My new 1993 Del Sol Si...BUILD THREAD...LS/vtec with custom turbo setup

[vtecnitrocrx]

EDIT: Big update...see below, and see most recent post- June 9th, 2007

Bought this car last month for 1300 bucks:

1993 Del Sol Si

LS/vtec with a blown headgasket (Ls tranny, B16 head, B18a bottom end)
ARP headstuds
ACT clutch
Rota Grids and tires both 3 months old
Skunk2 coilovers
Skunk2 rear section with a GHETTO modified RSR midsection (mig welded stainless...HORRIBLE WELDS EVERYWHERE)
New gen VAFC (black unit...for sale by the way)
Chipped P28
Energy suspension this and that....

Now some pics:








So basically I am gonna do a bottom end rebuild IN CAR (quick hone, rering, new acl rod bearings). I'll then put the ls/vtec back together, and actually use dowel pins unlike the dudes that built it last time. I am then gonna put together a turbo setup using a 57 trim t04e and just roll this thing like this til next fall.

So far I got the car in the garage, got the bottom end disassembled, got the head cleaned at the machine shop so I can start doing my head porting job, and just finished tacking up the manifold I made for the motor.

Some manifold pics as of today Jan. 3, 2007. Just have to weld it up, add the turbo flange, and cut the wastegate hole, then weld that on.







Horribly blurry pics of the collector. This was a mess up collector I made that came up shorter than 4 inches by a tad. Instead of junkin it I figured I'd use it on my own stuff. All ported inside though...nice and smooth ready to resist carbon buildup and flow away.




I'll be obviously building, fabbing everything, and doing the wideband street tune myself. I'll document it all here as I get it done. I am not Mr. moneybags livin with my momma, but hopefully this won't take three months to get done. I have my Accord to finish also and get up for sale so...have to split my time with that, work, and making a couple things for other people.

Project underway though :thumbup:

Update on June 9th, 2007

CLIFFS on what happened after purchasing this car and why this build has been so damn delayed:

Worked full time for Police Dept, got second job for money shortly after getting the car. The second job took more of my time than planned, so the DelSol got set aside for a minute. Myself and several other officers got into conflict with the Mayor at work, this resulted in my being fired in retaliation. I then got an attorney, ended up with two, several court hearings have come and gone...one next week. I struggled with my bills, and the DelSol sat some more. Now I have no work, unemployment, and a bunch of time...time to finish the Del Sol.

Plans have changed from what was written above. First off, upon being fired I didn't have money for a new 57trim like I'd hoped. I had a small T25 flanged mini turbo sitting in a closet, and that looked like my only hope for getting a running boosted car for myself this year. Then all of a sudden I got a deal on a GT3071R . I then got:

Greddy Type S bov used
Tial 38mm gate used
Cometic HG
ARP headstuds and rod bolts
Bolts installed, big ends resized
ACL race bearings
AEBS Intake Manifold
Hondata Intake gasket

Still need a couple more things...but I'm close despite funding a legal war.

Headwork: I finished the head. Didn't put a huge amount of effort into it. I know what's effective, and didn't want to be too aggressive. I mainly wanted to blend the chambers with minimal compression loss, then increase the intake to exhaust ratio. I really didn't do much to the intakes. For now I want to maintain streetable torque and out of boost performance, while just gaining some exhaust flow.



Here, I worked to mainly just remove the edges that are the result of where the machining process meets the head casting. In the stock photo, you can see some very distinctive and sharp edges surrounding the valves. All of these were blended first with carbide, then smoothed with cartridge rolls, then finished with a scotchbrite type attachment, then a final polishing attachment.

I did add some very distinctive texture around the intake valves which I've taken from Larry Windmer. He advises that it adds mixture conditioning, so I do it. It can't be seen in the pics though. I also radiused the edges where the intake seat meets the chamber. This is to basically remove a sharp edge which creates some loss of flow due to turbulence. Air follows smooth curves well, not sharp edges


Almost thought I was gonna end up with a little T25 flanged 50 trim cause I was broke...but I swung buying a used GT30. T25 flanged 50 trim little bitty versus GT30 for reference



All this time building for others, all the times putting in hours of work, tuning, then handing over the keys I'm finally gonna swing another car for myself 3 years after selling my H22 hatch.

