Engine rebuild pt4...

New parts delivered today from Robsport - recon water pump and oil pump O rings and drive shaft.

Feeling the movement of the recon water pump it was a good move to replace my old one. Popped over to my local post office and posted it back for my exchange refund.

Wiped down the oil pump and lubricated it with some STP oil, I reassembled the pump using the new O rings and bolted it to the engine block. Then together with a new filter, I fitted the oil filter bowl.

With a new gasket I then fitted the oil pick-up pipe/strainer - all the oily bits are coming together!

1.30hrs

Engine rebuild pt3...

Replacement con rod cap bolts arrived Saturday morning - so I cleaned and oiled up all the bits and refitted pistons 1 and 4 with new bolts and torqued them up to
45 Ibs ft without any problems.

Fitting two of the cylinder head bolts into block as guilds, cleaned the surfaces and fitted the head gasket and head - tightening the nuts and bolts in the correct order.

After positioning the crank back to TDC on 1 and 4, I started fitting the timing chain and gear assembly. I will refit the original chain tensioner and check to see if it needs replacing.

3hrs

Engine rebuild pt2...

Oh the joys of restoration - crankshaft caps bolts torqued to 65 Ibs ft and then the big end caps - tighten them by hand first and with the torqued wench to 45 Ibs ft. Pistons 2 and 3 were fine but a couple of nuts on 1 and 4 didn't seem to be getting there.

I undone both to see if the treads were stripping but both looked ok, so started again and snap! With one bolt broken and the other with a hairline fracture - new nuts and bolts to order.

So with that setback and my finger getting colder, I continued with fitting the jackshaft in to the block and camshaft to the head.

3hrs

Engine rebuild pt1...

With a clean cloth and some degrease solution I gave the block a good wipe down, removed any over-paint from the flanges.

Using STP oil I coated the big end shells and dropped the crank in to place, next the thrust washers again giving everything a good coat of oil. On with end caps and hand tighten at this point.

Checking the end-float of the crank came in just over half way between of the recommended tolerance.

Next the pistons, checking the ring gaps where at 180 deg to each other, I used a ring clamp to compress them and trapped the first one in. Again covering the small end shells with oil and hand tighten them - after each piston was attached I used the crank pulley to help rotated the crank.

STP oil is very sticky stuff and crank is fairly stiff to rotate - it's also very cold today and trying to snow again!

4.5 hrs