I just finished installing the new piston and new head. It ran fine, but had a bit of KR just driving normally, which doesn't seem good. It could partially be the new valve springs; they told me they were noisier than the 918's. Total time spent: about 22 hours. Yes, I ran into every problem imaginable, as usual.

The bad: I broke one of the long oil pan bolts. The Haynes book did not specify a lower torque for those two bolts, so I tried to tq them to 18. The first one snapped and the second would have too, so I stopped at around 12. Now the oil pan it going to have to come off again soon to fix it. I stripped the threads on one of the trans-to-oil pan bolts. The manual did not specify a torque rating for these, so I went for 40. Oops, too much I guess. Easy fix, I just put a same size nut and bolt through. I also stripped the EVAP bolt. I'll just tap it to the next size up. I accidently turned the back head bolt 90 degrees on the last pass instead of 50. I didn't want to pull it out after the gasket had been compressed, so I just left it. If it blows, it blows. I don't have much confidence in my repair job anyway, so we'll see.

When I turned in to my house, it made some knocking sounds. I couldn't tell if it was the engine or if it was the steering shaft bolt smacking the header. I tried to make it do it again, but it wouldn't. I was too damn tired to investigate. I just got up and am about to go for a drive, so I'll let you guys know if anything comes up.

 

glad to hear you did it!
Its always nice to hear about guys fixing stuff.

 

glad to hear it... I knew all the nay-sayers would be hushed LOL...

 

Yeah, I'll let you guys be the first to know when it blows if it does. I'm going to Sea Foam it, then change the oil, and then I'll be beating on it like I used to. I haven't taken it over 4000 RPM yet. I'm going to watch the KR closely and see what happens. Another ghetto thing is I think my old 2003 piston was press pinned. My new one they sent me is floating pinned. LMAO