My MZ21 Soarer buildup

[kemicalx]

19-08-2006, 05:29 PM

I installed an oil pressure gauge on Friday,

Just an un exciting Pricol mechanical one, that cost about $40 i think. The copper line and fittings were about $13, the plastic gauge holder was one an old one I had floating around.


Using the pre-existing hole on the side of the block just under/behind the water pump which has a tapered bolt in it from factory. I screwed in one of the copper fittings which I think are referred to as compression fittings (2 copper fittings that sandwich and seal the line using a tapered copper wedge similar to an olive) into the side of the block. This is ALOT easier said than done. well, it wouldn't be hard if you did it before the engine was in the bay. But if you're doing it to an engine already in a car it's a real mongrel to get to. A 10mm ratchet spanner would make things a little less tricky


Pretty vauge picture, but stuff your arm down this gap and start feeling around behind the waterpump for the 10mm bolt head.


I then ran the copper line through a hole drilled in the fire wall just under the brake booster, up along the steering column and out to where the gauge would be mounted.


The illumination wires were connected where my boost gauge gets it's globe switching, the positive illumination switch is taken from the green wire coming out of the cruise control dashboard switch, and the ground was connected to a ground wire coming from a plug connected to indictor stalk (although the ground could be connected to any bare metal connected to the chassis)


After attaching the base of the gauge holder to the steering column I fed all the connections through the holder and errm.. connected them. If your ever using thin copper line be careful with it. Although it is very soft and easily malleable, if you bend it in one spot too much, of too often it will weaken, kink or snap. so when on raveling it from the coil do it slowly and gradually, and when working around tight corners try and bend it to the correct shape the first time.


As the mz21's have a motorised steering column that moves up and down everytime you get in or out of the car, i made sure to leave a nice progressive curve of the copper line from the gauge to just above the brake pedal, this *should* ensure there won't be enough bending on the line to cause any problems. To keep the line in place everywhere else, zip ties are your friend.

With all the connections done, and the gauge in it's holder here's the finished product.


Once running, I noticed something quite interesting. According to the TRSM, oil pressure in a 7MGTE should be about 5psi at idle, then rise to between 40 and 70psi at 3000RPM. As you can see in the below picture my oil pressure here was just below 40psi at idle and still dropping when the photo was taken. Generally it hovers around 20-25psi, and can rise up to about 60/70psi went stomping on the gas. I don't think the higher oil pressure at idle will be a problem and having done some browsing about see I’m not the only one who has higher than spec oil pressure. But I’m going to have do a bit more investigation to ensure it won't be a problem

 

[kemicalx]

28-09-2006, 05:21 PM

Bit of an update on this subject,

After having the car running fine for a week or so, I tried to hook up the standard tacho to one of the outputs on the EMS running a tacho signal, after this shit hit the fan. Once again erratic sensors readings, difficulty starting, etc etc etc ... I did get it to run at one stage again but the sensor readings were still flakey and really pissing me off.

Annnyway, one of the major problems i found was the readings from the water temp and air temp sensors,

with the both the sensors unplugged:
Engine temp =235c
Air temp = 31c

with engine temp plugged in, and air temp disconnected:
Engine temp = -10c
Air temp = 31c (unchanged)

with air temp plugged in, and engine temp disconnected:
Engine temp = -15c (This should remain 235c)
Air temp = 19c

I completely isolated the air temp wiring from the sensor to the EMS plug and it was not shorting with anything. So i concluded that there was infact something dodgey in the EMS and sent it off to be inspected and tested.

Peter at EMS said that the readings were defiantly wrong, but the only thing that he found wrong witht he unit itself was a large amount of dust and dirt over the CPU in it, after cleaning it up he said it was working fine again. So he sent it back, i wired it back in very slowly.. checking every sensor as i went, the loom untaped and the ems in the engine bay so i could isolate any wires. With power connected, all the sensor reading were spot on. And after retuning it (all my fuel and ignition maps had been wiped :S ) the car kicked over good as gold...

Sooo with that,

- I re-taped up the engine loom, installed it, checked the car for life - all good!
- Removed all the remaining mz21 wiring, re-taped it, installed, checked the car for life - all good!
-Moved the EMS back into the glove box, and neatened all the wiring up, checked the car for life, ALL GOOD!

The EMS works flawlessly, like you would expect any other standalone too. No signs of signal interference, accurate sensor reading.. And i think it is safe to say that the only real problems that have ever existed are the original looms gorunding and the damn CPU needed a blast from some contact cleaner.

