1 November 2006
My ordered parts arrived today. The Rhoads lifters, adjustable push rods and some more engine assembly lubricant.
These Rhoads lifters are an excellent product. They enable the user of a wilder cam with much reduced rough idle, apparently. They make the engine smooth at low revs but with increased power at higher revs, they are the equivalent of a Honda VTEC, maybe not so markedly. So in a nut shell you can have that fast road cam and not the associated rough idle. Why is it performance cams cause rough idle? Well to improve mid to high power the duration of the cam is longer but also the inlet and exhaust valve overlap is greater. the overlap is the amount of duration that both the inlet and exhaust valves are open. This overlap improves performance but causes rough running at lower speeds. The idea with bleed down lifters like Rhoads is that below 3,500rpm the effective height in the middle of the lifter where the push rod goes is lower which means the valves do not open fully. The valves not opening fully means less overlap. Once the engine goes above 3,500rpm the oil pressure raises and this in turn forces oil into the lifter through that little hole that you can see in the picture. Oil in the lifter increases the height which means the valves open to their fullest and full lift and this increases overlap and therefore power developed. Very neat.
I spent one hour in the garage installing my lifters and checking the cam timing. Installing the lifters is a straight forward process just follow the instructions that came with the lifters, basically coat the bottom and sides of the lifter with cam lube and insert into the bores but be careful not to get an oil in these lifters as they could pump up.
As you know I installed the Cam and timed by sight but lining up the timing marks on the timing gears so I wanted to check that I am in the ball part. I think ideally you need to check the cam timing once the push rods and rocker gear is in place. Otherwise the lifter will not follow the profile of the cam exactly, in lieu of this I pressed the lifter with my hand! Some tips of timing the cam, always turn the engine in the direction of travel which is clockwise at the crank pulley end. Why, well as the engine is chain driven reversing direction will take up the slack in the chain, which is not much not something you can see but it will make a difference of a couple of degrees at the crank. The other tip is try and turn at a consistent speed as you approach your datum points, do not snatch it, progressive movements, this makes a difference also, all in all a little bit of a nightmare!
To check the cam shaft timing you need to attach a DTI gauge so that it is on the no 1 inlet lifter. My gauge has to measure at an angle so I had to measure from the edge of the lifter, which probably is not ideal, maybe better to measure from the centre. If measuring from the centre do not pre load the lifters with oil you need a consistent reading. Once the gauge is in place rotate the cam until you are a maximum lift and zero the gauge. Turn the crank around almost two revs so that you are approaching maximum lift again, when are at maximum lift stop and record the degrees from the timing wheel attached to the crank. I recorded a reading of 105.5 degrees ATDC. Now continue turning and you will see that the maximum lift will remain constant, this is the dwell period. Turn slowly as you need to stop as soon as the needle starts to drop, I recorded a reading of 115.5 ATDC. The dwell is shown as 115.5 - 105.5 = 10 degrees. The maximum lift is the mid point, i.e. 105.5 + 10/2 = 110.5 degrees. My cam needs to have full lift at 110 degrees. I checked this at least twice and I can slight variances, sometimes it shown at 110 and sometimes 111. As my camshaft timing gear has 40 teeth I can only adjust by 9 degrees in either direction so this would suggest the timing is spot on because if I was one tooth out that the timing would be 101 or 119 degrees. I practiced my due diligence and decided to check with another method which went like this. Stop at 5 thou's before full lift and recorded 101 degrees ATDC. Continue turning until the liter reaches full lift and starts descending and stop when 5 thou's is reach again, recorded 121 degrees. Again the full lift is at the mid point, which is 101 + 20/2 = 111 degrees. Well I am happy with the result. I shall redo the check once all the rocker gear and push rods are in place. If it is found that I am a degree or so out, well less than 9/2 = 4.5 degrees, my available adjustment with the standing timing gears then the only option is to install an aftermarket vernier timing wheel. A vernier timing wheel allows fine adjustment of timing it is in two parts, the inner part connected to the camshaft and the outer part with teeth matching the chain but the inner part has screws which can be undone and the inner part can be rotated a few degrees and then tightened. OF course this makes adjustment an easier affair also because you do not have to take the timing chain off.
