Last weekend I had some time to check the connecting rod bearing clearance which was again interesting to do. All 4 of the rod bearings were in the .0013-.0015″ clearance range which is a bit on the tight side but still within limits for this turbo build engine.

Just like the main bearings I placed a piece of plastigage on the crank journals and tightened up the rods bolts slowly. I made sure I did them evenly to make sure the rod cap went on straight. I already had ARP molly lube on the threads and head of the bolts from the machine shop so I tightened the bolts up to 25ft-lbs first then to 43ft-lbs.

I loosened of the bolts with a 2 stage process and knocked of the caps with a piece of wood being very carefull. I then used the Green Clevite’s Plastigage to check the rod bearing clearances which were all around .0013 to .0015″.  On the right is another picture of my bottom end with my rod caps on.

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Not too much progress on the engine today but I did do some more research on the forums and found out that I will have to notch my Main Caps/Girdle to have proper clearance from the connecting rods. So I looked around and found the proper Dremel 9901 Tungsten Carbide Cutter Bit at Home Depot today so this should help me notch the main caps  a lot faster and use less bits in the process.

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I picked up some much needed tools yesterday which will be very important for the next step in my D16 engine rebuild. I got them up at Princess Auto and they were actually quite affordable.

The piston ring compressor is a very important tool when your ready to insert the pistons into the cylinders. It keeps the rings compressed and aligned for easy insertion of the piston into the cylinder.

These C-Clip pliers are very important as I will need them to insert the c-clip into the piston once I get the wrist pin aligned in the piston head. As you can see they have really fine point tips which are only used for C-Clips and not for general purpose use.

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Last Sunday I got around to checking the main bearing clearances and got some good results. All 5 of my main bearings were in the .0013-.0015″ range which is within the limits of what it’s suppose to be. I had some time today so I posted how it all went.

I wiped off the area where the bearings sit in the block and placed the new bearings in place. I then used the Green Clevite’s Plastigage to check the clearances

I cut a small piece of the plastigage and placed it across all the journals

I then put the other half of the bearings on the main caps.  As you can see in the picture on the right the plastigage is barely visible.

Two of the main cap bolts in the D16Z6 are longer then the others so I made sure I inserted them in the 2 middle holes on the main caps. I remembered to lubricate the bolts and the washers in oil for better torque feel.

Working from the middle I started finger tightening all the bolts first, then to 18 Ft-lbs then to 38 Ft-lbs. Once they were all tight I loosened all the bolts in the same pattern and took off the main caps.

Then I checked the journals using the plastigage and mine were reading .0013″ to .0015″ which is way within limits for my D16Z6 block.

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I was checking into any more info about this years Driven to Perform show at BC Place Stadium and stumbled upon some bad news. The DTP show is suspended this year due to the global economic situation and the auto industry taking such a big hit. I was really eager to go and see this year’s event and this news is really disappointing to hear but more importantly lots of businesses that were suppose to be at this years show will definetly be affected by this news. Hopefully next year the situation will get better and the Driven to Perform event will be back at BC Place Stadium to inspire and wow future car enthusiasts.

Click Here for the Link to the Press Release from DTP about this cancellation.

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I finally got my D16Z6 engine block back  from the machine shop yesterday and took a bunch of pictures to post up the blog. 

As you can see the Block Guard is nicely installed in my D16 Block.

The machine shop did a very nice job on boring and honing out the cylinders.

After the top of the block was decked you can see the sleeves are more visible.

The main bearing cap is nice and clean after hot tanking process.

The main bearing bores were checked by machine shop to make sure they are true.

The Crankshaft was micropolished and looks really nice now.

The FJ R SPEC Connecting rods and Vitara Pistons look really sharp in these pictures.

My next step will be to plastiguage the main bearings.

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I went to the Vancouver Auto Show today and took some pictures of some vehicles and thought I would share them here.

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Below is the list of 1993-Honda-Civic.com top Entrecard droppers for March 2009. Thanks to all that have dropped on my site.

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