is the degree of ECU timing advance at which you will start knocking.

Anyhow, back to your problem...
A good thing for you to try would be retarding the base timing a little bit. This will tell you if the knock is from too much timing advance in the first place.
It's likely this is your problem due to your SAFC compensation, higher compression and bigger turbo.

Also, lack of AFPR means you might be leaning it out too far which contributes to the problem.
You may have good results dialing a lower base fuel pressure and putting some fuel back in on the SAFC - then if you still get timing knock take a couple degrees out and tune again like that.
SAFC is a tightrope

How are you setting the base timing? A 2G bounces around all over the place and there's no wire to loop a 2G.

Unless you have DSMLink of course, then there's an option to ground it so you can set it.

I have a 6 bolt in in. Using the CAS to adjust. It doesn't bounce around. OBD2 scan says the 2g is not adjustable, so no grounding wire then.

Didn't the 95's come with a grounding wire? I'm fairly certain they did. Its located on the firewall.

There IS a blue wire there.

there is no spoon.

This would be news to me.

Either way, it seems that without it being looped or grounded, 5 degrees would be way to low when you want 15ish right?

5 would be correct if it was loops though correct?

The '95s do have a grounding wire, but don't ask me where it is, I have DSMLink.