Project R - Redux - from 2014 to 2018: ENGINE
Entry posted by Komisiripala
4,540 views
i will summarise what the Teg has been through from 2014 to 2018, in the next few blog posts.
ENGINE
The car went through 3 additional rebuilds since the first before things start working aright. indika was not the man to have done this with, as he had no experience with B series hondas, and my vision was lost on him. i was severely restricted by the budget of my dreams so i couldn't afford any better. having said that, i have spent 3 times more doing cheap repairs 4 times over than i have spent doing it right, once, with sabry at PAS.
the reason my Brian Crower cams were not producing power was that i had not raised the compression adequately in my cylinders. as i was unaware of this, i was running stock compression, which was 10.8:1, which is the lowest compression honda designed for the B series: the GS-R auto. the BC website quite bluntly states that one has to have at least a CR of 12:1 for their cams to work. in this light i was experiencing something like "anti-VTEC" where the normal lobes created oodles of power and when the wild lobes are engaged the car bogs down due to compression and fuelling inadequacies.
on this discovery, and being at a bad place personally at the time, i gave up on the BC cams, thinking i have reached the end of my limits with the Teg and i will not be able to complete this. for the first time in my life, i compensated. i backed out. i sold the cams to Rumesh Rajakulendran, who was building his BabyMilo EK9 racecar, and reverted to my auto GSR cams. it was a very low point to have seen those cams go. worse yet, Ruma was thrashing every event he entered and winning by a country mile. he never forgot to acknowledge me and the cams.
to add to this, a few months beyond this incident, sabry and i were trying to tune it, and the engine broke. the bearings had given way. and so began...
1. the second rebuild
i have her this time to a local garage, Shafiq's, in attidiya. he had a lot of experience i was told with B series hondas, and he seemed to know what he was doing. shafiq then pulled everything apart to find out that one of my chambers is not in line with the others. this required an overbore to remove the discrepancy, and bigger pistons. at this juncture Ashan Silva was kind enough to gift me a set of P72 +25bore Civic Type R pistons, which i used in the rebuild. the bearing failure had also cut the crank, so i had to machine the crank as well.
sadly this rebuild lasted the 2000km break in time, and the bearings gave way again while i was on the highway to galle, and it was back to shafiq's for...
2. the third rebuild.
the bore was ok now, but the crank had got cut again, and i was given the choice of machining it yet again, and then limping around, as it would not last many trips to 9000+ rpm, or buy a new crank. a crank from honda was around 80,000, while an entire B20B non VTEC CRV engine in toto was 55,000. the choice was obvious. so we harvested the crank from that engine and did the third rebuild.
at this point i did some research and came to the conclusion that it was not a good idea to mix and match parts, such as take a b20 crank, pair it with b18 pistons and con rods, and then use a b18 head, as the measurements are all different. the garage thought naught of this and then went ahead.
and again, i did the 2000km break in, and was on the dyno tuning it with sabry. the second power run produced 189whp and 280Nm of torque. and then the bearings broke. the engine seized. and this it was time again for *-drum roll please-*
3. THE FOURTH REBUILD!!
i was out of money, out of patience, at my wits end. my dream had fallen apart. i cannot adequately communicate to you the dejection i felt when this broke for the third time. my heart just froze over and i was beyond emotion. this was it. Project R had come to its end. with a son on the way and a house planned to be built, i was drained. this was my strength, my love and my life and it has just broken down for what i thought was the last time.
i needed space. time. to think this through.
one thing was for sure, i was done giving the car to half baked garages. this needed a pro. i wanted this fixed. so i sent her to Platinum as i wanted Sabry to repair it. someday. he removed the engine and i brought the body home. where it went up on jack stands and stayed that way until i could either afford a rebuild, or i made up my mind to sell her for parts and keep the Book.
she stayed this way for 8 months.
during which time i removed the tyres, and stored them in my room, and every sunday i would head out, and wash her, clean the interior and apply siddhalepa on the rexin surfaces to keep away fungus. this was my ritual once a week for 8 months. until such time i could find the means to afford a rebuild, and sabry could bring the parts down.
the day finally did arrive, and boy did sabry pull out a corker. he had plans. big plans. he wanted to do right by me what numerous other people couldn't, and he made this his pet project. we decided to use the block from the b20 engine i had, as my b18 block was fried. and anyhow a b20 would have better lower end torque and thus be an easier daily driver. also my head was perfect. there was no signs of valve or spring wear and it was functioning normally. i had during this time installed a set of ITR camshafts also, and we thought we'd leave that just as it is.
so the B20 block was harvested and bored to 2100cc.
everything else was brand new. we ordered...
1. An Eagle crankshafft. aluminium. rated for 1500whp,
2. Wiseco pistons and connecting rods. custom made for my b20 block/b18autoGSR head, to produce a CR of 13.0:1.
3. a block guard was installed as the chambers of the b20 are larger, and thus weaker than the b18. the b20 had a redline of 7200rpm. we were pushing the 10,000 limiter again. so a block guard is necessary to prevent the chambers from warping.
4. ACL bearings
5. 510cc EVO 4 injectors, with impedance reset to match the requirement
6. AEM 320LPH high flow fuel pump, with a fuel pressure regulator.
sabry took about three weeks for the work, and she was out again in all her glory. she was built with massive tolerances, where, would i ever need to scratch that itch, a set of aftermarket cams or even boost upto 0.8 bar would be easily handled. she was built to last.
i do have to appreciate the effort Sabry put into this, as at one point he had made a mistake on the height of the connecting rods, and he sent them back to wiseco to get down the right ones wiseco refused to refund as the mistake was not theirs. sabry bought a new set for the right measurement out of his own pocket.
i've switched over to LiquiMOLY MOS2 10w-40 oil, and it has been smooth sailing so far. it is only now, that Project R has truly come alive.
-
9
-
2
14 Comments
Recommended Comments