Tim McLean

JAYDEN'S SR21VE BUILD PT: 2 Bearing Clearances. Hey guys, So I've been working through everything required for this high compression SR21VE. I pulled some of my engine building gear out from storage. I've got the vertical oil clearance sorted on the main bearings, working through the rods now. So a couple of things I thought I'd share about how I manage bearing clearances while it is fresh: MAIN BEARINGS - It's really important to measure the shell thickness, as these shells will vary which will affect your vertical oil clearance, if you check their specs online the shell thickness will have a 'max thickness' spec, which means they technically can be thinner, and generally there are some bearings in the pack that will be thinner. To remove the chance of error I'll also fit and torque the bearings into the main tunnel in order of theoretically what should work, after measuring the torqued tunnel bore, bearing shell thickness and crank journal diameters. I'll then run the dial bore indicator through them to ensure the clearance is what I expected to see mathematically. You can see this will leave a witness 'mark' the bearing shell coating, although it won't affect their longevity, this is a far more accurate method vs plastigauge. ROD BEARINGS - Pretty well same method applies, although I'll torque to the mid point of the specified rod bolt stretch and measure the rod bore first pass, then measure shell thickness and crank journal diameters, arrange the shells to achieve the vertical oil clearance I'm looking for and check the actual dimension with the dial bore gauge. This may mean 1, 2 or 3 packets of bearings to have enough appropriate thickness shells to achieve the clearance I'm looking for. Thanks for reading guys. As usual, any questions feel free to ask. 😊

JAYDEN'S SR21VE BUILD PT 1 - Basic Overview Hey guys, It's been a little while between posts. Jayden @_jaydenmoran_ and I went for a drive up the coast to Taree yesterday. Picked up Jayden's engine from Luke @ewk_888 from LC Engines. As always, Luke's attention to detail is second to none and he's just an all round great guy. So this particular engine will be quiet similar to my own, high compression, 88mm bore, balanced OE Nissan SR20 86mm stoke 8CW crank to try and combat those high rpm engine harmonics. This gives us a capacity of 2092cc or 2.1L As per my build we're looking for a stout bottom end, potentially more solid than some other naturally aspirated SR builds, although the proof of concept is in how solid my engine has been. This build features some custom high compression JE Pistons, Manley forged rods, ACL Race Bearings, ARP Head and Main studs, and of course an Apexi full fire ring head gasket to keep that cylinder pressure under control. As the build develops I'll add some more posts into my feed. Thanks for reading, as per usual any questions feel free to ask.

FWD SR20 Baffled Sump Update: Hey guys, For those who have followed me for a long time will remember the baffled trap door sump I've been running for a number of years. There has been a lot of interest in manufacturing them across all the FWD SR20 range, although VVL engine development has put a handbrake on this. Anyhow, I've sourced all 3 of the FWD SR20 upper sump variations, along with the additional 2 windage trays and oil pump pick-up tubes to put in the work to finalise this product, as pickup tube height vs sump clearance is critical. This week I've been putting in the work to clean these upper sump/windage tray arrangements up to be able to get them 3D scanned and begin the CAD design. So keep an eye out as this project will be kicking off in the coming weeks. If you can comment, message or contribute to the poll which sump you would be most interested in, so I can gauge how many of each to being manufacturing, that would be great. The initial design is mostly complete, although each will need to be tweaked for pickup placement and also the upper to lower sump flange arrangement.

Hey guys, So here is something I've recently come across. Have you ever wanted to move to a 'BM50' 1" Brake Master Cylinder to pair with your bigger 4 or 6 piston brake calipers? Well you'll probably know that the OE Skyline option has the ports on the opposite side to our BMC's. Which would mean making new brake lines, for alot of guys this can be quiet daunting and can cost quiet alot to buy the tools, or pay a shop. So this bolt on solution is from a D22 Nissan Navara. I had Todd from @coastmodz_au order this in for me, hoping it would fit. Dimensionally it fits perfectly. The only 'modification' that needs to be done is the fluid reservior needs to be swapped over as the OE Navara one is a little too wide to fit. Part number is 46010-VK90B As always, any questions let me know 😊

