1998 Engine - Question and Observations.

[don cook1]

I'll be re-assembling my engine (KE449) pretty soon and am currently assessing what I'll need. I was going to get a new oil pump, pressure relief valve, timing chain kit, and some thrust washers to make up a 40thou gap. The engine is bored to +30 and the crank and big ends -10 (engineers suplied bearings and pistons - they did the head as well).

My worry is that there were no washers or  tab washers on the crank/conrods, is this usual? Is it recommended to replace the bolts (its first engine strip) and if so; loctite them in?

Never did find out the cause for loss of compression on 4&5 pots so I hope the head and bore jobbies put it all to rights??

Some of you may recall on another thread that I have a short input shaft on my type 9 gearbox and there is little evidence from the spigot bearing that it has had anything in it. Nick Jones had kindly furnished me with a long input shaft so I'll be fitting that and hopefully the clutch judder and occasional engine jumping about will be sorted. I'll report back on this subject.

Was hoping to sneak a late entry to the RBRR but that's out of the question now.

[thescrapman]

I was going to get a new oil pump - get it blue printed, the quality, or lack of, especially in clearances, of the repro pumps can be an issue.

pressure relief valve - Spring!

timing chain kit, - do not forget the tensioner, though I have heard stories of very poor quality tensioners, and people reusing the original

engineers suplied bearings - Check what they supplied.

My worry is that there were no washers or  tab washers on the crank/conrods, is this usual? - Correct

Was hoping to sneak a late entry to the RBRR but that's out of the question now. - no it isn't!!! Lots of people are only just starting their prep work, you are halfway there!!!!


Cheers

Colin

[Mj17]

thescrapman wrote:

engineers suplied bearings - Check what they supplied.

Probably not the remanufactured tri-metal bearings availabel from Revington TR (see bottom of http://revingtontrltd.cmail1.com/t/ViewEmail/y/F7515226DE7EB269/34718B6166A1B5712A1BF84ACBDD178B).

[Nick Jones]

No tab washers is normal and correct.  
If this is known to be the first rebuild I'd be content to re-use the bolts.  You don't need loctite.  You do need a decent torque wrench and the correct torque figure.

As mentioned, new oil pumps are a bit hit or miss on tolerance.  Chris Witor sells toleranced ones.  Dependent on the state of your original (possibly cast iron bodied whereas all new are aluminium bodied) pump it may be possible to refurb by lapping any grooves out of the end plate/gears and then lapping the body to give the correct endfloat.  I think you can also buy the gears alone.

When I built my (yet to be fitted) 2L I had a new pump and two old ones.  The new pump had the slackest tolerances of all three, so I fettled the best of the old ones.  Cast iron bodied pumps hold hot oil pressure better as the bodies do not grow relative to the gears when they warm up.

Duplex timing chain could be fitted (standard issue on 2.5 engines) though probably not really needed.

What are you doing about the cam & followers?

Cheers

Nick

[don cook1]

Cam and followers appear to be fine so I'll leave those. I've ordered the oil pump from Paddock's and will check the tolerances, if its worse than the old one I'll send it back but I hope it will be ok. I have ordered a set of core plugs so will replace those and have a good poke around with some wire to break off any crusty bits...should have done that first I suppose? The head had new inlet guides fitted and the valves refaced and seats recut and skimmed. I was thinking about fitting Pinto guide seals again but wonder if they are really needed. The rockers need a stone going over them, replacing would be better but fast running out of dosh.

[don cook1]

Engine now all re-assembled. Opted for new rockers. The inlet valves produced a nice healthy pop when pulled from the guides. Crankshaft end float sorted as was the oil pump end float, this has to be fettled as the distributor gear wouldn't drop into the pump drive. Timing gear on the crank looked like new so I kept it, the larger one was replaced as was the chain and tensioner. Very pleased with how it all went together and thanks to my mate John...a superb mechanic.

Now, gearbox. This is the Type 9 and has been well documented elsewhere. However, with the box out I measured the relationship between the outer bell housing face and the nose of the Type 9 input shaft, this sits back approx. 1/4". With the rear engine plate fitted it was startling as there is no way that the short input shaft nose wouldn't get anywhere near the spigot bush. As John suggested "it must have been flapping about like a knob in a top hat". A long nose input shaft is currently being extricated from another Type 9 gearbox (Thanks Nick Jones). So I hope that, what I thought was clutch judder, will now be cured. I should have looked at this properly when I did the conversion...5 or 6 years ago.


We will do a final check when the gearbox is re-assembled with the long nose input shaft/spigot bush, then it can all come home with me for fitting back into my GT6. After three years I expect it will be out and about again around Xmas time.