Nice one Dave .
All you need now is some snow free roads to be able to enjoy all your hard work!!

 

Brilliant stuff!! Really glad to hear that its all back together and running....Long may the fun last 8)

Al

 

I have now got it all back together, same old plugs, oil, and filter. Filled the coolant with just water to test it.
She fired up first go and ran really smoothy considering i've only got 2 of the 4 exhaust bolts in the down pipes.

I took it for a little run, i couldn't resist. It was brilliant!
The wishbone bushes sound like they're shot but that's for another day.

I'll get the plugs, oil, filters, exhaust studs and correct coolant in her before tackling anything else...

Big thanks to Al and Willis, your help and experiance were really usefull.

Cheers
Dave

 

I managed to get a bit done on the car today.
Both heads are back on with the cams, timing chains and new tensioners.

One problem i've got to sort is a broken stud in the exhaust down pipe. I've tried heat, wd40, mole grips, a hammer, swearing but nothing is getting it. I've lost a load of skin from my nuckles trying to get it out :x so i'm going to move on and get it all back together. i'll worry about that bit at the end. Hopefully i'll get a bit more done tomorrow...

i can't wait to have a proper run in it :!:

 

What a suprise...blown on the exhaust side again,think my theory is right :wink:
Nice to see everything in order,keep up the good work.

Al

 

I heard back from the engineers today. The valve seat that moved has caused the valve to bend slightly, i've ordered one from british parts which should arrive on Monday. Hopefully everything should be back with me by Tues/Wed ready to put back together.

Here are pics of the uncleaned block, some may be able to spot where the gasket has leaked in to the water jacket...

some pics of the gubbins out of the engine... The chain tensioners are the plastic bodied type in what looks like good nick, i'm changing them to the lasest version just to be sure.

 

good stuff, sometimes, unless your really hard core, its better to get the head done by someone else.

removing valve stem seals sometimes need special pliers, and its very annoying to do, especially if you have 2 heads to do. Plus you get the benefit of their experience + advice...

get some pictures, not enough oily/blooded hands on these pages for my liking...

 

Thanks for the advice. After worrying about the valve seat etc I've decided to get the heads overhalled by a local engineering company, they do a lot of head skimming/reconditioning work and came highly recommended. They'll be fixing the valve seat and their going to put the new stem seals in.
At least now i can be sure it's not going to cause trouble once it's all button'ed up.

Also a bit of good news, the guy i dropped the heads off to today could see where the gasket had blown, before i had said anything he said "ow yer straight in to the water jacket, it'd be throwing the water out". Which was exaclty the case so hopefully it won't be cracked as i suspected when i couldn't see anything. once pointed out to me it was obvious. He was a right character covered from head to toe in oil and grease and kept me talking for about an hour and half, all interesting stuff though.

Should have them back early this week so i'm much happier now.

Also willis is 8) , anyone needing to hire tools for this job couldn't do any better than speaking to him.

 

get a picture of the moved seat, sounds fairly serious, as said, major over heating.

if its over heater very badly, and the seat has moved too much, you will need to get the seats recut (to re-align perpendicular to the valve guides, which can also move in a soft overheated head).

If its moved very small amount, you can usually 'lap' past this and erode away the valve/seat until sealing is acheived...

ideally, you would take the opportunity to replace all valve stem seals , and check all valves and even give them a slight clean up/lap. Exhaust valves on turbocharged motors can become carbonnated/pitted which eventually leads to hotspots and valves flaking away, so with the ehad off, even though itll take ages, give the valves a once over / lap as required. This will at least put the car in good stead for years to come. Not that valve problems are particularly common from reading on here (not that i expect many people on here to have done such work due to the car type)

 

Thats a bit worrying if the valve seat has moved....sign of some serious overheating somewhere along the line!! I would think about getting the heads checked by a Pro to be on the safe side

Al

 

No, it wasn't obvious but i'm not exactly sure what i was looking for.
i've started cleaning them but didn't take any pics although i'll take some snaps of the block and see what you guys think on here.

