Sparky's winter/spring/summer/autumn work

cobraboy said:
You could check your crank pointer is correct for TDC whilst your DTI is out.
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Have a note to do so, but the crank pointer is on the timing chain cover so can't do it yet. I will be doing all of that when I dial the cam in though. I checked it with a piston stop a few years ago and it out by either 6 or 8 degrees, can't remember which but certainly a long way.
 
quattro said:
Are the conrod bolts stretch bolts? Stuck again until I can figure that one out, anyone know?

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Apparently they are stretch bolts but I have been advised that many people, including engine builders just torque them to 65Nm (some weird measurement system which means 48lb/ft) and that works perfick.

All 8 pistons now back in, all facing forward :)

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All rods, torqued up and the motor turns, a bit tight but then it should be.

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The domes on the con rods are facing each other for each pair (mine has two on each for some reason, not sure why :hmm:

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I have made sure that the end caps are fitted with these little bosses next to each other, as they should be.

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So, where's the camshaft? Well there was a small flaw with it so it's gone back. Not much else I can do so I am going to clean everything, remove old gaskets, repaint rocker covers etc, until the cam and heads get here.

I'm not going to replace the sump until I have almost finished as I am very likely to drop something in there :rolleyes:
 
A thing I found on one of my top hat linered blocks, it would have been a 94mm block, is that when placing the head gasket on the block the compression sealing ring came half on and half off the outer edge of the top hat liner, which I thought was less than ideal.
Now this could be an aftermarket / production tolerance thing, I don't know.
I rummaged around and found a 3.5 litre head gasket and offered it up, it fitted perfectly on top of the top hat rim.
I used the smaller gaskets
As I say, both gaskets may have been non std, with funny bore sizes, but it worked out well.
 
The engine is being built to 9.75:1 so V8D are going to sort the combustion chambers and then supply me with head gaskets of the correct thickness to get that CR. I won't really have a choice but will certainly look out for any such problem - watch this space :)

I do have some black tin gaskets, no idea where they came from but they are in my hoard of, "bits that may come in handy one day."
 
Still no cam, so I have used the little amount of time I have getting other bits ready to go back on.

This is what the engine looked like prior to removing it.

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I painted the rocker covers a few years ago, then rubbed to top off to show the aluminium. Unfortunately, I later coated them in an engine lacquer which didn't work to well and left them with a rough finish. Other little jobs which I have always meant to get to, included painting the flame trap the same colour as the rockers, finding a better solution to sealing the the two threaded port holes in the side of the plenum,

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and the old breather pipe at the rear of the rocker cover which I had sealed off with a short piece of hose and a make shift plug.

I stripped the old paint off completely

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Etched primed

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Then glossy black, sanded off to leave the aluminium showing

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I have always had problems with these rubber gaskets, finding them very fiddly to fit, so have got into the habit of bonding them on with RTV. Just run the RTV round the cover, then place the gasket on flat table, make sure the spacers are in line with the bolts, then place the cover onto the gasket, fit it into the groove and allow it to cure. Easy :)

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I also pulled the tube out of the O/S one and bonded a small rounded cap into place to seal it, much neater job.

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They're ready to go straight on when I get to that bit.

I can't remember what I sealed this up with, but it was a pig to remove.

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All done though, and ready to go back on

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The top of the mani was sealed to the trumpet base with silicone which proved to be very difficult to break, and actually ended with a bent fuel rail :confused:

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I eventually made a small puller (well pusher) out of some 12mm studding a nut, which did the job, then it was just a good coating of sealant remover and a wire brush to clean it up ready to refit. The holes in the trumpet bottoms are drain holes which showed up when I had the face skimmed by 1/4" to get a bit of under bonnet clearance. They still work so no harm done.

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I worked out that the fittings in the plenum were 5/8 UNF, 18TPI, so had a look on a well known auction site, and found these for a few quid. Much happier with that. Being held up like this, has pushed me into sorting these little details that I always meant to do, but never got around to.

