4g63 Evo Engine build - NLC

[philthy]

You must have spent a fair bit.........on carry outs .......judging by all the labelled plastic containers?

I knew they would come in handy one day.

Tidied up the vacuum hoses a bit, still some pipes to replace.
Covered another 20 odd miles on Sunday, this breaking in period could take a while...

[BigD]

You must have spent a fair bit.........on carry outs .......judging by all the labelled plastic containers?

I knew they would come in handy one day.

Tidied up the vacuum hoses a bit, still some pipes to replace.
Covered another 20 odd miles on Sunday, this breaking in period could take a while...

Mine was run in hard with the drive down the A68,
I was heading to Silverston for a TA round with a mate,
Changed the oil in the pit garage from mineral to synthetic,
and raced round silverston which was not problematic.

[philthy]

I do like the sound of that method, probably will do 500 miles with 2 more oil changes before mapping. Its still running the previous map so cant go on boost or above 3k rpm just yet.

The car needs the rear arm recall at mitsubishi done as its cracked, but I am in two minds to put it in before or afterwards. I dont want a mitsubishi apprentice taking it out a road test and blowing it up and I also dont want to drive it too far the way it is...

[BigD]

You actually need load on the engine to cut the rings in,
otherwise the bores can get glazed and it'll be fit for the bin. (a bit dramatic but it rhymed with 'in')
Mine had boost and rpm from the very first day,
Still going strong but sadly parked, which is ghey!

Below is what I did.


What's The Best Way To Break-In A New Engine ??
The Short Answer: Run it Hard !

Why ??
Nowadays, the piston ring seal is really what the break in process is all about. Contrary to popular belief, piston rings don't seal the combustion pressure by spring tension. Ring tension is necessary only to "scrape" the oil to prevent it from entering the combustion chamber.

If you think about it, the ring exerts maybe 5-10 lbs of spring tension against the cylinder wall ...
How can such a small amount of spring tension seal against thousands of
PSI (Pounds Per Square Inch) of combustion pressure ??
Of course it can't.

How Do Rings Seal Against Tremendous Combustion Pressure ??

From the actual gas pressure itself !! It passes over the top of the ring, and gets behind it to force it outward against the cylinder wall. The problem is that new rings are far from perfect and they must be worn in quite a bit in order to completely seal all the way around the bore. If the gas pressure is strong enough during the engine's first miles of operation (open that throttle !!!), then the entire ring will wear into
the cylinder surface, to seal the combustion pressure as well as possible.

The Problem With "Easy Break In" ...
The honed crosshatch pattern in the cylinder bore acts like a file to allow the rings to wear. The rings quickly wear down the "peaks" of this roughness, regardless of how hard the engine is run.

There's a very small window of opportunity to get the rings to seal really well ... the first 20 miles !!

If the rings aren't forced against the walls soon enough, they'll use up the roughness before they fully seat. Once that happens there is no solution but to re hone the cylinders, install new rings and start over again.

Fortunately, most new sportbike owners can't resist the urge to "open it up" once or twice,
which is why more engines don't have this problem !!

On the Street:
Warm the engine up completely:
Because of the wind resistance, you don't need to use higher gears like you would on a dyno machine. The main thing is to load the engine by opening the throttle hard in 2nd, 3rd and 4th gear.

Realistically, you won't be able to do full throttle runs even in 2nd gear on most bikes without exceeding 65 mph / 104 kph. The best method is to alternate between short bursts of hard acceleration and deceleration. You don't have to go over 65 mph / 104 kph to properly load the rings. Also, make sure that you're not being followed by another bike or car when you decelerate, most drivers won't expect that you'll suddenly slow down, and we don't want
anyone to get hit from behind !!

The biggest problem with breaking your engine in on the street (besides police) is if you ride the bike on the freeway (too little throttle = not enough pressure on the rings) or if you get stuck in slow city traffic. For the first 200 miles or so, get out into the country where you can vary the speed more
and run it through the gears !

Full page http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

[philthy]

Cheers for that Don, have had a good read at a few methods and spoke to Russ, The engine has covered 120miles now with 2 oil changes, I think another 100 more and getting the car through to Fife should do it, its booked in for mapping on 14th March

However, I have taken out the HKS FCon and the car doesnt like running on the standard ECU at all...

