Archive for April, 2009

3

D16Z6 Main Cap Girdle Notching

By
Bart Piotrowski
– April 30, 2009Posted in: Automotive & Garage

After bolting on the connecting rods I bolted on the main cap girdle and noticed that I have very little room between my ARP rod bolt and the girdle so I had no choice but to notch the girdle.

D16 Main Cap Girdle Dremel Tungston Carbide Cutter Bit

As you can see on the image above the space between the ARP rod bolt and the Main Cap Girdle is not very much. I used my new Dremel Tungston Carbide Cutter bit to notch what I needed.

D16 Main Cap Girdle Notching D16 Main Cap Girdle Notching

Up top on the right you can see the first step of my notching process and then the the final job on the right. I didn’t want to take too much off at first so I notched only a little bit of the girdle but then after bolting it back on the engine, I realized I needed way more and went back to notching it.

D16 Main Cap Girdle Notch D16 Main Cap Girdle Notch

As you can see in the images above that I have way more room for the bolt to clear after notching which makes me feel a bit more at ease when pushing so much horsepower through this engine.

Tags: 92-95 Honda Civic, D16Z6, D16Z6 Turbo Build, Engine Rebuild
0

D16Z6 Rod Bearing Clearance Check

By
Bart Piotrowski
– April 29, 2009Posted in: Automotive & Garage

Last weekend I had some time to check the connecting rod bearing clearance which was again interesting to do. All 4 of the rod bearings were in the .0013-.0015″ clearance range which is a bit on the tight side but still within limits for this turbo build engine.

D16 bearings D16 Bearing Cap

Just like the main bearings I placed a piece of plastigage on the crank journals and tightened up the rods bolts slowly. I made sure I did them evenly to make sure the rod cap went on straight. I already had ARP molly lube on the threads and head of the bolts from the machine shop so I tightened the bolts up to 25ft-lbs first then to 43ft-lbs.

plastigage D16 Vitara Bottom end

I loosened of the bolts with a 2 stage process and knocked of the caps with a piece of wood being very carefull. I then used the Green Clevite’s Plastigage to check the rod bearing clearances which were all around .0013 to .0015″.  On the right is another picture of my bottom end with my rod caps on.

Tags: 92-95 Honda Civic, D16, D16Z6, D16Z6 Turbo Build, Engine Rebuild, Rod Clearance Check
0

New Dremel Tungsten Carbide Cutter Bit

By
Bart Piotrowski
– April 24, 2009Posted in: Automotive & Garage

Not too much progress on the engine today but I did do some more research on the forums and found out that I will have to notch my Main Caps/Girdle to have proper clearance from the connecting rods. So I looked around and found the proper Dremel 9901 Tungsten Carbide Cutter Bit at Home Depot today so this should help me notch the main caps  a lot faster and use less bits in the process.

Dremel 9901 Tungsten Carbide Cutter Bit

Tags: Carbide Bit Cutter, Ultimate Garage
2

New Piston Ring Compressor and C-Clip Pliers

By
Bart Piotrowski
– April 23, 2009Posted in: Automotive & Garage

I picked up some much needed tools yesterday which will be very important for the next step in my D16 engine rebuild. I got them up at Princess Auto and they were actually quite affordable.

piston ring compressor

The piston ring compressor is a very important tool when your ready to insert the pistons into the cylinders. It keeps the rings compressed and aligned for easy insertion of the piston into the cylinder.
c-clip pliers

These C-Clip pliers are very important as I will need them to insert the c-clip into the piston once I get the wrist pin aligned in the piston head. As you can see they have really fine point tips which are only used for C-Clips and not for general purpose use.

Tags: Ultimate Garage
1

D16Z6 Main Bearing Clearance Check

By
Bart Piotrowski
– April 22, 2009Posted in: Automotive & Garage

Last Sunday I got around to checking the main bearing clearances and got some good results. All 5 of my main bearings were in the .0013-.0015″ range which is within the limits of what it’s suppose to be. I had some time today so I posted how it all went.

D16 bearings plastigage

I wiped off the area where the bearings sit in the block and placed the new bearings in place. I then used the Green Clevite’s Plastigage to check the clearances

plastigage plastigage

I cut a small piece of the plastigage and placed it across all the journals

D16 main caps plastigage

I then put the other half of the bearings on the main caps.  As you can see in the picture on the right the plastigage is barely visible.

D16 Main Cap bolt D16 Main cap bolt

Two of the main cap bolts in the D16Z6 are longer then the others so I made sure I inserted them in the 2 middle holes on the main caps. I remembered to lubricate the bolts and the washers in oil for better torque feel.

