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First Rebuild Ever Y7/Z6

11K views 43 replies 3 participants last post by  Zen Chameleon 
#1 ·
Sup Guys and Gals,
I'm pretty pumped up about this build and wanted to document it to the best of my abilities. If it wasn't for the net and all the info left behind by others I wouldn't have been able to do anything like this. So Thankz !

When I got this car (1995 VX) 3 years ago the only toolz I owned were made up of the bare home basics; a Hammer, couple screw drivers, vice grips, pliers, and 4 of those $5-$10 socket sets that everyone gets you for Christmas. I'm not a complete stranger to having to work on a car (poor folk do what that gotta do) but I never thought I'd attempt to rebuild an engine.

The reason for the build is mostly to get the engine(D15Z1) thats in my car now out. I want to rebuild the Z1 later. So why didn't I just do a quick swap with a used motor do ya ask, cause I can't stand the idea of putting someone else's POS motor in my car and just cross my fingers. Another thing is I was fed up and got sick of mechanics saying "Naw, I don't know nuttin bout dem dere Jap motors". So fine, SCREW THAT I say, I'll learn to do it myself!

The Goal is simple:
Build a reliable All Motor D-series with a lil bump in hp. This engine will be for a fun DD only and if it ever sees auto-x then cool. I just want to know I built it and it worked.
I started buying parts for this rebuild July 2010



EDIT 7/26/2011: ^^^It's a nice story so I'll leave it unchanged (but things do change). A week ago today I bought a 1997 Del Sol S, D16Y7 w/ 138k miles, everything stock with A/C. Needing the extra cash I decided to sell the hatch, it was almost a hard decision. But the engine build goes on and will become apart of the new DD. The build continues.....


:::WARNING!!!::: User name Zen Chameleon is building his first ever engine, this said engine is not running yet. Asking user name Zen Chameleon for help could cause any or all, but not limited to:
headaches, frustration, blurred vision, dizziness, confusion, loss of sleep, constipation, diarrhea, projectile vomiting, bloody knuckels, unnecessary work and research, catastrophic engine failure, crying in front of your girlfriend, cronic masterbation, spontaneous combustion, suicidal thoughts, in some but rare cases could even lead you to achieving your goal or solving your issue.
If you have asked Zen Chameleon for technical advice and experienced any or all of these symptoms please seek professional help from somebody that has real world engine building knowledge and wisdom :::WARNING!!!:::



The "Accomplishment" List:


Head D16Z6:

Work done from Performance Porting:
Mild Port and Polish
3 angle valve job
SuperTech springs, new oem retainers
New oem cam and valve seals
Milled .003 for flatness
Hondata intake gasket
New extended intake studs
Freshly cleaned Z6 injectors

AEM cam gear
NGK plug wires

D16Z6 intake mani
AEM fuel rail
B&M fuel pressure regulator
Marshal fuel pressure gauge
AEM CAI



D16Y7 block:

Vat, Bored (0.020), Prepped, Milled, R&R pistons, Resized rods...
D16Z6 Crankshaft: machined, mains .020/ rods .030
ARP rod bolts
PG6 Pistons, 75.5mm

Y7/Z6, ARP head studs


P28 ECU socketed w/ Neptune RTP

98' EX Tranny


What's left:

Cam
Bearings
Gaskets&Seals
Oil pump
Water pump
Timing Belt
Wideband O2
Header


and most important Tuning



I think that's everything....if I missed something let me know please.


Thankz for all the support



Performance Porting
Zealautowerks

A sneak peek of the '97 Del Sol, New DD/Project:
 
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#2 ·
I snagged this D16Y7 from some random dude I ran into. He had yanked this motor out of a junkyard but it just sat around in his garage. I got the head still on the block and he tossed in some used axles, shift linkage, and some other junk. For the price of a pull it yourself short block I think I did alright.
This is the bottom end after pulling the head, crank pully and timing belt.








Sorry for the cell phone pix. I wish I would have waited to pull this apart so I could have done a full breakdown writeup but oh well.
 
#3 ·
After getting the engine mostly apart I knew I'd need a better work area so I built this bench:


I still have to add the shelf and light and bolt that vise down.

I used this site as a template to make it easy My link

I then added the peg board/shelf and you can see my lil power supply on the side there. Most of the materials I had laying around, I had to pick up a few things.
 
#4 ·
My favorite new tool takes some pretty decent pix I think.
I got the block stripped down and everything "looks" to be in ok shape.
For some reason this camera makes things look cleaner than they really are, with that said I still have to clean up most everything seen here:








 
#5 ·
I picked this D16Z6 head up from the local Pick'N'Pull (3hours away) during their summer blow out 1/2 price sale. I couldn't pass it up knowing I plan to rebuild it anyway.





The valve cover had at least 3 coats of rattle can paint over top of it, Blue, Orange, and Black.


After hours of work it's almost clean. You can see the paint left on the "inside" of the plug holes.



It was obvious the PO had literally lifted the hood and covered everything in black spray paint.

Here is the Z6 intake manifold after lots of airplane stripper, degreaser, and brake cleaner.

If only you could have seen the before pics lol
 
#7 ·
So I was trying to be productive and polish my valve cover. I shaved it first and then sanded the crap out of it, I thought I had the lettering gone till I started wet sanding. In pic 2 and 3 you can see the v-tec barely.





I'm thinking this will only be more apparent as I continue and that there is nothing I can do to correct it??? I've searched for hours and it seems if I want it shaved "And" polished I would need it professioinally done.

It would drive me nuttz to have a mirror finnish with ghost lettering sooo I'm thinking the valve cover is about to be black.
 
#8 ·
Soooo, Since I'm on a tight budget and can't buy the things I would like to every week in order to keep the build going, I try to be smart...

Zen's Broke A$$ Tip of the Day:

Saving money is hard when it's in your pocket even more so when it's not much to begin with, so when I have that extra $20 and I know it will just become fast food money, I find a good home for it. There is plenty of little things that you know that you will need at some point in your build and often you don't think about it till your elbow deap into a project (YAY, lets go to the store...again).

I dedicated an area to store "extra" crap. All of it has a very long shelf life as long as its stored properly. All of these things will get use at one time or another but it will also keep me from having to run back and forth to the store during a project.



Of course this isn't everything I have stored and not counting anything being used, just one small shelf with extra crap I'll need later. This is prolly a few months worth of gathering. The cigar box is holding importaint receipts just in case and it's also a good place for the ECU for now.

I understand this should be common sense but thought I'd share anyway
 
#11 ·
I also thought it would be a good idea to get that damn black spray paint off the head and clean it up just a little before it's sent off.





I found that my sister having 2 kids came in handy :p



I had put the rocker assembly back on before wrapping it up.

Now It's All Ready To Go!
 
#13 ·
A few more preview shotz:



Remember this was a junkyard pulled head, and it had a couple bent valves and 2 of which had made sweet monkey love to the pistons. PPorting replaced those valves, milled .002 for flatness, and 3 angle valve job.

Great service from Dustin too, I couldn't be happier. I can't wait to get this thing back and to the next step ;)
 
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