Antonnick

Here it is

I do have the oil pressure gauge

Let us only say that the first signs are positive and wait until it has driven a few km. 

Fabulous! After lots of checks, the Motor started this morning and I ran it for about 5 minutes. Cannot go on a journey yet as there is almost no oil in the gearbox.  Very pleased also that the normal heavy clonking sound after a cold start is gone!

Carefully eliminated ? You may be so right. The Crank needed doing anyway, so too the cylinder head. It is all back together now except I have to fit the clutch slave cylinder. It seems to be jammed in the full down position so will need to sort that first. The exhaust contact I have long ago found out that it is not that. 

Getting it all back together again. Oil is in and have followed the good trick of using a drill to operate the oil pump in order to prime it and get some flow around the pieces. It is a battery drill and can hardly cope when the pressure builds up. Spent a lot of time trying to set up the clearances for the distributor pedestal again. The washer I inserted is 1,34 mm thick and after temp bolting the Pedestal in place, the feeler gauges measured 2, something mm. Obviously wrong. Took the pedestal off, removed the washer and then bolted it down again without the drive in place to see if there was any clearance at all with across the flange. There was none, so that is ok. REfitted the washer, drive gear and pedestal but probably the drive did not sit properly for the feeler guages read over 2mm again.  All off , turned the engine over by hand again , this time pressing down on the drive gear which then did suddenly drop . Supi! My feeler gauges then measured 1,25 mm clearance. I tried with 1,3 and it did go in part way but with force, Anyway that gives me a tolerance of 0,09 mm so one of the the thin gaskets in the set will do. This matched what I took off anyway.  Will add the anti freeze tomorrow and then try to start the thing. I will need to prime the fuel pump I think first. LAst time it did not want to pump as first.

It was not that easy actually putting the gearbox into the Motor. It did not seem to want to go in. I checked with the spindle guide as I thought perhaps it was not line up but that was ok. Then suddenly after a few attempts the alignment was then right I suppose and it went in and got bolted up. In between I did grease the spline of the gearbox a little with brake grease.  I did not fit the starter motor as I know it can foul the steering rod on the LHS. It is difficult to get in on its own but the fuel pump is not yet fitted and this would also get in the way.  Ayway, my neighbour in exchange for coffee and buscuits helped me get engine and gearbox in. Or did I help him? I thought at first that the bonnet would have to be removed but he managed to push everything in position whilst I operated the crane. Enough for today! Will put the remaining bits back tomorrow and we shall see. 

The gearbox is out and on the bench. There I could see what the problem was . The hydraulik was jammed in the open position. A bit of luck, I have found a suitable bush for the 8mm hinge bolt. Will assemble the gearbox to the motor tomorrow and hopefully install them as a unit. 

Before trying to put the engine back in, I wanted to check the performance of the clutch. Then the problems started. Firstly the clutch pedal was rock solid and would not move. Having disconnected the linkage, it must be the master cylinder that is now jammed. Never mind I thought, I can fix that separately later.  Then I checked the movement of the release bearing with the nice new 8mm coach bolt. It hardly moves at all (maybe 4 to 5mm only) and then only because the coach bolt is very loose in its housing. I then noticed that the bush in the bottom section is missing. Somehow the release bearing does not want to slide over the gearbox shaft in order to operate the clutch.  No other option, I will have to remove the gearbox to determine what is wrong. The missing bush I can make on my small lathe.  😩😣

The hood 😄

Gearbox is new. has done perhaps now 1500km only  

Yes, the new bronze bush that came with the gasket set has been put in. I do not know if there was one in there before as I just sent the whole crankshaft away for regrinding and it came back without any bush in it. 

So I purchased a (I think you call it ) a coach bolt with its long smooth shaft. The top had a square section which I rounded off to match the rest. It went in quite easily so problem is solved. Engine will go back in tomorrow.

I have managed to screw in a 8mm bolt rather than try to hammer it in, so it is a nice tight fitting. Wonderful! It does not go all the way through so I am thinking if I got a longar bolt and put a lock nut on the exposed end?

oh that is a good idea and I have some M8 Bolts already - I will have a try tomorrow. 

We were going to re-install the completed engine when I noticed that the clutch thrust bearing looked a bit loose. It then came off as the "fulcrum pivot pin " was missing. It must have been missing for a while as it is not underneath the car now.  I think I need to order this plus the "tolerance ring" that goes with it. ☹

Motor 

..perhaps the most rewarding part of the exercise, a renovated engine room; as much as is possible anyway without dismantling everthing.

Enough for today. engine is back together, but minus the vulnerable parts and ready to be lifted in. The crane is only acting as support for the moment. I need to refit the dynamo in order that the lifting hooks are at equal heights.

Thank you,  I will try with just the two nuts. 

I had the head off earlier in the year and have already retightend the bolts after 500km - is that what you mean? If I can avoid loosening the nuts again I would like to. To retorque all 10 would mean removing the rockers again, resetting - very time consuming and (for me) difficult to get right  

It appears that I did set up everything with the Crank at TDC correctly before I took it off.. I put the camshaft toothed wheel back on with the chain attached and the crank at TDC and found that the valves on cylinder nr 4 were indeed "on the rock". So that was ok. Two things though. My new gasket kit seems to have three of almost the same item for the front plate ( that with the engine mounting flanges). I did not use the thiner one. Hope that what I have done is ok. the only criteria I can tell is the camshaft clearance (end float)  which is within spec. The other query I have is that I have obtained a lifting eye whichbolts onto the cylinder head. To fix it I would need to remove the two nuts but is this wise bearing in mind that the other cylinder head nuts would not have been loosened? With the motor out of the car, have been cleaning, rust converting and painting the engine compartment. It does not look like new but still a great improvement. I will take a pic when it is finished, hoepfully this week.  

Oh dear yes I did read the manual incorrectly, thinking it meant nr 4 valve not nr 4 cylinder as explained. I am very grateful for the correction and now it makes sense to me.  I need to do the rear end first and fit the new lip type seal. Once this is done, the engine can be mounted on the engine stand, turned the right way up and the front end completed including timing chain. It is a new one anyway which I fitted about 1000 km ago. At the moment it is supported upside down on old tyres. Then I made sure crank and cam were at TDC before the old sprockets came off. I did the same this time as well but.......I think the cam got moved 😐    

I remember seeing or reading on chic doig that he made a modification to the outrigger especially to overcome the problem. If I remember correctly, it was an additional steel plate to the upper face which could then be welded to tthe main section from underneath.   

I have my Crankshaft back from its regrind and I have fitted it and the pistons. It may be my imagination but I had the feeling it was easier to pull up piston nr 4 ( that which was "steam cleaned" 😀) compared to the others when bolting it up with new bearings. That is by the way. Altough I have not (purposely) moved the camshaft from its position prior to dissassembly and the Crank was then at TDC, I would like to redo the timing just to be sure. The head is still attached.  I do not however understand the logic in the workshop manual. For my understanding, when the crank is at TDC, then only the valves 1 and 2 need to be closed. The manual tells me to adjust the clearances to 1 mm on valves 7 and 8 per normal practice and then turn the crank more until inlet valve nr 4 is "on the rock" and (presumably nr 5) outlet is "almost closed". Then the sprockets and chain is put on. I would have thought that in that position, the relationship between crank and camshaft was way out?  There is a very complicated video in U-tube ( Erin Yakov) showing how to do this but this does seem very risky. Can anyone ( glang.......😄 ) explain? thanks Antonia