So apologies that it's been a little while between posts guys.. Direction for the N14 has been difficult to decide on, I've been contemplating a lot of different options. Long story short the big manifold works on paper, although there is some structural challenges to ensure it will be structurally sound long term. Sure there are lots of different manufacturing options, from printing to CNC machining, although none that stand out ultimately as a cost effective solution. So after I got over the analysis paralysis I've decided to pull some more data from the factory Nissan manifold this time it's the P12 manifold. Yes I still have the P11 head fitted, however I have slightly notched the P11 injector ports to be able to utilise the P12 manifold. I'd like to learn some more on the topic before 'releasing' a product, vs releasing the first somewhat successful result and call it a day. Ultimately there is more to learn about the relationship between air velocity and flow, with the P12 manifold having 42mm round runners through the manifold, they're vastly smaller than my manifold, although the P12 manifold also has a 70mm throttlebody to reduce pressure drop into the plenum. So I feel it will be an interesting test. So some noteworthy upgrades to the completely factory P12 manifold: ✔️ Bosch TMAP - removes latency from MAP sensor input, provides accurate and quick intake manifold air temperature, including changes in temp ✔️ Bosch Motorsport 627cc 123 injectors (they're a direct fit straight into the P12 factory fuel rail) ✔️ Bosch 3 BAR fuel pressure regulator I'm slowly chipping away and we'll have some results soon to support the direction of choice soon. Thanks for following along guys, as usual, any questions feel free to ask.

P12 SR20VE MOCKUP ENGINE Alright guys, I've been slowly piecing this engine together over the past 4 or 5 weeks. I gave the rocker cover a clean up yesterday, which went from a ratty, patchy black with corrosion coming through where the paint was missing, to what you see here. It's interesting what can be achieved with some paintstripper and elbow grease. Personally I like it. What do you guys think? So a recap for those who haven't followed this assembly. This engine is to be used as a usable and measurable rotating assembly for development purposes, aka rotated by hand and lot's of measuring, checks for camshaft profiling, intake and exhaust development. It has: ✔️SR16VE Pistons (non N1) ✔️SR20VE Rods ✔️4CW P11 SR20VE Crankshaft ✔️P12 or 20V SR20VE Head with standard 5.5mm intake valves ✔️P12/20V Lower Sump It won't ever actually run. The head however will be removed once this process is finished and be fitted to the N14. Any questions or comments, don't hesitate to ask guys. Thanks for following along 🤓

SR16VE Non N1 Compression Ratio Hey guys, so there is some conflicting information floating around about the compression ratio achieved by using SR16VE pistons. I thought while I was assembling this dummy engine it makes sense to clear this 'piston dome volume' up. So here is the method I worked through: 1st - the piston and rod is fitted, with a generous amount of vaseline around the top of the piston and especially around the top ring, (although not so much that the top of the piston is swimming in it) this prevents the cc'ing fluid from leaking past the rings. Next - I used a dial indicator to confirm the piston is at TDC. Then using the dial again I lower the piston into the bore (I went 6.00mm below the deck) I also confirmed that the piston sits 0.04mm below the deck. Following that - the burette is filled, zero'd (being careful not to incorporate the meniscus) and again I use vaseline with my head cc'ing acrylic plate. Then - Fill the bore with the fluid, ensuring no spillage. Since we know the bore size and height the piston is down the bore we can workout the volume of a cylinder (86mm bore x 6.00mm high) So 34.85cc Then we subtract the 26.4cc that we had for the volume above the piston. Keep in mind this is piston volume AND deck height volume. So that gives us 8.45cc. So this is the dome volume AND deck height volume. So the deck height volume alone is 0.04mm x 86 = 2.32cc This leaves a true piston dome value of 6.13cc. So if we were using an engine that had never been machined (both head and block) and an OE MLS gasket we would see a compression ratio of 13.547:1 once you start machining the head and the deck of the block this compression ratio does begin to climb. I hope this helps some of you guys make decisions around which pistons to use in the future. Of course, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

Mock-up Engine Assembly Hey guys, so this was an unintended new years post, however 2024 was a massive year for me, I'm looking forward to returning back to some more SR20 engine development. So I've made some progress on the mock-up engine today. The bottom end has now been assembled which allows some room to strip, clean and reassemble the P12 head. This will enable me to continue this work without always needing to pull my car apart. Thanks for following along and supporting the build/development journey, this year will unveil some exciting new things. As always feel free to ask questions 😊