Other than that, the intercooler i installed earlier had to be relocated a few centimeters higher as it's inlet from the compressor was sitting to low and had hit on our driveway, which in turn dinted the top of the intercooler and snapped the weld on the bracket...

with a bit more scrupulous angle grinding of the rear bracing (the bit that connects from the bottom of the car to the hood latch area) and the plastic of the front bar, some simple metal brackets extending from the two bolts that hold on the oil cooler hard lines and one hanging down from near the hood latch. The 100mm core now sits a good inch or more higher and so far hasn't scrapped on anything.



lookin fulleh sik bro

Atm, the car is at the local exhaust joint (South Geelong Exhaust if anyone cares) getting a 3" mandrel dump pipe installed, after that i think i'll install the boost control solenoid, and then it might be time to take it up for a proper dyno tune

 

[kemicalx]

24-10-2007, 12:30 PM

It's always a long time between updates for me, but lately i've just been collecting bits and pieces for my rebuild.

The few minor things I've done between the last post are, replacing the front brake lines with braided ones, I replaced the pads and greased the slides on the front calipers, The caliper banjo bolts were filthy, so i gave them a run over with some fine steel wool too. Yet to do the rears but have everything waiting in the shed.





Picked up a pair of dished SSR's for the back, and got them and a pair of the stockies powder coated to match, can only fit 225's on them.. but they'll do for now, am going to have to modify the rear guards to make them fit properly so I'm not sure if I'm going to keep them, apparently it isn't too complex to roll out the lip a inch or so..





I started work on my gearbox having picked up a complete rebuild kit with bearings, synchro's and seals. I have replaced the fubared bearing, along with all the other bearings in it.. Original synchro's have began glazing (most likely due to the use of redline shockproof.. thanks for the heads up Dong) I have also found some damage between the 1st gear set and the clutch hub beside 2nd gear. But am not too sure on what to do with it.. I've left the gearbox build for the time being.







In these pictures you can see the damage to the 1st gear set and although i didn't shatter the thrust washer it has taken a beating too.





edit - back home, added pictures

 

[kemicalx]

24-10-2007, 08:59 PM

Having collected up just about everything else i need as well as getting my block and cylinder head back from the machinist last week has allowed me to finally start work on the engine rebuild. I measured the piston to bore clearances last night along with the crank main and big end journals. Will continue measuring the oil clearance in the main and big end caps tonight..

Here are a few pictures of the bottom end, deck has been milled about .005" to increase the ring height, previously they were only protruding out between .005 - .007", They should all sit out of the deck by about .010" which will provide a better crush into the copper gasket.





This ring was just a test, it (and the others) will be laid once the rest of the bottom end is complete I'm ready to bolt the head back on, this time using ARP hardware.



All the pistons measured 83.35mm. Bore to skirt clearance were all around 0.16 except for cylinder 4 which was 0.19, not desirable, but not a real problem.





The crank has been undersized in the past, all main journals were 59.50mm, 0.23mm smaller than the undersize spec's in the tsrm. As i haven't taken the assembled bearing/main cap diameter I'm not sure if this is going to be a problem yet. Big end journals followed the same pattern at 51.49mm, 0.24mm smaller than spec. Once again i haven't measured the rods, but on inspection I can see the caps have been milled down in the past, presumably they'll be ok.



Thats about it for now,

Here's a picture of a few of the goodies i've been collecting

 

[kemicalx]

08-11-2007, 03:07 PM

Over the weekend I removed the oil squirters, blasted out the line bored oil gallery in the block with lots of degreaser, removed the gallery plugs from the crank and gave everything a thorough cleaning. The big ends had collected large deposits of sludge and fine metal filings so I got in there with a small flat head screw driver and lots more degreaser. Once everything was as clean as I could get it I refitted the oil squirters and crank plugs with a bit of thread locker, then got on to the task of installing the crank.



With a main cap and bearing installed and tensioned, the ID came in at 0.05mm bigger than the journals. So oil clearance looked like it would be fine. With the new bearings fitted and the main caps tensioned the crank spins effortlessly, and with a new thrust bearing installed there was no measurable end float as well which was good as well.





Video of me rotating the crank

One thing that did concern me was the oil channel going to the bearing on the small end of the oil pump drive, the hole that feeds it on the main cap is slightly off centre, and none of my cleveite bearings (aside from the slighter wider 1st one) have their oil hole off centre, when installed there is still enough of the oil gallery exposed to provide lubrication to the oil pump drive, but it still has me a little concerned.