3 November 2006
Session 115 - Adjustable push rod assembly
The adjustable push rods are adjustable at one end using a ball end that is threaded and screws into a hollow shaft. The ball end is locked into position by way of a lock nut. The other end is a push fit. There are two ball ends supplied, a 5/32" and 3/16" radius. With my lifters as per the standard lifters I require the smaller ball end, the 5/32". Now this is a right pain to insert. Yep, you guessed it is an interference fit, erm. This is tonight's job whilst the wife is out to Bingo, I can use the oven!
The method! Leave the ball ends in the freezer over night. Pre heat oven to 200 centigrade Celsius. Whilst the oven is heating up remove all the screw-in ball ends so all that remains are the shafts. These ball ends are heat treated and probably not a good idea not to heat them up again, as this could weaken them. Once oven is to temperature place about 4 of the shafts in the centre of the oven and leave until risen, no I am joking! Wait 10 minutes then take one out to work on, when the first one is complete put another shaft in the oven and take the next one out, i.e. production line fashion, otherwise this would take 160minutes! Okay back to the job in hand. Take a piece of cloth and wrap the shaft and place in a bench vice with the adjustable end down, this should rest on a piece of wood to take the impact. Do the vice up nice and tight, make sure the shaft is completely upright, nice and straight. Take a single ball end out of the freezer and insert into the open end and you need to do this quickly as the ball will start to expand as soon as it touches the hot shaft. Making sure the ball end is straight in the shaft take an old lifter put over the ball joint, now with a hammer (do not use a mallet, it will not work!) apply several sharp blows to the lifter and thus driving the ball end home. Make absolutely sure that the ball end is completely in, I held mine up to the light to make sure. I found some had slight gaps, I measured one and it was only 0.2mm but still has to be completely home. I found the first few were harder to do, basically because I was fussing too much and taking too long and worrying too much about bending the shaft. I did check straightness by rolling on a smooth surface, in my case marble but glass would be fine, you have to hang the bigger ball end over the edge though. I didn't do the vice up enough on my first shaft and it moved and caught against the claws of the vice which grazed the shaft, this would probably be okay but I am going to replace it at a cost of about a £10 not worth not replacing really,. The scratch could be a stress riser. Once finished I coated the push rods with oil for protection. Once I install this I shall make use of engine assembly lube on both ball ends.
Photo follows with explanation:
These push rods are manufactured by Crane.
Okay here you can see in the background left an old lifter, this enables the ball end to be driven home without causing damage to the ball end. The lifter will get wrecked however. I scrounged my lifter from a off road land rover specialist for nothing.
In the middle of the photo you will see a steel coloured ball end, this is the end that makes contact with the lifter. In front of this ball end you see another which is brown/black. This ball end is the adjuster and makes contact under the rocker arm, you can see the lock nut.
The push rod shaft on the left exhibits no ball ends. You an see the nut welded onto the shaft at the front of the picture, this is used to hold the push rod whilst adjusting. The remaining push rods in the picture demonstrate what they look like when assembled.
Simple design but very effective. If you do not use adjustable push rods then the rocker pedestals have to be shimmed, this means calculating an average amount in which to shim all rocker pedestals as you must use the same value shim under each. This means less than optimal lifter pre load as you will have variances. With adjustable push rods you can set the individual lifter preloads to get consistent pre load across the board.
I spent 90 minutes in the garage tonight.
4th November 2006
Session 116 - Engine blueprinting - valve to piston clearance checks
When putting an engine together especially when using performance cams, etc, this will change clearances in the engine, so take the opportunity to check. Certainly do not want to start the engine in a few months only to destroy it! I have been told that my selection of parts is viable and many have done it before, but I do like to check myself.
Took the right hand side head off (it was just place on the studs) and took out the normal valve springs for inlet and exhaust 1 and replaced with light weight ones that I can push down with my finger. Bear with it. The idea is that you can push down the valves at any time in the combustion cycle and thus check the piston to valve clearance.
Picture of the head.
