Bumble is poorly....

If you drive hard there should be more oil splashing about anyway...
I dont think the R/D was an option 5 years ago anyway, obviously been evo,d but like i say mine have been fine and the small ends were mark free..
Now they are available it would be daft not to get them as every little helps..
 
I think the rifle drilling is deffo worth doing, and if I had known back then then I would have fitted them - obviously.

BUT, no-one really knew, and it's only now that the IE rods have been fitted for some time and have been in service that the issues have become apparent.

Based on people's experiences, fitting rifle drilled rods seems the obvious thing to do based on the fact that the OEM rods were drilled as Bill pointed out earlier.

Hindsight is a wonderful, yet completely useless, thing.
 
s3dave said:
If you drive hard there should be more oil splashing about anyway...
I dont think the R/D was an option 5 years ago anyway, obviously been evo,d but like i say mine have been fine and the small ends were mark free..
Now they are available it would be daft not to get them as every little helps..
Click to expand...
rifle drilled rods were available back in 2004 when I 1st bought my set...
I was too cheap to extend to buying some back then..
rattled from its new build in 2005.. but never got any better/worse until it finally dropped a valve on me in 2010.. JE tool steel pins/Je rods on that engine tho also so pin wear may have been abated from harder material perhaps. Rods were fine, just rebushed them and used on another build.
Pauter rods back then were rifle drilled.. juts more £ than I could afford at the time.

more choice now, but folks buying on price alone will choose non rifle drilled most of the time, unless they see threads like this and think Hmmmmm.. maybe its worth the extra £ for me
 
Welly said:
Hindsight is a wonderful, yet completely useless, thing.
Click to expand...

its not heindsight when rd rods have been an option for years tho wellyboots

2004 I bought my first set for mine (non rifled) - Eurospec ones.
I could have bought pauters back then rifle drilled.. could'nt afford them

lots of choice of makes now in various flavours give peeps more options
 
They're cheap enough anyway. As I said before, CTS in the states sell the rifle drilled for ~$530 delivered here so should be about the same to the UK.
 
Ahhh well. When all is said and done, over had 35000 miles out of them over 2 years... that's the way it goes.

Live, learn, improve.

Hoping the rods pitch up before the end of the wweek ideally. Would at least like to get the bottom end in!
 
Westy said:
You say that, but once you've forked out for all the other rebuild parts, head refurb, clutch flywheel, etc, etc. A £100+ saving is nice :)
Click to expand...

So is about £500 from your favourite parts man :p
 
looks like im selling my non rifle drilled I.E conrods then a matter of time and dont fancy doing my engine all again when done mi thinks, ebay it is.


welly where did u get the piston rings from pal
 
I pick mine up from ALD next week welly I'll post pic for u to see.

The rods you have bought mate where did u get them from want to sell my non rifle drilled ones get the rifle drilled ones so I'm not taking engine apart again a year or so down line
 
s3gazz said:
I pick mine up from ALD next week welly I'll post pic for u to see.

The rods you have bought mate where did u get them from want to sell my non rifle drilled ones get the rifle drilled ones so I'm not taking engine apart again a year or so down line
Click to expand...

I go mine from backdraft Motorsport as they are one of the biggest uk distributors of IE stuff.
 
Sooo then, whilst waiting for the rods to arrive I decided I should get on and fit some stuff to the block so I at least feel like it's getting somewhere.

Fitted the oil filter housing, cleaned out the ming from the oil cooler and refitted that also with a new filter. Bolted and torqued both the knock sensors and just various other fannying around bits and bobs.

I cleaned the ring lands on the pistons I'm using the other night at the dining room table (better than watching Eastenders).

Gapped all the rings last night. Well, when I say gapped, I didn't actually need to due to existing bore wear. Ring gaps ended up at about 0.017" for the top ring, 0.019" for the second and about 0.017" for the oil ring. I'm happy enough with those gaps to be fair, and it saved a truck load of work as well which is nice.

Fitted the new rings to the pistons so they are now all set to go as well....
 
I hope mine are like this when I come to do them as well!

Gapping the rings, like you guys, is one of the things I'm not keen on doing.

Perhaps I could just keep running the flex hone up and down until the ring gaps come in :) haha
 
All in same boat then with gapping the rings time consuming or what ha carny wait to get rest of my bit and crack on what are the tolerance levels guys
 
no, you're probably thinking of the charcoal canister solenoid operating, which is nothing to worry about.