Manifold finished, just need to add the wastegate flange. Before anyone complains about oil drainage (cause I know someone will want to), there is angle to it, and that fitting isn't in all the way anyway. On top of all that the ball bearing sip oil, so there isn't much to drain anyway. It's all good....mani looks lovely after sitting for several months unwelded :P



Some bottom end details

Well, it's no secret I'm on a budget here. For the time being I'm going to maintain stock rods and pistons. I did want to add a level of reliability, so that is why I planned for using acl trimetals and arp rod bolts.

Well, after getting all the rod ends resized post arp install, I prepared to re-ring the pistons. All of a sudden I hit a brick wall...and one that is a pain in the ass. If you've built alot of motors, I'm sure you've come across the frozen piston rings.

Carbon gets behind the worn out rings and basically cooks itself...the carbon builds and it pushes the ring out harder, this basically wears the ring faster. What you end up with is a REALLY stuck ring. Well, I'm gonna show everyone my trick I've used for quite a while....it works!

Make piston stew!

Ingredients:

Pistons with stuck rings
Pot
Stove
Enough water to submerge pistons

Cook over medium to high heat and bring to a boil. Boil over high heat for approximately 20 minutes, then start removing every five minutes and attempting to remove the piston rings.



Rings came off like a charm :thumbup:



Try it if you ever run into the problem...it works. Only thing is DONT REUSE THE POT FOR FOOD!

So after this, all was well. I re-ringed, then inside mic'd the big ends, outside mic'd the crank....all good. Even with the one size fits all ACL's I ended up with #1-.0018, #2-.0020, #3-.0020, #4-.0017. Not as good as using some stock Honda's....but it's all within tolerance. ARP's were torqued to 26 ft/lb with the ARP lube.

Well, detonation resistance is key in keeping stock pistons alive. I worked to reduce stress risers in the head, and I'm not about to ignore the bottom of the combustion chamber! The pistons are your bottom, and they have a nice arrow, a PR4 stamp, etc. on the top. This is gonna be a site of higher heat, so I did away with them. I worked to just smooth out the piston tops. Don't be deceived by the pics, the pistons are quite smooth and just have a light texture to encourage building the carbon layer. The flash makes the piston tops look scratched...they're actually pretty smooth...like I said just a light texture. You want to encourage building that initial carbon layer for peak power. It acts as a thermal barrier and can effect mixture conditioning.



Bottom end finished as far as reciprocating assembly goes. I just did a rehone on the used block. I did mic all the bores of course...all good....just cleaned up the bores.



Oh and hey, in case your wondering....my boy is comin over to clean up the block/engine bay. I pay attention to internals, fab, and all what I think is the good stuff, but I really lack in the cleaning area....so he is comin to hook it up

Lastly for now, I've also got in the components for my traction bar setup I'm building. I used all 5/8" heims, they have right and left hand threads on each radius rod, so turning the rod itself allows for easy adjustment longer and shorter. I also got in some .095 wall chrome-moly tubing, which will be the core structure of the traction bars. The gold anodized shortened rod will be used as a quick disconnect engine stabilizer. Excuse the dirty carpet

[blackdelsol94]

That's an awesome plan man. Best of luck getting that bad-boy up and running again!

[ksniperfox]

mad reps. keep posting progress.

[liquidblue]

keepup the good work, let usknow how it is going

[honda_racing101]

Wow, you've got some skills.

Good buy as well.

Keep us posted.

[vtecnitrocrx]

First I'll explain the time frame here, as this build thread went away for a reason.

When I purchased this car I worked full time for a local Police dept. Well, upon purchase I needed some extra income, so I picked up a second job which was supposed to be an hour or so extra a night. Well, that turned to 5 hours a night, plus working at the Police station.

Well, for the next few months money was flowing like a river (only problem was when I wasn't working I was sleeping...that's all I did) and I was paying off debts...all kinds of stuff. The Police Dept. was nothing but political small town bullshit, and there was controversy between several of us working there and the mayor. Well, it peaked on March 28th resulting in my being fired without reason. The mayor knew the boss at my other job and suddenly I found myself fired from there the next day as well! So now I have two attorneys, court next week, and all kinds of controversy. I also have TIME AGAIN.

