Each of the locks have to...
Each of the locks have to be seated by hand. Be careful as the edges are usually sharp and have a tendency to go flying if not seated properly.
On the bench, we assemble the rods and pistons. First coating the wrist pin with oil, it is then inserted into the piston and rod. Then, using a small screwdriver, each lock is installed. There's no easy way of doing this, just be careful not to damage the piston when you're trying to get the lock seated. Naoto filed the rings before we sent the block out to get WPC treated, so we just had to install them to their respective piston.
Each rod is fitted with its proper bearing. Once in place, each ring is set to its position. We used the factory manual to determine the position of each ring.
Naoto sets the crank at a position where he has enough access to tighten the rod bolt. Again, a liberal amount of assembly lube is slathered on the piston skirts, and the piston is installed using a ring compressor.
The ring is installed using...
The ring is installed using a ring expander tool. Keep in mind the position of the notch in the bearing when putting them in.
The piston is pushed all the way down until it makes contact with the crank. Install the rod cap, but just cinch down the rod bolts. Once the pistons are installed, the rod bolts are torqued together to keep consistency.
We finally crank the whole assembly over a couple times to check for any other issues. Even with our massive fully countered crank, our block assembly spins like butter. This is probably attributed to having all of our friction surfaces WPC treated. We can't wait to see this monster roar on the dyno.
There you have it. Our short-block is now assembled and ready for a head. The process is pretty straightforward at this point. The key, like we've stressed since the beginning, is to be tedious and check everything over. Next time we'll assemble the valvetrain and finally torque it down to our block. We are that much closer to our monster KA24DET.
 Each ring must be set to its...  Each ring must be set to its correct position. Otherwise, issues with compression and oil burning will arise. |  NPD recommends using an ARP...  NPD recommends using an ARP tapered ring compressor, as it makes installing pistons as easy as pushing with your fingers. |  Here's one of the sections...  Here's one of the sections that we grinded away for clearance. You can see how close it is, but it's free from contact. |