Bessie II - Enlight's '05 6mt Matte Blacke Wagon

[Underdog]

Yes lash was set to the factory spec. 0.2mm intake and 0.35mm exhaust. I only had to do final checks on the engines I built - the machine shop would match the buckets and grind valve stem tips to set the lash. Saved me a ton of time.

The spec card below says Procam but is a translation from the opposite side which is in Japanese and has them listed as Poncam - the part numbers are the same on both sides of the card (143062 for the set).

[Enlight]

@Underdog You are a gentleman and a scholar.

That being said, I've gone ahead and ignored your advice and picked up these cams. I thought I missed a sale on Facebook marketplace but then it came back online. I paid $580 all said and done. He happened to be located 20 minutes from a friend's daughter's birthday so it all worked out. They were "never installed" but I saw a blemish on one of the lobes that I think the machinist should be able to take care of. I don't plan on ever removing the engine again so I want to future proof it for a bigger turbo.

 

[Underdog]

Hey there's no better teacher than experience!

Joking aside, at that price and even with the grind repair it should be a good deal. Will be interesting to see the results with your vf52 setup, or whatever you go with down the line.

[Enlight]

Learn from my mistake. I thought I would be helping the machine shop by bathing the cams in Evaporust but I ended up creating some more problems. I didn't fully immerse the cams in the solution and it ended up making lines on the cams that can be felt with my fingernail. My theory is that because the solution is water based and the cams were only half immersed, there was condensate or water that caused the immersion line to rust, which was then removed when I rotated the cams. Hoping that the machine shop can fix it.

[Enlight]

Dropped off the cams this morning at Westchester Crankshaft. They are not a specialty camshaft shop (not many of those around) but they have the equipment to micropolish. I figured there's at least a little overlap between crankshaft and camshaft machinery. Next, I'm headed to Thomas Engine to see if they can dynamically balance my flywheel. They will have to see whether it fits on their mandrel. I probably could have just sent both jobs to them.

[KZJonny]

On 2/4/2023 at 10:24 PM, Enlight said:

Learn from my mistake. I thought I would be helping the machine shop by bathing the cams in Evaporust but I ended up creating some more problems. I didn't fully immerse the cams in the solution and it ended up making lines on the cams that can be felt with my fingernail. My theory is that because the solution is water based and the cams were only half immersed, there was condensate or water that caused the immersion line to rust, which was then removed when I rotated the cams. Hoping that the machine shop can fix it.

That doesn't look too bad at least?!

Lesson learned the hard way, and Evaporust will etch metal every time you don't immerse a thing in it. I am also unsure why, but I do suspect it has to do with it being water based, and causing flash rust as it removes rust where the phase shift goes from liquid to air.

In future, if you're a little short on Evaporust to completely cover whatever, then soaking a cloth in it and draping it over the peice, with the ends still in the bucket is typically enough to keep wicking moisture up, and prevents etching.

If you find this is causing you to lose the stuff too fast with all the evaporation, top back up with distilled water and away you go. The chelating agents in E/R don't evaporate, and can be reused for damn long time if you don't just spill it.

(It really should come with more instructions on the bucket, but...)

[Enlight]

Oh that cloth recommendation is very good, I will use that in the future. Fortunately, I got a $20 Harbor Freight credit that I used towards some more of the stuff. Yeah, I think the etching is not too bad. It can't be felt by rubbing the pads of my fingers over it, but it can with the fingernail. I'll post up the results of the machine shop when I get them back.

[Enlight]

 

[Enlight]

[xt2005bonbon]

On 2/7/2023 at 10:41 PM, Enlight said:

 

Now, that's some SKILLS!

[Enlight]

Got my heads back from Vinny Ten Racing and was surprised to see that they used GSC valve springs. The heads also look super clean, I hope I can keep them that way. Vinny did not want to use the Tomei cams and was kind enough to explain his reasons thoroughly. For now, I've listed them on eBay and Facebook with full disclosure. Perhaps I will have them re-ground in the future. Hope to get some good progress on assembly this weekend.

[KZJonny]

25 minutes ago, Enlight said:

Got my heads back from Vinny Ten Racing and was surprised to see that they used GSC valve springs. The heads also look super clean, I hope I can keep them that way. Vinny did not want to use the Tomei cams and was kind enough to explain his reasons thoroughly. For now, I've listed them on eBay and Facebook with full disclosure. Perhaps I will have them re-ground in the future. Hope to get some good progress on assembly this weekend.

Are there coles notes on why not to use them? Was it the etching marks, or something more about their profile that he didn't like?

I assume that meant you're staying on stock cams for now?

[Enlight]

Yes, I'm sticking with stock cams now. He did not like the etching on the cams and manually demonstrated them rolling on the valve buckets where you could feel some extra friction. Who knows how they would have behaved with actual oiling since two of the machine shops I brought them to felt they were good. In either case, I figured I'd be a good boy and just listen to the tuner since I wanted to use them to tune down the line.

