Bonnie had a rest from the welder this weekend and my attentions turned to Harvey. The £20 Rapier lump has performed well over the last couple of years but has always breathed a bit hard and the crankcase has had a bit more pressure in it than I would like so I decided to take a look. I plucked up the courage and started stripping things off and by the time I finished on Saturday the head was off revealing perfect, if a little glazed, bores with no wear lip on the top to speak of - very chuffed. Sunday saw me crawling aroung underneath removing all the stuff to enable me to drop the sump and remove the crank - exhaust, prop and gearbox all on the floor and I started working on the steering arm ball joints when my seperater tool gave up the ghost and progress was curtailed[V].
I'm lucky enough to have a small pit in the garage but positioning the van in just the right place to get to everyting is awkward and, because most of the coolant missed the bucket, it's a soggy old mess down there. I'll get another cracking tool and have a go next weekend, the plan is to fit new rings, oil pump, big end and main bearings and get my spare head skimmed and generally made beautiful (I keep banging my old one when I'm under the van:I) Hopefully I'll have a virtually new engine that will last for a while when I'm done
Funnily enough a honing tool is best although 80 grit emery by hand will do
Are you getting the head skimmed "just in case' or a healthy amount for C/ratio increase [?]
"You,re only supposed to blow the bloody SLIDING doors off"
Good work as per usual Mr Panky. I love the welding too but not all the other grinding and prep stuff
It took me a while to build up to it - gearbox out again crawling around on my back, crap dropping into my eyes, scraped knuckles, aching muscles, wondering what I would find - I'm loving it
Got down and dirty again today[}] The first job was to mop out (more like shovel:I) the pit so i wasn't kneeling an sludge[xx(] That done I put my shiny new ball joint cracker to work - bang....bang, the two remaining joints were well and truly cracked. I opted for the scissor type this time and it worked a treat. I do wish I would plan these jobs better, I ended up with the sump off, the big ends undone and was about to drop the mains when I realised the crankshaft pulley and timing gear were still attached[8)] so out came the radiator so I could get at the rest of the stuff and spent ages trying to get the split pin out of the the timing chain tensioner before I could remove the timing gear -it's so much easier stipping the engine down in situ and leaving the block in place:I Eventually I got everything on the floor, big end shells, maind and rings all look pretty good (actually the bearings look perfect) but I've come this far so I'm renewing the lot. The big clean up starts tomorrow and an ever-growing list of parts will be put together and ordered from Speedies. It looks like the mains are standard and the big ends are +40 thou, hopefully they'll have them in stock. Then I'll dig my spare head out and treat it to some luuurve.