D16 Main Cap Torque sequence D16 Main Cap Torque

Working from the middle I started finger tightening all the bolts first, then to 18 Ft-lbs then to 38 Ft-lbs. Once they were all tight I loosened all the bolts in the same pattern and took off the main caps.

plastigage

Then I checked the journals using the plastigage and mine were reading .0013″ to .0015″ which is way within limits for my D16Z6 block.

Tags: 92-95 Honda Civic, Bearing Clearance Check, D16Z6, D16Z6 Turbo Build, Engine Block, Engine Rebuild, Plastigage
0

My Civic Mods

By
Bart Piotrowski
– April 15, 2009Posted in: Automotive & Garage

Engine / Performance

JDM D16A VTEC Engine

Honda P28 ECU

Centerforce Dual Friction Clutch

Vibrant Short Ram Intake

NGK Blue Ignition Wires

Megan Racing 4-2-1 Chrome Header

2.5″ Exhaust with High Flow Resonator

Magnaflow Muffler with Chrome Tip

Aluminum Radiator

B&M Fuel Pressure Gauge

Interior

Custom Center Gauge Pod – Water Temp / Oil Temp / Voltage – Coming Soon

AutoMeter Boost Gauge – Need left pillar for install

Suspension / Brakes / Wheels

Dropzone Lowering Shocks + Coilovers

Red Painted Calipers and Drums

15″ Sorat 5 Spoke Aluminum Wheels

195/50 Bridgestone Fuzion ZRi Tires

Exterior

Projector Headlights

Fiber Glass Vented Fenders – Waiting for Paintjob

Carbon Fiber Hood – Waiting for Paintjob

Audio / Security

Alpine Head Unit

10″ Alpine Type-S Sub

Sony 1200W Mono Amp

Delphi XM Radio

Clifford Alarm

Tags: 1993 Honda Civic Project, 92-95 Honda Civic
0

Driven to Perform Cancelled This Year For BC Residents

By
Bart Piotrowski
– April 12, 2009Posted in: Automotive & Garage

I was checking into any more info about this years Driven to Perform show at BC Place Stadium and stumbled upon some bad news. The DTP show is suspended this year due to the global economic situation and the auto industry taking such a big hit. I was really eager to go and see this year’s event and this news is really disappointing to hear but more importantly lots of businesses that were suppose to be at this years show will definetly be affected by this news. Hopefully next year the situation will get better and the Driven to Perform event will be back at BC Place Stadium to inspire and wow future car enthusiasts.

Click Here for the Link to the Press Release from DTP about this cancellation.

Tags: Car Shows
7

D16Z6 Block and Parts are Back From Machine Shop

By
Bart Piotrowski
– April 11, 2009Posted in: Automotive & Garage

I finally got my D16Z6 engine block back  from the machine shop yesterday and took a bunch of pictures to post up the blog. 

D16 Block Guard Installed D16 Block Guard Installed

As you can see the Block Guard is nicely installed in my D16 Block.

D16Z6 Block Guard Installed D16Z6 Block Guard Installed

The machine shop did a very nice job on boring and honing out the cylinders.

D16Z6 Block Guard Installed D16Z6 Block Guard Installed

After the top of the block was decked you can see the sleeves are more visible.

The main bearing cap is nice and clean after hot tanking process.

The main bearing bores were checked by machine shop to make sure they are true.

The Crankshaft was micropolished and looks really nice now.

FJ R SPEC Connecting Rods and Vitara Pistons FJ R SPEC Connecting Rods and Vitara Pistons

The FJ R SPEC Connecting rods and Vitara Pistons look really sharp in these pictures.

FJ R SPEC Connecting rods and Vitara Pistons

My next step will be to plastiguage the main bearings.

Tags: 92-95 Honda Civic, D16Z6, D16Z6 Turbo Build, Engine Rebuild
5

Vancouver Auto Show 2009

By
Bart Piotrowski
– April 2, 2009Posted in: Automotive & Garage

I went to the Vancouver Auto Show today and took some pictures of some vehicles and thought I would share them here.


Tags: Car Shows
0

March 2009 Top EntreCard Droppers

By
Bart Piotrowski
– April 1, 2009Posted in: Blogging & WordPress

Below is the list of wonderbart.com top Entrecard droppers for March 2009. Thanks to all that have dropped on my site.

Dropper # of drops
Life’s A Pizza Pie 30
Freebie Reporter 30
BMWF1Blog 30
Big Boys Have Toys Too 30
Blogger Templates 30
Random Ramblings 29
All blogspot templates 29
Computer Aid 28
All contests 28
Traceys Blog 28

Tags: Entrecard