Atomic

Plastic Intakes are dyed and aluminum was painted from the outside only

In this episode of failures: Who put goop into my engine? The car was running ish okay when I started it up with the new injectors (keyword), but then it stalled and just wouldn't run anymore. Well I checked the plugs and they were completely gooped up and then I took the intake manifold off to see what was up. There was this huge piling of material inside the walls. First it looked like it could be from the 3D printed intake manifold. But then again, there wouldn't be any material left if that would have been the case. Also the powder was grey, so it must have been from somewhere else. Needless to say, everything was full of goop! Nice thing was that the engine fluids were nicely separated with the fire rings and copper head gasket! The goop had a silky texture and it dissolved as soon as you rubber your fingers together. Well if the goop wasn't from intake manifold, could it be from the fuel system? Oh yes... Yes it could... Fingerlicking good, similar very fine powder! Took the whole engine out to inspect everything else, the goop was on top of each cylinder and the cylinder walls, eww. The conrod bearings look okay ish? I hope that I could survive the engine rebuild with just new bearings, I hope I don't have to redo the surfaces Cylinder walls still had the X hatch pattern beside the darker coloration directly at 90 and 180 degree positions of the cylinders, need to check with the machine shop if they need to redo these? TLDR: I think my fuel tank which had POR 2K treatment done to it failed to me and pushed goop through even the filter systems via fuel channels, this is why the previous injectors got clogged up for cylinders 1 and 3. So it's back to rebuilding the engine (again!) So this will set me back for another year because I have other stuff going on in life. But I will do my best to prepare everything and set everything back together. I might need to change the turbo and the manifolds too, the aluminum intake manifold flanges were warped pretty badly, I would like to fix that with new design. Also the exhaust manifold was full of burnt up goop, and I fear that the turbo is too. But hey, it's good time to get a ball bearing turbo (which should help with my oil pressure thingy!)

Also these guys seem to sell the oil pump kit that I also machined to increase the volume: https://www.nengun.com/matsuoka-engineering/large-capacity-oil-pump

Yes, sorry I was a bit unclear with my thought. I was thinking that if the engine runs only with two cylinders, the RPM cycle would be uneven and cause the drop on mechanical oil pump. And what comes to the oil feed I need to think about a little bit more. Anyways, I will try to move one problem at the time, first comes to get all cylinders working.

The inlet restrictor currently has ~ 4 mm hole, the drain is about ~ 22 mm to the sump over the nominal oil level leaving with good angle from the turbo. Also the turbo is a journal bearing one. Although I suspect it's just that my 2 cylinders are missing for now and the rpm's are not that steady on idle so I don't get good lubrication from the pump. I'm barely hanging on 14 psi on 2 cylinder idle atm when motor is at operating temperature.

The original modification is linked in this thread back some pages. + I made the adapter plate and all the stuff, but couldn't get pressure with that one sadly. I need to spend some time investigating what was wrong with the mod I did. So now I'm rocking with new repro pump there.

Who am I, what have I been doing! Definitely not my Datsun! I have had a lot of stuff going on in my life and I hope to bring back the project from the brink of death. I have things coming up soon so it will probably take me to 2025 to really get into the project again. Anyways, I just wanted to know that this project is still in my warm garage and is currently waiting for new set of fuel injectors and a tune up. From last time, I still have had the problem with the oil pressure once the engine warms up. I wonder if it is due to the size of the oil line orifice for the turbo. AND/OR the crappy injectors I have currently as the motor goes with 2 cylinders. Cylinders number 1 and 3 currently won't get fuel. Aaanyways, updates maybe towards the summer..?

I actually pulled off the spark plugs, cleaned them and then ran the engine. Looks like cylinder 1 and 3 are not getting enough fuel. So fuel problem, need new injectors.

No knock at least on higher RPM, but seems like one of my cylinders is not performing as well as the others, fuel pop around 33 seconds. I'll take the sparkplugs off tomorrow and see which cylinder might be the cause. I'm suspecting the bootleg injectors playing tricks on me. So will be probably buying a new flow matched set Edit: sounds like the compressor bypass valve is working as intended based on the air wooshing sounds

Here is an idle video, was topping the coolant off so some excess is dripping still from the cap, so don't mind that. Engine temperature hovers around 87-95 degrees. Oil pressure at 850 RPM with hot oil seems to drop around 7-11 psi. It quickly increases with the rule of thumb of at least 10 psi per 1000 RPM. I'm a little bit concerned if something is still off. Everything was measured and brand spanking new. I wonder if it might be bad oil filter, some oil relief valve stuck open or something else going on with the pump? The pump I'm currently running is brand new from ebay, hmm... I will try with the modified pump tomorrow if I can get readings with that one. In person I can basically hear just the injectors ticking and some noise from the gearbox, but the engine seems to be smooth, thoughts?

Thinking about machining something like this: Pulley from 7075 aluminum and the triggerwheel from AISI 1018 or similar. Weight is going to be aprox. same as it is now with standard pulley and triggerwheel ~ 930 grams

Tears (almost) and sweat! I had an emotional rollercoaster with the car. Tried to start the engine, cranks once... Retry, cranks once... Testing with battery voltage, cranking once, voltage drops to 3V... Going to a store early in the morning, waiting 1 hour for it to open. Bought 70Ah/700A battery. Back to home. New battery to its place, eyes on oil pressure gauge. Cranking.... Cranking.... Gauge reads 0... Injector rail fails, fuel all over... Took the modified pump and replaced it with new original pump, fixed the rail... No oil pressure, cranking still without plugs or injectors on... Took the pump off, primed again... Cranking... Cranking... Oil pressure to 4 bar! Injectors hooked, laptop hooked, cranking... Engine runs up and down, dialing some cold start values... Engine coming up to temperature, oil pressure dropping below 1 bar... Changed oils as the first one was just to prime stuff up. Oil pressure reads 3-4 bars cold. Engine warming, oil pressure settles to 1 bar with 750-850 RPM idle, stock pump with T intersection to the turbo, no oil cooler hooked up yet. My crankshaft pulley seems to be fucked up tho, its all messed up and twisting and turning, I probably have to design one of my own. But for now, here is some music:

Had to extend the alternator bracket, the VR sensor was getting too close: Machined the block-off plate for the old distributor hole: Installed the tomei intake/exhaust gasket: Superb thing with this is that it has separated exhaust ports, the stock gasket has a large hole that combines cylinders 2-3: Turbo + injectors + EGT sensors + plenum + intake manifold + intake pluming all done: Installed the gear to the oil-pump too: Not a lot to do for "first" start... Need to make couple more cables for the Hall sensor + fans, buy a new oil filter, make oil tubings for the oil cooler and finish machining the valve cover top cap and put the radiator back in its place. And last but not least, put some oil and water in 😛 non mixed please

Bought some O-ring cord and o-rings for the plenum/intake manifold: Also painted the aluminum parts:

Finally an update again! Got the 3D printed intake manifold from the 3D Formtech: Made custom hex M6 screws: Still need to think of a logo on the top black cover of the intake manifold. Will probably SLA print it and attach it later there.