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PollyMobiles Rebuild

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pollyp

pollyp

Club Member
I've been looking for a set of rota alloys for awhile so one set is for daily and another set for the track, preferably 15" white grids. some on ebay had come n gone of various odd colours n offsets n high prices (they're bout £500 new alone)

but just before bed thought I'd just check ebay and ooh saw set of white 15" rota grids with tyres for £299 delivered.

read further and its been on a micra so offset is prob the same. also recognised the micra pics n vids.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/181191070458?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

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at first I thought from the bodykit it was kristians but from memory of who uses white rotas would it be McCheung?

brought :D goodbye wallet

as if my garage is already full of 8 R888 wheels, here's another set of wheels to cram in lol, really need to sell these R888s
 
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pollyp

pollyp

Club Member
huh just found mcCheungs sale page including the rota alloys but listed in buy sell as £260 and SOLD but that was last updated on monday and I just purchased it on his ebay list for £299 this early morning?

http://micra.org.uk/threads/k11-jdm-parts-for-sale.57486/#post-620629

so either he's already sold em but forgot to update his ebay list, or double selling it, or he could go back in time after I just purchased it and update his buy sell post on monday?
 
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pollyp

pollyp

Club Member
The Kristian built sr20 micra eh
Did you get em bought?

ah so it used to be kristians ride.

so historically kristian started with that yellow SR,
turboed the stock 1.3 ,
apply wald bodykit,
upgraded to sr20 engine and sold the 1.3 turbo setup (which is what I won on ebay and using now),
mcCheung brought the car,
applied rota grids n other upgrades
and now tday tis all being broken up?
 

h701micra

Deactivated Account
ah so it used to be kristians ride.

so historically kristian started with that yellow SR,
turboed the stock 1.3 ,
apply wald bodykit,
upgraded to sr20 engine and sold the 1.3 turbo setup (which is what I won on ebay and using now),
mcCheung brought the car,
applied rota grids n other upgrades
and now tday tis all being broken up?
I guess so I don't know that much history I just know it was a kristian built car :) I believe it was Andy_S that told me. On the "members ebay finds thread"
I want thr rota wheels but cant justify the money
 
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pollyp

pollyp

Club Member
^yea tis quite pricey

considering I paid £380 for mine plus £130 tyres, £300 for these in the right colour and tyres n offset ain't bad, was the right opportunity, paused for a sec then said fookit, buy. lol
 
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pollyp

pollyp

Club Member
oh gosh I just came back from karting with m8s tonight, 30mins session each driver and god my ribs, feet, arms, hands, neck r aching and prob even more tomorrow, so unfit :p
then drove my car home and ooh didn't realise the engine delivery was so comfy smooth hehe

gonna be out of action recovering for afew days i think
 

SirChris

Educated Bodger
I am still in the cheap tyre realm. I just purchased some yoko a5## something or other. I am still under the belief nice tyres don't make a difference but we shall see in the next few weeks. I may have to come to you both for advice when I stop putting naff tyres on the car. I get cheap part worms so I think why not.
 
I am still in the cheap tyre realm. I just purchased some yoko a5## something or other. I am still under the belief nice tyres don't make a difference but we shall see in the next few weeks. I may have to come to you both for advice when I stop putting naff tyres on the car. I get cheap part worms so I think why not.

Yoko A539's? I run them... Not raced them yet but they seem good on the road :)
 
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pollyp

pollyp

Club Member
new coolant pipe o-ring for when I fully disassemble the engine block

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new auxilary belt

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removed the old one and no wonder it squeals, its manky

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the inner ribbing is worn to sharp ridges, shiny n glazed n oily n contaminated with sealant

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the alternator belt is dry n fine

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here's the new auxilary belt

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old vs new

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fitted n tensioned

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removed the down pipe wrapping incase it's been contaminated with previous oil stain to hopefully stop the smell of burnt oil when stationary for awhile

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the squealing has stopped now :cool:
 
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h701micra

Deactivated Account
£70 a tyre fitted for me...got an event on 18th august, and If i don't crash they're probably decent ;) Will let you two know
No tyre can hold you on the stage... just see how long thry hold ;)
Aye I'm sure me and Paul will want to know
Still £20 over a T1-R factoring in fitting
 
OP
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pollyp

pollyp

Club Member
since work is calmed abit and JAE is getting closer, time to finally commence fixing the last stage of the engine.

first drove out to the country road to warm up n test compression in a secluded area.

here's the compression history so far, seem to have stablised. also the piston top is now 90% dry so oil rings prob wearing in good but plugs still has a slight hint of white burnt oil residue and oil consumption has slowed alot but it still drops abit weekly.

