Yep, what brought me to Atlanta was the opportunity to rebuild my engine in Jake's shop. I shipped it back here about a month ago. We put the details together a few months ago.

I reported at 0600 as I was instructed to do. My stuff had been uncrated and was at a stainless bench. I got a small tour and saw some of the stuff they were working on. Soon enough it was time to get to work. My stuff must have gotten wet in transit because there was surface rust on some of the steel parts. I started in cleaning up. I'm convinced most of engine building is cleaning. Things went well and I met everyone as they came in. Everyone was very friendly and helpful. As you can imagine I had to ask for help quite often.

After an hour or so, I started measuring the big ends of the rods. They were pretty good and we determined the clearance was fine. Ok, this isn't so hard. I assembled the crankshaft by lunch. I had the bearings on right, slipped the cam gear on with just a little persuasion. I was starting to feel real good, even a little cocky, joking with the guys and really enjoying it. Jake thought I'd get a shortblock together!

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After lunch I got the case ready to assemble. I tried in the cam and Brent thought it was really good So, was ready to load the left side of the case.

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Well, you know what's coming. This was entirely too easy. It started with a few small things. The oil pump showed some wear. Ok, I'll get a new oil pump no biggy. Jake wanted me to match port the inlet for the oil pump so I went and ground it out. Jake looked at it and I left a barb so, I ground and smoothed that. I'd filed abit of the cam gear on the crankshaht to clean it up. I knew wasn't perfect but, I thought it would go. Brent came over to try and turn it and it went for a bit then clunk. What's that?. Brent said cam gear. Utoh! We worked with it a bit but, it wasn't right and it really wasn't getting any better. Brent pressed off the gear and I found an old one to cleanup to replace the one I fuched pulling with a gear puller. An hour later we're ready to put the gear on the crank. I put the hot gear on and Brent says "Is the gear lined up with the key?" I say "Yep" It doesnt slip on and when he persuades it the key starts to come out. Not lined up. Crap

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When it cooled off he pressed it again. Well, third time was the charm. About then he left and said I could stay if I wanted. I thought I would make sure everything rotated and he said "You could get it to the short block". Message received so I stayed until 9.

It's a short block

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Gawd I'm tired

Dave

Dave,

Did you buy a 2270 kit when you first upgraded to a 2270 & did you do it in your garage if so? I am planning to go a similar route with a 2270 and MS, but have some rust and body work to do before I even think of allocating funds towards and engine.

Thanks,

Mark

You were at Jakes?

What the heck is this?

I cant believe you had that anywhere near an engine.

Now Dave knows what a 15 hour day is like in Heaven... Tomorrow night I'll pull an all nighter and will see if he can put in a solid 20!!

Dave has been plagued with stupid issues that are absolutely not possibly explained with his engine kit. Dave bought this kit in 2004, before my kit program was refined at the retail level it is now.

Because Dave has had the same issues and new issues continued to pop up I invited him to do two things:
1- Send me the engine and I would reassemble and test it for him FREE OF CHARGE.

2- Allow him to come into my world and assemble it under our watchful eyes and dyno it afterward.

Dave has been an outstanding, patient and absolutely dedicated customer since day one and I will go out of my way to ensure someone like him who is determined ends up getting as much of my assistance as possible when they have an issue.

I have never allowed anyone other than my absolute closest friends to assemble engines here, or even come into the shop and thats because we are very busy and not very social when the clock is ticking. When I met Dave at the end of my cross country trip in 2006 I wanted to help him sort these issues he had been having even more than ever and when he hit his last issue thats when I made the invite for him to bring the engine back home and get the problem taken care of.

BTW- Dave dug that adjustable wrenc out of the bottom drawer of my tool box, I keep it around for doing plumbing work at the shop and had it handy because I had to inastall a water pressure regulator on the new dyno last week :-))

very very cool - best to you all!

jim

One day I hope to go to Heaven too.

Jake it looks a lot more crowded in the shop than when I was there 2 years ago. Of course ya'll were doing field day.

Dave Good luck in this engine build and may it be your final iteration of the 2270 for your car.

An old wrench told me once "Any tool is the 'Right' tool...If it works.

shop area in my garage will be cleaned and sanitized by the time you get home. check with the boss and block out the first wed you have off. i KNOW your weekends will full of non-914 activities for the next year or so. very cool dave. i'll talk to you when you get home. if you should need a pick up at sea-tac, have betsy call me with the flight details and i'll come get you.

k

This is our busiest time of the year here at the shop, so things are cluttered much more than I like. I am doing Pinzgauer engine development in the lab right behind where Dave is working and that is making for even more clutter.

