Nigel's Daily Driver.

[nikndel 509]

Thanks Nige it was just I had to rebuild a Leyland 680 diesel which had got water ingress but got away with bent con rods

[KevinA 695]

Good job Nigel, very interesting read.

[Guest]

Sorry I have no info for you today. I have been over to Rob Walker to collect my project engine components, then came home to work on this engine. I hadn't realised the exhaust ports had a 2mm coating of hard black carbon in them. This will take some cleaning out!!!

More pics tomorrow of the bottom end rebuild for all you followers.

[Guest]

Ok, so after all the cleaning and measuring, the assembly can begin.

Here we have the block halves fitted with new bearings and one half has had the silicon applied around the bolt holes and upper edge.

Once the crank is oiled up the two halves can be brought together, and clamped up using the ten bolts shown here. The bolts MUST be coated in oil on their threads and around the heads and washers to prevent pick up on the ali threads and faces and also give consistent torque readings.

Following a nine stage torqueing up process and inserting the rear crank seal, the block can be moved off the bench and placed onto a stand for the build to be completed.

[Guest]

Now we move onto the piston assemblies.

After fitting all the pistons to their relevant rod, and fitting all the rings as instructed in the manual, the rings can be compressed and the assembly can be brought together with the block and crank.

Here we can see my trusty old ring compressor holding the rings in readiness for assembly..



Once the piston is far enough into the bore for the compressor to be in contact with the block face, the piston crown needs to be gently tapped to get the rings into the bore. Nothing more than a very gentle tap should be required, anything more means there is something wrong..



Here we can see the big end in contact with the crank, awaiting its cap fitting.



The cap can now be fitted and the bolts torqued up. Always use new Rod Bolts.

After repeating the above three times we end up with what is commonly called a "short engine"

[Guest]

I can see this is raising a lot of interest... Lots of likes eh!!

 

So, with the short block built and on the stand, we can go one of two ways.. sump or heads.. I decided to do the heads first.

 

Here are the valvetrain components that go into one head...

Note the numbered pockets to make sure everything goes back in its rightful place.

Here we can see the dirty valves, in need of a clean up and a gentle lap.

I placed them in my lathe and polished all the carbon off them, then gave them a little lapping with fine paste, just to check on the state of each seat. All in all, this is many hours of work..

Next we can see the lapped and cleaned combustion chamber in the head. Note I have removed all sharp edges to help prevent detonation and get rid of the aluminium burs from manufacture.

You may remember in another thread I started a debate on the rocker posts. Well, here's another debateable point for you.. the earlier engines have a bigger oil hole in the head of the posts from the left head compared to the right. later engines are all small holed.

Once the heads are assembled, they can be bolted on. You need big strong arms for this, the bolts are MEGA TIGHT!!!

Then we have to put our cam boxes together. We have two cams per head and five upper bearings. The cams run directly in the Aluminium of the cam box, there are no separate bearings

After fitting eight rocker posts, eight valve shims and eight rocker arms, we can bolt the cam box on dry to check the valve clearances. Nopte, I have used no sealant as the box will need to be removed to replace the shims if required.

Once again, thanks for looking in on this. I hope you enjoy watching it all come together.

[nikndel 509]

Hi Nige don't know much about this style of engine I am told it has VVTI if so do you have any pictures of this where it is on engine and is this the weak link thank you

[Guest]

Hi Nige don't know much about this style of engine I am told it has VVTI if so do you have any pictures of this where it is on engine and is this the weak link thank you

The great big chambers on the front of the cams are the VVTI mechanical parts. Oil is pumped into these via the cam bearings. The oil enters chambers inside the big lump and twists the cam to obtain the ultimate timing. The pressure and volume is controlled by an electrical valve on the front. You can see these attached to the front of your engine, they are around 40mm in diameter. The timing is read by the magnetic hall effect sensors just to the side of each of the aforementioned valves and tell the valves how much oil to hold in or let out.

It's actually quite simple, when you get your head round it.. there are tutorials on Youtube.

[shiftspark 41]

Its a great read this Nigel !

 

Do the valves have raised lettering on them or is it just the picture ? I used to spend many hours lapping valves in by hand on my classic race mini and used pencil to check the seat.

 

Did you used to build engines in the past or is it "just" your passion as you seem to know what your doing !!

[nikndel 509]

So just to sum up problems could occur with electrics as well as mechanical ?

[Guest]

So just to sum up problems could occur with electrics as well as mechanical ?

They could I guess, but then, so could any part of any car??? They're all electro-mecanical.

[Guest]

Its a great read this Nigel !

 

Do the valves have raised lettering on them or is it just the picture ? I used to spend many hours lapping valves in by hand on my classic race mini and used pencil to check the seat.

 

Did you used to build engines in the past or is it "just" your passion as you seem to know what your doing !!

Thanks Shiftspark,

The Valves do indeed have raised lettering on them, very strange?? I think I shall be upgrading on my Turbo engine?

I have always tinkered with cars, and have built a fair few engines including Rover V8's,Essex V6's, little Vauxhall J series, CVH, Fiat Twin cams, Volvo 850R and a couple of GTR RB26's.

