Well over Thanksgiving break I finally finished up motor #3. Thanks to Corbin's post at the top of the page I built this one myself. After the fiasco with motor #2 the old saying, "if you want it done right, do it yourself" still holds true. I went a slightly different route from everyone else in that this time I held off on the turbo. I put the built motor back in the car N/A. I'm planning to run it that way through the break in period so I can actually hear the motor. With turbo, blow-off valve, and the whine of the fuel pump it's impossible to hear anything in my car. Once I'm comfortable with where I'm at with this motor we'll bolt everything back up and see what happens. It'll really just be a matter of changing injectors, swaping the DP, bolting on the trubo and FMIC, and then a bit of re-tuning. Shouldn't take more than an afternoon. So, right now I'm at about 198 miles. It's been hard to get the car out here in PA, the weather's been so crappy. Looks like she'll be sitting through most of the winter in the garage ....

Congrates, hope all goes well this time. Do some reading on break in proceedures. There are some good factual arguements on why you should break in a motor "hard" rather than gently.

I prefer to Break em in with the Turbo since it is a motor built with boost intentions.

Either way you choose, best of wishes.

Terry

Congrats man! Drive like you normally would but throw in some fluctuating rpm spikes when you can. One thing i noticed when I broke my motor in was that; the more time you spend in a certain area of the RPM's, the smoother the ride gets. I drove my car to Ohio (8 hours away) and stayed within the 2-5k region for a while. Later on, when i would stomp the gas, the motor felt more smooth within the rpms i was primarily racking up miles with. Its hard to explain, but i would stomp it, and everything felt normal and alot more smooth up until the 5-7.5k mark because I didnt drive in that RPM range as often as the 2-5k area. It would be smooth, smooth, smooth, then vibrate a little, vibrate a little more (as i got higher into the Rpm's) then just vibrate to the point my head unit disconnected a couple times. Probably just the rings getting comfortable, but you can tell what section of your RPMs needed more mileage on. Sorry if i sound like an idiot but it's hard to explain. In the end, I just revved it out a little more and eventually it was 100% smooth delivery. Anyways, congrats again on the motor build, building it with your own hands must be more rewarding then paying someone to do it. Great job. :thumbsup

Congrats, hope everything runs great after the break in. I got my motor built from Howell, and broke my motor in quick, not even 500 mile. I boosted it with in 200 miles, and it has held stronger than my first built motor.

Well, I'm pretty much using Corbin's break in method he lists at the end of his write-up. I agree that there is some value to breaking a car in hard, however without the turbo on there, you can only be so abusive to a 420A as we all know. I did it this way just b/c I really wanted to be able to *hear* the motor this time. I believe that with my 2nd motor had been able to hear a bit better I might have caught some of the problems before the motor was completely ruined. Live and learn as they say ....

I think my approach was somewhat conservative, but far from babying the engine. I ran it fairly hard N/A. Having the turbo unhooked really just forces you to use the gears and not lug the engine. Boost makes it really easy to lug the engine in too high of a gear. This is especially important if you are cursed with an auto trans that upshifts at the drop of a hat.

Corbin

'95 ESI-T
Now with more power and fewer leaks



Gimme fuel...Gimme fire...Gimme that which I desire

Hey Corbin, I'll take the moment to personally thank you for the write-up. It was really helpful when I built my motor. I have printed and bound for reference!

I like the vent in your hood, did you ever put a post up on how you did that? I'd be interested in the link.

Originally posted by techboy
I like the vent in your hood, did you ever put a post up on how you did that? I'd be interested in the link.

Here's the old link: http://forums.2gnt.com/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=7&topic_id=56852&mesg_id=56852&listing_type=search
It has held up for a couple years now, so I guess I did it right. I won't do a full write-up because I'm afraid of giving bad body-work advice.


Corbin

'95 ESI-T
Now with more power and fewer leaks



Gimme fuel...Gimme fire...Gimme that which I desire

Thanks for the link Corbin, it looks great and pics give me enough to work with. I know it doesn't look it in the sig, but my hood is in pretty bad shape. I was thinking about having it repainted, so I think I'm going to give this a shot over the winter while the car is parked and then get it re-painted after I finish it up.

EDIT: Is that fiberglass or just bondo?

SWEET, someone in PA that can help me when i get my goodies for the rebuild.

Originally posted by techboy
Thanks for the link Corbin, it looks great and pics give me enough to work with. I know it doesn't look it in the sig, but my hood is in pretty bad shape. I was thinking about having it repainted, so I think I'm going to give this a shot over the winter while the car is parked and then get it re-painted after I finish it up. EDIT: Is that fiberglass or just bondo?

I laid 3 layers of fiberglass down on the metal to form the walls. The "higher grade" blue-green Bondo is used to smooth things out. Spot putty was used to further smooth the finish. I rattle-can primered it and brought it to the shop for paint. So far, so good.

Corbin

'95 ESI-T
Now with more power and fewer leaks



Gimme fuel...Gimme fire...Gimme that which I desire