Man with spanners - thinks he's a mechanic

[SteveRST]

I'll give Steve's suggestion a go first, as there's a little space issue with taking the oil filter off...

Hi Chris, you do have to do as Dick says and get some oil into the oil pump though. That's what I mean by priming it. It needs something to work with to start creating suction to pull oil from the sump.

[ChrisL]

Oh well, 2 steps forward 1 step back...

Thanks for letting me know

[ChrisL]

Tried putting the hole in the outer ring of the oil filter mount but didn’t manage to get the thin tube into the hole enough to actually put oil in, so filled the oil filter with oil and put it back on. Tried cranking with plugs out but still no joy. Will try getting oil in the hole tomorrow...

[SteveRST]

Chris - just a thought - this is your 'new' engine right? Did you swap the oil pressure sender for the one that was on your old engine, or just use the sender that came with the new engine?
I'm just wondering if the pressure sender is not compatible with your gauge?
I know I've got a VDO gauge and have to swap my sender over to use the old VDO one.

I guess one way to check if you've actually got any oil pressure is to crank it over with the sender (or filter!) disconnected from the block and see if you get lots of oil squirting out!

[ChrisL]

Cheers Steve, good call but I’m using the “old” sender. Added oil via the outer hole and refilled the oil filter, it had gone down by a couple of cm but still no pressure. TBH I’m beginning to suspect the oil pump. Will try fitting the remote and using a manual gauge...

[ChrisL]

More oil and a remote with a pressure gauge and the sender still no joy! Also noted that the crank front oil seal is weeping so...
I've started stripping the old engine, with a bit of help from Mr Haynes. So far the bores look good, there's still evidence of the cross hatching. The head is a little out of true, I've not looked up the specs but measuring from corner to corner across the head the a gap of 0.18mm in the centre, no idea if that's good or bad but I did read of a chap you had 3mm which is what I was expecting. The camshafts all look ok no scoring or shiny spots but will measure before re fitting.

below is a pic of one of the bores, they all look like this, the particles appear to be rubbery so I'm guessing too much sealant used (by me) when fitting the sump, season learnt

[b33fy]

I use three bond 1215 for engines. Doesn’t break off, though I don’t go mad with applying it. It’s used by a number of manufacturers including Subaru for their engines.

A bit pricey, though as Jeff always says, do it once do it right. Reasonably priced at dt.

https://www.demon-tweeks.com/three-bond ... tbetb1215/

[ChrisL]

Thanks for the heads up, will get some

[ChrisL]

Just checked the specs and 0.1mm is the max, so looks like I'm looking at a head skim - is that an essential service (as in CV19)?

[Dick]

Something you may want to consider before you bolt the head on is the piston rings. Zetec use a soft light sprung piston ring system these can be damaged by excess heat , they lose some tension . So as the engine is without head maybe pull pistons out de-glaze the cylinders and fit new set of rings and be bearings .