2000TC engine transplant

robgee1964

robgee1964

Member
Well I finally made a start on my engine swap job.

The existing 2000 twin carb engine had been showing its age for quite some time now, and its never really run right on unleaded. It just about tolerates Shell V-power, but not without complaint!

But then I was surfing on ebay one evening (yes the road to ruin for many a man...) and saw a later single carb unit, complete with gearbox and all ancillaries. Only covered a few thousand miles since a major rebuild. Naturally I was interested, and was even more so when a few phone calls later I found this unit is lower compression, and is far more tolerant of unleaded. Plus a better carburettor (HIF6) and only one off, so no more tuning headaches. Some of the very helpful members here confirmed that all I needed to change to fit was the exhaust downpipe (which was shot anyway on my TC) and a bit of jiggery pokery with the choke and throttle linkage, alhough I've now managed to obtain the correct parts for both of these.

It was therefore a no brainer, and I prompty bid on said engine and brought it back home the following weekend.

So far I've got the old engine out. its a bit of a tight squeeze to remove, in addition to the prodecure in the manual I found it necessary to remove the exhaust manifold, as well as the offside engine mounting bracket, which fouled the brake servo. Removing the cooling fan gave me a few inches extra clearance at the front too, once the unit was tilted.

Having got the engine out I can see some corrosion in the heater box, ideally this wants doing while the engine bay is clear, but I think I'll save it for a winter job, as I really want to press on and get this replacement unit fitted.

Some pics of where I'm to so far
http://s108.photobucket.com/albums/n3/r ... ne%20swap/

and a few taken for the classic insurance, prior to my under bonnet butchery
http://s108.photobucket.com/albums/n3/r ... over%20P6/

Later on today I'll give the engine bay a good degrease and clean, then spray in a bit of clear wax.

Cheers

Rob
 
Thanks for the words of support Michael.

Well the lump is now sitting in the engine bay, all the major fitting is done, just linkages and pipes to connect, fit rad and fill with coolant. Only hiccough was my rear gearbox mounting never arrived so was forced to make a temporary one. Oh and my clutch alignment tool is a metric type. Bah! Luckily had some barstock of similar diameter, which was soon turned down to size.

Should be ready to crank in a few hours. Fingers crossed!
 
Well it took me a bit more than a couple of hours, but I eventually got the engine running late Sunday afternoon.

A few minor setbacks, firstly I'd forgotten the route the speedo cable correctly, so had to lower the gearbox back down a little in order to get the cable in its proper place. Then it turned out I'd not got all the throttle linkage bits I needed - so another hour or so making a bracket and pushrod extender (I'd be very interested to see a picture of the factory arrangement, for a single carb engine). The choke cable was easy, I simply connected the longer of the two cables which emerge from the splitter. The clutch cylinder was a complete pig to bleed too, with hindsight I maybe could have simply unbolted it from the gearbox, and left the hydraulics connected.

Replaced the points, checked the plug gaps and it fired up without much fuss. The water pump turned out to be leaking, but I've swapped over the pump off my old engine. it does run a lot better than the old unit, there's no pinking and it will pull cleanly from low revs, whereas the TC unit complained at anything much below 2000.

So I'll see how it goes over the next few weeks. So far there are no ominous oil drips on the drive, so fingers crossed (again!).

cheers

Rob
 
If it turns out to be too slow for you in this configuration, you could always pop the head on from the TC. You'd retain the lower compression whilst gaining the better breathing and carburation...

But I realise you've changed the throttle and exhaust arrangements now so it will have to be a deep intake of breath...

Chris
 
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