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240's KA24DE "truck motor" turbo build

37K views 289 replies 14 participants last post by  240 
#1 ·
 
#93 · (Edited)
Good news... manifold and turbo are mounted. The bad news, I've got a pretty good exhaust leak where the turbine housing bolts up to the upper downpipe. Going with a 4 bolt over V-band was a BIG mistake. There is no room to tighten the 2 lower bolts. I had to buy a short/stubby 12mm wrench and still had to take a torch to it and bend it to make it work. I cannot get the lower bolt closest to the manifold any tighter and that's where it's leaking.

Still, I can't help but be happy that nothing has blown up (yet). Keep in mind this is my first turbo car, so just getting this far is great.

Tomorrow I will tackle the downpipe issue. Once that's done I can hook up the wideband and adjust the tune as it's pretty rich right now. Of course, I'll have to put the rest of the intercooler piping on as well as the radiator/coolant before I can attempt any more quick startups.

Here's the video. The rest of the exhaust isn't yet connected. It's just the upper downpipe. Still, I was surprised at how smooth and quiet it was. I'm not hearing much piston slap or the typical KA valvetrain noise.

(The turbo closeup after shut off is for my buddy Tom, who has had to stare at this rice burner in his garage for about 6 months now and hasn't yet seen the engine running with the turbo on it. Thanks for putting up with all my OCD bullshit, buddy! Hopefully you'll have your garage back very soon.)

 
#94 ·
Good news... manifold and turbo are mounted. The bad news, I've got a pretty good exhaust leak where the turbine housing bolts up to the upper downpipe. Going with a 4 bolt over V-band was a BIG mistake. There is no room to tighten the 2 lower bolts. I had to buy a short/stubby 12mm wrench and still had to take a torch to it and bend it to make it work. I cannot get the lower bolt closest to the manifold any tighter and that's where it's leaking. ....
Can you take the turbo off the manifold mount the DP and then bolt the turbo back to the mani?
 
#99 ·
I giggle like a schoolboy every time I do that. I can't wait to put it to some real use. During that startup in the vid above, it was really rich at first. Like 11:1. I made some adjustments several minutes into the process and then we had to shut it down for a minute. I went back and drained what was in the tank. It was almost all fuel.


I'm hoping to bring her home tomorrow. In the mean time, more pics...




 
#102 ·
. During that startup in the vid above, it was really rich at first. Like 11:1. I made some adjustments several minutes into the process and then we had to shut it down for a minute. I went back and drained what was in the tank. It was almost all fuel.



Please explain. Are you saying it was running so rich that it was blowing by and filled the vacuum tank full of fuel?
 
#100 · (Edited)
The good news is I finally got the car back on the road Thursday night. The tune has been a little more of a pain than usual. I couldn't use any of my old tunes as a base so I basically had to start from scratch with a stock tune. I had to baby it home as even a little too much throttle would make it go pig rich (~9:1) and cut out. I've been working on the tune the past couple of days and I hope to have it running well by next weekend. I'm really still in the break in period for the new rings and clutch, so most of my driving right now has been quick runs from 2000 to ~5000 rpm and then letting off and doing lots and lots of engine braking. 500 miles of this and I should be able to start really opening her up and increasing boost.

Even at only 5 psi, the turbo and BOV are a little more audible than I expected. Not a bad thing though. Sounds awesome. The exhaust is definitely quieter, as expected.

The new clutch has been fantastic so far. Pedal feel is a bit on the heavy side, but I don't think its that bad at all and I have gotten used to it pretty quickly. I don't really even notice it anymore. Engagement is very smooth with the full faced clutch disk. I was running a 6-puck before and I hated it. Really took the joy out of driving the car.

My only real complaint right now is the new motor mounts. They're pretty stiff and shake the crap out of the car and there are all kinds of new rattles that weren't there before. I'm going to give it a week or two to see if I can fix the rattles or just get used to it. If not, I'll swap the old mounts back in. I wouldn't mind it if this was just a weekend car, but since it my only transportation for a while, I'd prefer it to be a little smoother and quieter.

I'll try and get a driving video as soon as I smooth out the tune a little more.
 
#103 · (Edited)
I can see how my wording there could have been confusing.

