Wow... I never thought of heating the rod, but I was thinking of taking them to a machine shop anyways. Is there any spec on how far the pin has to be pressed in, or does it really matter so long as you get it close to centered?

Also, how do you actually gap the rings? i.e., what do you use to change the ring gap. Do you use a bench grinder on one end of the ring and periodically check the gap until you have it right, or do you hone the cylinder until the gap is right?

 

To gap rings, good shops use a ring filer. You bore the cylinder to size then gap the ring. You square the ring itself in the cylinder down about a half inch or so with out the pistion or anything else and you check it with a feeler gauge.

 

disclaimer *i'm not trying to be a jerk, so if I sound like a prick, please don't take it that way*

(although not recently) it's come to my attention that the majority of people on RDTiburon aren't quite mechanically inclined, and that's ok. So... I will be doing the diy as planned, but I'm going to leave holes for a reason. I don't want inexperienced people doing this. It's dangerous to do to your daily driver, so if you're the type of person that has trouble installing a cold air intake, or installing a 1.8 cam, I don't even want you to think about attempting to do this.

So, on that note, here are some of the first pictures. If you can't remove the cylinder head, this job is not for you. However, if you know what to do, then I'm going to go step by step after the cylinder head removal to make this a good diy.

Enjoy!

 

... and I've started porting...

Step one is to paint the gasket surface with some kind of paint. Doesn't matter, because you'll clean if off anyways. Lay your gasket on there and scratch the outline of each port. Then, start grinding. I used an air grinder with an aluminum-cutting bit. Make sure you smooth out any bumps or irregular areas, then go back over it with a high speed sanding disc on a dremel. Just don't go past the scratch mark you made.



^Fisheyes!!!! But who really cares anyways. All you need is just a thin, crappy coat of paint to make your scratch visible.



Make sure you remove the valves before grinding on the head. I don't have anyone here to take pictures while I removed them, but it's pretty easy. Place the head on a level surface, grab a socket and a hammer, and place the open end of the socket on top of the valve spring retainer plate. Bang bang, the keepers are loose. Pop the keepers out (they may fly away, so be careful) and remove the valves. The head gasket kit comes with viton valve stem seals, so don't worry about screwing them up.

 

Well, the car's done. Piston rings needed no gapping, but I checked them all anyways. They apparently guess pretty good at the factory. The only hitch I had the whole project was that I had the means to remove the wrist pins from the pistons, but couldn't put them back on. So down to the machine shop I go, expecting to pay for this one. Turns out that he only wanted a cup of coffee for putting them together. WOooHoo!!!

Anyways, I didn't get a chance to take pics, but I'll do my best to put up a sort of diy on doing this. I was in a big rush to get this done, since the Rx7 took a crap again. I guess that will never be a reliable dd. laugh.gif

Result:

It's definitely worth it if you have the skill to do it. I'd rate this about a 7 of 10 job. It's not brain surgery, but definitely not an easy task. The power increase is very noticeable all the way across the band. It revs harder, pulls stronger, and the sound it makes will cause your pants to get quite tight!

Don't expect it to make turbo power though, if that's what you're hoping for. That's expensive, and this job probably only cost me about 300 total, after the pistons and head gasket set, along with the oil, filter, spark plugs, and silicone sealant for the oil pan.

You'll also need some serious tools to do this too. No job for the person with a box o' craftsman. There's alot of clearances to take into consideration, you need to torque everything down, and I found myself using alot of special tools.

I'm pretty happy with the results. It's not the fastest car in the world, but it's a load more power than stock. I think it'll be even more noticeable if I had full bolt-on support. I already have a cold-air intake, but I think the next purchase is a set of headers and 2.5" mandrel bent exhaust to complement the 1.8 cam and port job I just did.