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Budget 350hp b230fk build (9.3:1 compression)

Hi swedbrick, where did you buy the ET pistons in Europe?

I'm looking for them too.

thanks, Kay

Hi Kay,

I got them via a request in the facebook group of the 'bangers' who tend to drive into each other in old volvo wagons for fun, interesting characters, but a cheap source of parts. As far as I'm aware, KGtrimning has them in stock as well for approximately 96?, which saves you the cleaning. I got mine for 20? for four with a couple of crank sensors:lol:

I could also inform with the guy I bought them from, and ask if he can get another set. Just send me a private message, I can probably help you out:)
 
Prepping for assembly of the bottom block

Hi, It's time I got back into a little update. I've finally gotten the bearing pullers turned up, and have completed my test with the remaining intermediate shaft bearings I had, allowing me to get to assembly. Soon the oil pump gear bushing and a new set of intermediate shaft bearings should be here!

Let's start off with the bearing pullers I got made by a friend with access to a lathe. I also asked him to create a tool to insert the oil pump gear bushings with as I found these to still be available through Volvo Penta. The pullers are used along with a M20 threaded rod and bolts, to allow for a fairly straight pull into their final location, and are made from mild steel.
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The work quite well, but I am going to grease the surfaces for the new set to prevent this scarring. Anyhow, the bearings are now partly in:)
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Next up cleaning out the oil pump, and fitting the new reinforced oil pump spring and ring for the oil pump gear, which I got to add for relatively cheap to my brothers IPD order (shipping to the Netherlands:roll:) And yes I'm aware that the spring only increases high RPM oil pressure increasing bearing wear etc, however this engine will probably get a baffled sump as some point and all the power will be made above 4krpm, and I expect to blow it up long before the bearings are worn down:p

The oem pump cleaned out (still had good tolerance), which will be ported before reassembly:oogle:
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The reinforcing ring to prevent the oil drive gear tabs from shearing at the edge
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Said stiffer oil pressure spring
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With my new found confidence in my bearing puller and oil pump usability. I got started filing the ring gaps, since the pistons were stock size ET versions, I chose to hone out the imperfections and live with slightly wider ring gap and piston to wall clearance. Since I was an idiot, as one tends to be after a long day, I filed the top ring to my smallest measured size for the second ring to get them all equal of .95 mm, I ended up having to go even wider with the top ring to allow for proper sealing. Yes I could have gone with another ring set, but I chose to get it together for now, and just make sure my PCV system is really overkill:x:
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The final spec:
top: 0,95 mm
middle: 1,00 mm
oil control: 0,80 mm
PWC max: 0.148 mm (pistons were divided to keep this as little as I could)

Obviously far from stock recommendations and what I would like to run (top: 0.70mm, mid: 0.80mm, oil: 0.40mm, PWC: 0.04mm). But since this is my first engine build, I chose learning and getting it done over getting it perfect first time around.
 
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The crankshaft and pistons are in!

For part 2 of this update, the assembly of the rotating assembly!

Step 1: Getting the pistons and rings assembled with a good coat of ATF, and checking the previously determined balance of the rod and piston assemblies.

I got the assemblies within a worst case 0.5 grams, the Chinese Maxspeeding rods were within 1.0 gram of each other from the box. The pistons I filed down from the skirt before to get them including pins and rings within 0.5 grams in the worst case. I placed the heaviest rods and lightest pistons in center two bores, and the lightest rods and heaviest pistons in the outside bores.
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Step 2: Getting the crank in and checking all of the journals.

The crank in place, with the new std size bearings, and a good coat of the green lucas oil assembly lube on the bearing half.
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I then torqued on all the top caps with bearing inserted without lube, with oil on the bolt threads, with a piece of green plastigage in between, and confirmed a uniform 0.051mm clearance reading across all journals.
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I then wiped of the plastigauge on both bearing and crank (easier than I expected with some brakeclean and the white coffee filters). Lubed up the bearings and re-torqued the bearing caps in place with once more oiled threads. After confirming a free spinning crankshaft, with only the resistance of the assembly lube, I checked crankshaft end play, to find about 0.10mm.

