Finally! Pictures and Status Of My Turbo-NA-Bridgeport
 

It has been nearly two years since I last posted the status of project Tina (phase 2). The thread can be found as my winter project, posted in early 2003. It contains the first part of the story. But to summarize, in Dec. 2002 I decided I would pull Tina's engine for a port and rebuild. After that, the project ballooned to include a quick engine bay painting, interior replacement, Microtech LT-8, bridgeport, big turbo, new exhaust, transmission rebuild, etc.

I honestly can't say that I put massive amounts of time into the project until early last summer. I had a busy time in my life, with multiple side projects, big meets (can you say Revolution?), and of course my day job. Because of this, work has been slow, with spurts of activity separated by periods of idle time. But anyway, in the past few months I have been working steadily and have some significant progress. So let's get to the pictures already...


When we last left off, the engine was disassembled on the bench. Basically, it sat like that until the fall of 2003, but I'm getting ahead of myself...

http://www.aaroncake.net/misc/rebuil...On Bench 2.jpg

First, it was time to use the good spring weather to strip and paint the engine bay. The purpose of this paint job was not to make it look amazing, but to clean it up and make it roughly match the exterior paint of the car. 16 years of grime, grease, rust and general crap were removed with a wire brush, Castrol Super clean, and effort. 300 grit sandpaper was used to break the exiting finish.
http://www.aaroncake.net/misc/rebuil...Stripped 1.JPG

http://www.aaroncake.net/misc/rebuil...Stripped 2.JPG

The bay was then masked with newspaper, primed and sprayed. Sorry about the lack of pictures of the primer, I just plain forgot to take them.

http://www.aaroncake.net/misc/rebuil...y Masked 1.JPG

http://www.aaroncake.net/misc/rebuil...y Masked 2.JPG

All painted up. For the record, the paint I used was MotoMaster Cherry Red metallic. The primer was Rust Check (this stuff is amazing).

http://www.aaroncake.net/misc/rebuil...Engine Bay.jpg

Aside from the engine bay, all the components that are going back under the hood were also cleaned and detailed. This included the leading/trailing coils, charcoal canister, fuse box and bracket, brake booster, hood latch clutch master/slave and a few misc things. The brake master and brake lines will be highlighted black before the engine is dropped back in.

So in the fall of 2003, I finally got around to the actual engine. Here's a few of the stock NA exhaust ports.

http://www.aaroncake.net/misc/rebuil...tside View.JPG

http://www.aaroncake.net/misc/rebuil...nside View.JPG

First step is to remove the diffuser present in the NA exhaust ports. I could have just swapped in TII exhaust sleeves, but it's kind of a pain to remove the pins that hold them in and risk damaging the housings.

http://www.aaroncake.net/misc/rebuil...tside View.JPG

http://www.aaroncake.net/misc/rebuil...nside View.JPG

With the diffusers sent to hell where they belong, it was time to start the "real" porting. The first step was to obtain the templates. For the exhaust, I chose the Racing Beat "street" turbo template. It moves the port down to open it sooner, but keeps the top edge in the stock location to help combat overlap. Since no one makes a bridgeport 6-port template, I decided to pick up the Mazdatrix 6 port "street port" template and use it as a base.

The proper tools are very important. Using an underpowered tool is almost as bad as an overpowered one. The die grinder shown below is an electric unit, with a large 5A motor, 1/4" collet and a 28,000 RPM rating. Various grinding stones, paper rolls and mandrels were a hard thing to find locally, so I ordered the "Deluxe Porting Kit" from Standard Abrasives. It's meant for cylinder head porting, but the abrasives included obviously work with the castings in the rotary as well. The grinding stones are great for removing large amounts of cast metal quickly, while the sandpaper rolls just eat aluminum, and are wonderful for polishing and finish porting.

http://www.aaroncake.net/misc/rebuil...ccessories.JPG

Most templates come as just an outing scribed on sheet metal. It is up to you to actually cut out the pattern. They say that this is to help you "practice" using a die grinder. Yeah, right. :rolleyes: I was lazy so I just drilled out the rough shape.

http://www.aaroncake.net/misc/rebuil... Rough Cut.JPG

And then finished it off with a paper sanding roll.

http://www.aaroncake.net/misc/rebuil...t Template.JPG

The dowel pin holes are used to locate the top of the template in relation to the exhaust port.

http://www.aaroncake.net/misc/rebuil... Placement.JPG

The template was taped in place...

