Leon

Gotcha, I was thinking that might have been what you meant! I'll think about doing tranny seals but at this point I need the car on the road ASAP. Not that I want to cut corners, but I may be dropping the tranny later anyway if the OEM 225mm clutch doesn't hold up.

That's definitely some DEEP sarcasm...

You know, that's a great idea! I'll only be temporarily installing rockers to check the wipe pattern anyway so I may as well not install them until the engine is ready to fire. Thanks! Wood was the plan, thanks for the affirmation there! Maybe I'll even set some microfiber towels down on the wood, ha! Yes, the oil pan is a concern of mine. I have two and so far I've checked one of them. Indeed the mating surface was not flat. I'll check the other pan in my inventory before proceeding. Thanks for bringing that up and good idea on the straightening! I'll flush the engine after I run it, definitely. I work at an injection molding facility and I've cleaned a few of our molds. I tried to take the same measures when cleaning the engine as I do with the molds, including using toilet paper and solvent for wipe downs. I cleaned until there were no traces of any sort of buildup on the TP. I'm sure I'll find all sorts of crap in the break-in oil, regardless. Which transmission o-ring do you speak of, the speedo gear seal?

Yeah, I can't imagine Aluminum teeth sized smaller than their steel counterparts lasting very long. Aluminum has poor fatigue properties.

I'll throw another graphic into the mix. I believe this one comes from David Vizard's flowbench.

I was thinking something like this: But after doing some research, the elliptical profile came away as the better one: Blair and Cahoon's write up on bellmouth design is a great read, if you're interested! Source: http://www.profblairandassociates.com/pdfs/RET_Bellmouth_Sept.pdf

Great research on the measurements though, it's good stuff for the archives. Regarding the cam tower shims, shimming is typically done to correct valve timing. The shims may have been avoided by design, to get the cam dialed in.

How did you diagnose the worn rings? Low cranking compression doesn't automatically dictate a rebuild. Your long-duration cam bleeds quite a bit of compression at cranking speeds, so a compression gauge will show a lot lower than stock numbers. Was there a leak test done? How much oil did it burn? This rebuild may not have been warranted...

That comment does make more sense now. However, the original one I was correcting has not been clarified! By putting the sprocket into the #2 hole, he is altering valve timing for a lower rpm power peak. I don't know how many times I need to repeat myself. Unless I'm somehow misunderstanding what you meant by that...

Thanks! It's taken way too long to get to this point. DAMN YOU procrastination! I think I'm just being overly cautious, if not paranoid about priming and initial lubrication. Yes, I do remember that, and what a pain it was! Plus, the screw up by your machinist was just a dagger in the heart. I'm very much hoping my progress to be a bit smoother! The priming method you shared seems most common. Like I told Jim, I'm just being overly cautious. I'd like to see oil flowing before even cranking over the engine, especially to the cam as it has high lift (.540") and uses stiffer springs. I'll probably take one of my hand pumps I use to fill transmissions and diffs, and try to pump some oil into the galleries. In other news, I finished installing my taillights yesterday. As far as non-engine stuff goes, I need to install the radio, re-connect some wiring, install console, and trim the studs protruding from my upper strut mounts. There is interference between the stud and hood. The hood cable also seems to need an adjustment as well, it has too much slack. I still need to do a brake check (PO said one of the fittings leaks) and clean up the engine bay prior to dropping in the engine. Then there's painting a few more parts, like the oil pan, valve cover, and transmission. The head still needs to be assembled and wipe patterns checked. That will probably take a day on its own. Lots to do still! Speaking of building the head, how did you guys position the head when installing the cam? I'm wary about putting it down on its deck surface, but that orientation seems easiest for reinstalling cam towers and the camshaft.

As to this question, the plan was to have the car ready for my wedding on 8/31 so it better be running by JCCS!

Very cool! I'm assuming that you can't radius them so much as to create an undercut in the mold? I don't have much CF experience...

"Easy-does-it"...

A stretched chain retards timing (moves powerband UP) and going to #2 or #3 advances the cam (moves powerband down). If his chain wasn't actually stretched enough to noticeably retard cam timing, he is advancing the cam and dropping his powerband by going to the #2 hole. Hence my correction, as I agree with everything else...

This is a 3-year-old post...

