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Shot of the engine before I put everything back together again.
Few little dramas on the way.
The new thermostat housing didn't quite fit the thermostat and I ended up with coolant allover the floor.
Once all together, I tried starting it but no luck, the battery went flat before I could turn it over.
Put the battery on charge for a couple of days and tried again.
Still no luck.
Needed to check the three major elements of an engine.
Compression: Should be fine. Brand new engine. If anything, the compression should be a bit high as its not run in yet.
Spark: Checked all the terminals and leads. All connected. Was running before, should be fine. Also a bit difficult to check the spark on your own.
Fuel: Hmmmm. No fuel in the carby when I pulled on the throttle.
Took the fuel line off the carby .
Petrol went everywhere! Appears to be a blockage at the carby. Thought it might be the control needle from the float. Swappewd it for one off another carby I had. Success. The engine turned over, but fuel started pouring out of the top of the fuel chamber like a tap. Turn it off.
Pulled the carby off, took the top of and checked the floats. Appears it might have been stuck. Put the original fuel line connector back on and reinstalled the carby. Turned the key and the engine started.
No noises. No scares. Just a nice sounding V8 humming along.
I now just need to tune it and it should sound awesome. Well not as awesome as when I put the Genie headers on and split it into a dual exhaust. But that's for another day that might be tomorrow, next week or next month. The body is priority now.
Winner winner, chicken dinner!
I now have a running engine with no scary noises!
Total inspiration to get the car finished and on the road.
I'm finishing up a job at the moment and looking forward to getting a bit done on the body work to get it looking a little more presntable.
Now for the motor.
The hydraulic lifter cost $8.00.
It took 1/2 a day to get it out!
After removing the Air Conditioning compressor, the distributor, the carburettor, numerous bits and pieces as well as the intake manifold, the lifter finally came out.
It was stuffed. Couldn't get it to budge. Only place it was good for was the bin.
Now with the lifter out, and what little time I had to do it, I needed to find another day to put it all back together.
Well tomorrow has finally arrived!
Better late than never I reckon.
I'm still on track although it's a year behind.
I appreciate the emails asking if I was OK and apologise for not replying.
I've found myself extremely snowed under with everything else in my life that the VIP went on the back burner. . . . with a problem.
In the last year I've virtually worked myself into the ground. End of 2013 saw me working weekends leading up to christmas. I had a couple of weeks break but couldn't bear to deal with "the problem"
In the new year I went back to school and completed a Diploma to help with work. It was a good distraction from "the problem", but I knew it was still waiting for me.
We had a huge storm a few months ago and the neighbours trampoline took out the power line to the house. After getting the house repaired and the power reconnected there was no avoiding "the problem" any more.
Have I kept you all in suspense??
The Problem:
I got the motor back together. Got it in the car. Put in the new remote oil filter lines. Fired it up. Success! Yay!
There's a noise. There's a noise? Doesn't sound right. What is it?? Listen carefully
Tick. . . . . Tick. . . . . Tick. . . . . Tick.
Where's it coming from?
Rocker cover. Passenger side. Listen carefully.
TICK. . . . TICK. . . . .TICK. . . . .TICK.
Removed the rocker cover.
1 pushrod is just flopping about. Given up the ghost.
Took the rocker assembly off and checked the pushrod. All good, nice and straight.
Realisation!!!
Hydraulic lifter on cylinder 7 inlet has shit itself. I walked away. Head hanging low. I know it needs to be fixed but it's so much work for just a little part. It's a problem I'll get back to.
And it took a year!
Next post will be about getting the engine started again.
Hi all!
Before I start with the update, I just want to give a shout out to valiantdan. He's getting an old '66 VC back on the road. He's going great guns at it too! If your a bit sick of waiting for my few and far between updates, valiantdans blog should definitely quench your thirst!
You can find him here: http://valiantdan.wordpress.com/
Now for the proceedings.
Motor is finally in and complete.
Tried firing it up, but with no success, just kept turning but not firing.
Turned it by hand to get it to TDC
Checked dizzy - back to front - DOH!!!!
Spun it around, still not firing.
INSERT CREATIVE SWEAR WORDS HERE!!
Next step read the instructions
1. turn the engine over until you are at top dead centre.
2. Top dead centre is found like this:
a. line the timing mark on the harmonic balance up with "0" on the timing mark
b. Next - IMPORTANT - check the pushrods on cylinder one. You should be able to turn them freely by hand. This is Top Dead Centre.
I did this turned it over by hand until both pushrods were loose. Awesome, got that.
Checked the dizzy - back to front again - DOUBLE DOH!!
Spun it around again
Aligned the dizzy so the rotor lined up with the contact point of what would now be number 1 lead
Reset the leads according to the cast in firing order on the inlet manifold.
Turned the key
SUCCESS!
Fired up first turn
Now the bad news :-(
The brand new oil pump is soooo good, it found a split in the remote oil filter line and pumped about 1/2 a litre of oil all over the garage floor! With the big fan running as well it sprayed it virtually to the back wheel. 3 bags of Coles kitty litter later and we had that all cleaned up.
STOPPED!
I took the oil lines off and whipped them down to Pirtek and they had the fixed and repaired within the week.
I now have them in the shed and will be putting them in this afternoon and then I can run the cam in!
Stay tuned tomorrow!
A Short little video of the motors life span thus far with me.
Shots taken from when the car was first purchased, swapping over a different 318, the realisation that the old motor I took out was the original factory fitted motor and the subsequent rebuild and reinstall of the original motor.
Oh, and credit where credit is due:
Big Red Rocket of Love
The Reverend Horton Heat
Of the album: Holy Roller
Yes the motor is back again, and No, I wasn't trying to recycle some old post.
Here are the two shots I took with the motor now back in the car again:
There was a few swear words, well actually a lot!.