Dave has already learned so many tricks... So far today he has used both an oven and a frezer during cylinder and piston assembly!

According to conventional; wisdom his engine should never even run :-)

In part because of the problems Dave had, and the support Jake gave him, I have a Raby 2270 kit in my car. I liked the concept of a dyno tested and road tested combo. I just didn't know about Jake...

The support Dave got and is getting, pretty much made my decision.

But, I have to say, if given the opportunity Dave got, have Jake assemble it or do it myself under Jake's watchful eye. I would let Jake do it. Dave is one stubborn dude. He is not going to let that engine beat him.

Dave isn't stubborn- he is determined and thats why he is in my shop right now.

I do my best to help anyone that buys from us of course if Dave would have been the type to yell, scream and cuss he would have been on his own for the past 3.5 years without any support (I hate people like that and avoid them at all costs!)

Lets not forget the significant outlay of time and support that Charles from LN Engineering has put into this very odd, very unexplained one of a kind situation. Charles has "ate" two sets of cylinders, replating, numerous ring sets and even paid serious bucks in consulting with JE Pistons to figure out this issue.

So far Charles is in the project more than I am... Probably about 5K as a good estimate.

I gave Dave every opportunity to get our free labor, but he was too dedicated to care.

An oven and a freezer to asseble pistons and cyls.!? do tell...


I am not familliar with the probs. Dave had with the motor, what were they?

what was found to be wrong and how is it getting fixed?

You take the nachos out of the oven and the pepperment schnapps out of the freezer. Once consumed, proceed with assembly of cylinder and piston.

An oven expands the cylinders, a freezer shrinks the pistons and the rings go in at room temp?

i'd put my money on either the piston pin,
or the nachos.

Wrist pin is pretty likely.

Is that a metric crescent wrench?

No-no, this is very cool...It works for eather!

ooohhh, don't watch me work on my car. I pretty much assembled the whole thing with two of them whaddaya mean you can tell

I take my whole roll-away with me to the track and 9 out of 10 times I have to crawl under it, I have two of those in hand...

Dave, learn all you can, take notes and get this one right...third time is the charm....I am learning the hard way too....

Ok , lets get it clear on the crescent wrench. There are 2 uses for baiting you guys and loosening the bolt on the engine stand which is not metric. You guys pick. By the way, no sign of a pipe wrench.

Dave

Today was better day. I reported at 0600 again. Jake was already there. I started work after a few words over coffee. The plan was long block but, Len still had my heads and won't get them until tomorrow. By the way, Len stands behind his products too.

The day started with finishing the oil control system. Jake showed me how to tighten fixtures that use compression washer without a torque wrench. I'll probably still use a torque wrench however. The details he sees; he stopped to center the washer under the smaller oil releif plug so it would squish evenly. I filed that one. After a while, and Brent took a look. Doh! I forgot to torque the the case bolt through the oil pickup. I got a raised eyebrow over that.

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Next I spent a hour at least cleaning parts again. I had to clean honing residue out of the cylinders. The process was spray with carb cleaner and wipe with a giant lint free Cleanex. The tissue had to come out as white as it went in. No soap and water BS. Carb cleaner and elbow grease. When I was done the bore looked like chrome. I filed that.

Then the ring gap procedure. Measure an upper and a 2nd compression in in 2 cylinders. These were way tight I thought and I figured I'd be gaping rings. Instead, 1 cylinder went in the oven at 350 degrees and the other went in the freezer for about an hour. Then we measured again. I had to rethink my ideas of ring cap.

Next, I had to make sure that the cylinder base shims didn't interfere with the cylinders when hot so, I put a shim on a cylinder and back in the oven to 350. The shim had to slip off when hot. It did. By the way I forgot to turn the oven off and wasted an hour.

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Deck height was next. I forgot to zero the indicator so I about shit over .059, 056, 057, 052. When I got it figured out everything was fine but I got another raised eyebrow.

I finished the day by torqueing down everything with some borrowed turbo heads with square ports and BMW E36 valves. Pretty cool.

I left at 1815 came back to the motel had a beer and a shower. Later I went to a cool little tavern on the banks of a little stream for dinner and a couple of pints. Cute little waitress.

Dave

I really would like my engine to look like this. This what Brent has been working on . He really has been very patient with me and I owe him big time.

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Mine looks like this

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By the way, I got to work on a a Pinzgauer today

Here's Brent, the master of patience.

Dave You seem to be doing fine. Raised eyebrows are OK it's the raised Cresent wrench that would get my attention.