Next I ensure that the tin gasket was located and torque down the head. I then took an old lifter, one of the ones I scrounged and took it apart and rendered the hydraulics inoperable by jamming with metal washers, I then put it back together, viola,. a solid lifter! This is important because the normal hydraulic ones would not be pumped up and would not therefore give the minimum clearance that could be experienced under high RPMs. I only have the one lifter now as the other one is quite bruised from me belting it to get the ball ends inserted into the push rods and this lifter is going no where near my nice new cam!
Okay I am going to pick on the inlet valve first so I removed the Rhoads lifter with my solid lifter. Next I thought I would check that I do have TDC correctly indicated on my timing wheel with my newly manufactured DIY style piston stop. Yep it is at TDC, good. This is a really fast way to obtain TDC, takes seconds and no DTI gauge or calculator in sight!
Remember my cam timing I calculated that maximum lift was attained at 111 ATDC which ought have been 110 ATDC. I decided the re-check although I think I need to get a plunger type DTI to do this as I do not have confidence that the finger type DTI gauge I have is totally accurate. Anyway I used the 5 thou's before max lift and 5 thou's after method and I recorded, 99.5 ATDC and 119 ATDC which gives a mid point of 109.25 ATDC which is close enough to 110 ATDC. Such a small variance could be down to inaccuracies in measuring equipment, reading the gauge, reading between degrees on a timing wheel, god sake the timing pointer (coat hanger wire) has a diameter of about 0.5 degree!
Picture of piston stop.
I applied ARP moly lubricant to the head studs and washers. I torque down the head as per manufactures instructions but using ARP torque values for aluminum heads, this being 65 ft/lbs. I progressively tightened no more than 10ft/lbs at a time, ensuring that I did not turn more than 90 degrees at a time. This ensures that the head is not warped during the torque process! I started at 20 degrees BTDC on the induction stroke and measured the piston to valve clearance every 2 degrees until 20 ATDC. I also took a read at 110 ATDC, the cam's full left for the inlet 1. I am not even going to write up the results as the clearance is far too low, as low as 0.030". The minimum for inlet should be 0.080".
I removed the head, this cannot be rushed you have to remove the nuts in reverse sequence and not turning more than 90 degrees, until at least all the torque has gone anyway. I replaced the tin gasket with a composite one and re-torque down the head. I then took some ad 'hoc readings in places in the combustion process exhibited on my last readings where the clearance was at its lowest, round 6 ATDC and 110 ATDC and it is now above the minimum, but only just. I am calling this a day today as I have spent 5 hours doing this now and tired. I shall continue taking proper readings tomorrow and hopefully will get onto the exhaust.
5th November 2006
Session 117 - Engine blueprinting - valve clearances continued.
Started late but did I was only intending on spending 3 hours in the garage, I do have a life! or do I? erm, don't answer that! Anyway today's objective was just to get a table of clearances between the inlet and exhaust valves and the piston crown. I am assuming that the valve clearances between themselves on overlap is fine, this is a proven combination. Before I bore you with tabular details I can conclude that under no way use a tin gasket with normal pistons with a Piper 285 cam with 12.11mm of lift, it is too close! The tolerances are fine if you use a composite gasket, which actually the later engines should use. No doubt if using a standard cam you could use a tin gasket as the lift is much lower. A critism of myself is my measuring method involving measuring the gap between the rocker and the valve tip is not employing the up most of accuracy but I am happy with this because my measurements will be sub-maximal, i.e. I will be understating the clearances, in built reliability!!
