All the parts have now arrived and it’s almost time to put it together and I have a few questions.

The engine is an Alpina modified m30b35 that dropped a valve in around 2010 and was left out side by the previous owner due to the cost of repair. Looking at the damage I would guess it was over reved causing a rocker arm to slide of the valve shaft and break. It took out one valve and the corresponding piston. The engine has only done 30k miles from new. All the pistons were also damaged at the crown due to pre ignition from using low grade fuel.

The head has now been rebuilt, I had it crack tested and all was fine and it also had a very very light skim as a precaution. I had all the valve stems replaced and 2 new valves along with 1 new valve seat. I am also converting it to a mechanical rocker locks instead of the original springs that normally hold the valves in place.

The block I’ve had over-bored along with new forged 10-1 pistons, forged con rods along with arp bolts. The Alpina m30 uses bmw s38 conrods @144mm instead of standard m30 135mm conrods and shorter deck pistons. Not sure the advantage of this is but I went with the standard spec. My engine guy is telling me to buy standard size main and big end bearings as all the crank needs is a light polish.

My questions are

1. would it be advisable to have the crank ground and use oversize bearings? Or do I do as he advises and use standard size and a polish ?
2. After dropping a valve is it wise to have the crank shaft rebalanced?
3. are all good quality bearing shells much the same ? Do I go with standard bearings or is there a better alternative?
4. I will be converting from Bosch motronic to mega squirt 3 eventually and do I need to add any extra sensors while it’s apart , like knock sensors or anything else.
5. first start I’ve been told to use mineral oil rather than fully synthetic and only switch after it’s run in. The reason being that with fully synthetic oil it stops the engine from bedding in, is this true ?

Sorry about the long post, it’s not been the easiest rebuild!

Im currently changing out the valves on my 1.4 cgga vw engine and i accidentally drop 9 out of the 16 tappets, i didnt drop them on the floor or anything but they are all mixed up. What should I do?

Vehicle: 1985 GMC G3500 vandura. The engine is in the cab. Sort of important because any and all sound echoes.

How would I go about diagnosing the sound. I rebuilt my Chevy 350 and it runs great despite the title. I've been working on it for years. I'm so close to driving this beast.

There's a ticking/knocking but I can't differentiate whether it's the fuel injectors from the sniper 2 or it's in the valve train. The kicker is that it sounds like 7 and 8 are the loudest but that's in the cab of the vehicle and the ticking from the fuel injectors permiates through/with it.

I've heard of people running the engine without the valve covers on but I'm not really wanting to do that. I'm sure oil goes everywhere? Maybe damage the engine? And I had miner oil leaking from the corners of the valve covers so I siliconed sealed both sides. Fixed that issue but if I have to remove the covers it's going to be a pain.

I'll get a different video today and see if I can capture and put my phone in different areas but it's not the greatest.

1966 tiger with 289 need help finding sites for a full rebuild of the 289 original engine . It has been sitting for 20 plus years . I’m able to move the crank half way each way and it gets stuck. Removed the starter and the valve covers loosened all the rockers and still same amount of play. This is my first rebuild of any kind and will take and advice

My BIL started getting white smoke and had rust water all over his engine bay. I assumed this was a blown head gasket but I'm second guessing myself. I know this is smoked (also I bent it pulling the head off) but is it blown? Should I pull the other head off?

Update from previous post: got spark, got fuel. Some fumes do come out from exhaust.

Things I've done:

-Checked timing

-Checked spark

-Checked fuel lines

-Tried various batteries

-Adjustment of CAS made it tick over faster and less sluggish

Still no go...

Hello all,

I will be building my 2nd engine come this winter 2.3L Mazda MZR. I built an engine about 18 months ago (2.3L Mazda non-turbo)just off of this forum, YouTube, and a Haynes manual, checked a couples clearances. But I certainly did not require the depth of knowledge to do as thorough work as I would have liked to.

Does anyone have literature recommendations for the general procedures of engine building/clearance checking, and anything else I might need to know?

Currently I have purchased and begun reading Mike Mavrigian's Modern engine blueprinting techniques. If anyone has more recommendations, that would be appreciated.

I am seeking tooling as well if anyone has brand recommendations, I have calipers and micrometers and dial gauge with attachments. I am missing a telescoping bore gauge, and anything else I might need.

Last thing, I am also in the market for some large V-blocks that are suitable for checking crankshaft runout. Such as the ones supplied by CCA racing(currently on back order) and ABS products(over twice the price of CCA, would prefer to find something cheaper)

Thank you to all in advance!

Hello, I have been practicing honing on a used cast iron cylinder liner. Is it good enough to do it in my car? I am only trying to deglaze the surface. I used a 3 stone hone.

Took my 4.6 aluminum heads and block to get cleaned and it looks like they used whatever they could find to clean my heads. Are these really that bad or am i overreacting?

Hi all 1.8 mx5 mk1 (na) first time rebuilding, got fuel, spark and air. However not starting. Occasional pops I guess from gas in exhaust?

Installed the first bearing on my 2007 gen 4 5.3 but it doesn’t line up perfectly with the hole, I used durabond ch-25 bearings, the rest perfectly line up, is that normal or did I order the wrong ones?

Quick question, I recently finished building an LS3 engine in a 4th gen F-body with a new 10295 pump, bearings, cam, and everything else. The crank bearing clearance ended up being 0.0025 in. When I start the engine, it produces 45 psi of oil pressure. However, after driving and the oil temperature reaching 205f, the oil pressure drops to 20 psi at 500 rpm idle. At 750 rpm, the oil pressure increases to 30 psi, and at 1000 rpm, it reaches 40 psi. Anything above 1000 rpm is fine. I think that the loose crank bearing clearance is the cause of this issue since I am using Driven BR30 oil. Would this be a reasonable assumption? Should I put a 40 weight oil? 0W-40, 5W-40, 10W-40?