http://www.aaroncake.net/misc/rebuil...e In Place.JPG

And then the port shape scribed onto the housing. The black magic marker keeps the scribe line visible. Dykem or Machinest's blue is ideal for this, but try as I might I couldn't find any locally. Weird.

http://www.aaroncake.net/misc/rebuil...ort Marked.JPG

To port the exhausts, I started by using a grinding stone to remove the inner chromed surface down to the level of the scribe. It is very important to leave a bevel like the stock ports have. This avoids a "lip" which can catch the apex seal side. To bring down the aluminum, I used a paper sanding roll. It really works well for this purpose, and leaves an excellent finish. Not something I can say about the carbide bits that many people use. The one disadvantage about the paper rolls is that they can explode. You can see the two scuff marks above and blow the port which were caused by such an explosion. Luckily, they are nothing more then minor surface scuffs, and I don't worry about them.

I also took the sandpaper rolls to the inner surface of the port sleeves and smoothed them out considerably. This should help prevent carbon from sticking.

http://www.aaroncake.net/misc/rebuil...t Finished.JPG

With the exhaust ports done, it was time to turn my attention to the intake ports. First, the template needed to be cut out. I started by roughly drilling out the area, then took down the aluminum to the lines with a cutting bit, after which I finished off with the paper rolls.

http://www.aaroncake.net/misc/rebuil... Rough Cut.JPG

http://www.aaroncake.net/misc/rebuil...e Finished.JPG

Since there are no 6 port bridge templates available, it was time to make one. The process is fairly simple; first, install a housing on top of an iron, then get a measurement of the width between the housing and the corner seal tracing mark on the iron. This is the width of the new "eyebrow" port. Remove the housing, and lay the template on the iron, then reinstall the housing. Trace a line following the housing. Remove the template, then use a compass to make the inner line by following the outer line. The gap of the compass is the previous width measurement. Close off the top and bottom where it looks "about right" based on the location of the runners and water jacket. The result is the tracing on the template below.

http://www.aaroncake.net/misc/rebuil...e Template.JPG

And here are the essential tools for making that template.

http://www.aaroncake.net/misc/rebuil...ge Tracing.JPG

Time to work on the intermediate housing. You can see how much larger you can make the port. Actually, it can go just a little higher before you start to worry about the water jacket. The lower end can actually be tapered down as well, but here you run into the water jacket very quickly. Note that the port is not moved out at all, so it doesn't open that much sooner.

http://www.aaroncake.net/misc/rebuil...mary Ports.jpg

Primary ports almost done. At this point, they just need a little touch up and polishing. Also, the runners need to be ported (remove the casting flash, smooth the transition to the port, and make them a wee bit bigger). The rough work was done with a large grinding stone, then finished off with a delicate tiny stone. Polishing and smoothing was done with the paper rolls.

http://www.aaroncake.net/misc/rebuil...t Finished.jpg

So after the primaries, I got a little bored with the porting and decided to attack the lower intake manifold. Since I no longer have the ACV (it interferes with the turbo), nor any of the other emissions equipment (the Microtech ECU doesn't run it) there is simply no need for the bulk of the lower intake. And frankly, block off plates and the associated solutions are just hacks. Clearance between the turbo and NA lower intake is also very tight, so I decided to simply cut off all the unneeded parts of the manifold. It is amazing how much of the lower intake is just empty space.

http://www.aaroncake.net/misc/rebuil...wer Intake.jpg

It was about that time that my apex seals and 3 window bearings arrived from Atkins. I chose the Atkins 2 piece 2MM seal, and had them throw in a set of Mazda 3 window main bearings. The bearings are shown below. The stock bearing has one oil hole that is fed by oil passage in the stationary gear. These holes sit at the top of the bearing, and are the eccentric shaft's only source of oil. So in a stock engine, the stationary bearings, rotor bearings, eccentric shaft and eccentric oil jets are lubricated by oil from an opening in the bearing about as thick as a pencil. The three window bearings each have three oil passages, hence the name. This assures a much better flow of oil to the eccentric and associated parts. However, installation requires modification of the stationary gears, which I will explain later on. Sorry, but no pictures of the apex seals. We've all seen apex seals, right? :)

http://www.aaroncake.net/misc/rebuil...y Bearings.jpg

So back to the intake. The 6 port actuator supports and rod bushing area was cut off. The 6 port actuators are not needed in a turbo application, and frankly, they won't physically fit.

http://www.aaroncake.net/misc/rebuil...rt Removed.jpg

Beginning to remove the emissions passages on the lower half of the intake. You can see the empty space starting to show.

