I got this Aristo engine from jdmenginescorp from Richardson, TX and wasn't really sure the condition of it. Why? well their ebay auctions has videos of the compression test and it seems the engine is in good health. When I got the engine in my possesion I decided to do a compression test and a leak-down test myself. Well guess what, when I open up the valve cover, the pigtails for the coilpacks are not broken, assuming they are broken since they did compression test on it. Well, they are not broken and when I took every pigtails off, they snapped into pieces. Meaning, they have a bogus compression videos on their ebay auction site.

The compression test and leak down test I performed did not make any sense to me so i decided to tear this engine apart for the piece of mind.

Here she is when i got it: Blue valve cover? Engine maybe modded a little bit? I don't know.


JDM twins are off and sold



Intake manifold off



Cams off



Oil pan / head off






Looks healthy, checked the thrust clearance. I am taking it apart for the hell of it.



Block and head are going to the machine shop for cleaning, deglazing, decking, etc. I will be doing the "blueprint" or measuments of the bore, crank, rods etc.

Will post more pics of reassembly.

ahuhhh.. so this is what's keeping you busy huh ?

keep it up

What intake and turbo are you using ?

BorgWarner S366 quicksc4 style... Will be using same intake manifold
Thanks for the help Gerry, I've been harrasing you lately, lol

no big deal buddy ! did you polish that turbo and valve covers yourself ? nice ....

Yes, I used my air compressor and Harbor Freight polish kit. Works great!

Hardest part is sanding.

hhmmm .. I would have to pick your brains on how to do it . I would like to start looking at repolishing / rechroming stuff on my engine bay since I believe I am done installing what I have to install on that bay... Time to worlk on asthetics if I can. Like my catch can had been powder coated , I believe it will look better if it is polished since it is made of aluminum I believe.

How long lets say did it take you to polish that turbo cover and the two valve covers ?

The turbo housing took longer since the texture is rough. The valve covers maybe 4 hours of sanding and an hour of polishing using HF kit:
You have to start 30 or 60 grit sand paper, dry sanding, all the way down to 1500-2000 grit wet sanding. Basically you have to smooth the surface before polishing.

I did not use the black bar, it just made it messier.

http://www.harborfreight.com/14-piec...kit-98707.html

This will give you an idea about polishing: I would use pneumatic tool to speed sanding.
http://www.cumminsforum.com/forum/de...ish-turbo.html

wow .. great job for polishing all those parts. I would look into it . I want my catch can polished instead of powder coated.

While those valve covers are out , take out those valve cover ports and tap some fittings for a catch can , that is if you are eventually using one.

I am forseeing a nice looking engine bay . I figure you are polishing that intake manifold too .

I am using a Greddy catch can... should I run the PCV to the catch can as well? What AN fitting for it?

Oh no, i'd like to polish the manfiold, but I think too much work on it. I would get it sand blasted or something..

It is not a must . btw , how much power are you looking at ? Some will leave that in and just use a bigger fitting on the exhaust valve cover . The thing is , you want to vent out whatever pressure you have on the crankcase or you will be blowing up your seals if you got a lot of that pressure in there.But most setup with catch can , you will see both valve covers vented.

if you don't want to drill anymore , the passenger side size hole is 3/8 npt and the driver side hole is 1/2 npt , just get the 3/8-18 and 1/2-14 npt taps .. so if you will use -10an fittings let's say, you will have to use -10an to 3/8npt and -10an to 1/2npt fittings

At this point I do not know... I will be using stock Aristo ECU with 550s and your USDM cams

I was just thinking about using some Home Depot hose and clamps for the catch can, haha.

I see that you have two catch can with 2 ports each. Are those catch can designed with mesh inside ? Or both ports just go to the valve covers ?

Just got back from the machine shop, hot tanked and deglazed. Deck is still within specs so no need to resurface.



Painted black


Pistons cleaned, and new set of rings

The other one is some cheap ebay coolant reservoir.