Rebuilding Engine

[willxs 0]

Ive got an S16 engine im going to rebuild with all new bearings, rings, seals etc and am wondering whether its something worth paying someone to do or to have a crack at it myself.

 

ive not to bad when it comes to mechanics, ive done all the previous work on the car myself but havent ever fully rebuilt an engine.

 

Is there more to it than just taking nuts and bolts off and gettin the correct torque settings? and is it something worth paying a garage to do?

 

 

Cheers, Will

[luggy 13]

Hi Will

Do it yourself if your confident enough, I would only do the top end, HG, skim, de coke, stem seals and re-lap the valve seats, you can check the the liners when the heads off, if theres not a noticeable ridge where the pistons are at TDC then I wouldnt bother with rings, pistons or liners. Same with the bottom end whip off the big end caps at flywheel end and belt end, if theres no scoring dont bother changing the big end bearings and getting the crank reground unless youve been informed otherwise. If it aint broked dont fix it.

 

Luggy

Edited November 11, 2006 by luggy

[willxs 0]

i know what your saying about the 'if it aint broke dont fix it' but i think the bearings are worth replacing for the 'prevention is better than cure'.

 

Guess its something for me to have a go at. just take my time.

[AJC 0]

have a go your self pal

[Normski 1]

Get yourself a Haynes manual and away you go!

[Grahamrally 0]

There is a point to paying someone to do the job. It's for their expertees and knowledge, whether that is worth it to you or not is what you will have to decide. Rebuilding an engine is not a fantastically hard job, doing it to a very high level of precision and being able to spot faults and problems that need sorting is the real expertees.

 

If there is anything I've learnt from the numerous engine builds I've done it is to never do a job by halves. If you want the engine to last and you want to be confident in it's construction then you have to make sure you have covered every eventuality.

 

I've built several competition engines to a reasonable standard for myself and cut a corner on something which has always ended in a failure of that component that I didn't do properly in the first place. Whenever I take an engine apart now, I will rebuild the top end completely, check measure and check again all tolerances on the bottom end, ovality of the conrods, measurements of the crank for ovality, scores, lines, abnormal instances of anything really until I am absolutely satisfied I can put the engine back together and be confident it will run sweetly.

 

That said, if the engine works now without fault, then the chances are if you take it apart and put it back together carefully it will continue to work faultlessly. If you are going to the extent to take the head off then you might as well pop the sump off and take the pistons out and at least do piston rings and bearings, presuming liners and crank look in really good condition. If you don't do it thoroughly you'll only have to do it again, so just make sure you're happy that you can do as good a job as you want to be done on your engine.