http://www.aaroncake.net/misc/rebuil...wer Intake.jpg

Removing the ACV mount.

http://www.aaroncake.net/misc/rebuil... ACV Mount.jpg

http://www.aaroncake.net/misc/rebuil...CV Mount 2.jpg


Now here is the NA lower intake with all the emissions passages removed. You can see the massive amount of empty space inside the casting. What did strike me was how well the whole thing was designed. See, the air from the air pump flows through the ACV, and into either the cat (during 5th gear cruise), into the exhaust ports (during regular driving) or into the rear rotor (during decel). In order to get into the exhaust ports, the air must flow over all the lower intake runners. I am sure that this has a major cooling effect on the air being taken in by the engine. Whether this makes a difference in "off the line", I can't say. But seeing the inner workings of the manifold is pretty cool. The final manifold will have all the rough edges taken off and be painted to match the rest of the engine. Also, the holes have since been TIG welded shut, but I don't have pictures of that (yet).

http://www.aaroncake.net/misc/rebuil...sages Gone.jpg

Another picture of the intake.

http://www.aaroncake.net/misc/rebuil...ved, Rough.jpg

OK, lets get back to the serious work. Here's the intake port template with the "eyebrow" cut out. It's a fairly poor picture, and the port looks much better in person. The port was drilled out, then ported using a Dremel tool and a spiral cutting bit. The bridgeports are much too small to do with the big die grinder.

http://www.aaroncake.net/misc/rebuil...ded Bridge.jpg

These two pictures show the ports scribed onto the housing. Note the aux (the "5th and 6th ports") are being left untouched. The secondary port is only being moved towards the outside a little.

http://www.aaroncake.net/misc/rebuil...t Scribe 1.jpg

http://www.aaroncake.net/misc/rebuil...t Scribe 2.jpg

Very important to mask everything off before porting. That's about 4 layers of duct tape.

http://www.aaroncake.net/misc/rebuil...Bridgeport.jpg

To start a bridgeport, you first drill out the rough shape with a 3/16th drill bit. I started with one size smaller, center punching first. I then enlarged the hole.

http://www.aaroncake.net/misc/rebuil...Bridgeport.jpg

The "eyebrow" was created using a dremel tool and very thin grinding stone. It took some time, but also made it very difficult to screw up. That's the thing about the die grinder: it will just eat through anything. There is no forgiveness. However, the Dremel works slowly and requires you to take breaks. However, it is more difficult to get a uniform cut with the Dremel because the bits are so small.

http://www.aaroncake.net/misc/rebuil...Bridgeport.jpg

Here's the end result of the bridge and the secondary ported.

http://www.aaroncake.net/misc/rebuil...y Enlarged.jpg

And is the scribe on the opposite iron.

http://www.aaroncake.net/misc/rebuil...site Plate.jpg

And the port is finished.

http://www.aaroncake.net/misc/rebuil...Bridgeport.jpg

At this point, the major modifications are done. Now it's time to clean. And clean. And clean, and clean, and clean. Then some cleaning took place, after which there was cleaning. Following that, I cleaned. OK, you get the point. In order to get the finish I wanted on the rotor housings, they were given a quick and dirty polish. Ahhhh, shiny...

http://www.aaroncake.net/misc/rebuil...or Housing.jpg

While I was dealing with the housings, I also masked and painted the irons. They were masked off with duct tape (Note: if you do this, use masking tape. Much easier and cleaner to remove) and painted with VHT gloss black. It's a brake caliper enamel that is good to about 600 degrees or so. Also very chemical resistant. It worked so well on silverrotor's engine that I decided to also use it on mine.

http://www.aaroncake.net/misc/rebuil...and Masked.jpg

Each rotor housing was given 4 coats of Dupont's MetalCast in red. I must say that the result was bloody brilliant. The housings took on a life of their own. You can see every detail of the metal through the candy coating, and in sunlight it's just like looking into a pool of blood. Very cool. The "Mazda" logos will be highlighted in black.

http://www.aaroncake.net/misc/rebuil... Housing 1.jpg

http://www.aaroncake.net/misc/rebuil... Housing 2.jpg

So here are the stationary gears with installed three window bearings. Installation is simple, but requires some machine work. First, the old bearing is pressed out. In order for each window of the new bearings to receive oil, a channel must be cut on the inner side of the stationary gear. This channel is about 5-8MM wide (exact dimensions are unimportant), 1.5MM deep (don't go to deep otherwise you weaken the gear) and in line with the oil feed hole. When the bearing is pressed in, the windows roughly line up with the channel, thus feeding the windows with pressurized oil. I don't doubt that someone somewhere has made this channel with a Dremel tool, but really, it needs to be done on a lathe. I just sent my gears to a local machine shop. The entire operation cost $40. The new bearings were then pressed in.