Wellys sounded like a bag of spanners :p
 
Prawn said:
no, you're probably thinking of the charcoal canister solenoid operating, which is nothing to worry about.

Wellys sounded like a bag of spanners :p
Click to expand...

lol, that it did. She wasn't sounding very happy lets put it that way.
 
OK, just a quick update to let you know that NOTHING has happened.

Waiting on the rods currently... hoping that they will hurry the f**k up and deliver them. Bottom end is now waiting for them, and nothing else.

My head went MIA over the weekend. Got sent Next Day on Thursday to ALD and then promptly never turned up. Called the courier people on Saturday and went ballistic at them. Head has now been located and basically was sent to the wrong depot. Well done then...

Out for delivery today hopefully.

Getting depressed having this engine sat on the stand waiting to be abused.

Been giving some thoughts to run in and the process I want to use - and have been doing some reading...

This is the method I plan to use and the reasons why are all there if you read in.

Break In Secrets--How To Break In New Motorcycle and Car Engines For More Power
 
Run it in by revving it high but on low boost. They say the first 20 miles are the most important for getting a good seal on the rings.

It also tells you to not let the car idle and to just go and drive it but I had to spend about 40 mins bleeding the ****** coolant system before I could drive mine. Had an epic air lock somewhere.
 
OK so things chug along as time goes by....

Still waiting on rods.

Couriers have been a nightmare with my head however all now in hand and has finally made it to Leeds after a tour of the UK.

On removal of the exhaust manifold from the head I noticed that a piece of the spiggot that seals the manifold and turbo gasketless has broken off. That's a bit of a problem an does explain the slight blow that has appeared over the last few months.

Was initially concerned that the missing piece of stainless had gone through the turbine however whipping the exhaust housing off and examining the turbine shows no damage thank god....

Bill is now in the process of resolving the issue with the spiggot on the mani by replacing it. In fairness, the FP Green and that mani never mated together very well so this is a blessing in disguise. Looking forward to a hopefully blow free car.

Also, there *used* to be a divider in my downpipe mouth.... which I eventually noticed wasn't there. This isn't the best thing in the world as it means that bit of stainless is hanging about somewhere in my backbox, unless she fired it out at another motorist...

Couple of photos from Bill's earlier as he attacks the mani with a grinder...


38.jpg


39.jpg


40.jpg


Praying to god that the rods pitch up tomorrow or Friday, I want to get the bottom end done and in.
 
​Hope this sorts it all out Welly. :) x
 
Finally got confirmation that the rods are now in the uk after a slight delay in customs... That will no doubt land me with a hefty charge!

Fingers crossed they will be delivered tomorrow so i can actually complete the bottom and and get it in!

Anyway, got a text from Billsaying that the manifold and downpipe were all sorted. So today ive been up to get them :). Basically, he has done a bang up job with it. The original spiggot ring that was damaged has been binned and the flange flattened. Then a new stainless spiggot has been welded on in its place. This new one is such a great fit into the turbos counterbore that when i unbolted it i couldnt actuallymseperate the two. Fingers crossed that this should result in a blow free fit!

Bill also welded into the downpipes mouth a new seperator to keep the wastegate and turbine gasses seperated. This helps spool quite a lot to be fair. The original config did have one but that seperator seems to have disappeared off down into the exhaust system somewhere.... :-/.

Looking forward to hopefully getting the rods tomorrow and also recieving the head back from ALD when it arrives. Things finally on the move.

A few photos...

41.jpg


42.jpg


43.jpg


44.jpg


45.jpg
 
OK then, we have a built bottom end :) Yay!

Rods arrived yesterday so I got home and cracked on....

Just photos today:

47.jpg


48.jpg


50.jpg


51.jpg


52.jpg


53.jpg


54.jpg


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56.jpg


57.jpg


58.jpg
 
Westy said:
So, going on the rate you can build an engine, you'll have this running in by the weekend? ;)
Click to expand...

I would love to have the time this week dude to be fair.

Now waiting on the head which is finished (Thanks Andrew@ALD :thumbsup:) to make it's return.

Hoping to at least get the bulk of it done by the end of the weekend.
 
Welly said:
I would love to have the time this week dude to be fair.

Now waiting on the head which is finished (Thanks Andrew@ALD :thumbsup:) to make it's return.

Hoping to at least get the bulk of it done by the end of the weekend.
Click to expand...

You can get the block back on the mounts while you're waiting for the head. Have you got new engine mounts going in?
 
Looking good!
Please let us know how the porting affected to spool up etc!
 
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