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for the wet compression test I injected a small syringe of oil into each cylinder (exactly the same 1-2 tablespoon) and on 1st crank attempt it peaks at bout 15.5bar hmm seems bit high?

so reset the gauge and leaving it connected, I repeat the test 3 times, each attempt the reading would get abit lower as some of the oil pool is evacuated out under each crank so it seals the rings less.

this means I cannot reliably & consistently compare wet & dry readings directly cos its very dependent on how much oil is in the cylinder to help seal the rings momentarily.
but the important factor with compression readings is that all the cylinder compressions are consistently the same within the spec, and for the wet & dry tests they're pretty even so that's good

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while the gearbox oils warm I also tried to test the LSD preload condition by lifting each front wheel one at a time and turning it with the torque wrench but both sides show no resistance at all so I'm concerned that once again the belleville ring may have shattered AGAIN? :rolleyes:

draining oil

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some more bits on the gearbox plug

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removed the cam cover to check the hot valve clearances

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Mmm the regular oil changes have kept the insides nice n clean

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plugs with teh white oil staining residue

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measured the hot valve clearances and the result is good:

top left section is the min, max & ideal hot/cold clearance values for the valves.
top right is a colour coded scale of those value limits.

in the inlet and exhaust graphs, the upper values are from during the break-in period (good inlet clearance but loose exhaust clearances)
the lower section of the graphs are from tday after the break-in period with the corrected shims (inlet clearance is perfect and exhaust clearance may need to loosen by a fraction)

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OP
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pollyp

pollyp

Club Member
I obviously can't update my blog whilst working on the car and seb I suppose ur that "1 viewer" thats first seen my vid upload tday :D, but yeah the engine was out this afternoon as I mentioned elsewhere and writing update now.
 
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pollyp

pollyp

Club Member
this morning began disconnecting the engine. camera power at the last bit got cut off which didn't show how I struggled to disconnect that damn neutral swith plug cos it had this hidden tag and managed to stab finger with screwdriver!...plaster!



I've been noticing a smell of exhaust from the vents during WOT and here it might be cos the turbo elbow downpipe gasket is leaking. I need to remove those studs off the turbo elbow and sand the surface flat cos its quite rough n rusty

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remove more stuff till I finally remove the engine



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remove gearbox

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remove crank pulley, notice the oil staining n dirt, all traced up to that leaking timing chain side panel

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release bearing collar looks abit dry n scored, not enough graphite?

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PP fingers fine

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may as well measure the dimensions of the flywheel & clutch cos I know r-reg and others are in middle of upgrading and this may be useful info.

first I fit these 2 threaded bars which keeps my straight edge ruler (ref plane) exactly 11cm from the engine/gearbox face (to clear the release bearing) and I use my vernier calipers from the ref plane to measure all distances relative to the engine face

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clutch off

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wtf after all these miles only 1/4 of the flywheel side of the clutch is still touching, somethings not right. either the disc or the fly isn't flat. this ain't ideal for getting the max out of it especially during drag launch

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the PP side of the clutch is ok n flat

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with a straight edge on the fly it seems the face wasn't exactly machined flat enough. the inside is off by 3 thou!
it still bites gr8 but should I bother getting it machined flat and hope the flywheel side of the 200mm clutch plate mates to the new face? or leave it cos it works and save cash?

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flywheel off, no signs of leakage here

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so here's all the measurements of the flywheel & clutch for this 200mm setup.
pretty surprised that when the release bearing touches the PP finger, it's actually resting alot further back in its travel on the input shaft collar whereas on a stock clutch there's prob some gap there

clutch dimension.jpg


to compare with the stock clutch positions I fit the jun fly & clutch

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remeasured and the flywheels are exactly the same depth from the engine face, only difference is the 200mm clutch fingers are 78.7mm from the engine face while the jun fly with paddle clutch and stock PP is closer at 75.2mm from the engine face
 
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OP
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pollyp

pollyp

Club Member
lets assess the gearbox first cos if the LSD is broke n needs rebuilding I wanna send that off to gripper first whilst checking the engine.