Step 3: Assembly of rods to pistons and putting them in

Starting of the insertion of the pistons, I cleaned the bores once more with ATF and white coffee filters. Next I cleaned the rods, pins and clips thoroughly with brake cleaner and added some assembly lube to the pins, and got the pistons rod sets assembled. I inserted the bearings, and repeated the checking process same as with the crankshaft, with the rod side pre-lubed as I put the pistons in the bores. The cap and bearing got placed on without lube as well with the green plastigage in between once more, and the caps got torqued down, a 12mm 12 tooth socket is a must for the provided bolts! (they looked like genuine ARP 3008's enough after checking some reference pictures, so we'll see) I used the ARP grease I got from Sjeng, Super thanks once more:)

Pistons in the bores, labeled after measurement
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After checking each ended up better than expected from the Chinese rods, with a uniform clearance of 0.038mm, awesome! I then took them off again, removed the plastigage from the crank and bearings, and added liberal assembly lube, and put the bolts back in at the right torque spec as was provided with the rods.
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I ended up with a bottom assembly easily turned by hand with the crankshaft pulley, so I added some more ATF to the bores, gave it a couple of turns, to make sure all was well, and checked for scratching of the bores by the newly filed rings. All was good so it got wrapped in plastic, until I receive my bearings and bushing, and get to porting the oil pump and its possible future mods.
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I also started a little company in automotive related tinkerings and goodies as expansion of my hobby through which I was able to get my twin turbo manifold flanges laser cut as part of a larger group buy for the dutch turbobrickers, so a update on that will follow soon!

As a little teaser to end with for now, I'll be adding GSXR 750 ITB's to the mix, still with LH2.4, to get my turbo lag down, and better breathing of the motor, since I got inspired by Sander's awesome V12 project.
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Clean the bores with ATF, install pistons with a little engine oil.

ATF is not suited for fresh cylinder walls, cylinders need lubrication not the cleaning properties of ATF.
 
Engine break-in recommendations from a custom piston shop: https://blog.jepistons.com/how-to-break-in-an-engine

Gave this a good read last week and took a while to consider the options, thanks for the tip same goes for J2_ ;-), I put the head on today, before which I chose to wipe off all the atf I could with brake cleaner and re-oiled with a mineral shop oil. It should be alright, with a little white smoke at initial startup :oogle:

I'm enjoying this build,
I love the looks of ITBs, and ... gold paint on stuff.
Subscribed.

Thanks, getting pretty stoked on the ITB's as well, should be an epic match when the turbo's are added :-P

Realy nice build!!!
Ik ga dit zeker even volgen!!

Danku, danku :)

Ready for more!

Updates with pictures are following soon, currently waiting on my valve shims to get the head within spec, to close it up before getting to the oil sump and accesories. After that the turbo manifold:-D
 
This is EPIC!
I've never seen Budget and twin turbo in the same sentence. Keep tabs on the cost for the TT fan.

To be honest he seems to be stretching the definition of "budget" ...

To herby answer your question, and to answer to myself how far I went down the rabbit hole thusfar, I took an hour this afternoon to get it figured out. Below the lists of parts that you'd need to get to this point, assuming you manage to get lucky with a parted out turbo 945 like I did:-P These parts were slowly collected over a couple of years, to be able to have some savings in getting a bunch of these at a lower than new price.

Table lost to the transfer of the forum

As with any project this list will become longer with time, but for now I'm reasonoably happy with what I put into my budget engine, compared to a stock low mile b230fk/ft which go up for sale around 500+. With improved valve springs, stronger rods and new seals and bearings this is quite reasonable.

The turbo setup still has an intake manifold and tubing among some other bits to be added, and the engine management will be chipped with a eeprom burner I recently ordered. All in all, a bit more than the standard turbo conversion, but I'd count it as a budget project, since most of the costs were shifted to the time put in versus the investment;-)
 
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