Man with spanners - thinks he's a mechanic

[ChrisL]

Hi Dick,

That's what I was planning, might as well do everything while it's apart, going to phone Burtons tomorrow as I'll get to talk through what I need rather than get someone who can't order without the vehicle reg!! Also the place Steve recommended is out of stock

So far I'm up to:
Head gasket
HeadBolts
Main bearings
Big end shells
Front crankshaft oil seal
Piston Rings
Camshaft seals x2 (tot)
Plastiguage
Valve guide oil seals x16
Crank gasket/rear cover
Oil pump gasket

So it's not going to be cheap!!

Cleaned the head up, while I wait for a valve spring compressor to arrive, and remeasured a 0.13mm gap in the centre of the head (between 2 & 3) so still over the 0.1mm spec. Crankshaft lash seems alright at 0.2mm and new bearings will hopefully bring that down. Piston bores are good and also within spec.

Thanks for the advice
Cheers
Chris

[Jay]

Have you measured the bores to make sure they havent ovalated? If they have then no point throwing good money after bad.

[ChrisL]

Good call Jay, I've now checked they're round and am pleased to say they are

[Dick]

Burtons will be a fortune they are stupid prices . Im sure Jay would give you a number of someone we use if you ask him and he will post to you as well all you will have to do is tell him engine type no reg number poop. Its good stuff used lots of it, some things to remember but its up to you the front and rear seals need to be a good make and wont be cheap oil them up before fitting. the rotating faces of the crank need to be gone over with something, new seals dont like a shine'y face to mate to. Bit of sealer on the edges of the joint faces like rear seal to sump and oil pump to sump always a must but only a bit. No sealer on the head the new gaskets are impregnated so dont require any. Clean all threads out before you start , lube threads as per instructions and washer faces. You will need new camshaft sprocket bolts. Maybe replace the big end bolts for arp but if not going hi revs then be ok. When stripping make sure you dont mix things up. and as jay says check sizes. If bearing you remove look good the dont plastigauge your wasting your money and what you going to do if a bearing is a dogs whatsit out keep buying bearing with the hope you get one to make the difference. You got my number

[ChrisL]

Thanks Dick some really good advice. I'm planning on doing the crankshaft seals and I've already got the rear one but may get a better one. Also have the big end bolts and arp installation grease/moly. Didn't think about the camshaft sprocket bolts, have added. I'm going to measure the crank faces today to check they are in spec, otherwise there's no point in doing anything else!

Jay, can you PM me the magic number please?

Cheers
Chris

[Dick]

Look at the crankshaft bearing faces first for damage

[ChrisL]

Bearing faces look pretty good. I’ve got a set of micrometers on the way to did some measuring but the bottom end all looks good so far

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[Dick]

2 pm sent

[Dick]

01233639982

[ChrisL]

Thanks Dick, although I may have a slight issue:

The other 3 aren’t as bad but all have cracks and I don’t think they’re candidates to be welded up!!

I think new pistons would not be economically sensible. So I’m going to loosely re assemble this engine and strip the other one to see if it is the better one. May end up using this one’s oil pump.