http://www.aaroncake.net/misc/rebuil...w Bearings.jpg

Oh yeah, all the other engine parts need to be spotless as well. Tension bolts, counterweight, eccentric, stationary gears, chain, oil pump, sprockets, spacer assembly, etc., etc. Shown here are the cleaned up tension bolts. Amazing what a wire brush can do to 18 year old bolts.

http://www.aaroncake.net/misc/rebuil...sion Bolts.jpg

The thermal pellet and modded eccentric oil jets. The thermal pellet eliminates the stock thermostat at the front of the eccentric, assuring a constant supply of oil to the eccentric oil jets. These jets have been modified. A #200 Weber air jet has been installed in place of the stock check ball assembly. The result is increased cooling spray to the inside of the rotors at the sacrifice of some low RPM oil pressure. It's a tradeoff that I willing to accept.

http://www.aaroncake.net/misc/rebuil...c Oil Jets.jpg

Finally, all the engine parts painted up and ready to go.

http://www.aaroncake.net/misc/rebuil...ll Painted.jpg


So that's it. The engine is now ready to be assembled, which will take place this weekend. I'm fairly excited, seeing as how this has been 2 years in the making. The engine will be assembled in my basement, then the short block brought up to the garage where the accessories will be installed. Then it will be dropped into the car. I still need to get my flywheel resurfaced and pick up a clutch before that though. And the lower intake needs to be finished (it has to go on before the turbo). But regardless, the project is FINALLY starting to come together. I am really hoping to fire her up before the snow flies.

Questions, comments, snide remarks?

(And yes, my website is down right now. Should be back up tomorrow, or by early next week).

Looks like fun. Tha thing should be a beast. What rotors are you using?

High compression '86-'88 NA of course. :) I didn't take pictures of the rotors because everyone has already seen rotors before...If you need them, picture a fairly clean rotor with a new bearing. ;)

wow!!!! thats some hardcore customizing!!! you must have some big balls .. i know i wouldnt try that myself

question...could you use a dremel(the one that spins 35,000rpm) to do the porting? or is it not powerful enough? Thanks

Cool project!

I'm in the same boat as well. Stripping out the engine bay and repainting it. Plus rebuilding the engine while I'm at it with a streetport. Can't add the goodies yet though since I have to smog it. :(

Any tips that will make my life easier when I strip the engine bay and paint it?

You could if you wanted. It will take 6 weeks to do one port, but it will work. :) Seriously, you can. It will just take longer. And with the smaller bits, it's harder to get a uniform shape.

Hm, not really. Everything needs to come out, then it has to be wetsanded, primed, wetstanded and painted...I just wanted to get the engine bay clean, it didn't have to be perfect. Don't waste time masking around something instead of just removing it.

can't see the pics =\

well.. this is really going above and beyond. I have to ask, whats the port area difference between the turbo housing vs. the N/A one. This is really neat that your doing this with a N/A engine.

What exactly did you do to get the diffuser out?

Great job Aaron. I'm interested in seeing this beast at one of our Michigan meets next summer...:bigthumb:

very very nice write up, much appreciated.

They should be up...Try hitting "Refresh".

I wish I knew. Anyone who I have asked just doesn't seem to know.

Grinding stone. :D

Haha! Did that take a while? I've read a lot of things about people trying to get the diffusers out and saying how impossible it was. Hopefully I'm going to be pulling my motor in the next month or two to do a huge streetport and rebuild and during that I was going to take the diffuser out for prep when I go turbo.

"try hitting refresh"

still can't see it....must be the pc im using at the moment :-/

About half an hour per sleeve. Not really a lot of time. It's all about the stones you use. I used cheap hardware store stones, and went through a few. I find that the finer stones work better on this material. You just grind the corners off the "wings", and then snap them off. The remaining upright portion then easily grinds down. Then hit the ridge on the front. It's fairly painless, but remember to protect your sealing surfaces from damage caused by exploding stones. And don't even think of trying it with a dremel. You NEED a die grinder. The air grinders actually seem pretty wussy compared to the electric (after all, it is nearly a 1HP motor). Also, the electric is quiet.