Inlet valve clearances in thousands of an inch . I measured from 16 BTDC to 16 ATDC and full lift on the induction stroke. If there is going to be a problem with clearance it will be within this range. Minimum clearance of 80 thou's was shown at 6 ATDC, recommend minimum is 80 thou's! I am not worried as I said my measuring method is sub-maximal.
| 16 BTDC | 232 |
|---|---|
| 14 BTDC | 209 |
| 12 BTDC | 187 |
| 10 BTDC | 175 |
| 8 BTDC | 156 |
| 6 BTDC | 135 |
| 4 BTDC | 121 |
| 2 BTDC | 113 |
| TDC | 99 |
| 2 ATDC | 92 |
| 4 ATDC | 86 |
| 6 ATDC | 80* |
| 8 ATDC | 81 |
| 10 ATDC | 84 |
| 12 ATDC | 87 |
| 14 ATDC | 89 |
| 16 ATDC | 95 |
| 110 ATDC (full lift) | 82 |
Exhaust valve clearances in thousands of an inch. I measured from 16 BTDC to 2 ATDC on the exhaust stroke. I didn't take any more readings of 2 ATDC because I could see clearance was on increasing, after all the piston has reached its top and started to descending the the exhaust valve is either closed or closing. I didn't bother reading full lift no point with exhaust at the piston is only around half way up the bore anyway. Minimum clearance occurred between 10 and 6 BTDC which was 116 thou's, the minimum recommended for exhaust valves is 100 thou's, easy!
| 16 BTDC | 137 |
|---|---|
| 14 BTDC | 128 |
| 12 BTDC | 121 |
| 10 BTDC | 116* |
| 8 BTDC | 116* |
| 6 BTDC | 116* |
| 4 BTDC | 120 |
| 2 BTDC | 124 |
| TDC | 135 |
| 2 ATDC | 139 |
Obviously some variances would cause the tables to look strange in some regards. You should be able to get away with checking the clearance of the inlet valve from TDC to 16 ATDC on the induction stroke, this is the danger zone where the piston is moving away from the top at the same time the inlet valve is lifting, i.e. moving toward the piston, is it maintaining it clearance? Is the valve accelerating downward faster than the piston?
For the exhaust valve checking the clearance 16 BTDC to TDC on the exhaust stroke should be fine. This is where the piston is moving up the bore toward the valve.
Did you know that the piston velocity is decreasing as it moves toward the top of its bore and accelerating as it moves toward the bottom. This is geometry for you! (I think that's the right way round)
I am going to check the clearances on the other head, shouldn't have to do this but I am curious and want a bit of fun trying the other checking method which involves modeling clay, talcum powder and spay oil! More on this later.
Then the next stage is to start putting the heads on for real and setup the adjustable push rods, now this is going to be fun.. not! Anyway I went shopping today looking for wire, welding rods to try and get a selection of items which I could use to set the valve lash for my next job .I got some strange looks using me vernier gauge in Homebase! Anyway I ended up with a selection of welding rods (no I don't have a welder!), sizes 1.6mm, 2.0mm and 2.5mm, which equates to 63 thou's, maybe I bash that with a hammer to make 62 as detailed for my Rhoads lifters. 2.0mm is 79 thou and 2.5mm which I don't need is 98 thou. I also found some garden wire which measures 40 thou which represents the minimum lash clearance. I then thought some more about the 1.6mm welding rods and having done some household electrics I thought. hang on, isn't standard lighting wire solid core 1.5mm, that's practically 60 thou's, I bought some, not measured it yet. I think I have plenty of things now to construct something that I can use as a measuring device!
I also checked the maximum valve lift by measuring the valve spring retainer at its lowest and highest level. It is common that the advertised lift of a cam is never quite realized due to valve train geometry, tolerances etc. Anyway the lift works out to be 11.95mm not too far out from the 12.11mm promised. I actually worked out the lift attained at the cam lobes before I installed it, this is easy, just measure from base circle, i.e. across with a vernier gauge. Take another measurement from the nose to the heel and take one way from the other, I got a lift of 7.56mm at the cam. Multiply this lift by the rocker ratio, which is 1.6 and you arrive at 12.09mm.
The push rods that I have gone for are the standard 5/16" diameter, the heavier duty ones are 3/8" which would require the push rod holes in the cylinder head to be enlarged. The push rods are chrome moly so I am happy with the standard diameter anyway. I still visually checked that the push rod did not fowl in the hole in the cylinder head during the full cycle because despite the hole diameter being big enough to accommodate this push rod the cam lift is a good 2mm higher than standard. You have to check at the higher lift because the angle between the push rod and the rocker arm is more acute and thus the translated opposing movement is greater than standard also. Of course you have to check this with a solid lifter installed.
