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Monkeyed

Monkeyed

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Aspen500 said:
Looks like when my the rings didn't seat on cyl #4 on my Aspen engine the first time I built it (built it again 150 miles later.................). Piston and chamber were spotlessly clean.
Click to expand...

Could be, I spent countless hours chasing my tail with the fuel map on that thing.. Still have to figure out wtf I'm going to do with it.
 
Aspen500

Aspen500

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The chamber, valves and piston were clean and shiny in cyl 4. Turns out, none of the rings really seated right. I never did do a comp/leak down test. It was the excessive crankcase pressure and metallic in the oil always. Was from the cylinder walls and rings. Also it never seemed to run right. Spark knocked, wasn't smooth as it should have been, power was good but no where near what I expected, etc...... Combination of machine shop putting the wrong finish on the bores for the plasma moly coated (top ring) and 1/16-1/16-3/32" thick rings and me for not realizing it. Supposed to be a 400 stone with plateau hone, was more like 280 or 320 finish. Oddly, it was a guy on another site that pointed it out to me after seeing a pic I posted after teardown. He saw it in a pic, I didn't notice it in person. DOH! Plus, I used oil on the rings and walls. Reading further, the ring manufacturer (Total Seal) recommended a special lube on the rings and some sort of graphite like powdered stuff on the bores. Anyways, second time with the CORRECT finish from a different machine shop and using the manufactures recommended products,,,,,,,,,,,,rings seated instantly.

So,,,,my guess is the piston and chamber were so clean from being washed with oil and/or since the compression pressure was down (especially in that cyl) the fuel wasn't burning worth a crap and that kept it all washed clean. It's all good now! Plus, second rebuild I upgraded to a better cam, got some adjustable stainless roller tip, bushed pivot rockers and hardened shafts, got the piston skirts anti-friction coated, etc. The coating added .001" to the pistons and the rehoning enlarged the bores by .001" so it worked out perfectly.
 
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Monkeyed

Monkeyed

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Aspen500 said:
The chamber, valves and piston were clean and shiny in cyl 4. Turns out, none of the rings really seated right. I never did do a comp/leak down test. It was the excessive crankcase pressure and metallic in the oil always. Was from the cylinder walls and rings. Also it never seemed to run right. Spark knocked, wasn't smooth as it should have been, power was good but no where near what I expected, etc...... Combination of machine shop putting the wrong finish on the bores for the plasma moly coated (top ring) and 1/16-1/16-3/32" thick rings and me for not realizing it. Supposed to be a 400 stone with plateau hone, was more like 280 or 320 finish. Oddly, it was a guy on another site that pointed it out to me after seeing a pic I posted after teardown. He saw it in a pic, I didn't notice it in person. DOH! Plus, I used oil on the rings and walls. Reading further, the ring manufacturer (Total Seal) recommended a special lube on the rings and some sort of graphite like powdered stuff on the bores. Anyways, second time with the CORRECT finish from a different machine shop and using the manufactures recommended products,,,,,,,,,,,,rings seated instantly.

So,,,,my guess is the piston and chamber were so clean from being washed with oil and/or since the compression pressure was down (especially in that cyl) the fuel wasn't burning worth a crap and that kept it all washed clean. It's all good now! Plus, second rebuild I upgraded to a better cam, got some adjustable stainless roller tip, bushed pivot rockers and hardened shafts, got the piston skirts anti-friction coated, etc. The coating added .001" to the pistons and the rehoning enlarged the bores by .001" so it worked out perfectly.
Click to expand...

I have good components, hardened steel crank, forged conrods, aluminum pistons/heads, titanium rockers etc etc.. that unburned fuel was what had me chasing my tail on it. I'd program more fuel into the mix until it idled and revved ok w/o a load on, do a learn cycle where the computer would read rich and pull it back out until it was lean"back"firing out the intake, and I'd add more fuel in, and repeat. it always lean fired under heavy load/hard acceleration. I built it myself in my basement though, being in automotive program at school. I kind of knew I wasn't doing it right, since my wife had just had our second child, and I was trying to do all night/all day thrashes on it, with the day time bouts being interrupted every 5-10 minutes by either a screaming baby, a screaming 4 year old, a screaming wife, or a screaming mother-in-law. It's a miracle I got it in and running at all.
 
Aspen500

Aspen500

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Ain't it the truth?

funny1.jpg
 
Aspen500

Aspen500

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Headed for low 90's for temp and low 70%'s for humidity. Good day for the beach! Clothing optional beach would be even better but the nearest one is like 140 miles to the south......... :(

woo-hoo.jpg
 
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