[philthy]

Car was mapped yesterday at Performance HQ, few problems with the boost controller but it made around 460bhp at 1.6bar, was hoping to up the boost a bit but need to tweak the timing

Once thats done, its back up for another run with more boost, the turbo can handle up to 2.5bar apparently. Tis rather quick just now though

chuffed

[GregR]

Phil, How much cheaper do you think it has been to do all of this yourself? It might be a daft question if the aim was simply to do a self-build rather than save money, but I'm just curious.

...Wonder if there's a potential career in this for you if it all goes well?!

[philthy]

A bit of both really, leaning more towards just wanting to do a build for myself as a project.

I really dont want to think what it has cost so far but I know I have saved around £4000-4500 doing it myself, maybe more.
A big plus to doing it this way was being able to do over time and in stages, sourcing new or second hand parts, rather than giving the car to a garage and getting it back in a couple of weeks with a colossal bill to foot.

[philthy]

A quick video on the dyno - boost testing @ 1 bar, still made just under 400bhp at that.

[jj]

I am looking forward to coming home next weekend now for a shot. Should be ideal for a Kilmacolm-> Lochwinnoch blast. Will try to avoid throwing it at the scenery.

[philthy]

I am looking forward to coming home next weekend now for a shot. Should be ideal for a Kilmacolm-> Lochwinnoch blast. Will try to avoid throwing it at the scenery.

That road is a bomb site now, too many potholes to enjoy it

[BigD]

Car was mapped yesterday at Performance HQ, few problems with the boost controller but it made around 460bhp at 1.6bar, was hoping to up the boost a bit but need to tweak the timing

Once thats done, its back up for another run with more boost, the turbo can handle up to 2.5bar apparently. Tis rather quick just now though

chuffed

Sounds great, circa 500bhp would be perfect in an RS and should stay pretty reliable too.

I'd have been itching to try it on high boost, could Russ not tweak the timing there and then the lazy bugger. What ECU are you using, you may have mentioned but I've forgotten. I've not been on Russ's new non dastek dyno so haven't a clue what the figures are like on it. Gav's 6 RS made 420bhp on a standard 6 turbo.

I'll have to get mine up to Russ to get MOT'd soon so I can sell the bloody thing.

[philthy]

Aiming for 500bhp eventaully but it started to show signs of knock when we went up to 1.75bar, he thinks the timing is slightly out which is causing problems, there was not a single knock registered up until we upped the boost that little bit.

Its standard ECU with launch control, switchable maps and knock display. I removed the HKS ecu as Russ couldnt do anthing with it.

Its a Mainline dyno he uses now, he removed the Dastek one that was in before.

[BigD]

Aiming for 500bhp eventaully but it started to show signs of knock when we went up to 1.75bar, he thinks the timing is slightly out which is causing problems, there was not a single knock registered up until we upped the boost that little bit.

Its standard ECU with launch control, switchable maps and knock display. I removed the HKS ecu as Russ couldnt do anthing with it.

Its a Mainline dyno he uses now, he removed the Dastek one that was in before.

Yeh I knew he had changed it but what I mean is I haven't got a clue how this related to the dastek dyno so have no idea what, say 400bhp on his dyno, would be on a dastek one.

Was the knock detected by det cans or just appearing in your ecu knock display? The reason I ask is that I get knock detected by the sensor but in actual fact there is not any det it just seems that the forged setup and twin plate clutch are noisier than a standard engine so I have had to de-sensitise the standard knock sensor slightly.

What map are you running on the ecu now? Was that just your running in map? Is it the 6 ecu, i.e. you haven't changed it for a 7 one that some do?

[philthy]

It was on det cans he heard some knock, up until going for 1.75 bar there was nothing, very strange.

No idea how the mainline dyno compares to the dastek one, 420bhp from a 6 turbo is mental, pretty sure they dont flow enough to create power like that!

Still running the 6 ECU, big steps have been made flashing these, loads of trick add ons. Russ set up the engine management light flash when it hits 12 knocks, only saw it once yesterday giving it big beans so not too bad really, still rather have a bit more power