The motor came out. All good. Tick!
Remote oil lines went back in. Tick!
Engine went back in again. Tick!
Oil filter line got caught between the block and the fire wall!. . . . . Tick!!!
Took a few hours to get the oil lines all sorted and in the right spot, but I finally got there and the filter was all set up correctly. Even has a new filter on.
The new water pump went on along with everything else that goes with it and am happy to say that the frog juice is staying on the inside of the motor and not the outside!
Engine ready to come out again.
Hopefully it will be a short disruption to finally getting to start it. Basically I have to lift the engine up to access the connection points for the remote oil filter attach the hoses and then slip the motor back in. I'll let you know if it was easy to do as it was to type it. . . . . . Probably won't be.
Well it's been cold, wet and miserable. I've given up trying to get the oil filter lines on with the engine in the car and have decided to take the motor out again and install them with the motor hanging out of the engine bay.
The reason the lines were fouling on the steering box was because the plate bolted to the block was 180deg in the wrong direction. Hopefully with that sorted the engine should slip straight back into place. . . . . .should!
On a lighter and more uplifting note, the water pump came back and looks a treat. Thanks to all the guys I spoke to at Pentastar Parts. They swapped the pulley wheel onto a new water pump and even painted the pulley black.
Just need to find some time on the weekend to put it all back together. Again
The engines in and done!
The water pump went on, the air conditioner compressor and brackets went on, the alternator and brackets went on,
the power steering pump and brackets went on, the radiator went in, all the hoses connected, the air conditioner radiator went in and pipes connected. That was a lot of work!
I started filling the radiator with coolant. I then started seeing coolant on the floor!
The water pump is knackered! It was working when I had the motor running originally, but now I've green frog juice all over the floor in the shed! Now I have to take ALL the accessories off as the water pump was the first thing that went on!!!!!
ALSO! The oil lines from the bottom of the motor to the filter on top had to come off during the install as they were fouling on the steering box. After 2 hours of up and down trying to get the stupid things in the correct place as they go around the bracket for the auto dipstick, I got one tightened up on the top. AAAARGH!
It's taken a while, but finally the motor is back where it belongs. The water pump and fan are only on for the photo. I now have to fit all the accessories and then fingers crossed next week I can fire it up. If I have enough for thought, I'll try and record it so you guys can hear it as well as see it.
As the motor went in it reminded me of the shot when the motor came out. So here they are side by side.
It's a good feeling seeing the motor up against what it looked like when it came out. And to think I was going to get rid of it and settle for just "some other" motor.
Look. . . up in the sky. . .
It's a bird. . . . It's a plane. . . Nah it's just a 318 with a 904 on its way home after a long holiday!
The next item was fitting the auto to the block. The 904 had been fully rebuilt and needed to be fitted before putting the motor back in.
Also, you can see the single exhaust fitted, wire wheeled and painted. This would prove to be a nightmare while fitting the engine and needed to come out as it kept hitting the torsion bar!
I haven't had much time to do any work on the car, but I decided this Saturday I would try and get the motor back in the car. At least that way I could potter about here and there fitting all the accessories back on while it was in the car. i.e. power steering, A/C, etc.
The first was to wire wheel the exhaust headers and paint in high temp paint.
Once the car is on the road and driving, I'll take it in and get the extractors fitted and a nice dual exhaust. But for the meantime it's the stock standard exhaust pipe.
All finished and back on the car. Unfortunately they make everything else look a bit crap.
At least I'm confident the car will stop now.
After a sweaty day in a hot tin shed garage, the calipers were rebuilt.
The shop had run out of black caliper paint so I guess the next best colour was a Hemi Orange. . . . . . Wouldn't you?
All the internal working parts were replaced with new. New piston, rubbers, pins and of course the pads
After fixing up the suspension in the front end, I was still thinking about the brake calipers. I'd been a bit unsure about them since buying the car. When I originally got the car home and went through all the bits and pieces, there was a new set of brake pads in an ice cream container. I tried to change them over but with no luck. When the new pads were in, the calipers wouldn't slide over the disc. I thought they were the wrong pads.
After fixing the front end, I had another go. I used a disc brake spreader to push the piston back as far as it would go. Calipers still wouldn't go on. I double checked the pads and they fitted perfectly in the calipers. They just wouldn't open up enough to go over the rotor.
Time for a brake rebuild.
The calipers came off with the intent of a full strip down, clean up and rebuild.
The calipers had definitely seen better days.
Now it was time to strip them down.
This lovely mess appears to be the reason for the calipers not wanting to move back any further. This was cleaned out to reveal pretty good internals. I gave them a light sand with 400grit wet and dry with WD40 and they came up pretty good. I cleaned all the gunk and grease off the calipers, went over them the wire wheel and the hard to reach bits got the sand blaster.
The necessary tools arrived in the mail and it was off to finish the front end.
Yet again there were setbacks and hold ups. One of the main things that needed to be done was to replace the castor arm bush where it met the chassis, the old rubber had totally disintegrated and had left metal rubbing on metal.
In order to remove the castor bar it was necessary to remove the loser suspension bar. In order to remove the lower suspension arm, the torsion bar had to be removed. Thinking I was all set and had the right tools for the job, I started taking out the first torsion bar. . . DAMN! The steering box is in the way!
I then had to chain the steering box up so it wouldn't drop when I took the bolts out. Three bolts later the steering box was lifted up, the torsion bar removed, the lower control arm and castor bar removed. The castor bushes fitted into the chassis, the castor bar and lower arm refitted, the upper and lower bump stops replaced, torsion bars refitted, stubaxles fitted with new upper and lower ball joints, all other ball joints replaced, new shock absorbers fitted,
discs and calipers refitted and wheels back on!
A busy, yet productive weekend.