Great Job Aaron!!! Can't wait to see some vid's of this beast running.

There appear to be routing problems to your subnet. A trace to your IP dies after it leaves my gateway.

Sounds good. And yah, I've kinda noticed that the dremel wont do the job on engine porting. I used it to redo my intake manifold ports on the UIM, port my TB, and port my new LIM when I screwed up the old one. it was definately a lot better than the "saw drill bit" I was using before, but it was lacking at some points. I would get to a point where the dremel would just crap out on me when putting pressure on some spots, and to be honest I didn't even finish the LIM as much as I wanted to because it was just taking too long and I was getting so tired of the dremel not doing the job. I'll definately get a die grinder for when I port the motor.

that there is truly the most beautiful engine paint job i've seen on a 13b. good job man. hope the entire project goes as smooth as everything is looking :-)


Peace.

Wow, aaron. You are someone that I want to exceed in ability. Gah, and I could do it, I just need more confidence!( and money wouldn't hurt either :-P)

Holy crap, that should be a sweet FC.

Can you tell me how you polished the housing up so well? I have an old housing and rotor I want to set on my desk here, and got the corrosion and nasty stuff off, but it definatly needs a good polish. :D

I like the work with the ACV :D

That's awesome, looks as if it were a professional job. Very well done.

Oh yeah, and you should've cleaned that housing before you painted it. ;)

When will these pictures be up and are their any more of your intake 'hack-job'? That idea seems pretty smart for those not using emissions or thier port actuators.

Did you use a kit to rebuild with new rotor bearings/seals, etc. or did you make a list and get what you needed?

Aaron, the work looks great. I have to wonder how well that candy paint will hold up under heat and chemical, but nonetheless sweet as it is.

My main question. Why did you decide to leave the divider between the auxiliaries and secondary ports in place? You obviously no longer have 6 port sleeves in place, so that additional port is always open...at this point there is nothing lost by cutting out the divider (both on the irons, and in the manifold). Without a sleeve to close off air flow at low rpm, having a divider is utterly useless, and only a restriction to airflow.

I can understand why you did not bring the brow down low to the secondary ports, but you could if you wanted. A good idea would be to modify the secondary throttle plate linkage to open later...to keep choppiness of the halfbridge minimal at low rpms and cruise.

I've been really wanting to build an NA halfbridge engine myself for a while, but I can't bring myself to pull my turbo engine out and do it. I have 4 vehicles myself, so it's not like I can have another FC as a project bitch, either...and I have yet to talk any of my customers/friends into it yet ;)

Keep up the good work. I can't believe you hacked up your LIM like that, though. I assume you're gonna grind it down smooth? I also can't believe those port templates...they barely touched the secondaries or auxiliaries at all on those? What is the point...with a port job, you want your airflow to come through the secondaries (and auxiliaries), not the primaries...which is what they seem to be opening up most.

Hey Kevin, what templates do you use for your ports? Or do you make your own?

I made my own. I haven't done any really scientific testing, but they seem to work well enough from my experimentation over the years with different setups/cars/etc.

6 port with heavy auxiliary port for top end:

http://www.rotaryresurrection.com/ro...s/image014.jpg

4 port (removed divider):

http://www.rotaryresurrection.com/ro...s/image020.jpg

That looks fucking awesome, and I pm'd you.

Large SOFT wire brush (about 5" diameter) on a drill at around 2300 RPM. Worked pretty well. Of course, if you aren't planning to paint over the polish, you will then want to hit it with a polishing buff and some cutting compound. Start with a course compound, then work down to a fine polishing compound in about 3 steps.

I'll throw some up when I post the pics of the short block together. Right now, the manifold has been smoothed, the holes plugged, and all the welding is done. Now, I just need to smooth down the welds, give it a quick polish and paint. It really does look sweet.

I just bought what I needed:

-1 engine gasket set, 86-88 NA
-6 Atkins 2 piece 2MM apex seal
-2 3 window bearings
-2 rotor bearings
-12 side seals
-12 side seal springs
-12 corner seals w/rubber button
-12 FD corner seal springs
-4 inner oil o-ring (note: I did not replace the metal oil o-ring carrier)
-4 inner outer o-ring (note: I did not replace the metal oil o-ring carrier)
-1 front main seal
-1 rear main seal

I think that's basically it.

