Carnage Plus EP64 - Does Your Budget Turbo Barra Need More Ring Gap?

While starting to put together a new engine for Turbo Taxi we decided to take a look at the question of rings gaps and discovered something very interesting. We also discovered why the original Turbo Taxi engine had a bottom end knock.


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[WeLoveCommodores]

Appreciate the time the whole Carnage team put into these videos. Well worth the watch.

[matthewpotter]

Usually it's the motor fisting you when it breaks, good to see you dish out some reverse dominance there Scotty

[OPyamumsyadad]

Love your work Scotty, it's the perfect level of sloppy mechanics for all us backyard builders.

[Papa_BearST]

Your a mad dawg Scotty! Love ya work, keep the content coming! Barra the f%$king world!!!

[thcam]

Dont give up on that first block just yet. There is a 14mm headstud option (not that its needed) but just gives you a bit more life for that block.
Good to watch these videos too, im in a very similar position of my build so watching your videos and doing the same thing every arvo, works well.

[larsjuhlin]

Great content as per normal Scotty,
Amazing how many km's Barras and LS engines can do reliably,
without dumping half the internals into a garbage bin during reco/ freshen up, and still be rebuilt with most factory oem parts to make decent power . 👍

[gregmyatt]

Hooray!!! ring gap time. Considering that barra had 500+ km, the ring gaps were still way to tight for boosting, especially 20+ pounds. Love your work scotty, and the fact your listening to your fans👍

[lunkydog]

Scotty, try using ATF when cleaning out honing grit. To prove its better, use it after what you think is clean and see if it doesn't pull out more grit. I bore and hone cylinders for a motorcycle shop and I'm not just making a random comment.

[brianbrigg]

I'm a bit more OCD when doing work on an engine so after using the 3M pad I would have to flush the oil galleries with degreaser to remove anything that might have got inside. I also use a piston with the second ring in place to push the ring down level in the bore when checking ring gaps, just like my old man showed me when I was a young feller. A practised eye would probably come within a thou or two but I don't do enough rebuilds to call my eye practised.

[ThePaulv]

Richard Holdener mentioned he opened up ring gaps to .028 - .032 thou and said at this level crankcase venting was unchanged even on the junkyard NA engines he was benchmarking before adding turbos.
Seems you can go quite wide but engines in the 6 litre range have bigger bores than a Barra accounting for the added gap I suppose.

[mark]

Yep, always good when the rag comes out clean. Noice vid Scotty, cheers.

[bigal]

Good job Scotty, although I’d like to have seen new rings and bearings to give the old girl a really fresh start.

[tonymartin]

Hello Scotty, the green top block that stripped its thread can be saved.
If you use a thread insert called a time sert it will be fine. Time serts are very expensive German thread inserts but they are up to the job.
I have used these before to repair head stud threads and they can cope with the torque.
Available on Amazon and eBay or possibly your local tool supplier. Give them a go.
I love the channel, keep up the good work.
Regards Tony

[boblogIIIfan]

Im attempting to do oil gears, and all gaskets on my greentop before i put it in my xh. A fair bit of effort, so good on ya scotty! Infact i gave up after doing the intake manifold lol. Im just gonna slap it in

[jarrodmccudden]

Cracker of a video mate currently just about to do one with stock fg turbo rods and pistons so this gives me hope!! Keep the awesome content up can’t wait to see it on the dyno! 🤙

[andrewtaylor]

I've been told to aim for a 45 degree cross hatch on the hone and not to be too shy on the depth, lots is better. Don't worry about the honing wearing out your rings.

[DodgyBrothersEngineering]

You have no idea how happy it makes me to see this video. The other consideration is that you are using LPG which is a dry fuel, which in turns means even greater cylinder temps. Yes you do get some latent heat transfer, but most of that energy is given up to the intake air temp, rather than providing cooling to the piston and rings like petrol. Scotty did you consider going with bigger studs or just not possible?

[bengibson]

Scotty-why don’t you do all this stuff with the engine on it’s side? Much easier to torque mains etc, oil doesn’t run out of the bores as fast when honing. I guess I can see why you’d go vertical for the hone but lots of stuff is easier when the engine is on it’s side. ;)

[MAS__motorsports]

Good work mate, when you do a final bore clean grab some atf on a rag and see how much more crud you get off with it...
Goodluck.!

[geneva]

HA - matching engine numbers - the HOLY GRAIL - HA. And - the MAGIC shifter falling to the floor -- a classic tool that ALL workshops need. HA - I pitty Scotty's wife with those HONE HANDS - HA.