So, in the aftermath of political war, I decided it was time to finish this thing. Updates have been added up in the original post to keep it all together.

[solsykness]

damn mayor is a prick. I hope he gets what's coming to him


Good luck with the build...

[Phattonic]

Who cares about the other jobs, with that skills you can run your own car shop!
Wishes for things to go as planned (or better )

[vtecnitrocrx]

Alright, got some more things finished today. I went through a pretty labor intensive process of getting the head all cleaned and degreased. I also have gotten more missing parts for the head from Honda, so the time has come to assemble.

I got everything cleaned up, springs installed with that damn C-clamp. The time for me and that C-clamp are coming to an end. It's seen enough heads that it's time for me to build a more user friendly and efficient tool. I have the steel for a Snap on style top mount installer...so that'll come soon.

All installed, lubed up, and good to go covered in cellophane to protect it for the moment



It was also time to do something about the nasty ass block. It's only gonna see about four months of duty, but the more I look at it, the more I think it looks ass. So, my boy cleaned the block up a bit, and I just hit it with some grill paint to clean it up. The camera flash doesn't do much for the look though...in person it's pretty descent. Once everything is together I'll pressure wash the engine bay to clean all that up. Headstuds also installed in the block.



So from there I turned my attention to getting the head on. Even though I am short some parts for certain things, if I can get the head on that will at least allow me to do some charge pipes if I'm waiting for parts to arrive.

The LS/vtec dowel pins I have though, started to present a problem. They were not really machined accurately, and they weren't fitting anywhere. So I had to spend a little time with the belt sander to take off a slight bit of material. Having used an LS Cometic head gasket, I had to then open up the front holes to match the dowe pins and allow the gasket to sit.



Once that was straight, I cleaned the gasket, degreased it, and Honda-bonded the galley holes. The Honda bond is something I have done for a long time. I've seen it done on some build photo's of Honda's that were road raced in Europe, and I did it ever since. I use it sparingly...don't want it squishing and going everywhere...or into the chamber.



So once that was ready, I grabbed the head and got it on. Right down on the dowel pins like butter, and I drilled the gasket dead balls so it's centered absolutely perfect. Once it was torqued down, I then grabbed the intake mani and the turbo and mani combo just to see my car come together.

Finally...something for me....man I'm so excited. Gotta keep it goin though.



Afterwards, I grabbed the plates for the tow hook locations to start tacking up the traction bar setup. This will be the first set of traction bars I build. I've used the del sol frame charts to calculate the exact point for the radius rod mounts so that they swing on an idenical arc as the lower control arm.

This is something that is missed on alot of traction bars, and alot of companies out there do make them wrong. All suspension is ideally built with all joints on one straight vertical axis, then the upper/lower control arm mountings and inner/outer tie rod joint operate on another straight vertical axis. This ensures that you don't get dynamic caster and/or alignment changes, and if you add essentially an additional portion to your lower control arm...you can't miss this.

So some chrome-moly tube is tacked up to some mild steel plate. The picture is somewhat deceiving, but the bar is about 1" lower than the rad support. I could go higher, but that would mean removing the rad mounts. It's not something I wouldn't necessarily do, but for this particular project I really need to move along and get done. So I just tucked it and will work to get the inclination angle mounting right in relation to the lower control arm.



Another view looking down at the bar location



That's all for now...gonna try to get more done Sunday or Monday. Tomorrow I have to tear down an H22 build that's coming in...so more to come then... :thumbup:

[vtecnitrocrx]

Man, members of this forum are starting to worry me. I build a whole car, turbo components, headwork, traction bars...barely even get a response.

Guy posts he's shaving his door handles and getting his bodykit mounted and that thread will go 3 pages deep in a week. Might have to get this moved to forced induction.

Any mods see this....can you hook me up and move me to FI?

[ksniperfox]

i dont visit these forums a WHOLE lot anymore, due to me not owning a honda right now, and lack of interest. but i will keep looking here for your updates more often. great work, looks like you know what youre doing. i hope it will be fairly reliable. i wish you didnt go with a stock bottom end though. but it will still be nice. what are your goals?

mind listing how much youve invested in everything so far?