If anyone plans to drill the block for the oil return please take precaution. The metal shavings can cause you to lose or rebuild your engine, I learned this the hard way. Even if you remove both bottom pans you may still get metal in your engine. After installing my F-max kit I would say it ran good gor 2months before I started to have problems. This is not the fault of the kit, it is due to an installation error. To make a long story short, my engine is now being rebuilt. Upon inspection after dissasembly, every part of the engine had shavings including the cams, rockers and lifters. My mechanic said it is best to take out the block, drill it and then wash it down. I dont want to see anyone else go through the same problem.

what were the first symptoms you saw of your engine goin bad?youve got me worried.:confused:

matt

Damn. What exactly did you do when you drilled it? Whats the best way (besides pulling the motor) to go about this? I thought pulling the lower pan and flushing with a bunch of oil would be ok. :(

If you drop the pans... after drilling.. make sure you flush it out with a good solvent.. and make SURE there are NO shavings in the threads.. or on the side of the block inside. Also.. make sure you clean the pans realy well before putting them back on.
Travis

i dont know what you people are doing. i have drilled this hole numerous times with out draining the oil or removing any oil pans and there have been no problems. it is a fairly safe thing to do if done cleanly and carefully and with a helper.

Originally posted by bigtom
i dont know what you people are doing. i have drilled this hole numerous times with out draining the oil or removing any oil pans and there have been no problems. it is a fairly safe thing to do if done cleanly and carefully and with a helper.

How do you do it without draining the oil?

Originally posted by bigtom
i dont know what you people are doing. i have drilled this hole numerous times with out draining the oil or removing any oil pans and there have been no problems. it is a fairly safe thing to do if done cleanly and carefully and with a helper.
I don't know tom, when you drill something metal, some metal shavings are bound to fall through on the other side no matter how careful you are, its a big risk to take with very little room for error!

i have drilled that hole about 15 times the exact same way and the only error i have ever had is being off center a few times. i pressurize the crankcase with about 50psi and use some special drill bits.

I heard about pressurizing the crankcase, but wont oil come spilling out?

I doubt any oil would spit out as the oil level is lower than where you drill. BUT, better to have oil spit out than metal fall in! I took mine off before I drilled, lets you see where you end up for one thing. I'm one to play on the safe side as I don't have a lot of money to replace motors with :)

Khiem

taking the pans off is definitly safe. i actually recommend it for first time drillers. just be extra clean and all will be fine.

Dexter, who is the mechanic that is drilling and tapping your block for turbo, I have a block here that I want to be tapped for turbo and slap some forged pistons in.

You should ALWAYS pull BOTH pans. That is a FACT. If you don't it's potential engine suicide. Sure you could get lucky but why play Russian Roulette with your expensive SR20 engine.

I pulled both pans and then took a 2 liter plastic coke bottle, cut it down to make a scoop and actually hung it from the main beam girdle. That way it deflects the 1000's of metal shavings away from the underside of the engine internals. (I was outside with the wind blowing doing this) I'd still suggest to make something to deflect all shavings away from the internals as a precaution.

It only take a little longer to pull the pans. That way you can clean your pans like this: :)

http://www.talley-stroud.com/thomas/oilpan/MVC-179F.JPG
http://www.talley-stroud.com/thomas/oilpan/MVC-180F.JPG
http://www.talley-stroud.com/thomas/oilpan/MVC-181F.JPG
http://www.talley-stroud.com/thomas/oilpan/MVC-185F.JPG
http://www.talley-stroud.com/thomas/oilpan/MVC-186F.JPG

Originally posted by RUTH'LESS NX2K
Dexter, who is the mechanic that is drilling and tapping your block for turbo, I have a block here that I want to be tapped for turbo and slap some forged pistons in. Talk to Timothy. He is Sr20b12's dad. He did a complete rebuild for me and so far its looks like like a show stopper.

Originally posted by mcguiver7
what were the first symptoms you saw of your engine goin bad?youve got me worried.:confused:

matt I heard a knocking sound from the block. Although I spun a bearing before, it didnt sound like that. It is probably a rod bearing cause when we got the head off there were marks on the piston. My mech said that was from the piston slapping around

Originally posted by 97SE-R C2
Damn. What exactly did you do when you drilled it? Whats the best way (besides pulling the motor) to go about this? I thought pulling the lower pan and flushing with a bunch of oil would be ok. :( Thats the same way I did it. You probably wont see the shavings in the oil only on the parts like the head cause thier so small

Originally posted by Thomas Reynolds
You should ALWAYS pull BOTH pans. That is a FACT. If you don't it's potential engine suicide. Sure you could get lucky but why play Russian Roulette with your expensive SR20 engine.

I pulled both pans and then took a 2 liter plastic coke bottle, cut it down to make a scoop and actually hung it from the main beam girdle. That way it deflects the 1000's of metal shavings away from the underside of the engine internals. (I was outside with the wind blowing doing this) I'd still suggest to make something to deflect all shavings away from the internals as a precaution.

It only take a little longer to pull the pans. That way you can clean your pans like this: :)

http://www.talley-stroud.com/thomas/oilpan/MVC-179F.JPG
http://www.talley-stroud.com/thomas/oilpan/MVC-180F.JPG
http://www.talley-stroud.com/thomas/oilpan/MVC-181F.JPG
http://www.talley-stroud.com/thomas/oilpan/MVC-185F.JPG
http://www.talley-stroud.com/thomas/oilpan/MVC-186F.JPG That is the best way to do it. That is what I DIDNT DO... Take this advice guys, BOTH PANS!!!!

Originally posted by bigtom
i dont know what you people are doing. i have drilled this hole numerous times with out draining the oil or removing any oil pans and there have been no problems. it is a fairly safe thing to do if done cleanly and carefully and with a helper.

EEK!! :eek:

I seriously hope this isn't done on customer's cars - I know it's faster, but damn - how can you be entirely sure you don't have any metal shavings in the motor unless you pull both pans?? I'm sorry Tom, I think this is bad advice - there's a lot of people here that are willing to go turbo and we don't want them destroying engines by implementing your methods. I know you have earned respect here with your VE achievements, but I have to disagree with you on this one.

The tolerances for the SR20 are very small, down to the thousandth of an inch. Can you see something that small with the naked eye? When it's in dirty oil in a dark motor?

Some folks here in NorCal helped T28 a DE and I really don't know how we would have done the job properly without removing pans. This is a time where it's much better to be safe than sorry.

Thomas is right. When I did mine, I pulled both and wedged a piece of cardboard between the girdle and block to prevent anything from going anywhere. There are a few pics on my website http://www.monkey-r.com/andris . It produces a LOT of metal shavings. Do it right the first time and make sure you debur all the edges and clean out the threads and hole really well.

andris

How hard is it to re-seat the oil pans and gaskets? I've heard of people having ot do it a couple times. I wonder if a dealer would do this job ;