11 November 2006
Session 118 - Cylinder head gaskets
My new composite cylinder head gaskets arrived yesterday, well actually the second set. The first set were damaged by Mr. Postie! He bent them! Anyway the place where I ordered them from were very good and they replaced them without quibble. These gaskets are the composite type which like I mentioned early are thicker than the tin ones and provide the necessary safety margin for valve to piston clearance. I cleaned the cylinder head and block surface, even though they were clean, they had been cleaned previously but best to clean just prior to installing the gasket. After cleaning used compressed air to get rid of any particles from my cleaning cloth and also aids drying.
Made sure that the studs were still hand tight in the block, use a 4.5mm allen key for the ARP studs, some where lose after I removed the head after checking valve clearances. Placed gaskets on block and ensured right way up and that no passageways were covered. These gaskets are the OEM rover type, best to go for OEM here I think!
Applied more ARP assembly lubricant on studs and washers.
Here's a photo of the gaskets in situ:
These pictures are for reference also, so that you can see which way the gaskets are installed. These gaskets are installed dry, well actually they seem to have a kind of adhesive on both sides which makes it a little tricky to get out of the plastic bag they come in!
Torque the heads down following the Rover sequence which basically starts from the middle of the block working out to the edge in a kind of circular diagonal fashion. Although with ARP's you do not follow the manufactures torque as that is for the Rover bolts. ARP studs when using their lubricant with an aluminum block suggests torque at 65ft/lbs. Note, using 30wt oil lubricant makes a big difference on the accuracy of the torque, always use the correct assembly lubricant not doing so is false economy and can lead to head gasket failure. There you have been warned! I torque up progressive at 5 ft/lbs per sequence, obsessive, maybe, but I am happy that minimum stress has been placed on the heads.
Next up was to insert push rods and torque down rocker assemblies, used ARP lubricant for that to, I have plenty of the horrible greyish black stuff. Rocker assemblies are torque down at 28 ft/lbs. Again progressively and always working out from the centre, this is good practice.
I made some measuring guides from welding rods so measure 62thou for the lifter pre-load as detailed by Rhoads lifters. I have started this but decided that I would do more accurately tomorrow morning when I can use natural light to see what the hell I am doing. Measuring this pre load is tricky, although Rhoads suggest tightening the adjustable push rod until there is no movement, i.e. zero lash and then turning a further 3/4 of turn. I cam to the conclusion that the further 3/4 of a turn depends on the thread pitch and did some experimentation and found that 1.5 turns was more closer to the mark but I will check this tomorrow.
I will not be able to complete this job because I am still waiting for a replacement push rod so I only have 15, still I will be able to complete one bank.
Here's a picture of one side of the engine showing installed cylinder head, rocker assembly and adjustable push rods. You can make out the lifters in the bottom of the picture.
I spent 4 hours in the garage this afternoon.
12 November 2006
Session 119 - Lifter pre load adjustment
Took me about an hour to make final adjustments of the lifters pre-loads. Double checked and they are all 60 thou's. Job done. Making and measuring this adjustment is much easier outside in natural light.
You remember that I bought some nice rocker covers, yes, from Ebay! Well here's a picture of them on the engine. Nice!
15 November 2006
Now the push rods are adjusted correctly and rocker assembly and everything in place I have checked the clearance between the push rod shaft against the bore of the hole in the heads. Although I can see that the shafts do clear the bore at the greater maximum lift, it is close. Conversing with fellow builders on the V8 forum it is clear that push rods flex a little under higher RPM , so adequate clearance needs to be ascertained. Erring on the side of caution I am going to undertake enlarging the holes in the heads which is usually done with the heads off the engine. Access to the push rod holes is not hindered by the heads being assembled but the issue is swarfe dropping into the galley and ultimately ending up on the camshaft and lifters, ouch. I am going to remove the rocker assemblies, push rods (of course) and the lifters and completely mask up the engine and attempt in situ. For your information I have measured the push rod hole in the head and it comes out at 393 thou (10mm). The push rod diameter is 312 thou (7.9mm). At best the bore clearance is 40 thou (1mm) . I am going to increase the bore to 472 thou (12mm) which will increase the bore clearance to 80 thou (2mm) this should be adequate. More on this procedure when I undertake it later.
