I have been fannying about with cars for longer than I can remeber... but I have never done a full strip and build on an engine..


So I figured for a challenge I would get a spare engine for my Tintop and rebuild it..... If I can rebuild it to a good enough standard, I can swap it with the 100,000 mile example thats in my car...

I managed to find a decent engine that someone had stripped down with the intent of tuning before re-assembling... all of the parts are bagged and labeled and look in fairly good condition..

I have slight concern over some very slight scratch scor marks on a couple of cam lobes, and a scratch on the cylinder head...

The engine is a 1.6 16V multi point injection... As standard its 125hp... 130 ft/lbs

THe guy who sold it to me had spend nearly £300 on parts... have them all in a box here... they include new ring sets, new shell/bearings, new conrod bolts and a few odd seals...

I want to put the engine back together... I dont want to spend silly money, but would like to improve things if and where I can during rebuild...

So where do I start? Do I just clean everything down and put it all together with the new shells etc.... or do I need to get the parts crack tested and balanced etc...?

Any thoughts on how I could increase power? (ideally I need to keep the standard management system, but could be remapped)..

[Edited on 12/3/10 by tegwin]

You can ship it to me when you're done....

One little bit is matching the intake and exhaust ports to the size of the gasket, and a gentle smoothing of the exhaust ports.
Another is radiiasing the oil holes in the crank to allow a better flow of the oil into the bearings.
In the days I worked on Formula 5000 engines we used to smooth all the surfaces were the oil ran back to the pan and paint the interior of the block to smooth things out for the same reason.
One of the big things to do to V8 engines is to epoxy screens in the cam valley oil return holes to stop larger chunks of broken valve gear making it to the crankcase area.

Interestingly the oil return to the sump already has stainless strainers in them.... Its actually quite a cleverly built little engine... the inlet and ports etc are already fairly well sorted..... Deffinatly can match the inlet and exhaust ports with the manifolds.....

Not sure what to do with the other bits though.... not sure if they need balancing etc...

If you want to start spending real money then balance the whole rotating assembly, crank, rods , pistons,flywheel and clutch as well as front pulley.
Then replace stressed fasteners, rod bolts big end bolts or studs.
You can also polish the crank (the rough castings), and the connecting rods.
This leaves you with a strong reliable engine which can take some performance additions.