Thanks again Jim, I appreciate all the thoughts! Oil priming is something that's been a big concern of mine so I've been reading up and studying for a while. I'll of course fill and prime the pump, but I've been trying to come up with a method to prime the engine without having to turn the pump. I've read of people back-filling the pump from the entrance orifice to the oil filter (oil filter removed obviously ), but that just fills in the gallery between the pump and oil filter. I also think I remember reading of someone (Tony D?) using the oil pressure sender hole to pressurize the system and get oil flowing that way. I don't remember exactly, but I'll be doing some more research on it. I was just thinking of this the other day, is there anything stopping me from just putting a hose over the oil filter nipple and using a hand pump to force-feed the oil into the mains, and maybe the head if I'm strong enough? It would go like this: fill and prime the pump (maybe try to prime pump inlet before install), install pump, back-fill the pump, pre-oil filter, fill galleries through filter nipple, install filter, crank engine until I see oil pressure and oil at the head. Anything wrong with that plan? I did put in about 15-20 hours of work on the engine this weekend. Saturday was a shorter day. I doubled-checked my mic measurements with a plastigage across all the mains. Clearances are good. I then finally lubed and installed the crank along with the rear main. Saturday night was finished off with a dog walk and dinner with my fiancee and my sister. Sunday was the big day, woke up at 6:30am and went to sleep at 12am. There were breaks in between, such as spending 2 hours with a buddy doing the drive belts on his Xterra and hanging out with him. Of course, that evening we also had to watch the latest episode of Dexter, and since we don't get that channel we go the future in-laws' place to watch. It was a productive, albeit very long, day and I definitely have to thank my fiancee, Melissa, for spoon-feeding me dinner while I was installing pistons. Yes, that's why I'm marrying her! Too bad I don't have photos of that, would've been priceless... I started the morning with gapping piston rings. That took a long time. Once they were gapped, I went out to the local store, got me some piston ring expanders, and went at it. Then I installed the rings, oriented them, and plopped them into their bores. Doesn't sound like that much work does it? But damn, it's enough to cover about 14 hours! I was trying to be very clean and meticulous with each step. In the end I was happy with the progress, given it's the first time I'm fully rebuilding an engine. It was satisfying to see it kind-of looking like an engine again. Well, at the very least there's less parts lying around... Lined up and ready to go! Ooh, ahh! And as bonus footage, are some cleaned-up parts! Untouched ports... And I'm in the final stages of finishing up the tail lights...

I've got plenty of VW stories to share (of the water-cooled variety), that's for sure. For one, my sister's Jetta has been an absolute nightmare. We've had more Hondas than anything else. This isn't brand loyalty, they just make solid, enjoyable cars.

Bingo!

Sure, it's fun to play with but it's just not a very precise tool. If you're that concerned about cylinder-to-cylinder variations, get 6 EGT probes or better yet, 6 widebands...

Slip-on style cloth shoes work well for me. The soles are usually thin, giving you good pedal feel. Last few pairs I've gotten were $10 a piece. I've never had issues and I'm a size 13...

They're great cars. If you must go with something on the list, then the Prelude is pretty much a sportier Accord Coupe. I'd expect mpgs to be less with the benefit of more power but otherwise I assume it's relatively similar to the Accord. With that said, it may be difficult to find a Prelude (or MR2 and S13 for that matter) that isn't beat up. FWIW, I would never consider the VW or Audi you listed. Performance isn't great, or even what I'd call good, with the added fun of higher maintenance costs and terrible reliability (relative to the Hondas). The diesel on the other hand is a good thought...

Frankly, Pharaoh's post is mostly incoherent rambling...

My mile-eater for over 8 years has been a 5-speed '01 Accord Coupe. I've gotten 37mpg a few times, but usually average 31-35mpg in ~80/20 highway/city driving. My only qualms are the weak CV shafts and the diff gearing is a bit wide. Otherwise, it's been great! A quiet, reliable, and efficient daily commuter complements raucous weekend cars pretty nicely, IMO.

You really need to sit down and read the FSM. The FSM will be your best source for Z-specific issues. Stop working on the car immediately, download the FSM and start reading. Otherwise this is all a huge waste of time.

There's a reason why you can't find it, and it's because it doesn't exist. Listen to what the guy told you, they are the same exact part.