1GR-FE rebuild

My apologies for not following along terribly close!

Yeah, I think you can be reasonably sure the pitting was from something in the engines past given what you're describing. Something to definitely keep an eye on and now that you have the tools, we can certainly stay on top of it.

While it's there, it's certainly not the worst I've seen. And what is there is actually pretty light all things considered. As fragile as these pistons are, it's good that you didn't break a ring land.

 

Is this truck back together and running yet or what?

oh, hi!

 

The pitting to me looks awfully sharp edged to be detonation. I’m guessing that some debrisses went thru this fuckah.
No mattah. You gots new bits eh?

 

No not yet. Machine shop has the block still. They say they can get liners. They are just waiting on a time frame.
Well the pitting seemed to be cover by all the carbon and I did not see it a first.
I was going to add later about the bits. But I have:
Molnar rods, chrome moly forged
Pistons, hypereutectic. If that is spelt correct. That are .020" over
Hasting rings.
The heads are stock with 3degree exhaust cam gears. I did have them cleaned and install new vitron valve guide seals
The block is being machined and cast iron liners pressed in. Not the same as the Darton mid sleeves.
I sent the crank and rotating assembly out to be balanced.
Main bearings are king bearings
Rod bearings are Mahle bearings, could not find King rod bearings.
"What a time to rebuild an engine"
Waiting to get new main bolts. They measure good, but I stress torquing them to check for the clearance with new bearings.
New oil pump and timing cover. "Thought mine was damaged, due to low spots in the sealing surface. Found out it's normal the hard way".
I had replaced all the chains and tensioner about 2 years ago, so I will keep the chains and replace the tensioners.
I have installed an electric fan l, rates for 850 watts. It is out of an 2018 plus Camaro.
I will be installing Bozen solid engine mounts.
I will be installing a new set of coils. 170k ish for the stock set is due , (in my opinion).
I will be replacing the VVT solenoids, why not with a engine rebuild.

 

Hate to be that guy but someone earlier in the thread suggested oil analysis - would that have caught the cat blowback since it would have been some weird metals in there, not typical for bearings/journals?

 

I would say yes. But the thing is the last oil change was good then this one was not. Even if I took a sample of this last oil change with the metal in it to send it in, I would still have to tear down to see the extent of the damage. If I did a sample every oil change then I may have found it sooner and then just did an engine flush or two.

 

The other fallacy of the oil analysis. It only happens at every oil change. Some change oil at 5000 miles, others at 10,000.

The problem could have started less than 1000 miles into the change interval. Damage can happen very quickly.

 

Yeah the tear down point is a good one, would take some balls to decide it's the cat, fix that and then trust everything is ok after that amount of glitter.

Also true - I haven't heard of anyone actually catching something early because of analysis but I also don't follow that kind of stuff very closely.

 

Here is a little up date. I contacted the machine shop about my block. Mind you they have told me they have sleeves and are working on it for 3 weeks now. Friday they told me the sleeves were too short. Their supplier told them that they don't have the sleeves need, they don't know when they will have them or if. The machine shop told me to look for sleeves and they can put them in. So now that I've been bullshitted for weeks and they had my block for two months. I will be picking it up tomorrow with only a cleaning and pressure testing done on it. I have been looking into sleeve options and everything is 4 plus weeks out, at best. I will measure the bores myself to make sure I can still run a stock diameter piston. What a time to break an engine. I'm hoping to get rebuilding soon, but I have to adapt and over come the hiccups and hurdles.

I ask that everyone keep their thoughts and comments about the machine shop out of the thread please.

 

If the stock bore is fine it doesn't seem you're really gaining much from going though fitting a new dry sleeve. I went down a deep rabbit hole of researching these recently. I was left wondering how much material has to be removed from the block to remove the stock spiny sleeves. Are you gaining thicker iron bores after-all, especially with oversize pistons? Stuff only the machine shop could answer. It's not doing anything to address the open deck situation. Hope you have better luck moving forward!

 

The sleeves would be thicker that to OE cast in liner. One of the options I was looking at was 4mm, some 1/8", 3/16" thick. Most say you can do .060 over stock bore. While I was trying to go .020 over that would have machined out the OE liner. I have heard one shop say you can do .010 over and be ok, but that is the only info of that I could find. So I just have to ignore that until proven or confirmed. From my understanding the OE liner is only about 3-4mil thick. But yes the dry sleeves do not address to open deck, but with the thicker sleeves it will add some strength. Capable on handling high boost, no. For what my guess would be, that 99% of us in here it would work.

 

Yep those sleeves are crazy thin but I have still yet to see any evidence of them being an issue before the open deck is. Meanwhile the Honda guys laughing us doing 150+HP per cylinder on stock bottom end. I'm really leaning toward sending mine off to CSS to get patched up.

 

On a good note, LC engineering had some ARP head studs in stock. So I pickup up a set. Might as well upgrade what I can. LOL!

 

Wow. They finally got back in stock!

 

following.

 

Note: I will post a couple of pictures after I write this post. I will edit so they are with this post. (pics are on the phone)

I picked up my block this morning and it had to rain on me. So my evening consisted of taking scotch brite to all the iron parts to get the rust off. I then cleaned off any excess dust and coated everything with WD-40 to prevent future rust. "and the fun never stops with this project." LOL.
After all this time at the machine shop they mentioned it looks like they could bore the stock cylinder .010" over maybe even .020". After touching up the block I started to look at cylinder walls and the edges of the liners to see for myself and understand why they think the stock liners could be bored. I seen from the bottom of the cylinder where the edge of the liner was sticking out passed the aluminum.
I thought, " well I'll be damned". I started to pick at the aluminum at the bottom of the cylinder to see if I could find the edge. I think I did find the edge. I seen a flat edge and then a taper. I think the the taper I seen might be the "spiny type liners"
Now for the fun brain storming. As long as they are not machined pass the point where the taper start, then I should be able to bore the cylinders. Now, now, I know I need to leave some material before the taper. I took a few pictures of it. In one of the pictures I placed a .030" feeler gauge next to the liner as reference. Without measuring it, "I don't have a way", it looks to be about .030" thick. This being said in theory I can bore the cylinders to .020" over for the pistons I have. This would leave .020" left on the walls.
I'm sure some will ask how that is. It is because you take off half the thickness in a radius so when the full circle is completed it will be the size you want.
How far con one safely go??? Who has a junk engine block for trial and error?
Now for an adult beverage.


Bottom


The taper after the flat edge


.030 feeler gauge reference

Top of cylinder
Not that the liner stops 3.5mm before the top.

 

Is that the "Pro" ARP head stud set listed on their site? Wasn't there another brand of ARP studs available at one time?

 

Yes, they are their pro head studs.
I don't know of another brand other than OE replacement.

 

I remember LCE was boring engines to .020" over, for a lot of UAE customers. Years ago.

 

I am looking at another shop and thinking I may try to bore it instead of buying another set of pistons.