Well to start off it is still running and did not break. But here it is.

The motor started for the first time on Wednesday. I went to the dyno with about 100 miles on it. The only issue I had was low vacuum. I thought it to originally be a vacuum leak in the intake manifold. The FE3 should have ~19-20in of vacuum. The car had around 14. The car had a hard time idling also. So before dynoing the motor we did a leakdown and compression test. The results weren't bad.......they were horrible... Here they were

Compression Leakdown

Cyl 1 150 65%
Cyl 2 100 85%
Cyl 3 115 84%
Cyl 4 140 80%

These were done when the motor was cold so they would of been better when warm... But here are some things..

When I added oil to the cylinders compression and leakdown barely went up... Less than 10psi and less than 5% I believe when the motor is warm this should be much better. This shows that the rings seem to be sealing well...

Also during the leakdown Air was coming out the tailpipe and out of the intake manifold (removed PCV hose). This is showing that the valves are leaking bad. So I am figuring that the car is going to dyno like crap. I still dynoed it to make sure it was safe (a/f). I had a event the next day and wanted to run it because I was prettymuch guaranteed 1st place based on competition coming to the event. There was a $450+ purse (depending on attendance)... Well we strapped it on the dyno and here is how it went.


13psi 275 uncorrected 250 Torque
17psi 335 uncorrected 300 Torque
20psi 380 uncorrected 340 Torque

Once we went to 20psi the car was spinning the tires on the dyno. So the 20psi run would of actually laid more power down if we could of strapped the car down enough. We tried to adjust and change the straps around but noting would help. The boost came on too hard and the car (gained over 150hp from 4600-5400) Since the compression was so low the turbo spooled like crap but when it came on it came on fast and hard. The tires would start spinning once the boost needle passed 15psi. On the dyno the chart would drop about 25-35hp when it started spinning. It would loose the HP over about 300 rpm. Going by the curve it would of gained ~10 hp. So I would say the chart could be as far down as 40hp. The tires smoked and spun all the way to redline. I guess I will have to start dynoing on slicks :D

Either way the car is still not up to par.. And is still making some serious power. I am going to get a valve job done on the head, and re dyno it on dragradials or slicks in about 3-4 weeks.

BTW that Race I wanted to go to was canceled to weather. :(


Danny

I did get to drive the car at 20psi on the street. It is 100% insane. 1st and 2nd gear are useless.. 3rd spins all the way to redline and 4th spins a little bit... This is on 205 50 15 Pirelli P700Z tires with about 80% tread on them. They are actually decent tires with a 150 treadware...

that was an awesome story :cool:

WOWWW............if you can get the traction, and don't break anything, you will get some great 1/4 mile times..........good luck with that monster....lol

Danny,

I don't think you did the leakdown test correctly! There's no way that the car would make any kind of power at all with an 80+% leakdown. That's with, what? 100 psi of compressed air in the cylinder? If you were leaking down that much, with the cylinder pressure of 20 psi of boost, you'd be blowing combusion gases out everywhere!

Are you sure that you weren't 180 degrees out when you did your leakdown, so that the cams were on overlap? That's what it sounds like to me.

Or, maybe your cam timing is off, and you have overlap when you shouldn't.

I suggest you try the leakdown test again, and make sure both sets of valves are closed by either pulling the valve cover and making sure, or by removing the cams (the surest way).

From the compression numbers, it looks like your motor is hurting for sure, but the leakdown is too high to be consistant with the dyno numbers and the compression readings, at least in my opinion.

The leakdown was at 90psi. I agree with you that it should not make that much power with that kind of leakdown. We Made sure the cam timing was right and the pistons were each at TDC. We even went ahead and turned the motor 180 after each one to check... And it was even worse 180 (90+%)

We tested the gauge on a 2002 Civic Si and it had less than 5% leakdown so the guage is fine.

Put it this way though... With the leakdown tester in there I could hold my hand over a foot away from the tailpipe and feel air coming out. When I pulled the PCV hose it was the same also.. The valves are leaking bad or there is something wrong with the valvetrain. Eitherway the head is coming off.

I am not expecting 200hp from the fixing the head, but getting the compression to 190 should add a good bit of power. Plus the fact the car was spinning the tires on the dyno...

I understand you completely, and would feel the same way if I had not been there when the leakdown was done (I had never done a leakdown test before.)

Another thing is that right before I installed the motor I noticed it was very easy to turn over (by hand) with the plugs in. I just figured since the motor was just assembled that the rings were leaking... Guess that wasnt so...

Danny