I also started filing the end gap on the rings, each ring needs about 3mm taken off before I can even get them in the cylinder without them overlapping.. so it's slow work and as there's 12 to gap it's taking a little while.. 2 cylinders down, 4 more to go.. Will probably get on to the others tomorrow.

 

[kemicalx]

12-02-2008, 12:10 AM

With all the ring end gaps cut, top rings gapped to .0171" and the 2nd ring gapped to .020" i got to the process of installing them in the cylinders. The ring compressor set me back about $30 for Qualitool. The nylon tubing is there to stop the rod studs scuffing the cylinder walls or the crank pin.



With the pistons and rods in I measured the oil clearance between the oil pump drive shaft journals and the new bearings, according to the TSRM standard clearance is between 0.025-0.066mm, mine measured about 0.03mm (can't remember exactly) but it was reasonably tight. I also reattached the timing cover with two new seals, a new rear main and reinstalled the sump using ThreeBond 1207C



Then it was on to cleaning out any gunk that had built up in the receiver grooves milled in the deck and running a tap down the head bolt threads (m12x1.25 for referance sake) after which I got to installing the remaining 5 copper o-rings. One thing to note when doing this is the position of the ends of the o-rings. Apparently as a precautionary measure these should be placed as close to the head stud/bolt as possible and away from both oil and water galleries. Basically as close to the point on the head where the gasket is the least likely to leak or blow.



Using the supplied ARP assembly lube, i ran a thin film over the stud thread and wound them into the deck hand tight.



Next on the agenda are the stem seals in the cylinder head, I've done one so far and the original one didn't look to be in all that bad condition.. So I'm sort of wondering if it's really worth all the arsing about with the other 23 valves
Also have to reinstall the cams (journals are being linished at present) and then CC the combustion chambers so i can figure out what thickness gasket to get.



And a few other little bits i've been doing, Dropped the fuel tank and installed the walbro i picked up a while back, changed the fuel filter at the same time. I Ran some new permaseal blue around the rear of my new torsen and filled it with 1.3lts of Redline lightweight shockproof before installing it. (that was a prick of a job with the car only about 1 foot off the ground lol)









The 3" mild steel exhaust i picked up for the grand total of $50, was off an ma70 will need a bit of modification when i get to the point of installing it, cat will need modification and my dump pipe might need adjusting too.

 

[kemicalx]

19-03-2008, 10:58 PM

Have been working on the cylinder head a bit as of late, After getting my cams back from having the journals linished, i plastigauged them to make sure the oils clearances hadn't opened up too much. They measured up to about 0.06-0.07mm well under the maximum 0.13mm





Also had to cc the combustion chambers and piston tops in order to work out the compression ratio, and ideal head gasket thickness. This was done with a 10cc syringe, a piece of perspex with a 4mm hole drilled in it, some rubber grease for a seal and some motor oil. Stock 7mgte combustion chamber volume is 40cc, mine was 37.5cc which seemed right considering it had been machined a few times in the past. Stock piston volume is 19cc, which was what I got for my Ross pistons. Using the calculations that follow i worked out the compression ratio to 8.685:1 a bit over the factory 8.4:1, still not too sure whether or not it will be ok that high, but I don't really want to go any thicker than 2.0mm with the gasket. Also, considering it will be getting tuned anyway, I think I'll get away with it.







With the cams and compression ratio sorted I went about reinstalling all the buckets, shims and of course the cams. A quick blast with degreaser and a wipe down cleaned up the buckets and shims.. Then I just a applied a light coating of engine oil to the top and sides of the bucket before re-installing. I haven't checked the valve clearances yet, but I'll get around to it.







Fitted my new 550cc RC engineering injectors into the factory rail. Then fixed the rail to the head. I used a thin coat of petroleum jelly on the o-rings and the idolaters



Finally, a comparison of my old ct26, and the new 57 trim than arrived in th mail from the states last week. I think it looks ace! Should flow a fair bit more too, at least on the compressor side anyway.

 

[kemicalx]

And that is basically where i'm at now, I'll try and keep the thread updated frequently now Last night I installed the copper head gasket and the tensioned down the cylinder head (80ft-lbs). Will get to reinstalling all the engine accessories tonight nice to see it looking like an engine again lol.

 

[shaeff]

Copper headgasket? I didn't read super-carefully, but I'd assume you o-ringed the block?

 

[kemicalx]

yup

 

[shaeff]

Nicely done, sir. That's a really sweet project!