It was running great, and fueling was coming back around, then Thursday morning I ended up with a supercharged 4-cylinder.

Pulled the front three plugs and found the #5 fouled badly with fuel (that'* good news, because these bigger injectors were spendy). Immediately went to the rear bank and pulled the #2. Fuel fouled also. The 2/5 coil tested good with an ohmmeter, but it has a high-current short for sure. Only a megger (megohmeter) will show it, and I plan to do that monday at work.

MSD coils lasted quite awhile, and I can't complain. We'll have a black OEM replacement for a bit, but I'm also taking the time to tear the top end off again. Time to put the CompCams lifters back in. This motor was assembled with the replacement motor'* lifters, and I have some universal valvetrain noise. I'd custom-selected the length of my pushrods for the shorter preload of the compcams, but had pulled those for what I thought was a ticking lifter last year. I know now that it was a bad wristpin on the #1.

I'm fighting a little bit of the flu, so I'll take this one slow as I feel up to it. This'll also give me a chance to inspect the intercooler up close.

Tinkering while recovering from the flu.

Here'* the plugs. See the problem?


Checking the coil and wires. Notice the exposed intercooler line (showing green) behind the SC? I have a small leak back there, so it'* just another reason to pull the top end.




Now onto the meat of the work. I used the OEM lifters from the donor motor. I had Performance CompCams lifters in the Zilla last summer, and thought one was bad, but it turned out to be a wrist pin. I had originally had these pushrods made to take the 1.8 rockers and CC lifters into account, and as such, they're a LITTLE loose with OEM lifters. The CompCams are now back in, valve covers back on, and some updates going on with the LIM/SC:


New pushrods fit MUCH better now. Zero play in the 'closed valve' locations. But they still JUST spin by twirling with fingers. Rocker and pushrod wear are perfect so far. I also found my rear engine hoist bracket loose, right above the one and only knock sensor, which may have been giving me some false knock.

All tucked in for the night:

Heh, ya you were running on 4 cylinders.

You must go thru a lot of gaskets.

I have enough gaskets on hand at any given time to do the top ends on both cars at the same time.

When I use a set, I buy a spare to set on the shelf in it'* place (most small gaskets). This time, I didn't have a spare set other than a low-mileage used set for the LIM, so I bought new. Not using them though. I'm re-using what came off the motor. They came off undamaged and perfectly clean (still attached at the corners).

Your car sure aint shy to show her insides!
Glad to see you havent had a meltdown lol

Neighbor asked me how many times I've ripped through the top end. I had to stop and count.

4 times on the old motor, twice on this one (this car only). Twice on the other one.

Oddly enough, the 2/5 coil didn't test bad with a Megger. Not sure what'* going on, but we've seen internal problems brought on by both vibration and heat, so I'll use the SLE over the next few days to test all three coils while the Zilla is still torn down.

Meanwhile, I'm playing with paper cutouts again. Good thing I have a few spares:







Vocabulary lesson for the day:

LOL that is great!

While the pics above may be disturbing to some, those that have been here recently know I have an identical un-molested heat exchanger core sitting on the shelf brand new in the box. I bought two.