Next up fitted the one piece cowl, alloy rad, new thermostat housing and heater hoses.
Had to do this little mod on the timing cover and plate....
Then great news, set the timing statically after fitting dizzy drive and dizzy. Got engine fired up and it sounded great. Once I added water to the radiator on the conveyer belt that I put on the paving to save spills, well water and oil was mixing and dripping down the radiator side of the engine....WTF WTF WTH what went wrong????
After some investigating I found the bolt for the sandwich plate for thermostat housing right above the waterpump was leaking up the bolt, so that was an easy fix, thankfully.
Ran the engine a little longer and the oil puddled and was full of bubbles still down the timing chain side....
I traced it to above the timing chain backplate, so I deduced that it could only be one of the oil gallery threaded inserts, that was the good news. The bad news however was even after tightening it as much as I could with a flat massive screwdriver still it leaked, AFTER removing the radiator and draining the cooling system again naturally.
Yip you guessed it, I had to get the damn insert out that hit the back of the timing cover back plate. It was al stripped off the engine.
So I decided to go and source some grub screws instead of the damn inserts. After some phone calls and two visits to some bolt and nut suppliers located close to me, needless to say, they only stock 9/16 UNC grub screws and NOT the 9/16 UNF item that I had (insert choice swear words here). I ended up putting alot of thread sealing tape on the insert and using the biggest flat screw driver insert I own into my multi bit changer handle and managed to tighten the damn thing till death do it part.
New gasket for back plate and timing cover later
I ran the engine for a few seconds without fitting the radiator back yet and success finally. I drove the GTS about 10kms in 2pm heat. Engine temp was good, had to keep reminding myself to keep under 3500 rpm to stay off the midrange of the cam. But damn the car was going well. I got back to the shop and ran the engine with the bonnet open and heard something I had experienced before on a engine build some time ago, WHICH ENDED BADLY. A very bad noise from the flywheel side of the engine that was obnoxiously loud. Had a good look and deduced it could most probably be the darn idler gear. Although I shimmed it and was so very careful still it made a stomach wrenching noise.
Initially I thought just leave it, it will be fine, then I remembered that I have not even entered into the power curve of the cam so the input on the idler gear to the first motion shaft of the gearbox was only slight at the moment. So saneness prevailed and it dawned on me that although I just had the timing chain side of the engine open I will need to open the clutch side also....
Frustration does not describe what I felt at this moment in time.
Had to do this little mod on the timing cover and plate....
Then great news, set the timing statically after fitting dizzy drive and dizzy. Got engine fired up and it sounded great. Once I added water to the radiator on the conveyer belt that I put on the paving to save spills, well water and oil was mixing and dripping down the radiator side of the engine....WTF WTF WTH what went wrong????
After some investigating I found the bolt for the sandwich plate for thermostat housing right above the waterpump was leaking up the bolt, so that was an easy fix, thankfully.
Ran the engine a little longer and the oil puddled and was full of bubbles still down the timing chain side....
I traced it to above the timing chain backplate, so I deduced that it could only be one of the oil gallery threaded inserts, that was the good news. The bad news however was even after tightening it as much as I could with a flat massive screwdriver still it leaked, AFTER removing the radiator and draining the cooling system again naturally.
Yip you guessed it, I had to get the damn insert out that hit the back of the timing cover back plate. It was al stripped off the engine.
So I decided to go and source some grub screws instead of the damn inserts. After some phone calls and two visits to some bolt and nut suppliers located close to me, needless to say, they only stock 9/16 UNC grub screws and NOT the 9/16 UNF item that I had (insert choice swear words here). I ended up putting alot of thread sealing tape on the insert and using the biggest flat screw driver insert I own into my multi bit changer handle and managed to tighten the damn thing till death do it part.
New gasket for back plate and timing cover later
I ran the engine for a few seconds without fitting the radiator back yet and success finally. I drove the GTS about 10kms in 2pm heat. Engine temp was good, had to keep reminding myself to keep under 3500 rpm to stay off the midrange of the cam. But damn the car was going well. I got back to the shop and ran the engine with the bonnet open and heard something I had experienced before on a engine build some time ago, WHICH ENDED BADLY. A very bad noise from the flywheel side of the engine that was obnoxiously loud. Had a good look and deduced it could most probably be the darn idler gear. Although I shimmed it and was so very careful still it made a stomach wrenching noise.
Initially I thought just leave it, it will be fine, then I remembered that I have not even entered into the power curve of the cam so the input on the idler gear to the first motion shaft of the gearbox was only slight at the moment. So saneness prevailed and it dawned on me that although I just had the timing chain side of the engine open I will need to open the clutch side also....
Frustration does not describe what I felt at this moment in time.
Own some minis, break them, fix them, improve them, test them to the limit....
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