On a totally different topic now. I have been deliberating about which seats for a while, do I want carbon fibre? GRP? leather? PVC? What style? do they come under my budget? Do they look good? Are they too heavy?.....
Well Carbon fibre is nice and light but I think with carbon fibre you have either use it everywhere or not at all! Expensive is not the word, budget a £1000 for a pair of decent ones! GRP looks good but most I have seen look nasty from the back, can be cheap though. I have some a number of GRP seats which look like they would fail the SVA edge check. If I was going for all out luxury and the weight it entails then Leather it would be, but leather in an open top car, erm, water! maybe not then. Good quality PVC is water proof/resistant and nowadays looks like leather anyway just no leather smell and would you smell it in an open top car and a crash helmet on! You can get leather smell in a spray if it bothers you that much! Anyway, today, at least I think I have made my mind up. Cobra 7 Roadster. Cobra offers good quality, style, functionality, comfort, sports support, harness holes, custom logos and piping and at a very reasonable price.
Below are some pictures and illustrations.
Standard Cobra Roadster 7 style sports seat
Look at them installed in a Westfield. The piping and the logo can be customized, bling, bling!
Dimensions:
I think you will agree these look nice and fit the bill and at under £400 a pair very reasonable.
17 November 2006
Session 120 - Enlarge push rod holes
Spent three hours in the garage this evening undertaken this operation, most of which was spent masking the engine up. This cannot be rushed and has to be done properly. The the photo later showing what properly looks like. I was quite happy with the result. The holes were originally 10mm and I drilled out in stages to 12.7mm in fact 5 stages approximate 0.5mm at a time. Never try to drill out in one go! Despite all my precautions and thoroughness I was dismayed to discover that when I installed the push rods again that I still was not happy with the clearance for two main reasons. One, it would seem that push rod geometry is such that the rods are closer to the rocker shaft side of the hole. I think this is a problem augmented by having adjustable push rods over inserting shims under the rocker pedestals. I think is is due to the rocker assembly being the same constant height meaning different angles are at work. I thought using adjustable push rods was going to be easy! The second reason is the first and last push rod holes on the heads run through thicker material and running parallel to one of the exhaust ports, requiring the bore to impinge on that material, this must have introduced some drift in drilling, although to me it looks like the hole did not completely align properly in the first place, something I noticed before I started drilling out the holes, I should have tried to remedy this then, well you live and learn I suppose.
Engine masked up a little! However, this took me so long that I thinking taking this approach is not worth the effort. In future just take the heads off and buy new gaskets!
Photo showing the new bored out push rod holes
Best picture I could get with a push rod going through the enlarged hole
18 November 2006
Session 121 - Enlarge Push rod holes continues.
Okay, I am still not completely happy with the push rod clearance. I decided that the heads need to come off. I also have the 16th push rod now, so I have assembled this as per the 15 others, and quickly adjusted to spec. I will check this and all the others again later when the heads and new gaskets are assembled, again! I am glad I bought cylinder head studs now. In both cases, the push rod clearances that I am not happy about are the first push rod, the exhaust valve on the front, further proving my theories that the push rod hole as not aligned properly in the first place. The standard push rods with a much smaller diameter probably clear okay, well they must but certainly would not be central in the bore.
I have learnt a valuable lesson here, do not try to cut corners for either cost or time sake. Do it properly! Tomorrow I am going to totally dismantle the heads, yes, valves and all and use my pillar drill. I need to bolt my pillar drill down first! I am going to have to offset the holes for the first push rods. I think also I am going to enlarge the bore to 13mm which leaves bags of clearance, well if the push rods were central. 2.5mm to be exact. Another 2 hours today.
I am going to make an early start tomorrow, I want to complete this weekend, as I feel I have gone backwards since last week when I had the top part of the engine completely assembled. Now it is apart again and I need more gaskets!
