- Fri May 09, 2008 11:55 am
#54453
I started planning this conversion on my 180E from last year July when i bought the car. I sold my 160i after going turbo on the D16!
So i decided to go bigger this time around.So i bought the 180 and started my planning.
Finally about a month and a half ago i did the conversion over a weekend with the help of some friends. All went well and we finnished within a day and a half. The next morning we started the car and started finnishing it all off.The car didnt want to idle constantly and we had to plug some vacuum leaks.Then we found the idle control valve wasnt working.After that was sorted the car was ok but idling was still sorta rough.
The next day i planned on fitting the oil feed line because i was given the wrong fittings.On the way to the hydraulic shop the car started making very weird and loud noises.After some inspection it seemed like we blew the headgasket.After removing the cams and all to take the head off we found that infact on 5 of the headbolt holes in the block we had stripped the thread straight out of the block because the VTEC headbolts are too short and dont screw all the way down to the bottom of the hole and only bout just halfway.So i went and bought ARP headstuds.Problem solved.
Drove the car for about 2-3weeks and then started seeing some very odd things starting to happen.
On cold starting or starting after letting the car cool down for 2 hours or so it would take up to 40secs to build up oil pressure.Eventually the oil pump packed up.Luckily not while driving.Replaced the oil pump with a VTEC one and all was fine for about 4 days.
The same started to happen.So about two weeks ago i dropped the car off with a friend of mine to open the engine and find the problem.
It wasnt good news.When he removed the crank there were hardly main bearings left.Of course its sorta a relief coz now i know where the oil pressure went to but it was also hurting coz it aint going to be cheap.The problem in the end was that i made a very amateur mistake and im really pissed with myself coz i should've known better.Before the conversion i had the valve cover sand blasted to respray it.I must admit that after the sandblasting and spraying it looks better than most i've seen.BUT, i never cleaned it properly.There was still sandblasting stuck under the baffle in the valvecover and as time went by it washed through the entire engine and fcuked everything up.
So here's the grocery list for the car:
-B18B3 block
-ACL Race bearings(mains,thrust,big ends)
-ARP headstuds
-9mm ARP rod bolts
-B18 rods which have been plasma nitrated and shot peened
-Nissan 83mm high comp pistons
-Brand new oil pump
-B16A6 head
So i decided to go bigger this time around.So i bought the 180 and started my planning.
Finally about a month and a half ago i did the conversion over a weekend with the help of some friends. All went well and we finnished within a day and a half. The next morning we started the car and started finnishing it all off.The car didnt want to idle constantly and we had to plug some vacuum leaks.Then we found the idle control valve wasnt working.After that was sorted the car was ok but idling was still sorta rough.
The next day i planned on fitting the oil feed line because i was given the wrong fittings.On the way to the hydraulic shop the car started making very weird and loud noises.After some inspection it seemed like we blew the headgasket.After removing the cams and all to take the head off we found that infact on 5 of the headbolt holes in the block we had stripped the thread straight out of the block because the VTEC headbolts are too short and dont screw all the way down to the bottom of the hole and only bout just halfway.So i went and bought ARP headstuds.Problem solved.
Drove the car for about 2-3weeks and then started seeing some very odd things starting to happen.
On cold starting or starting after letting the car cool down for 2 hours or so it would take up to 40secs to build up oil pressure.Eventually the oil pump packed up.Luckily not while driving.Replaced the oil pump with a VTEC one and all was fine for about 4 days.
The same started to happen.So about two weeks ago i dropped the car off with a friend of mine to open the engine and find the problem.
It wasnt good news.When he removed the crank there were hardly main bearings left.Of course its sorta a relief coz now i know where the oil pressure went to but it was also hurting coz it aint going to be cheap.The problem in the end was that i made a very amateur mistake and im really pissed with myself coz i should've known better.Before the conversion i had the valve cover sand blasted to respray it.I must admit that after the sandblasting and spraying it looks better than most i've seen.BUT, i never cleaned it properly.There was still sandblasting stuck under the baffle in the valvecover and as time went by it washed through the entire engine and fcuked everything up.
So here's the grocery list for the car:
-B18B3 block
-ACL Race bearings(mains,thrust,big ends)
-ARP headstuds
-9mm ARP rod bolts
-B18 rods which have been plasma nitrated and shot peened
-Nissan 83mm high comp pistons
-Brand new oil pump
-B16A6 head
'95 Honda Civic 4-door
'07 Kawasaki ZX-6R
'07 Kawasaki ZX-6R
