Rodeo 4ZE1 rebuild

[4A10SHN]

Well the RODEO rebuild begins

The rodeo motor is on the engine stand after much thinking about how to get the big bolt out of the harmonic balancer I ended up making a tool. What I really needed was an air compressor and a rattle gun but I didn’t have access to this and I really wanted to get the project under way.

So far the head has been removed
The harmonic balancer removed
Timing case removed
Inlet manifold removed and cleaned many times
Throttle body removed and cleaned lots and lots as well
Injectors removed and cleaned
Then we removed the flywheel prior to putting it up on the engine stand
Cleaned the block
Removed the huge oil pump these things have and checked it for wear
Cleaned the sump

Things I still have to do: (haha)

Well where do I start...

* The pistons and rods have to be removed
* The crank has to be checked and linished, oil galleries opened up, balanced, and a slight clean up + polish (maybe a crack test) Also has to be checked for straightness.
* Order the pistons and rings
* Resize the rods - convert to full floating if they arn't already
* Get the block decked and checked
* Make the turbo manifold
* Find a turbo hopefully with some help from this site
* Decide on EMS (So far looking at WFC's megasqirt setups)
* Fuel pump and surge tank
* Re configure water cooling (weld up any parts I don’t need)

I think I'm going to go down the path of just getting some good cast pistons to start off with until we have this baby up and running. Then I'll go down the path of forgies and maybe another set of I beam rods. I'm hoping the cast pistons will handle around 6 - 8 pound of daily driving and maybe 12psi of track work.


Ok now time for some of my questions: :roll:

What turbo should I use on this thing?

I don’t know much about turbo’s. What I do know is that this engine is 2.6L I know that a turbo needs and oil supply. I don’t know if the turbo for this engine should be water cooled? And I do know that I want to run around 6 - 8 psi and 12psi sometimes. I do have a budget so I'm looking at something around the $800 mark or less. I also know that I am personally making the turbo manifold for this engine. Also I want the boost to come on at around 3000rpm. As far as I know from being in other 2.6L rodeo engines these things don’t rev anywhere near the same as the worked G180 I have now. They have almost a 4" stroke and that’s almost mirrored to the bore size as well.

What pistons can I get away with?

Like I said before is there any good pistons out there that will be fine to handle these rather small boost figures I am looking at running? Maybe some good ACL? or Hypatec's? I'm not sure and hopefully someone can shed some light on this subject?

Is that ment to be a stud in picture #1?

Rodeo_Bob - Do you know if the water pump is suppose to have a stud where it is in picture number 1? Or has someone previously fitted it?

Sump

I want to keep the original alloy sump
1) Because it looks very cool
2) Because it's light

I want to modify the front gemini cross member instead of changing the sump. I am a fabricator by trade so I am quietly confident that I can keep it’s structural strength whist at the same time keep it's job to cradle the rodeo donk. Are there any objections to doing this?

Cooler

Well I'm still keen on the 8" or 10" PWR barrel cooler for this setup. Keep that in mind when I'm talking about cast pistons. Hopefully the consistent cooled - boosted air will add to this setups reliability.

I think that’s all for now kiddies

I'll keep you all up to date and please keep this thread to topic

This post has been taken from "Gemini Chat" if you want to help me out or talk about this topic please do so in the following link:
http://www.ozgemini.com/forums/tech/vie ... hp?t=13400

[4A10SHN]

Well today I did some more work on the rodeo engine. It was a struggle to get the sump off but I came up with a great idea of how to get an alloy sump off without chipping it or even worse cracking part of it. I used a very small car jack and you can see how I did this by the pictures I havesupplied.

Ok so... I got the sump off and it was extremely dirty. I have already given it a quick clean but it will need a few more cleans until it's up to spec.I can confidently say that the rodeo alloy sump is WAY heavier than that of a piazza steel sump. The alloy ones must nearly be about 8 - 10mm thick in the thinner parts. The look great though and they are nicely machined to fit around either end of the crack shaft.
After I had cleaned up the sump I took one of the caps of rod Number 1. Ihave already witnessed that all of the rods have been stamped 1, 2, 3, 4. I think that the engine has been rebuilt at one stage via the reasons the bores are still perfect. BUT! on that note I think it was a pretty quick in and out kinda rebuild. If you can look at the pictures of the bearing on #1 conrod you can see that they haven’t bothered to check the "crush" on the bearing once it had been tightened to spec. I will know more about this once my machinist / engine builder comes to have a look as well.

Well I think that’s about it for today. I will have to take all of the conrods out later on in the week and have a good look over them.

It also looks like I'll be getting some Hypatec pistons ceramic coated and using them before I go too serious on the boost.


I have also noticed that the rodeo run a "proper" harmonic balancer with a rubber dampener. The G180's normally just run a solid pulley on the front of the crankshaft.

Thats it for now guys, Enjoy the pics

[4A10SHN]

Well I cleaned up the inside of the sump again today. Thats the 2nd time around and it's come up really well. I also cleaned the wiring loom and the air idle controller.

[4A10SHN]

21st of March 2007

I have done a bit more over the past few days on the Rodeo 4ZE1 engine.

I have stripped the head down and removed all the valves + springs. The camshaft and the rockers I have also pulled down and checked for wear. Everything looks great so far. The head needs a TINY bit of welding but besides that it's in mint condition.

The ports need a really good tidy up and hopefully I might get time to do this on the weekend. I can see a lot of flow problems with the 4ZE1 engine opposed to the TX head I am currently running on my G180 at the moment. I ported the head of that so I am confident to give the rodeo one a tidy up as well along with the intake manifold. I think I'll try and chase down some brand new valves for this head (seeing as there is only 8 of them) and maybe the valve guides as well. It might be the valve stems that are a little worn but I'll measure them up and see where I am at.




I have marked on the port where there is a huge lump that would affect flow in these standard heads. It's only really bad on port numbers 3 & 4.

I'll post up some before and after’s when I have finished cleaning up the ports.

Josh

[4A10SHN]

27th of March

Ok I have done a little more on project

I have:

* Picked up the front end to cut up and see if I can get the rodeo sump to clear it
* Picked up a spare gemini steering rack
* Picked up a set of 2nd hand engine mounts
* Picked up a manual pedal box (All parts from brad off ozgemini.com )

I have also received an AUTO VL TPS in the mail today for the megasqirt ECU.





The next step is to take the crack and rods out of the rodeo block to make it lighter to move around and then I have to start cutting and shutting the front cross member until I can get it to cradle the 4ZE1. I'll keep the pic's coming!

[4A10SHN]

This is where I am going to cut the steel part of the sump to allow for the exhaust.

I also chased down a mate with an aftermarket turbo on his R34 and got a pic of the dump pipe. It seems like the standard dump pipe can actually bend pretty tight after it flanges away from the turbo. Things are looks pretty good so far.

I just have to chase down the steering rack mounts and then I can dummy it up. The steering rack is going to be about 50 - 60mm lower than factory height.

[4A10SHN]

18th April

Done heaps more again
My machinist has been over to look at the project and his all go on this setup. I have also removed the rods and pistons today following the crankshaft.

I have begun to knife edge the crankshaft so here are some pictures:

[Bugle]

You'll wreck the steering geometry by dropping the steering rack, they get bad enough angles on the tie rods on lowered geminis, you'll get some really bad bump steer.

I've got one of those Skyline dump pipes on mine, it's reasonably tight but not tight enough to do what you're doing unless you mount the turbo pretty far forward but the alternator takes up that space.

[4A10SHN]

I'm still stuck on pistons...