19 November 2006
Session 122 - Push rod holes enlarged and centralised
Did I get up early? Nope. Its been a bit of a marathon weekend! On top of my plans today my son was wanted me to do some work on his car so I obliged and spent about 90 minutes doing this. I spent about three hours making a platform for my pillar drill, bolting it down requiring DIY'd bolts from studs. I also fabricated a platform which the correct dimensions to position the head under the pillar drill so that I could achieve the accuracy so required. The platform on the pillar is only about 10" square.
Anyway on to the job of adjusting the push rod holes I I had to change the centre line of the holes 40thou closer to the rocker shaft pedestals so that the push rods are centrally located in the holes. The push rod holes around the central and outer most inlet ports had to have about 20thou of material removed. The final bore is 13mm. I think if I ever needed to go to heavy duty adjustable push rods then I think I could fit without anymore boring! Overall a good result, would I embark on this again, erm. let me think, NO! However, if I had sent the heads away then I would still have had the off bore issue I feel.
It is difficult to get then viewing angle of the push rods passing through the bores in parallel as the view in obscured by the rocker so in the photo it looks off central but trust me it is central, nearest damn it.
Photo showing push rod 1, this took a while to convince the digital camera that I really did want to focus on the hole not the rocker assembly!
Photograph of showing push rods 13 and 15, again problem areas, fixed.
Yes, I am happy with the world again. All I need know are replacement head gaskets and I will be back to where I thought I was last week. A few lessons learnt here. Check everything three times and never cut corners and do the job correctly first time.
Well of my 7 hours today I spent 3 hours making tools to do the job, drilling must of only took 30 minutes tops, so that must mean I spent over 3 hours masking and cleaning!
28 November 2006
Picked up some replacement head gaskets today ready for installing toward the end of the week. Today I sprayed the inlet manifold with very high temperature aluminum coloured metal paint. As you know I got the inlet manifold chemically cleaned, it was spotless but the metal has some blemishes and I am bored so I decided to undertake this job tonight. Problem now is that the trumpet base will need spaying to match. The process basically needs the metal part to be very clean and degreased etc. Then masked up and a few coats later leave to dry for about 1 hour. Then you have to cure in the oven. It is a good idea to cure in stages, i.e. raise the temperature every 20 mins or so and cure for about 1 hour. The paint I got can withstand 500 degrees centigrade which is more than adequate as the inlet manifold probably does not go over 100 degrees centigrade.
Here is the finished article:
What did it look like before?
As you can see it looks a little better now, doesn't it?!
I must have spent about 1 hour doing this but better than watch telly.
Head gaskets that I bought from a local Landrover specialist. I only included the photo as these are not OEM look as good but interesting to see that these have holographic stickers with serial numbers and came from Germany. Should be good quality, if they fail I shall be straight on the phone quoting serial numbers and asking who made them! I shall be installing these over the weekend.
29 November 2006
Session 124 - Painting engine bits continued
Spent an hour tonight spraying the trumpet base to match the manifold. Looks good. I placed the inlet manifold and base on top of the engine to get an idea what it will look like. Well it looks nice and clean, see photo.
Tomorrow I pickup my timing cover which I am buying from a contact thorough the V-8 org forum. Can't wait.
30 November 2006
Arranged to pick up the timing cover tonight from a fellow V-8 org forum member. This chap has been restoring a TVR 7 and installing a new Rover 4.0 V8. The engine he has is the later type and he is planning on using the short motor but going the traditional route of distributor and carb. Therefore the later timing cover is surplus to his requirements. He now has the interim cover which basically has the hole for the distributor drive gear. This timing cover was installed on the engine but is brand new.
I might install this weekend depending on how far I get with other bits. I have taken some pictures although the cover is still in its protective waxing.
The studs at the bottom had been removed to aid removal without having to take the sump off the engine. I need to clean the thread locking compound off and re-insert otherwise that is it. Came with the oil pressure sensor and the crank front oil seal.
The reverse side showing the oil pump drive gear.
Yep very pleased with the purchase, thanks Geoff and good luck with your project.
Go to December 2006