Re-turbo motor rebuild and paint

mrsn95guy

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Long short I was going to 351 but I've decided against that (actually wallet disagreed).
Simple 302 rebuild re turbo, I've already had it running for about a year on 8-10-12 pds got greedy at the #12.
So fairly simple ordeal just taking me longer because money is tight until summer.
 
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mrsn95guy

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Some progress made last night after 2am I'm bailed though lol.
 

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mrsn95guy

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Ok this is going to be a very long winded post lol also maybe just maybe someone that is feeling discouraged about a car issue or tackling a major project will see this write up.
Well last post was in April lol so I didnt really get fired up until june; i removed every piece of interior and quarter glass panels and started laying out the paint order I was gonna run in. Well summer hit with a vengeance and I do HVAC by trade so needless to say I got blindsided by NC weather.
So july rolls around and now begin sanding down car (spoiler this is where things head south on me quickly) I was going to paint car same color but for some gah awful reason I started sanding with 80 grit (FYI: you can just sand with 400 and shoot a base). Well after going absolutely crazy with 80 grit now I've got a mess so I decided to spray slick sand; well slick sand has a very short pot life when you dont read the directions and mix 1 quart with an entire tube of hardener. It has the consistency of play doh and will set up in gun in roughly 10-15 minutes. So now I have to throw away 20 dollars (harbor freight purple gun); sand again because I have blotches every where. Now side story time I bought a hood from champion hoods and I was highly disappointed when I got it home total shit show that hood is 2 out of 10 stars. Hood prep was horrible and I eventually gave up on making it perfect but I also dont have 500 to drop on a cervanis hood but I'll definitely be savin.
So where was I... oh yea; my horrible decision to paint my car. Well july finally ends along with my sanity and here comes august and the absolute inferno that comes with it. Well I break down and purchase a 2k primer and wow does that stuff make a big difference; started playing with the needle adjustments, air pressure and the 2k flows nicely through the harbor frieght special. So now I'm wet sanding my car and life is sunshine and rainbows; until the day my dad comes into the shop to grab a socket set for a compressor install and knocks my work light on to my door and fender thus scratching the stuff that I just wet sanded all to hell.
So now after getting everything finished up on primer side and new*ish panels I am finally ready to lay metallic base coat. Pick me up a HF "professional" HVLP; first go round I tank pressure too low and I was too close and wasnt even on my coats so the hole roof tiger stripped; I thought I could fix this by adding more paint, after 5; yes 5 coats, I have a very dark green with very little metallic pop and used up way to much of my paint (which is very expensive) I decided at that point I need practice and lots of it. Well after a week of spraying panels with acrylic paint I finally have a groove. Set gun up and start ripping, base comes out pretty nice but the light played a horrible trick on my eyes. Well grab some clear and reducer; start laying clear on with gun and next thing you know I have a grainy textured clear on my car so I give up for about 2 weeks.
Now Sept is here and paint supply store comes in and saves my ass by teaching me about paint. I come to learn a few things from them, 1) reducer I had was a fast reducer (its 95+ with 50% humidity.) 2) my air pressure was 35ish and it should be 25ish. 3) I was too far away from panel. 4) i was moving too quickly. So with renewed optimism I rush home and take my time lol, I corrected all issues and started playing with reducer rates. Fenders were 10% doors 15% and quarters and trim pieces 20% and by then my paint was smooth and had a decent pop. Then I discovered one of the most important things with paint LIGHTING; had several light spots and some missed areas but by now I know what to do but I'm ready to drive the thing again.
So after all that I calculated everything I had in it and I would have broke even to have someone else handle the hassle BUT after I was finished and even though it wasnt perfect I am beyond happy with results. I now have learned paint corrections and how to cut and buff; hell I re cleared my boat and took factory orange peel out of my Silverado tailgate. This was all learned by the trials and tribulations of painting my car myself. Paint isnt perfect but I will get re-do the paint come next fall after I build me a better "booth" I also will purchase a LVLP as my clear gun.

Will attach pictures and finish story on motor rebuild lol.
 

