Hidden Secrets of the Engine Assembly Fraternity? (Page 1 of 2)

Just resist the temptation to sneak in some hot cams or higher-compression pistons while you've got the thing apart. Those parts just make your engine blow up faster.

Pfft. Put more of everything in that sucker!

4AGE are pretty simple, no adjustable anything. Make sure you've got accurate cam timing and shim the oil pump blowoff spring so you've got an extra 10-20psi of oil pressure.

A buddy of mine used to build them for Formula Atlantic cars, 240HP+ naturally aspirated- but 600mi. between rebuild time.

For Lemons, think about some kind of ghetto-fabulous windage tray to keep the oil near the pump pickup...

Whoo-Hoo!! Boy was THAT ever fun.

Dammit Pete! See there was someone at the race that could have given you sooooo much more assistance than we did. I had two quarts of that stuff!

Make sure you use brake clean or some other type of parts cleaner on the oil passages in the crank and block. Remove as many pipe plugs and the oil sensor to properly flush out oil and metal shavings. Clean the oil pump screen and check oil pump for scoring and proper clearance or replace the pump. Change the oil & filter after running the engine for about 1/2 hour. Personally I bring the engine up to about 4 grand about 30 seconds after I first have oil pressure to see if it will scatter(can't stand suspense)

4AGEs are 'sized' motors.  There are stamps on the crank, rods and block, you read the stamps, go to a matrix and buy the bearing that is the proper size for each journal.. fun, fun.  Once you grind the crank all bets are off and you just have to go with oversize bearings.....

I can't agree more that you need to wash all parts in warm, soapy water-- pull every  oil galley plug and run a soapy galley brush in it several dozen times. Same for the crank oil galleys and everywhere else. Why soap? It suspends the metal shavings. Same for the bores -- scrub them clean clean clean-- I use a toilet brush. Rinse, repeat. Assemble bearings in a clean environment-- even dust can be bad. wash hands/change gloves often. Don't use a harbor freight torque wrench-- rent a high dollar one (use and return) if necessary. Make sure torque settings are for dry or oiled threads-- don't assume. Use a rethreading kit (not a tap and die) to chase the threads (before you wash it duh). use a heat gun to dry things rapidly to avoid rust flashing or WD 40 or both.  Diesel oil has a bunch of ZDDP in it and so does STP 4-cyl oil treatment (red bottle). Good for flat tappet cams/lifters but slows down bedding in of rings.

Mind you, this is just what I've heard and I really don't know anything about building motors myself.

I'll echo what others have said about shimming the oil pump relief valve spring. I've used a piece of .020" feeler gauge. Keeping the clearance big on the rod bearings is also good advice. When I throw some in my SHO motor, I'll probly just order the same size that is in it now. If your engine doesn't have piston oil squirters, another trick is grooving (or enlarging the grooves if they're already there) the side of the rod above the bearing area. This will allow oil to shoot up to the piston and help keep things cool. You can get a free oil cooler out of you A/C evaporator core (cleaned out!) coupled with a block fitting that has a .020" orifice. It'll really tie the room together.

Since it would be plumbed as a bypass cooler it would decrease the flow of hot soon to be cold oil back to the pan

This is great stuff, guys, please keep it coming.

One specific question. I was re-reading the factory manual last night and it recommends just using motor oil as the assembly lube. Better to follow that advice or to use something like Redline assy lube?

I guess you could use a super-fine bypass filter but those are more for long oil life than performance.   Any oil in the galleries has been filtered already by the mail filter.

We have always raced on a hybrid motor I built.  Turns out a main bearing was put in upside down for the initial build.  It prevented the rod next to it from getting any oil.  We ran the whole Oct 08 race that way.

The motor seized just before the Feb 09 race in which we found the incorrectly installed main bearing.  So our rob bearing ran the whole first race on Royal Purple Assembly Lube!  That's a pretty good testament to the stuff.

Use a tread chaser on as much stuff as you can.  O'Reillys rents them.

I used Loctite on our rod and main bearings as well as head bolts.  This is great as long as you don't have to take the damn thing apart often cause you have to clean all the old stuff out each time.

Clean the hell out of as much stuff as you can.  Clean parts seem to be happier parts.  A pan of diesel and some brushes can go along way.

Once assembled you want to pre-lube the motor.  If you can't run the oil pump off a drill like a Ford or Chevy, disconnect the ignition and turn the motor over with the started to get things primed up.