Tore down the top end over the weekend.
Found out why the stud was losing torque holding. It wasn't ARP's fault. That stud was fine. The stud holding the tools however... Ugh
Assessed the damage and decided chasing threads and sending the time sert deep into the block would do. And it did. With some help from jb-weld and the long end of the ARP stick. The head went back on with 22 foot pounds of torque. .
010" Cometic aluminum base gasket put the pistons .0075" below deck. And the .040 head gasket is still enough to clearance the valves after the face job on the head. Of course, hand pocketing the relief in the pistons years ago helped some. This arrangement took several thousands out of the equation from my previous blueprint. Should have a static compression ratio of 9.2:1 now. Up a whole digit from last year.
Relying on the factory 650 cam timing mark for tdc, i did bump the crank back a scoche. That 2-3 degree advance is a safe place to leave it. Why advance it? Because i learned what the bike actually needed last season. Which was a bigger hp bump in the 6-7krpm range. More than the stock-stock cam timing provided. I want to pull through 5th gear this year.
The coating shop did its thing to my pipes and intake. They even touched up a weld during the prep. Worth the cost, and the color came out perfect. Will have to take the 4into1 to them over winter. I like the thermal dispersant black on the intake. Looks smart, lets hope it works smart.
Smarter than my home made gasket. Smoke tested the intake seal and was disappointed. Worked a little bit at improving the seal and ended gluing layers of copper foil together. Which got 98% of the leaks. Late in the evening, i put the thing on with permatex and let it set up before fully torquing it.
Learned a lesson in torquing copper gaskets. M6 studs and a stubby wrench will never squish dead soft annealed copper the way it likes to be squished. So, i've planned for contingencies. 1100 series aluminum isn't cheap, but i ordered some. Along with some rem branded graphite gasket material and a fresh can of copper coat.
I'll get that intake seal boost proofed, somehow.
Since the motor is together again, decided to run a compression test and get a feel for the intake vacuum. Turns out, not a lot of vacuum at the turbo inlet develops when all the plugs are out of the head. But with a new compression tester of an affordable gauge on a metal stick variety. The new motor pumps 160psi across all four.
Next on the to-do list - fit and finish the turbo drain adapter, and craft the naca duct box. the dimensions of the airbox should be enough to scoop up a whole engine worth of air. comparatively similar to the new hdmc se intake. will be quite an adornment to the right side of the bike. may even wrap it with more of that prismatic vinyl.
Need to calibrate my boost pressure switch to half a bar and make sure dynatek sensor is on the mark too.
Started trimming the fat from my electrical setup. And need to fix the fuse holder on my relay switches.
That cheap fuse gave me a heart attack when the 12v system didn't come online after id been welding pipe in situ. I had all circuits lifted open during the cage and pipe job. With the expensive bits in a box on the shelf for safe keeping. So will be reinstating all that soon and will test run when the time is right.
Gotta work on the trailer as well. Got stainless rods to make pins for the ramp holster. gonna be fun to drill through for the hitch pins. need some cable for idiot cords too.
