94 Formula bolt-on-a-thon

[ThreeHonks]

im getting arp studs for the mains when im ready to start assembling the engine. and yes i know the eagle caps arnt the best but again...

I hope that block was not align bored when the eagle caps were installed. If so you're, going to need to spend the money and do it again now that you will be running ARP studs.

[98blackbeauty]

I hope that block was not align bored when the eagle caps were installed. If so you're, going to need to spend the money and do it again now that you will be running ARP studs.

Why is that? I wouldn't think anything would change? Just interested in hearing your reason.

[DETROITMUSCLE]

The ARP studs have a much greater clamping force, its even recommended when using there rod bolts that you have the rods checked.

[Caveman]

I hope that block was not align bored when the eagle caps were installed. If so you're, going to need to spend the money and do it again now that you will be running ARP studs.

really? hmm...ill talk to my engine guy once i pick up the studs...the align bore was part of the 4 bolt instal so maybe he will cut me a deal on having the align bore re-done once i get the studs in..
and when i bought my rotating assembly it came balanced and with arp's for the rods....figured it would be fine if they spent the extra $$ to be internally balanced..unless im wrong?

[ThreeHonks]

You MUST have that block re-align bored. Just like Jeff said the greater clamping force will make a difference. If you do nothing else to the motor, get that re bored. If your machinist thinks it will be OK, then its time to find a new machine shop. Not trying to lecture, just looking out for you. I dont want to see the motor come apart a few hundred miles down the road.

FYI: It is especially important to have it done when putting new rod bolts on connecting rods.

[Caveman]

oh no i dont take it as a lecture...if its something i didnt know than by all means stop me from doing something thats gonna ruin stuff... i was just un aware that it needed to be align bored with the fasteners i was going to use..especialy when it comes to studs.. i was just trying to show my reasoning for using the eagle caps... good looking out though..

[98blackbeauty]

So if I understand this correctly, if you take an engine and change the main bearing cap bolts to studs you need to have the mains redone and line bored. I was always under the impression that going from bolts to studs nothing needed to be done.

[Caveman]

i never knew that either...now that i think about it i can kinda see why it should be done.. again, thanks for catching that before i started to put it together..or even ordered main bearings for that matter..

anyways..so this morning i was cleaning up my room a bit and i found a small white box sitting on a dresser that i had no idea what it was..at first i thought it was some gizmos for my 9mm because it was right next to it, but when i opened the box it was my shift light....i completely forgot i had a shift light so this morning after playing around with some toys i bought at the gun show in novi, i decided to instal and wire up my shift light... my pillar is looking a little cluttered now but i dont think its too bad.. really the only good space for me to put it where it would be facing me and i could see the dial and numbers on the back of it to adjust it.
after all that i wired up the majority of my radio harness and put it in just to fire it up and double check the pioneer speakers.... kinda short and boring but thats about it for today..sorry guys
tomorrow im gonna check into the seatbelt thing at the local pd...but im pretty sure im going to wind up just removing the stocks... it kinda looks sloppy with both in and again i have to kind of stay on track with where im going with the car..its primarily a drag car..i just want to be able to drive it to the track, cruises, and the m&g

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[ThreeHonks]

So if I understand this correctly, if you take an engine and change the main bearing cap bolts to studs you need to have the mains redone and line bored. I was always under the impression that going from bolts to studs nothing needed to be done.

It should even be done if you are using the same bolts. It is VERY important to have the crank caps true and exactly the same size. If I had to pick between the two, I would rather have a block algin bored than the cylinders bored.

Mine were NOT true and my motor had 53k miles on it when rebuilt. It also still had very clear cross-hatching in the cylinders

[JoeliusZ28]

It should even be done if you are using the same bolts. It is VERY important to have the crank caps true and exactly the same size. If I had to pick between the two, I would rather have a block algin bored than the cylinders bored.

Mine were NOT true and my motor had 53k miles on it when rebuilt. It also still had very clear cross-hatching in the cylinders

agreed. align boring and resizing the connecting rods are probably the most important two bases to cover on any disassembly/reassembly. An engine can still make plenty of power and not come apart with mildly worn cylinder walls.

[DETROITMUSCLE]

as a suggestion why not put the shift light in the little vent hold on the a-pillar, thats how most guys do it, once your tuned and you know what rpm you'll be shifting at you really won't have to adjust it much and you should be able to pull it out if need be without removing the whole pillar.

[Caveman]

the shift light is way to big to fit in there...its about an inch and a half wide and probably 4-4 and a half inches long...that was pretty much the best spot i could put it sadly..

on a side note...i noticed all the pictures on this thread are small now...or at least thats how im viewing it...are you guys the same?

anyways...i got the main power and gound wires hooked up to the ecu connectors, snapped them in and test fired the ecu... for a second there right before i hit my acc power switch i was sweating like a pig i almost didnt want to...i could almost see it... "click...pop..." lol but the little green power light came on

i hooked up the com wire to my laptop and after a couple different settings i got it connected and ran through the basic opperating paramaters of the xfi and the engine... now what do i do for the rest of the day?


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[meissen]

The images show up in proportion of your screen resolution. The larger your resolution, the larger the images will display up to full size.

Looks great so far! I've never seen the fast xfi before so this is pretty interesting to me

[Caveman]

thats the weird thing...up until this morning they were all full size images but when i went to upload pix this morning they were all small... i didnt change anything on my comp so i dont know..


so im working on my turn signals/brake/tail lights right now...im racking my brain on how im going to wire them all up, im about 50% on how i need it to work but im still having issues...
i went off of the actual diagram for the lights and im just going over how im going to run all the wires, switches, flashers, etc... this will pretty much take up my evening but hopefully i can get some magic to happen before the nights over..

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[OIF1VET]

Damn man, can't believe everything you've done so far.. Very impressive, good luck with the rest of the build!!! Hoping to check it out at the M&G?