SR20VE Development Engine: PT 1 Hey guys, Those that see my stories will see a bit of a range of projects happening currently. So amongst everything else that is going on, I have decided to put together this engine utilising alot of factory parts that I have left over from my build. The main components will consist of: ✔️ P12 8CW Crank ✔️ P11 SR20VE Rods ✔️ Undecided whether non N1 SR16VE Pistons or P11 SR20VE Pistons yet. ✔️ P12 SR20VE Cylinder Head Now for the 'why bother with such an OE build?' My reasoning is I need a rotating assembly to continue on my development journey. Valve events are critical to intake and header development and I have some ideas on making some changes. To verify these changes on my current setup is challenging with the engine in the car, so it makes sense to have an assembly available. This new setup will include: ✔️ Intake development (both single throttle manifold and multi throttles) ✔️ Header development ✔️ Camshaft profiling and development ✔️ Baffled sump finalisation Basically this engine will be used to do the verification/measurement checks and my running engine will be the true test, with dyno results as confirmation. Hopefully that clears up the intention, of course I couldn't leave the block in the filthy state it was, hence the cleaning (few before and after photos in the post) Anyhow thanks for reading and following along on the journey. I know it's been a little slow of late, although with some careful planning we should see some more interesting stuff before the end of the year 😁

Hey guys, So I had Andrew message me a few weeks back about helping him fit some Bosch 123 627cc injectors to his build. He wanted an OEM+ setup although with heavily refined hardware. So the Bosch 123 injectors are of course at the top of the list. (Keep in mind I saw a ~7kw gain with these injectors and some better fuel system management) To make this possible a redesign of the IACV spigot was required, I had some printed in MJF as prototype parts to test the possibility, then arrived at aluminium printing which is what you see here. I drew the design out on paper, being a little bit old school and 909 Motorsport were the driving force to convert that into CAD for me. The overall height of the OEM IACV hose spigot setup is the issue as it fouls on the top of the fuel rail when spaced this high for the injectors to fit. Andrew supplied an MPI rail initially for me to adapt the injectors into, although unfortunately without modifying the injectors, (which we don't do) it wasn't possible to use this rail. So a used Radium rail was sourced through Jayden. I took a photo to show the projected tip of the injector on the OEM intake manifold, this is part of the reason they're so good, the other side is the heavily refined atomisation in the spray pattern, not to mention being a dual cone spray pattern! A big thank you to Andrew for trusting me in this process, it can be stressful leaving the redesign up to a third party. These items will be available as a kit, if you'd like to run these injectors in your OEM manifold. The kit will consist of: ✔️ 1 x Aluminium Printed IACV Spigot ✔️ 3 x Dimensionally accurate rail spacers ✔️ 3 x New mounting bolts ✔️ 1 x Set of 4 Flow matched Bosch 123 injectors with datasheet If this setup interests you, send me a DM or comment, I'll get back to you with pricing. Lead time is 3 - 4 weeks minimum for machining and printing services. The spigot and spacer is not available on it's own, nor is the CAD file. Thank you all for reading, feel free to ask questions, if you have these questions I'm sure someone else probably does too.

SR20VE Intake Manifold Update: Alright guys, so there has been a long delay around this manifold becoming available to this community for a few reasons, I'll elaborate in the following post. I'd like to say thank you for the support, the questions, the community definitely helps to drive my motivation. After exploring all options of manufacturing, from printing (covering plastics and metals), fabrication, casting and forming it's currently uneconomical to produce this particular manifold as a piece available to the SR-VE community. The costs are quiet high to produce it and the time even more so to fabricate it. In saying this, it doesn't mean that the project is abandoned, the math works, the gains are there, it's just the manufacturing process that's not economically viable. So we have a couple of projects in the pipeline again from a single throttle manifold redesign to multi-throttle (aka ITB's). In doing this I'm confident that we can find a product to potentially suit all budgets, again with proven gains attached. I'm interested - I'd like to ask of you guys, can you either leave a comment, or send me a DM on what you'd be willing to spend on both a proven single throttle manifold or multi-throttle package, with proven gains attached? Thank you for reading and following along the journey, any questions, please feel free to ask.

Hey guys, I haven't been posting alot lately, have been incredibly busy with life and alot of other projects, car and house related. The N14 development is still being squeezed in there, although thats for the next post 😄 Here is one of the more recent projects I'd like to share. R33 GTST Skyline with a freshly built Race Pace RB25DET engine. I was asked to help out with the fabrication side of things by @909_motorsport as the Artec manifold and new turbo didn't allow the use of the old setup. So this is what I came up with. All the stainless was completely backpurged, which at times proved more challenging because of the length. Although it's what needed to be done for longevity. Again guys, I'm still a student with fabrication. I still see all the imperfections, although I always try to bring my best with it. Follow all best practice techniques. I'm enjoying the opportunities to be able to try and build my skills and knowledge to slowly improve. Thanks for reading and following along, hoping to be a little more active in the coming weeks.