[Enlight]

It seems like no matter how much sanding I do, even with my oscillating multitool, I can't get rid of the pitting on the valve covers. I wonder how people did it. I want to get the car ready for the meet so I'm wondering whether I should be hung up on this part or the process.

[KZJonny]

Anyone in your area do vapour honing? Sometimes it’s amazing how much small amounts of dirt in the aluminium make it look like crap/make the pitting worse.

It has also been my observation that the finish from the castings on our valve covers is only okay, at best. When I did some of the ali valve/motor cover for my old Norton, some were hours apiece with 2-3 different grade of wet sanding to get past the oxidation and pitting… and these are parts that were like… 2”x3”!!!

Personally, I think I am going to go with matte or wrinkle black on mine if/when the come out.

[Enlight]

Hmm, that's a good idea.  The results at this business look pretty good: https://www.facebook.com/brooklynvaporblast/. Polishing aluminum can be a real serious endeavor, this guy on YouTube details his 100+ hour process for this show cars. There's no way I'd dedicate that amount of time but I am impressed.

Thanks for the vapor honing recommendation, I will see what other parts I can round up that need honing.  When I'm all done I'll be applying KBS Diamond Finish to prevent oxidation in the future. It's the only direct to metal clear finish I've found. It's resists up to 300F.

 

[KZJonny]

Mmmmmm RD400…. I wants one of those.

There used to be a place not too far from me that did vapour blasting/honing. Think they’re gone now, which is a shame.

I’d played with the idea of getting one and doing it out of my shed, for some extra cash, but I don’t think it would really ever become profitable, so I doubt it will happen.

If they do the vapour blast with media. It can work wonders on the finish of aluminium. Doesn’t look polished, but suuuper clean.

[KZJonny]

Also, POR-15 makes a direct to metal clear coat as well, although I don’t know how it would compare on price to that stuff.

I painted my subframe with it when I sandblasted and swapped it, and that shit is serious. Hard to get a nice smooth coat (using $1 chip brush… hah!!) but once it dries? Forget about it. Buy new parts if you need to refinish it.

Edited March 12, 2023 by KZJonny

[KZJonny]

[Enlight]

Wow, did you get the subframe down to bare metal? When I did mine I just touched it up (POR-15). I also POR-15'd my new gas tank, the pictures are probably already somewhere earlier in this thread. That POR-15 clear coat is expensive stuff

[KZJonny]

Haha, yeah. Ontario life. I didn’t want to have to so it twice.

I wish I had POR’d the gas tank tho. I used an inner fender/rocker paint, which, it turns out, melts when you get fuel on it. 

Only a problem when your pump seal leaks. Thankfully that’s never a problem with these cars…. Right?!

At least the seams are well coated. I’ll hit them with fluid film this summer as well. Live and learn.

[Enlight]

I got the parts back from the vapor honer with one day turnaround (thanks again to @KZJonny for the recommendation). The owner is pretty cool, the main business is actually for motorcycle storage/shared workshop for city dwellers for which people can pay a member's fee. I didn't think to take any pictures. The parts came back real nice, it's interesting to see how deep aluminum oxidation can actually go as can be seen on the coolant crossover type below. When I first picked them up it looked like it had a coat of paint.

Started assembling the long block. Interesting how Subaru instructions call for all the 180 and 90 turns and ARP goes straight for graduated torque.

[xt2005bonbon]

Yeah. ARP method is much simpler.

[KZJonny]

On 3/19/2023 at 10:19 PM, Enlight said:

Started assembling the long block. Interesting how Subaru instructions call for all the 180 and 90 turns and ARP goes straight for graduated torque.

Would you care to share the torque stepping for the ARP method? I need to do the heads on my 2.5i, and I've read all sorts of things about how to re-torque the head bolts. I'll check all the numbers for both turbo heads and NA, but my understanding was that the multi step, tighten, loosen tighten thing was about stretching new bolts uniformly.

If you're doing the work on the cheap like I am, and reusing head bolts (because studs are the cost of a new/used EJ253), then things change a little.....

 

A little bit of JB weld might fill in those pits in the crossover pipe nicely? Give the hose a better chance of sealing up well....

 

Also, is it just the lighting, or did you blast the powedercoating off of the Fluidampr?!

[Enlight]

ARP method calls for torquing from 30ftlbs - 60 - 90, in sequence, (link is here). I think I will leave the crossover pipe alone besides clearcoating it, I'm not too worried about it sealing as the lip is mostly fine. If I were re-using the OEM bolts, I think I would just stick with the factory instructions.

I would be more worried about the JB weld coming off in chunks down the line.

As far as the Fluidampr, the zinc coating actually came off when I put it in the Evaporust, which I didn't expect. Since that happened, I asked them to vapor hone it as well and I will finish it up with some clear.