Club 80-90 Forums

Thanks to both.
Well the old nuts deffo has red seals pointing outwards. I made a note when ripping down engine. But these collared versions from Brickwerks leave me no choice but to face seals inwards. Another concern..

Steve, l tried finding some book or internet comments about priming the pump gears with grease, vaseline or oil. Couldn't get any reliable answers. So l tipped the engine upwards on the pump side and added freash oil around the gears. Then fitted gasket and plate. I added a smear of Curil to the nuts as well.

Hydraulic Valve Lifters.

The eight lifters from this engine have sat in a marked up old food container for the best part of a year now. Six are soft to thumb pressure on their pushrod sockets below the retaining ring.

Might as well dismantle and clean them up. Then bleed all with fresh oil.

Push down socket and remove retaining ring with a small screwdriver. They can fly out so wear eye protection if you wish. I've had one end up hanging from a ceiling lighting cable.



Remove the socket with a magnet. Then dig out the lower plunger. I use a tapered wooden dowel.

Pushrod socket



Plunger.





Don't forget the spring at the bottom.



Clean all in a suitable fluid. I use old petrol from my lawnmower. Dry and start rebuild.



I site the spring first to be certain it sits upright and in correct position inside the lifter. Then slowly add fresh oil until just under bleed valve on the side of the lifter.
Add plunger and use a small screwdriver to push on the ball check valve in the centre of the plunger. This will release oil through the bleed valve.



Now add pushrod socket and use a vice with a cut down pushrod or bolt to slowly compress the socket, with the bleed valve uppermost, until the groove for replacing the clip is visible. Add clip. Store upright and mark it accordingly.



Add clip.



Mark it up. Intake No 3 cylinder.



Store upright in container. Some manuals say store in oil above bleed valve.

maxstu wrote:Thanks to both.
Well the old nuts deffo has red seals pointing outwards. I made a note when ripping down engine. But these collared versions from Brickwerks leave me no choice but to face seals inwards. Another concern..

The main concern is: which dullard put the old nuts on with the seals facing outwards? Thankfully yours are on correctly. Panic over

maxstu wrote: l tried finding some book or internet comments about priming the pump gears with grease, vaseline or oil. Couldn't get any reliable answers. So l tipped the engine upwards on the pump side and added freash oil around the gears. Then fitted gasket and plate. I added a smear of Curil to the nuts as well.

That might work ok, but maybe a bit thin. Don't use grease, it's virtually a solid and can block the filter element until it melts once hot. Vaseline is better, but still not great. I use an engine assembly lube which is a thicker sticky liquid - perfect for the job. Same stuff I use on new bearings and cam gear. Prevents dry start-up until the oil gets round, but it's a liquid so will flow and mix with the oil almost instantly.

Sent from my moto g(30) using Tapatalk

Thanks for the reassurance and advice, Andrew.
You can see the old nut has the red seal pushed outward from being put on the threads facing wrong way....It wasn't me!

I forgot l had engine assembly lube. I've used it throughout the crankshaft and cam new bearings.
I used 15-50 mineral oil on the pump gears.

On to fitting pistons and sleeves to conrods...

I started by more cleaning and lubricating with assembly oil.... I was just about to write up about orientation of piston and piston rings, and using a piston ring compressor to fit pistons inside sleeves, with photos to boot......when l noticed my stored photos are not, well, stored!
These photos were taken around the time l broke the screen on my phone. So the mobile phone store did not transfer all data and photos to my new phone. Move on.

However, if re-fitting used pistons be certain the three ring grooves are 100% free of muck and carbon deposits, otherwise the compressor will not fully squeeze home the new piston rings, thus causing issues fitting into sleeve.

Anyway, you may require these two bits of equipment. The pliers to add rings to the piston. And then the compressor to slide rings and piston inside their appropriate sleeve.



Piston in correct position inside it sleeve and correct orientation so arrow on piston crown points towards flywheel/flexplate.

Pistons 3 & 1 can have their pins partly fitted. And on opposite sides pre-fit the gudgeon pin circlip to all pistons. Use assembly lube on every moving part.

A piston ready to attach to conrod.



Note new black base seal and pre-fitted gudgeon pin circlip on one side.



Rags to prevent wayward piston circlip flying inside engine. Hold over conrod and push gudgeon pin fully home against pre-fitted circlip on the far side of piston. No1 piston.



Add gudgeon pin circlip and check it is properly seated in piston groove. After photo, l used a small screwdriver to rotate circlip through 180 degrees so gap is at the top. Remove rags and push sleeve fully home against block.



On to No2 piston. Use thick assembly oil on conrod bearing to hold it upright as you lower piston/sleeve over conrod and peek through hole to line it up. Push No2 gudgeon pin home. Add circlip through hole and align as above. Then slide the sleeve into position.



Add a small rag to prevent gudgeon pin circlip heading into the abyss.



Pistons No1&2 fully home. Note both pistons sporting felt tip arrows pointing towards flywheel/flexplate.



Top green o'ring seal added to both sleeves.



Clamped down to prevent sleeves moving when rotating engine for pistons 3&4. Repeat procedure.

maxstu wrote: ↑23 Mar 2023, 21:01
Add a small rag to prevent gudgeon pin circlip heading into the abyss.

Imagine the world of pain you'd be in watching it drop in 
That must have happened to so many people!

Good work Stu.
You can almost smell victory here 

Too true, Steve.

Heads coming soon.

Magnet on a stick, holding the circlip as you compress it with good fitting pliers.
No 4 (behind the coolant pump) is the worst because the access hole/coolant passage means that the rod has to be at an angle. So it needs a knitting needle to keep it in position as you try and get the pin fitted.
Such fun! Thats when working on a proper engine stand and a flat 4 mounting bracket too.

So true, SB.
I'm using a cheap rotating engine stand on metal wheels, with bolts clamped through gearbox mounting holes. Very unsteady, and the poor fitting uprights have wood wedges to give it a bit of rigidity. Otherwise it's all over the place.

maxstu wrote: ↑24 Mar 2023, 20:03 So true, SB.
I'm using a cheap rotating engine stand on metal wheels, with bolts clamped through gearbox mounting holes. Very unsteady, and the poor fitting uprights have wood wedges to give it a bit of rigidity. Otherwise it's all over the place.

That's what makes it fun!
 

Prepping for cylinder heads. Both sides going on tomorrow.
Hydraulic tappets lubricated and back in right bank, or pistons 1 & 2. All marked on their faces to avoid mixing up.

Piston 2 intake tappet





Final clean and wipe of head stud threads, top of sleeves and case mating surface, where the rubber seal sits, using meths and a clean cloth.



Head nuts cleaned out (again) with paper and meths and dried using a bulb blower.




And once more nuts tested on studs for smoothness. Then marked up with felt pen....purely for my own reference when tightening down through three stages of 10nm 30nm, and finally 50nm


Final wipe with more meths of cylinder head mating areas, including surface where head nuts sit.
Fit fire rings with a light coating of grease to hold both in place.


And then l noticed this small dink in the cylinder mating area.
Your views please?
Get some JB WELD in there and sand it back? Or is it out of the danger area?

it looks as though it is outside of the green O ring seal, if it is I would leave as is, and avoid jb weld degenerating and getting in coolant. Hope all goes well today, looking good

Thanks for your comments, Andrew.

Time to put the heads on.

Git r dun