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remove the cover and yay the preload ring is surprisingly still intact :)

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removed clutch pack, wipe clean & place on kitchen roll

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K lets compare readings with the last time it was rebuilt in march
http://micra.org.uk/threads/pollymobiles-rebuild.35251/page-77#post-580551

Belleville Preload Ring (previous/current measure)
thickness - (2.66 / 2.66mm)
conical offset - (1.04 / 0.85mm)

it's been squashed flatter during the engine break-in/cruising period by 0.19mm!

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Outer plate 1 - (1.9 / 1.89mm)

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Inner ring 1 - (1.73 / 1.73mm)

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Outer ring 2 - (1.54 / 1.53mm)

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Inner ring 2 - (1.53 / 1.53)

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Outer ring 3 - (0.94 / 0.93mm)

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Inner ring 3 - (1.53 / 1.53mm)

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Outer ring 4 - (1.34 / 1.33mm)

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Inner ring 4 - (1.53 / 1.53mm)

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Planet driver

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so looks like all of the outer plates have worn by 0.01mm while the inner plates are still the same thickness but the biggest change is the thinner preload spring

the area between the top of the cap and the face of the planet driver, which the clutch pack has to squeeze within, is 15.45mm
this distance stays consistant and how much the clutch package is compressed determines the preload

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originally the 1st rebuilt lsd back in feb 2012 had a clutch pack total thickness of 15.65mm (0.20mm preload)
http://micra.org.uk/threads/pollymobiles-rebuild.35251/page-51#post-510710

the 2nd rebuild back in march 2013 had a clutch pack total thickness of 15.74mm (0.29mm preload)
http://micra.org.uk/threads/pollymobiles-rebuild.35251/page-77#post-580551

and now that has worn down to the current total thickness of 15.53mm (0.08mm preload!)

so no wonder I felt no resistance spinning the wheels cos there's almost zero preload (only just enough to take up slack in the clutch pack) o_O

wonder if I should send it back to gripper over the next week and ask em to replace the belleville ring (which turns out to be either too brittle or too ductile/deformable) with more solid clutch plates. or just leave it and get on with the rebuild.
 
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Enuo

Glorified Electrician
*Belleville preload ring

Amazing stuff Polly, keep it up, you're inspiring more ideas out of my head and more money out of my wallet every day :)
 
OP
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pollyp

pollyp

Club Member
needed to find some way of rigging the workshop cam before working on the engine so I found this small clamp, drill a hole and screwed the cam mount onto it

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so now I can clamp it anywhere :cool:

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so here I begin removing all the ancillaries, sump, and head



little bits of sealant under the pickup mesh again

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oil quite mucky black but will be all clean again

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head removed

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center of the pistons have a thick crust of burnt oil. the outer edges kept thin by the constant wetness whenever it runs. top of the cylinders have a thick carbon crust which I'll nee to clean off before removing the pistons.
still surprised at the amount of piston-bore clearance for these forged pistons, can see the rings

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head looking abit crusty

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all coated in baked crust, this will take awhile to clean off

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OP
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pollyp

pollyp

Club Member
removing the custom windage tray then the pistons



before removing the pistons, we need to clear this thick layer of burnt oily carbon which could ruin the perfect rings

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began wiping away with carb cleaner n rag

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all smooth, smear some oil over it so the pistons slide out smoothly

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pistons n crank out and knocked the crankcase breather out too

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parts all over

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piston 1, crusty top but look how spotless it is below 2nd ring. Suppose the motomans hard initial break-in seemed to have helped bed the top rings fast for good consistent compression and reduce signs of blowby.
Prob just oil rings that need sorting now.

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piston 2 same sign

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piston 3

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piston 4

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good signs at the moment. we'll have a detailed look tomorrow.
cleaning all the crusted oil off the piston top n head is gonna be alot of elbow grease
 
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Enuo

Glorified Electrician
If you have a dremel you can get little felt polishing wheels, a bit of course lapping paste in the mix and you'll get it spotless in no time :)
 
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pollyp

pollyp

Club Member
whats the end-gap of the expanders in the bore paul ? :)

when the ends of expanders touch it is usually slightly larger dia than the bore in order to push the rings outwards. so they don't have a "gap" in the bore.
unless you mean how much their ends overlap on top of each other (preload?) when squeezed within the bore?

or unless u mean the oil ring end gaps. they were all set to 0.381mm

http://micra.org.uk/threads/pollymobiles-rebuild.35251/page-78#post-583432

I'll be rechecking all clearances tomorrow against the values when it was freshly built
 
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