Crankshaft talk

[Earth1]

I just put on the 3rd RMS in a year and a half. It's leaking AGAIN! 1st was when I transplanted motors, and 2 were in the last month starting with the tranny swap. I had great help on the last one, he's a tech at a Honda dealer. We tried a speedy sleeve on this last one and it still leaks. We sealed the entire thing up with some "honda-bond" and the housing is new, so it's probably leaking on the crank/seal. That makes sense because I dinged the back of the crank trying to remove the auto tranny pilot that came on my JDM, and it could have messed up the sealing surface I guess. Theoretically the sleeve should have fixed that but the oil in my driveway says otherwise. I'm going to pull the motor again and replace the crank and also the oil pan just to be safe.

 

Before anyone asks, I'm sure it's the rear main. All the gaskets were replaced May 06, rear cams last month and the rest of the motor is tight as a drum, no leaks.

 

Since I have to buy a crank anyway I'm looking into performance options. I was hoping to start it off with a general discussion on cranks and the VG30 since I really don't know anything about what modifying cranks entails.

 

I assume that changing the crank also means you'll need new bearings, rods, and pistons? Any machining necessary? Do my aftermarket cams effect the crank I should get? I was thinking about the DETT block, or is it the same block with different cranksahft/rods/pistons. I found one on craigslist: 300 short block. It's worth the price just for the crank if it will work; Nismo cams are over $700. I'm sure there are other options out there. I know a 3.3 crank can be used with a different pulley. What else is possible without machining?

Edited December 5, 2007 by Earth1

[88pathoffroad]

IIRC the DETT block is different to accommodate the DOHC heads.

 

IMHO the only real performance mods I would consider when digging that far into a VG30 would be beefing up the bottom end for a turbo or supercharger. Keeping it NA will only get you so far with the SOHC. A forged VG30ET crank and rods would be a good start if there were a short snout version available to use with your stock VG30E balancer, pulleys and accessories. (Or perhaps the long-snout version could be machined to fit.) You could try asking over at VGPowered forums, there are a few more engine-heads over there that could probably help you out more.

 

http://vgpowered.informe.com/index.php

[Earth1]

Thanks for the VG forum link, looks like there's a lot of good info there. I should have checked that place out sooner.

 

I hear what your sayin about the NA vg30. Someday I'll work a SC into it somehow. For now I just want it as tight as possible without custom machining too much. Like what a stock Pathy should be like... 160-170HP or so will feel lovely with gears.