Not the first engine I’ve built but this one has been giving me issues so I’m not willing to take any chances.

Crank was just turned and the block align honed by the machine shop. Main bearing clearances are .0022” and thrust clearance is .003”, checked using a feeler gauge.

With all the caps torqued down the crank spins pretty freely, but makes a very faint noise in the same spot on every rotation. I didn’t feel good about it so took it all apart to check the bearings and thrust surfaces and none of them had any witness marks on them.

Engine is a Ford 4.0 OHV out of a Ranger. I’m leaning towards it being fine but want to be 100% sure

So I really wanted to get my car running again because i missed ot so much, so I bought the cheapest olds 350 I could find. it was 300 with a transmission, came from a 77 seville with 93k and was sitting for 15 years but ran when it was parked. And I know that it was a gamble and I may have lost on it, But I dont plan on keeping this motor for long. I do have the original 350 that I would like to build, but it has pretty worn bores, needs a cam or regrind, and maybe need to have its crank turned or at least polished. So would it be worth it or even possible to clean the the motor and have it running for a decent amount time. If thats not possible I was thinking I could just steal the crank and cam I shove it in my other olds, but ither suggestions are appreciated.

Edit: Some more context here for the resources i currently posses: I have quite a few extra parts i can use from my original 69 350 such as a metal timing chain, exhaust manifolds, intake manifolds, oil pan, water pump, oil pumps, misc bolts and brackets.

I also need to change the intake because the seville 350s came with port injection shockingly enough and i plan to use that manifold in my og motor but i have to replace it to get it running in 69.

I also have my olds cylinder heads from the original motor and they have 68cc vs the new motors 77-79 chamber, but the new heads have 1/2" head bolts vs the old 7/16", and i could widen the old head bolt holes to 1/2" and it would only cost 100, but I don't know if theres a way to use those heads with large bolt holes on an old block with smaller thread holes.

Now Ive decided to take apart most of the motor and im going to clean it first and ive gotten a lot of different suggestions so im curious which of these you guys think would work best.

1. Purple power degreaser and than rinse with water.
2. Oven cleaner than rinse with water.
3. diesel wash
4. B12 chemtool

I’m currently trying to refurbish the intake manifold off of a junkyard Jeep 4.0. Wire brushed and degreased it to get rid of the corrosion and sludge built up on the outside of it. I specifically avoided using anything abrasive inside the runners and have instead just been hitting it with brake cleaner and rags. Most of the sludge is out and I’ve rinsed the runners out multiple times, and I might be overly paranoid but it looks like there might be some very fine shiny particles embedded in some of the carbon/sludge buildup in them. From my understanding aluminum dust would likely just combust if it got into the combustion chamber and isn’t much different from dust that would make its way in past an air filter, but I’m planning on cleaning this intake and selling it, and I don’t want to risk causing engine damage due to my attempt at cleaning up an otherwise good intake. Thanks in advance.

I spun a rod bearing on my fully built all motor k24a2. I would like suggestions on my following options, which ultimately boil down to predisposing myself to subsequent spun bearings due to trapped debris.

I have two spare, unopened, k24a2.

Plan 1) pull crankshaft from spare engine, polish and balance, purchase single replacement rod, bearings, and clean oil galleries best I can, but conduct completely dissembley.- my machinist tried talking me out of this idea, citing its difficult to thoroughly clean oil galleries even with ultrasonic cleaning.

Plan 2) pull goodies from engine: cams, VTC gear, ported oil pump from built engine, leaving behind rods and high compression pistons; and install onto spare k24a2.- leaving bottom end stock.

Plan 3) install stock k24a2, use other spare block to slowly re-build engine.

Thanks!

Edit I’ve sorted it now

Yeah Nahh honestly I’ll take any ideas at this point 😭.

Anyone have a clue what is happening?

Hey yall kinda my first engine rebuild that I’ve done without taking to a machine shop, just did the short block and my first iron as well. What’s the right procedure to break in the short block rebuild for my 1998 Mazda b2500? Same engine as the 4cyl 98-02 rangers. Ford/mazda Lima engine, iron block iron head sohc. Recommends for break in oils or additives welcome aswell Tia 💙

What are some other options for making under 500hp. I want reliable week end cars and coffee with an occasional burn out to scare the wife lol. Open to other suggestions.

Anyone have any thoughts on a 4.7l with a big cam and turbo?
I don’t wanna get into the build and release it’s pointless when I can engine swap.

I picked up the VW tdi block several months ago but was not aloud to store it in the apartment. It got rusty from sitting. Does the waterpump sealing surface pump sealing surface look like it will seal? If not is there a remedy that can repair/smooth out the pitting on that surface? I intend to do a full rebuild on this motor in the near future as well.

This is a dumb question, but what are the chances of me using oil to lube main bolts and that oil pooling up at the bottom of the bolt hole and causing the block to crack when I torque them?

Working on an older engine and got thinking about this which parts do you guys automatically replace during a rebuild, even if they technically still look usable, rod bolts, head bolts, timing components, oil pump, stuff like that?

Where do you draw the line between still good VS not worth the risk?

I was wondering if anyone could tell me what this number is stamped on the crankshaft? It’s a Ford 400 engine.