In comparison, this engine is a nice build but is very time consuming due to all the silicone used, requiring literally hours of clean up. I also have an issue with the corrosion protection on the steel parts. Most of the bolt heads and bracketry has been affected by the dreaded corrosion. The cam VVTI actuators are particularly bad.

Anyway, on with the build....

After about 8 hours fiddling, checking, disassembling, checking, assembling.. (you get the picture), I finally got all the valve clearances right and got to the point where I could put sealer on the cam boxes and torque them down.

Here's the RH 'box ready to go on.

This is the sealant I am using, as recommended by Subaru. Threebond 1217. I would normally use the Wurth silicone that Fensport just happen to sell, and have done on some parts, but as Subaru recommend this stuff, I thought I'd give it a go.

So, with both cam boxes on we have ourselves a long block. Now things can proceed with just some simple assembly.

I decided to fit the intermediate sump next. This again is fitted using the Threebond sealant.

Closely followed by the oil pick up pipe...

That's all for now folks, we move on to the sump and timing gear next..

[Guest]

As promised, we now move on to the sump installation..

Steve's car was fitted with a RacerX sump, so what do I do.. fit this one or fit my old stock sump as I already have a Racerx sump for my project car??

Here's a comparison of the two.. we can clearly see why the Racerx is better, more capacity and some baffling..

Well, I went for the stock one.. Steve's racerX sump will be sold..

Here we can see the timing chains and tension runners. The pink and blue chain links are not there because someone decided they would look better that way, they are for pulley orientation to ensure the correct valve timing.

It all goes together beautifully, in fact very easily if the instructions are followed to the letter. I say again, Dave from Fensport, who stripped this engine, has made my life easier due to his tidiness and professionalism in marking every thing up and packaging in sensible "units" for ease of identification..

I have noticed a surge issue with this engine design.. look at the great big hole between the front case and the sump..

Just imagine, braking hard into a turn.. all your oil will be forced up through this hole and into one side of the front cover. I think this needs to be rectified on my project car. I have the sump baffle plate which came with Steve's car, but even that has holes in it here...

So, that's it for today. I have now fitted the front cover so it's just a case of bolting on all the ancillaries now.. I might even have it back in the car before sundown??

[Tim Radley 18]

How many chinese dinners did you have to buy to get enough pots to store all the bits?

[Guest]

How many chinese dinners did you have to buy to get enough pots to store all the bits?

None Tim, Dave at Fensport beagged everything up and did a wonderful job of it.

[smudge 1020]

Might be interested in the sump Nigel...

[Deacon 1357]

Be interested to see what price you're after for the sump too Nigel -it's on my long term plans list too.

[Guest]

Sorry guys, someone else on here jumped on it faster than a speeding bullet. I said what price I wanted and he agreed.

If it goes pear shaped, I'll let you know.

[Guest]

We're almost there now with all the ancillaries going on such as wiring and coolant systems.

Here we can see the coolant transfer pipe running between the two heads.

And after some hoses and wiring is added. I've had to use some hoses off my project car as the breather and turbo coolant systems meant Dave had to cut the original pipes up when fitting. A picture and mail to Dan at Fensport should soon have all these replaced..

So, here we have it, a fully built engine ready to go back into its rightful place..

And.. ready and waiting on the crane.. clutch and flywheel fitted and torqued up. Yes Dave I did remember the timing disc behind the flywheel...

All this would have happened quicker, but I have wasted over an hour looking for the dipstick. I can only think it was missing from my "kit", I'll have to use the one off my project car for now, but give a good coating of grease to prevent corrosion.

As you read this, on bank Holiday Monday, I'll be wrestling it into the car. We may even see a little video clip of it running later on, if I can figure out how to load it and the Turbo map currently in the car works.

[Lee 82]

Might be interested in the sump Nigel...

 

 

 

Be interested to see what price you're after for the sump too Nigel -it's on my long term plans list too.

 

Too slow gents

[Guest]

Well, I've been hard at it all day and have finally got the engine in, here's a little pictorial story of how it all went.. this is not an easy job to do alone, there's a lot that can get caught up, bent or scratched.

Here we are, half way in... notice how there's no room anywhere..

And finally... ta da.... all done. I even fitted my old sound tube on as I want this one dead stock, for now..

So, the big question.. does it start... NO!! it kind of fires but smells of Petrol a bit and just pops and farts a few times. I need to get a stock map to put in via my Ecutek stuff. This car still has a turbo map in it, which would probably be OK for idle, but seeing as the JDL system puts the MAF behind the turbo, it's gonna be way out!!!

Thanks for looking in, this has been a fun and entertaining little project. now I just need to get her going, VIC'd and drive her around.. She lives once more!!

[Tim Radley 18]

Wow, busy day there mate.  Busy weekend in fact.  You excited to go on the first drive?  Bet you are knackered.

[Guest]

Looking forward to the first drive, if only it would bloody well go.. Stupid turbo maps grrrrrrrrrrrrr

I'm tempted to try my stock ECU in it, but I just know it wont work because of some stupid confrontation between two pieces of electronic garbage!!!

[Deacon 1357]

Glad it's nearly there Nige. ☺

[Special K 442]

Remapping?

 

Nowt to worry about, Nige... Adrian's back in a fortnight.  Oh....sorry, he's got a weeks work on remapping mine....

 

..... bwahaha !!  (evil grin..)

 

Spec K