One problem i'm going to have to sort is the valve seat that has moved. I bought a spring compressor today and removed the valve. im not sure if i can reuse the valve seat or how i can get it put right, any ideas?

Also the gasket set i received has new valve seals with it, should i change them? i know the obvious answer is yes but they seem extremely fiddly. When removing the one valve earlier, I dropped one of the small collet things on the floor and spent half an hour at least trying to find it again. I'll try and get some pics of it to show here.

 

Could you see where the gasket had blown ?

 

I took both of the heads off tonight.
Your right al, the head bolts weren't that tight. pretty straight forward really.

One of the valves isn't sitting correctly so i'm going to have to see what is what then, hopefully, clean it all and put her back together.

 

Just use a good socket/torx bit and a decent sized breaker bar.Once they have cracked they will come undone easily....unlike the crank bolt!!!
Just a thought...dont mix up the cam followers as these are not hydrulic,they are shimmed up so will have to go back in the exact order.
Take photos aswell,it all helps when putting back together :wink:

Al

 

I got the crank bolt out at the weekend, It was VERY tight !!
I had to use a scaffold bar on top of my breaker bar.

All the pulleys are off and the timing cover is off now, next i'm on to the head bolts.
I had a quick go at one of the head bolts (it was getting dark) these seem quite tight as well.

Does anyone have any tips or tricks for the head bolts?
I'm was planning to use the breaker bar after shocking them with a hammer first.

 

not much space in there, but very stiff crank pulley bolts can often be removed by inertial means, shocking them undone using the inertia in the crank/rod assembly.

Once had a honda engine rover 216, 6 foot scaffold bar wouldnt undo the stupidly high pitch and oversized crank bolt, ended up just slipping the clutch.

got a 12v 'spin up' inertial bolt remover (as sold by argos etc for removing wheel nuts) and after about 20 shocks it loosened fairly nicely.

not sure how much help that is in this situation though, unless you had the rad out and could access from the front?

 

The tools are on their way
I just need some nice weather for the weekend now.

 

Thanks Al, I'm going to hire the tools off Willis.
I'll let you know how i get on with it once all the bits are here.

 

I bought some of the cheaper tools ie locking peg and camshaft locking bar and tensioner.The rest of the bits i hired from Jec.
The crank pulley just came off with some gentle tapping with a soft hammer.Theres no key way for it to get stuck on,its on a taper.
I didnt skim the heads...just checked with a good straight edge.Turned out to be perfect.

 

Thanks Al, that's exactly where i decided to stop today. All the easy pulleys are off, next i've got to lock the crank and remove the crank pulleys. I was just going to use the Crankshaft locking peg, which i've just ordered from JEC, I haven't got a crank locking bar. Where did you get yours from? Would you like to sell/hire it out?

Some more q's if i may...
I was going to buy a general harmonic puller, rather than the specific jaguar one. What did you use to remove the balancer?
Did you get your heads skimmed?

cheers
IOMDOC

 

IOMDOC....undoing the crank pulley is quite a major task,its FT!! Dont trust the crank locking peg for this job as it could damage the part that the crank sensor works off.Use the crank locking bar as shown in one of my previous posts.
Timing cover removal is easy,as is most of the job.
You might end up snapping the exhaust manifold studs where it meets the cat.It happened to me and i have now replaced all the studs with bolts.

Al

 

excellent news algsi. congratulations.
I bet your still smiling about it now.

I'm just in the middle of my head gasket replacement at the moment, next job pulleys and timing cover.
I hope it goes as well as yours has done.

congratulations!

 

Well finally it runs
Sweet as a nut..started with just a flip of the key!No oil or water leaks,had it up to temp and no more pressurising issues.
Hopefully that should do me for a while now!

 

Thanks Alsgsi,only too happy to help
The rebuild looks like its coming on well,I would say that you deserve a while in the beer garden after that lot.
Well done!!

 

...just waiting for my supercharger coupling and oil to arrive from America!!!

Well...tired of waiting for a month I then managed to get hold of Willis.Ordered the same parts again off Willis and they arrived within 48Hrs

Big thumbs up to Willis!!