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Sump is all cleaned, old gasket removed, ready to refit

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Also managed to get some painting done, will get some pics later
 
Looking very smart! I use blue hylomar between the trumpet base (ram housing?) and manifold, and the same between the lip of ram housing and the plenum. It means you can get it apart, but can be a b**ger to clean off when getting ready to reassemble as hylomar seems to resist pretty much all solvents...

Where do you fill with oil on your arrangement?
 
I'll probably use a bit of Stag Wellseal for the plenum sealing as the surfaces are all a perfect snug fit, and I have some. I also have a lot of solvents so can try a few if I need to.

Yes, it is a annoying having no filler cap, but when I put the EFI on, I found the flame trap was the same thread as the filler cap :). It was just a perfect solution to enable me to keep the P6 rocker covers. To top up, I just unscrew the flame trap.
 
Re the cross bolts with marks on the threads - the only place sump bolts could do that would be the rear main cap, as the 2 rear bolts go into the main cap. All the other sump bolts are out at the edge, nowhere near the threaded section of the bolts. As more than 2 cross bolts were so marked, had some been moved around, sometimes in the rear main, sometimes elsewhere? Learning a lot here, keep up the good work and the pics please.
 
Hi JP, I did actually notice the dents were in the wrong place when I fitted the cross bolts, but didn't think much more about it until you mentioned it. The rear cross bolts are allen heads, so not them, but I've had a look at a current pic and what does line up are the bolts that hold the baffle plate?

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I wondered if there was a washer missing, but checking on an old pic (I have thousands of pics :) ) there is a spring washer and normal washer on them when I took this a while back.

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Still a mystery then :)
 
harveyp6 said:
There should just be a spring washer on the windage tray bolts, they don't have a flat washer as well.
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I didn't know either way TBH, so I just googled it: -

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I do know where the short engine came from, and I wouldn't put it past them to use the wrong length bolts because they had them in stock and wanted to shift them :rolleyes:
 
Maybe it's a bigger engine thing. They aren't listed in the P6B parts book, which I just checked to make sure that I was right.
 
harveyp6 said:
Maybe it's a bigger engine thing. They aren't listed in the P6B parts book, which I just checked to make sure that I was right.
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Could be, my money is on they were the wrong length bolts when the engine was originally built, or perhaps they're the correct length but not designed for use with a cross bolted engine.

The manual I am using for the 4.0L (alongside the P6B manual for the P6 bits :oops:), doesn't mention a baffle plate and doesn't show it in any of the diagrams so maybe it didn't have one and the PO just fitted it to the short engine because he had taken it off the 3.5? But if it didn't have a baffle plate, why were there holes for it?

I'll be checking them out before reassembly though, and may just nip the end off prior to refit.

That's just one of the problems you get when you have a bitsa engine :)
 
harveyp6 said:
They aren't listed in the P6B parts book, which I just checked to make sure that I was right.
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Strange, I had my parts book out today, and mine does have them listed :hmm:

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Load of parts all cleaned up and ready

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I have spoken to V8D today, and the heads and cam are ready, and will be here tomorrow or Friday :D
 
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My observation on the baffle is it disappeared when they started fitting baffles to the sump itself. so if using a P6B sump, the baffle should be fitted; if using a baffled sump, block baffle shouldnt be needed. I had my baffle out recently, and the bolts were quite short, certainly less than 1".
 
Bits are here - whoop :cool: I do like the look of those warrior heads. Also arrived, adjustable pushrods, and a stealth camshaft.

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Gaskets are a bit posh, competition ones apparently, with a compressed thickness of 42 thou (1.0668mm)

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This one's not so posh though :confused:

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Friend has had his El Camino in the shop over winter, the motor was pulled to sort various oil leaks, motor had a repaint, engine bay looked stunning. He has had three of four runs out, no oil leaks. Came round to see me the other night with coolant dripping on the floor, we had a look see - core plug rusted out !

Those gaskets sit on the liners nice :thumb:
 
cobraboy said:
Those gaskets sit on the liners nice :thumb:
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Following your recent concerns for the head gasket, I did a trial fit with the undamaged one and am very pleased with the fit.

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I will be inspecting the core plugs very carefully, :)
 
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