Dave has been a really good recruit... Some people I really like to educate, others that don't take the topic as seriously don't get much info at all..

Dave is hardcore for sure, he impressed me sure when he ate a burger with a wrench in one hand, not breaking away for a lunch break...

Brent and I have both been tossing secrets toward Dave to help him build this engine as well as we could, which was the whole point of Dave's trip.

Tom and I have been working on pinzgauer EFI development leaving Dave under the watchful eye of Brent, but he'll be getting my attention all day Thursday and Friday when the engine comes into the dyno lab for proving.Dave, thanks for the electronics assistance when hooking up the Pinz TPS!

BTW- Dave got to meet Mallory this morning, my crazy assed Rottweiler mix.. See her crashed out on the floor of the shop- she don't like waking up at 0400.

Dave gets to sleep in tomorrow morning, show time is 0800 but I'll be pulling an all nighter tomorrow night and if that engine of Dave's isn't bolted on the Dyno ready to fire up Thursday morning Dave will be right beside me ........

Cool name for a dog. Mallory.
Our Shepard Chow mix is Dipstick. She has a 2" black tip on her tail.

Anxiously awaiting an update! Given I am in the the middle of a backyard rebuild I can't relate to the progress! You guys get done in 3 days what takes me 6 months! Looks like fun!

Dave is making good progress now, he is ready for sheetmetal and then bolting it to the dyno!

I sure hope it works this time.

Good luck Dave.

Go Dave Go!

Surprised you were allowed to even start without having everything totally cleaned and spotless. My Master Mechanic buddy who helped me rebuild my MG Midget engine wouldn't let me assemble squat until you could eat out of the cylinders and off of each part.

Looks like your learning a lot, nothing like having experts around to help you through the process. Did you hot tank the block before you started the rebuild?

Now how do you 'hot tank' an aluminum engine case? The 'hot tank' is for cast iron blocks.

OOOPS! Forgot about that! Not used to working with Aluminum or as my Brit friend calls it, aluminium! Was still thinking archaic ugly MG engine!

I forsee "Aircooled Heaven - Pacific NW Division" located in beautiful Gig Harbor, Washington.

Dave - Should I make a rebuild appt with the Fircrest office, the home office or what?

Do I dare say.....Kevin can run the Type IV store - PNW Division.

We all envy you Dave!!!
Can't wait to hear all about it upon your return.

go cat go!

Dave only has 5 days to build and dyno the engine, thats just enough time to get the job done working at a steady pace without rushing.

Here we build in stages and clean the parts and etc for those stages as we approach them..

Guess why??? Thats because cleaning parts as you assemble keeps dust and other foreign matter from having time to accumulate on the parts. If you clean everything then let it sit while assembling you'll gain some dust for sure. We work in the cleanest atmosphere possible, but there is still dust about no matter what. As I assemble I take the time to hit each part with denatured alcohol as I install them.

But thats why I only personally assemble 4-5 engines a year and it takes me 5X longer than it should.

How did he get thru valve train geometry so fast?

I must have missed the report on why the engine failed yet again. Was there a smoking gun?

Dave's engine was just a reassemble- no critical dimensions changed that required more than a geometry verification.

We are bolting it on the Dyno now.

Good luck hope everything works out without any problems.
This has been a very exciting and fun thread

We'll post pics later..

It's gonna be a long night and Dave isn't fading too much yet! Now that the engine is back in my realm and out of the assembly area we'll be making some huge changes..

Friday will be a day Dave will never forget!

Some pics

Here is recruit Dave after a 13 hour day in Heaven.
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Another MassIVe 4 ready for the final touches
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Here I am wheeling it into the lab
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How the beast sits now..
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we'll get the data logger hooked up, oil pressure built and have it ready for action bright an early tomorrow morning before calling it a night...

ENVY!!

Jake,
you sure stand behind your research and builds. Have to respect that in a person. You are OK in my book.
Dave,
What can I say except, WOW, you must be really stoked! What determination. Can't wait to see the car run. PCA AX 10/20?
Tom

Dave is the only engine kit customer we have ever had encounter issues like these. Charles and I are bound and determined to sek out and destroy the issue and ensure that it never has a chance to repeat it's self.

We do research for a reason and to date an engine hasn't kicked my ass yet.

are you going to dyno it with carbs? i thought my dad was going to show you the megasquirt?

~Gerry

0100 and Dave just headed back to the hotel.....

Yes, we'll be dynoing it with carbs first only for a base line to ensure the leak down numbers are acceptable and the engine is stable before installing the MS....

I believe the MS causing extreme rich conditions at over run has been the root of most of the evil surrounding this engine..