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mrsn95guy

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Part 2 of the simple build saga.
Motor time... never have I ever broke a motor completely down and rebuilt it.
Basically what happen I fuel washed my cylinder diluted my oil and of course lost compression but in the process I also trashed my bearings.
Well after paint fiasco I now have something more in my ball park, tear motor down buy all pieces; take all pieces back because advance gave me under cut bearings and standard rings (my rings were 4mm 4mm and 1.5 if I remember correctly on ring sizes.)
Take motor to machine shop and have them hone block and cut heads. Purchased tighter valve springs, f303, head studs, intake studs (highly highly recommended intake studs) and I also got a comp cams roller set. Get everything back and begin reassembling motor; drop my #1 piston on the ground because that's how my life goes at times. Well its 1am I've now dropped the first piston on the floor; I just cut the lights off and dont even bother picking up the piston.
Then I had the bright idea the next day to purchase another 95 car for 700 bucks to have as spare parts and just drop my stuff into the motor and possibly turn my motor into a NA stroker and just have it at the shop in case I find a good project mustang. Well 3 hours of driving and returning back to the house I find upon inspection of main caps that at some point someone starved the motor of oil because I had worse wear on those bearings then i did in my car. So recap on my plan: I've now wasted alot of money but I did gain a number 1 piston, weighed the 2 pistons on my refrigerant scales and my piston was heavier but by a gram I chucked that to the newer rings vs the worn rings.
So I continue on with rebuild and I had an amazing job opportunity arise to become a supervisor with a substantial pay raise so I slowed down on rebuild to handle other life events.
Finished rebuild last week drop it in the car, stay up till 3am because the next day I was going to fire up a years long project.
Then the next day hit and everything went south (or so i thought), hit the switch and motor didnt wanna fire at all. Check my tune (megasquirt) and couldn't change motor with major tune adjustments so I knew it was mechanical.
Side note here: don't be like me, dont let everything you touched become a possibility start simple and work your way through the basics.
Well grab the compression gauge and find that I have 40+/- on every cylinder, I immediately pull timing cover to make sure I had meshed gears right. Sure as shit everything looks good so I go in the house to eat my feelings. Then I start to breath and start going through the basics, battery was weak and I was using a jump box, charge battery and try again, now I have 60psi, through some oil on top of piston and now I have 120ish. This is were I got discouraged because normally that's bad rings. Well I knew rings haven't set and there was a very high chance I fuel washed the cylinder because I never changed priming pulse nor did I flood clear before first start up. So this time I put a small amount of oil in all cylinders, with a hot battery and MSD unplugged and she started to fire off but wouldn't fully hit. My manifolds were hot like I was off on timing. So called my buddy and he jumped over and helped me out big time. This is were 2 heads are better than 1, as I turned motor over he advanced timing and she fired up.
Today i put finishing touches on the small stuff and I'm installed clutch and drivetrain tomorrow, still have tuning that needs to be gone through but boy is this thing a nasty little setup. Very good throttle response, she is definitely rowdy.

So final remarks are this; this shit ain't easy none of it is. Some times your gonna get your ass kicked, but there are people out there who will help you if your willing to ask and listen. All the lows pale in comparison to the pride I have in this build and paint, these 2 hands and my brain along with some instruction tackled 2 major builds in one. Never give up on something because it gets tough, lower the shoulder, get low and push through.

This definitely wasnt how I intended this post to go I was gonna take pictures and show progress but hell sometimes I didnt even know I was progressing lol. I'll dump what I can but I'll leave a link to a video once I get one on my youtube channel; stay classy.
Ryan
 

D3VST8R96GT

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Awesome man, don't quit!! This is what I love about the forum, real people trying to figure out the cars and DIY. I almost want to try paint now because of you hahaha. I will probably have a similar
saga or worse.
 
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mrsn95guy

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It was fun, but hindsight 20/20, I would have spent a whole lot more time prepping the area I was going to be painting in.
Car is running at the moment, had alot of valve tick during idle time. Pulled valve cover and noticed I've got a rocker that is all loosey goosey, bottom out the rocker stud so I need shims. Power steering pump I dropped and cracked the plastic housing, luckily I have that parts car lol.
I should be taking it for a stroll around the block tomorrow.
 

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