Update: Still slow and waiting on parts to arrive. Some future planning for stage 3 & 4 on the spare block.
Both Alpine kits I obtained have some issues that need to be addressed. The blue kit has a leaky snout seal and the black kit has a broken snout and chewed up rotors. Combined they still don't offer a fully working kit but the path of least resistance seems to be obtaining a new snout seal. I'm still debating whether to rebuild the snout or just replace the seal on the blue kit and send it. The previous owner claims he had the snout rebuilt in the last couple of years and barely drove it so I may just send it with a new seal.
I didn't like the length of the OEM pressure plate bolts at only 15mm or so. Strangely the original bolts from my dual mass were longer at around 20-25mm but the OEM replacements I bought two separate times were shorter by around 5-10mm. For a steel flywheel this might be OK, but since the Fidanza flywheel is aluminum and has deeper mount holes I ordered up some ARP hardware that are reported to be 25mm from the Honda D series motors. I expect to have to trim these down, up-to 3mm, to fit. I'd have a hard time sleeping if I know I've got only 15mm worth of threads in an aluminum flywheel lol...
ARP 1082201
arp-bolts.com
Bought all new front end suspension and steering bits. Mevotech has a front end kit for a price comparable to Moog that include inner and outer power steering tie rod ends. I went with Moog for the lower control arm bushings and ball joints. I'll be pressing them in/out myself keeping the OEM lower control arm. Thankfully we don't salt our roads in Seattle so even at 16 years old they don't have much rust.
MEVOTECH MKIT10722
MOOG K201658 K200692 K500031
I decided to go a different route on the valve springs for my spare motor. The Brian Crower BC1300 springs from the Toyota 2JZ are really close in size but I heard from a reputable member who tried to fit them stating that they don't seat right. I would still like to try this myself to see if there is anything I can do to make adjustments... But for now I purchased a set of Sigma 3.5L springs which are approximately 30% stiffer. These were the same valve springs used on the NGM budget race blocks way back in the day. The valve stem size of the 3.5L is different so no other hardware is compatible from the Sigma cylinder heads unfortunately.
Hyundai 22221-35510
Genuine 22221-35510 Spring-Valve fits 2000-2006 Hyundai Santa Fe, XG300, XG350. HyundaiPartsDeal offers 2222135510 for $6.13.
www.hyundaipartsdeal.com
I've been seriously looking at the NGM race block rotating assembly for my spare block in preparation for stage 3 or 4. Some of you may know now that NGM was using Honda H22 rods with custom ROSS pistons at around 8.5-9:1 compression. A reputable member of this forum reports them to be 8.77:1 and another reports them as 8.8:1. This has been confirmed by a couple of reputable members in the Facebook groups and this forum by comparing part numbers and dimensions of existing NGM blocks to parts catalogs. The caveat is that the rods big ends are wider and rod lengths are longer by a couple millimeters. This means that either the crank rod journals or the rod bearings themselves need to be machined for the difference in width then a custom set of pistons with a higher wrist pin (aka shorter compression height) is needed to offset the length. This also means that we can use MUCH better rod bearings from the Honda world. The cost is far less around the 50% mark compared to the "drop-in" CP/Pauter combination that is everyone's go-to at the moment. The following combo is reported to hold over 150HP per hole. TC reported the race blocks are capable of holding 800WHP in a couple of excerpts on these forums and from their site via the web.archive.
Source1:
NGM short or long race block
Source2: Nelson Gonzalez
Manley Forged H Beam Connecting Rods with 3/8 ARP 2000 Honda Prelude VTEC H22A H22A1 H22A4
SKU 14016-4
ROSS Piston Specs
Make: Hyundai
Model: V6
Job Card # 113403
Bore: 4.4300"
Net Dia. 3.4250"
Compression Height: 1.119"
Ring Grooves: 0.0485", 0.0605", 0.1495"
Ring Lands: 0.285", 0.175", 0.085"
Pin: 0.866" x 2.500" DBL
Net Dome CC's: -9.3
Dome Height: N/A
Dish Depth: 0.105"
Int V.P. Dia.: N/A
Int V.P. Depth: 0.000
Exh V.P. Dia: N/A
Exh V.P. Depth: 0.000