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| Northstar rebuild: Will style (Page 54/119) |
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kwagner
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JUL 11, 08:37 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by Will:
Built up timing drive:
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I wondered how they ran the timing chains for a V-engine. Thanks for the pic 
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Will
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JUL 12, 03:00 AM
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Woops... maybe that'll have to be the Eagle instead of the Fiero. I have plans for a 4.6 litre engine for the Eagle as well... just not a Northstar.[This message has been edited by Will (edited 07-12-2009).]
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Will
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JUL 12, 03:12 AM
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| quote | Originally posted by kwagner:
I wondered how they ran the timing chains for a V-engine. Thanks for the pic |
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On an engine with different packaging choices, the need for the two step timing drive would be eliminated. Because the Northstar is so optimised for compactness, all of the angles in the cylinder head are "swept" toward the intake side. The exhaust valve angle is shallow, the plug well is angled toward the intake side and the intake valve angle is steep. This puts the exhaust cam almost directly over the outside wall of the block, while the intake cam, as you can see, is overhung significantly to the inside of the engine. All this necessitates the two step timing drive and was done to make the engine more compact, which is especially necessary for transverse mounting. If it were *really* optimized for performance, the heads would be closer to symmetrical and a single stage timing drive (like what BMW has for the M3's new 4 litre V8) might work, but then it wouldn't fit in a Fiero.
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30+mpg
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JUL 23, 06:41 PM
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| quote | Will:
FIRE IN THE HOLE!!!...I drove it around for a few minutes until the temp got up. The temp came up and settled in, but then gradually crept up. As I was coming back, the temp gauge fluctuated distinctly as I crested a hill; this means air in the system. Since I'd been very careful filling it, this told me I most likely had a leak. When I got back to the hizzouse and popped the decklid, the joint between the thermostat housing and the waterpump housing was gently misting coolant all over the left side of my engine bay. Grrr... That SonofaB@#$% is getting some F#@%ing Permatex or RTV next time it's apart. I'm not putting up with that crap anymore. That joint had leaked when I was filling the cooling system, so I took it apart and carefully reseated the o-ring when I put it back together. It stayed sealed when filling the system, but the increase in pressure from the initial heat cycle made it leak. Annoying, but could be worse.
The engine didn't quite run right. It did have a miss. My amuptated Caddy instrument panel told me that the integrator was 143 for the front bank and 105 for the rear bank. My half-assed program for the Caddy computer locks the BLM's at 128, so all I had to work from were the integrator values. So the computer thinks that the front bank is lean and the rear bank is rich. I can believe the the front bank would be lean because I found a serious nick/gouge in the #8 plug wire... so that could be a misfire. The O2 sensor would register the extra oxygen as lean and the computer would add fuel.
The rear bank registers rich. Basically the only thing that could cause this is running rich. I suspect that I may have an injector problem, since the injectors had been sitting a while and I did not have them cleaned/flowed.
However, the most important aspect of the test drive was that the engine DID NOT SMOKE.
On the most basic level, the build is a success. Even if nothing else about the engine is any better than stock, it is at least a viable engine to use in a car.
While it did have a miss, it still ran on 7 cylinders and definitely had power that I hadn't felt in a long time. Acceleration to any speed I tried was still effortless... just not quite as brutal as it should have been.
I am slightly concerned about fuel wash down in the missing cylinder, but total run time is probably 10-15 minutes at this point, so I don't think I could have done anything to it yet. Fixing the miss should just be a matter of tune-up issues, like plug wires and injector maintenance/replacement. Fixing the coolant spray should also be straightforward. Unfortunately, I have ZERO time to do any of that, so I'll have to leave instructions with my dad for him to do it. |
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Update?
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Will
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JUL 31, 10:44 AM
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None at all. I'm in the Kuwaiti desert and haven't had the time to talk to my dad about it.
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mrgrimes
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NOV 28, 10:04 PM
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I have some pic of my N* build I would like to share, how do I upload pics?
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Boogaloo
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NOV 28, 11:43 PM
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I was looking at this thread and I can't see why it took 6 years to build this engine and still not running , there is alot of technical jargon and rambling and maths calculation but nothing to show I think it is a waste of time .
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Joseph Upson
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NOV 29, 12:25 AM
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| quote | Originally posted by Boogaloo:
I was looking at this thread and I can't see why it took 6 years to build this engine and still not running , there is alot of technical jargon and rambling and maths calculation but nothing to show I think it is a waste of time . |
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What's the problem you're having with it? You've only been waiting since Sept. 2009 for it to be finished.
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Boogaloo
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NOV 29, 12:35 AM
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Regardless of that still too long.
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Will
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NOV 29, 06:57 AM
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| quote | Originally posted by mrgrimes:
I have some pic of my N* build I would like to share, how do I upload pics? |
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There's an icon at the bottom of the page for "Pennock's Image Poster". Download it and follow directions to set it up.
Alternatively, start an account at photobucket.
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