Nice paint job, but all external openings into a fresh motor should remained sealed to avoid any material from "accidently " falling in until completely assembled then the last opening the throttle body should have a rag stuffed into it until finished and ready to fire. I see ports open, oil passages, oil filler opening, why waste time spending money on a build when failure could arise from this simple oversight. A wonderful build could be cut short with the engulfing of a ten mm nut.

 

Close - actually it's called Alusil similar to Nikasil but without the corrosion issues. Essentially a silicone and aluminium paste is used on the cylinder walls then chemically etched away leaving nodes of very hard silicon precipitate exposed. The silicon surface is porous enough to hold oil, and is an excellent bearing surface.

 

Thanks Manuel!

 

Thanks Critter but I assure you everything is sealed!

Just after these photos were taken the motor was smoke tested for leaks and pressure tested then inspected once again to ensure unimpeded operation.

 

Looking good!!
What did the shop do to your cylinder walls to repair the gouges from debris?

 

Thanks Chris! The damage was only slight so although there wasnt much to repair the process needs to be done carefully with specialised equipment. The Alusil process is explained in this post above:

 

So they just polished it with honing paste? Must have been very minor scratches then.. Why was it torn down in the first place?

 

Any idea which gasket failed and why?

 

I have an E55 engine with the heads off in my garage right now. I had a guy come to my house to buy a set of wheels. We were talking and he asked about the engine and what not. He put his finger in the cylinder and felt the cylinder wall. Now there is bit of dirt in there right now. Do you think you did damage, like etched the wall or something. I'm not sure how sensitive it is. I couldn't stop him, didn't have time to say "no, don't".

So what do you guys think? Am I being paranoid?

 

?Damage From rubbing the dirty cylinder bore with his finger?
Not a chance. It's fine.

However don't rotate the crankshaft or remove the pistons without cleaning the cylinder bores thoroughly, because you will scratch the bores that way. Clean the best you can with lint-free cloths and then blow the circumference with compressed air to get out dirt between the top ring and the piston ringland.

 

Thanks