That can said it was good to about 300 degrees, so I'm hoping that's just enough. It's not the end of the world if it fails, but I would much prefer the paint to stay in tact. I'm so sick of working on dirty engines. :)

Good question! I am considering boost activated valves to close those ports off at low RPMs. We'll see though if I actually get around to setting that up.

LOL. That's my problem. I have so many projects that I want to get done, just no time in which to do it...I am REALLY hoping to get Tina done before the winter, so I have next summer to build a bike (12A of course) and get my motorcycle license. After that, I'll be building an SA, but the details of that are only known by a few people, and I'd like to keep it that way. ;)

Yep...The intake needs to be finished before the engine can go into the car, so that's my next step.

I had similar thoughts about the template. I was surprised how little the secondaries and aux ports were touched. Presumably Mazdatrix didn't want hundreds of customers calling complaining they ran into the water jacket...

Personally, I sort of like this template. I am hoping that the car will actually idle. :)

IF you leave the auxiliaries open, it will, but unsteadily. With that brow on there, I don't know how it will behave...I'll be curious to hear, but probably a little worse as far as idle (unless you close that off).

That is one thing about keeping a working 6 port system (for those stock na'ers reading) while porting the auxiliaries (like in my pic). While the sleeve is closed, that (big) port is still not hurting you at all...by the time it opens, air velocity is such that it doesnt ever hurt you. I usually leave primaries adn secondaries alone, and port the auxiliaries to almost double their stock size, this does not change low end or idle or even emissions characteristics (dependent on exhaust port, that is), but does offer a nice top end gain.

This is simply fantastic work, I wonder how well the halfbridge will work for around town chores. Since your car is a super turbo :D I'm sure it won't be too bad off because you'll have a bit more velocity going on in there than a normal 6 port engine. I really like the work on the ACV also, I noticed there is a lot of empty space while I was cleaning mine (didn't cut mine though ;)). Where did you get your die grinder from and how much btw...also how about that "porting kit" you have. Good luck on finishing the rest of the project and keep us updated.

Kiyo

P.S
Kevin...that supa dupa "4" port scares me :eek:! Got any video or sound of one of your customer cars running with it?

awesome work Aaron!

really impressive, I hope that one day I'll be able to do some work on my car like that, well as far as the skill to do it... not just the balls, i'll try anything.

The sleeves have always been missing from my car. Some "helpful" mechanic removed them in the past. :rolleyes: I really wish people wouldn't do stuff like that. Anyway, my idle was always slightly lopey, but rock solid at 750 where it belongs. As for the bridge, it opens quite a but sooner then the stock port, but doesn't really overlap with the exhaust. So who knows, it may have no effect on idle.

But I'm not using the sleeves. :) My system will have either a butterfly, slider or (most likely) "iris" type valve.

The die grinder I purchased from Princess Auto. It is made by Jepson tools.

The porting kit is the Standard Abrasives Deluxe Porting Kit. The website is:

http://www.sa-motorsports.com/cat/p5.htm

It is also available at Summit Racing.

This is awesome. Thank you so much for posting this :D

Just a quick note...The engine went together yesterday with very little drama. Snrub stopped by to hang out and be the third hand when necessary. I'll be posting pics of the assembly and short block soon. But first I need to order new torrington bearings from Mazda. The ones I have now are too worn, so the engine is too loose. I just need the new bearings so I can install the front hub and cover, and then get the pictures posted. :)

Dang just finished reading this! Very nice work Aaron, how much will the project be costing you in total and what type of HP figures do you expect from this? Oh yeah I might be getting another FC to swap a motor into it, and I was wondering if you know any sites that give some descriptions or what I would need to clean the engine bay and then paint it, a Super White painted engine bay MMMM.

-Andrew

1987 GXL "88 GTU coming soon, GXL turns into project 20b (Project Finish 2010)"

thATS aweSOME! i like the motor theme. if it was me, which it isnt, i would spray most of the engine accessories with VHT flat black to really set the motor off. that and... ur going to hate me but, some red ground wires or something. that would look cool.

You kept the N/A endplates right? Those are much weaker that the turbo ones (I think). Will they hold up to that much power?

That looks like what im doing right now but with a turbo and a hell of a lot cleaner/ organized. One slight addition though, the leading edge of the side seals should be taken into acount when doing a bridge. The corner seals will be supported almost anywhere you put the bridge, but it its to far out the leading edge of the side seal will not be supported and crash into the top of the port. You left tons of meat in that bridge though, and didnt bring the aux out any so this is mainly a warning to newbie porters.

Did you do all porting work with stones and paper? If so that must have taken ages.