There was very, very little fluid that drained from the tank. Maybe a teaspoon or two. But it looked and smelled like pure gasoline. I've run other PCV and catch can setups before and the blow-by never smelled and looked just like gas, even when my rings were completely shot. Most blow-by I've seen/smelled is dark, nasty stuff and smells a lot like old oil. Kinda like cracking open a diff that hasn't had an oil change in 50,000+ miles.

Being a freshly rebuilt motor with rings that weren't yet broken in, it's obviously going to have more blow-by. And when it's running really rich, it makes sense that the blow-by is going to have quite a bit of fuel in it.

Does that clear it up a bit?
 
#104 ·
I found a big vacuum leak on the throttle body today and fixed it. I still haven't done any boost leak testing and I really need to do that on both the intake/manifold/intercooler piping as well as the PCV setup. I'm seeing 20 inHg at the intake manifold but only 15-16 at the vacuum tank. Given enough time, the vacuum in the tank should match what I see in the intake manifold. So, I'm fairly certain I have some leaks to track down and fix.
 
#105 ·
Yes makes since with the fresh rebuild and all. I too am hoping to use this type of setup soon on my boosted civic. Love the idea of having that much volume of vacuum at your dispose. Thought it was awesome when you cracked the oil cap and heard the wsshhhh. thumbs up bro.
 
#106 · (Edited)
Thanks man. Its a pretty cool setup. I love that wooosh of air too. A couple of people over @ www.ka-t.org are now looking at doing a similar setup. Here are a few more pics of it now that it's all mounted and working




The sensor for the gauge is mounted on the left side




The gauge is brighter than my oil pressure gauge, which sucks, but it's in a good spot to allow me to keep an eye on it at all times. I've been watching it and the lowest I have seen it get during a 3rd gear pull is 9inHg


I have an an oil leak somewhere in the front of the motor. I put some phosphorous dye in the oil. I'll check it tomorrow with a UV light. Hopefully this will help me track it down.
 
#107 ·
Hopefully the leak is just something easy to fix. Nothing worse than finding a leak after a fresh rebuild.
 
#108 · (Edited)
Yeah, no kidding.

I found the general area of the leak using the phosphorescent dye with a black light and some yellow glasses. It actually work very well. I bad to wipe everything down and remove as much of the oil as possible, and then start the engine and get underneath the car and wait for the leak

Here's the area where it looks like it the oil is coming from.



And here is the same area with a black light and yellow glasses over the camera lens



So, the the leak.could either be coming from the front crank main seal, or at the area where the oil pan mates to the lower timing cover. I'll pull the pulley first and if that doesn't look like the issue, I'll drop the oil pan and reseal. Probably swap out the motor mounts while I'm at if.
 
#109 ·
Right on. Yeah the dye and uv light works well, We use it alot at work. Keep with the updates bro.
 
#110 · (Edited)
The dye is awesome. And so psychedelic, man :afro:





I replaced the front crank seal and then I could see that the oil pan is leaking all around the flange. I've got the car back on jackstands to remove and reseal the oil pan. Unfortunately, I found the first major flaw with my aftermarket oil pan from Xcessive Mfg. (http://xcessivemanufacturing.com/in...train-chassis-engine-ka-n-ka24de-240-cop.html)


Because of this...


...I had to do this:



That "neat" flange that bolts to the trans prevents access to the 2 bolts at the rear of the pan. I was hoping that I could just separate the trans and engine by ~1" and get to them. But between the dustplate and trans flange, there is no way to get a socket back there.... believe me, I tried everything... no dice.


Video:
 
#112 · (Edited)
Pics of the clutch/PP/FW after 700 miles of city driving:








Clearly the outside edge is wearing in a little faster than the rest. I'm not sure if this is normal or not. I haven't done any hard shifts or clutch drops or anything. Just smooth and easy city driving...
 
#114 ·
Man you are finding all kinds of goodies. That has to be very frustrating to have to pull the trans for a few bolts, but if it fixes the leak than thats that. Smart thinking on checking the turbo filter. Is that break in material that was floating around in the alcohol? Maybe the clutch leveling out lol? And yuck on the concoction that the engine has made. Rep on the dedication bro.
 
#115 ·
It is beyond frustrating. Stupid car. I believe the stuff in the turbo filter was just from break-in. I've done a break-in on this motor twice now and there's always some flakes in the oil.

I'm still unsure if the wear in the clutch setup is bad. Researching it now.
 
#116 · (Edited)
I think the wear on the outer edge of the clutch setup was most likely from adjusting the freeplay out of the clutch pedal to the point where I probably had a little preload going on. The fingers had a good amount of of wear on them where they were in contact with the TO bearing. I am hoping that I can fix this by readjusting the clutch pedal and sticking with driving it slow and easy for another 500-1000 miles.
 
#117 ·
Lol I would have already gotten pissed and did about 3 clutch kicks to settle it in. In all seriousness I hope you get it all settled soon. I have been there in your shoes when it comes to car building and there is nothing more frustrating than having to deal with these little problems. But if you are like me there is NO giving up.
 
#118 · (Edited)
I think I may have already been a little too aggressive with the clutch. I've been slipping it more than you probably should a new clutch. I really hope I didn't mess it up already. I looked through a ton of forum posts and clutch diagnostic guides and I'm still not sure. This video from Real Street Performance gave me a little hope when he shows the inner wear on the puck clutch and appears to imply that it's not unusual and just needs more break in time: https://youtu.be/9ktwHjZdniA?t=1m17s

The oil leaks have been one of the most frustrating parts. You tell someone you spent 6 months building an engine and fabricating/installing a turbo setup, and they look at you like, "Dude, it's pissing oil all over my driveway." It's not exactly a good first impression. But yes, I will work and work until I get it all straightened out.

Transmission is back on. I was then able to use a trans jack to press the trans up tight against the trans tunnel, supporting the engine enough to drop the subframe. It was still a PITA, but it would have been worse if I had decided to pull the motor to fix the pan.





Oil pan was removed, stupid flange was cut off, and the pan is back on. It was still a tight fit at the rear, but there was just enough room to squeeze a socket past the dust plate and get the two rear bolts on. No more removing the trans to get the pan off. With the subframe dropped so low, getting the pan back on was cake.












Hopefully I can get everything back together tomorrow and start tracing down and fixing all of my wiring issues. Then I guess it's back to driving like granny and patiently waiting until I can turn up the boost.
 
#119 ·
Bad news :( I was out playing with the boost controller on Friday (the 20th) and started hearing obvious rod knock after a 8 psi run. Babied it home because I was only 1/2 mile awa. Had it towed to my buddy's garage. Tore the motor apart and found that the #2 rod bearing was toast.

Carnage pics





I'm not sure what happened. I wasn't making any hard turns, I wasn't launching hard... there shouldn't have been anything going on that would have caused oil starvation. I had just checked the oil level the day before and it was just slightly high, right where I have always set it. The oil had just been changed a week prior and only had about 150 miles on it. So, its hard to believe that there was oil starvation going on, but that's certainly what it looks like happened.

I don't think that the oil was diluted from fuel. There were a few rich spots in the tune, mostly during throttle tip-in, but AFRs were decent overall. The oil had a slight gas smell to it, but it wasn't that bad. And for the most part, the oil looked fairly normal. The cylinder walls looked fine and I could still see the cross hatching from the home job.

The head, valves, and piston tops look normal. There's not anything to indicate there was any detonation. Boost was a solid/steady 8 psi and timing at WOT was 18-20* which is perfectly safe on my setup.

Head pics:







All of the rod bearings showed considerable wear. Like an idiot, I re-used the old bearings during the rebuild because they didn't look too bad to me and they only had 10,000 miles on them. So, my best guess is that I was mistaken about the wear and the bearings probably should have been replaced. Since it was rich enough to wash down the cylinder walls and destroy my rings (when I had the supercharger setup), it makes sense that there was probably some excessive bearing wear going on too.


I dropped the bottom end off @ Bell the following Monday (the 23rd). I spoke to Tom today and he said that he pulled the crank and just did a basic check. The crank is definitely going to need to be turned and of course new bearings. He's going to do a more through check of everything and hopefully call me some time this week to come up with a game plan. Hoping that I can get by with new bearings and re-use everything else.
 
#122 ·
Damn. Well it looks like this time around after the full rebuild you should have nothing to worrie about. Hopefully. Was you able to at least get the tune done? Still want to see this car in person.
 
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