Latest Pics of my Engine Rebuild

[GreatOldOne]

Engine parts awaiting cleaning - cylinder head, sump parts, oil pump etc.


The cylinder head in all it's carbony glory


The crank I managed to ruin - like I said before in the fubar'd crank thread, it's shame that I had to replace it, as it seems to be in very good nick


All the pistons out, and safe in a high tech carrier! Yeah, it looks silly, but hey - it kept them safe, together and let me know which one was which.


A single piston - they look in good order. They just needed a clean to get the old oil off and the carbon deposits



The new crank. Not bad for £20, eh? Also in the pic is the drive cog for the oil pump and the rear oil seal carrier.


I laid out the bearing end caps along the new crank, so I didn't forget which one was which - mixing them up would be a very bad thing. Having said that, they've got their position number cast into them so it wouldn't have been an issue if they did get mixed up.


The engine block got an initial clean, to get the majority of the dirt off it.


The mating surface was cleaned, ready for a new gasket when it comes to reassembly time


The bores looked good. No pitting or rust.


The bottom of the block needed flushing out, to get rid of the old oil.


The block was given a couple of coats of black engine enamel:

[GreatOldOne]

The oil pump got stripped, cleaned and re-assembled




And the incredibly mucky sump got a damn good seeing too:





Whilst that was being done, I recieved my new engine gaskets and bolts:



The kits (top end & bottom end) are complete replacement sets, and not only include gaskets but oil seals, valve stem seals and such. The whole lot came to £79, thanks to Fleabay.



The rocker cover has had a couple of coats of black hammerite over a acid etch primer coat. The raised lettering and lines will get wet'n'dried back to bare aluminium (thanks for the advice, guys), and polished to a shine. Then the whole cover will get a layer of clearcoat.

The pistons have had all the cack removed from them, and the tolerances on the piston rings checked. As they're all within spec, I haven't bothered changing the rings:




I decided to replace all the bearings as a different crank was going in :



Insitu:



Then the new crank was put in place, after the new shells had a liberal dose of assembly lube:





After checking that the crank wasn't binding up (a quick spin to see if there was any resistance), the oil seal carriers where installed - I'd replaced all the crank oil seals earlier. These just bolted back on to the each end of the block, with new gaskets between the mating surfaces (and a smear of hylomar blue gasket compound). The seals also goat a coat of engine oil.

The pistons where reinstalled after recieveing new new bearing shells:



Both halves of the bearings got a blast of assembly lube, as did the crank journal and the cylinder bores. Then the cylinders where put back into the bores that they came from. After each piston was put in, I checked for binding again.



The crank turns and the pistons reciprocate with no problems - it's all very smooth. And of course, it looks a hell of a lot better than before, eh?

The next steps are to refit the timing sprockets after giving them a coat of paint to stop the rust, refitting the oil pump and bolting the sump back on, and put the water pump back on. That should pretty much finish of the block, and then I can turn my attentions to the cylinder head.

[Patrick]

Nice, load of progress there! I'm kinda wishing we'd done the same with our engine, but at the time we were not technically confident enough to tackle it. No doubt there will be a winter project for us involving a rebuild, I'll be checking back here for reference! Good job

[GreatOldOne]

Another day, another raft of pics.

I put the oil drive bearing back in the block. The bearing top itself was pretty badly oxidised, and even after a hit with the wire brushes it looked crap. So the top end got a seeing to with the acid etch primer and some of the aluminium calliper paint.



Here's all the bits that got bolted onto the front of the block - the water pump, the main timing sprocket, spacer and nose bolt (the one that gave me all the trouble a couple of weeks ago) and the intermediate drive sprocket - after they too received a coat of the ally paint.



Before putting the sump back on, the oil pump was put on, along with the oil return pipe thingy (Technical term - look it up. ). You can see the drive shaft for the pump running down into the block to the drive cog. Once that was on, the mating surface was cleaned up once more with some carb cleaner, and then a bead of hylomar was laid down and the cork sump gasket laid onto it.



The sump's mating surface got the same treatment.



Then the two where put together, and all the bolts where tightened down to the correct torque (all 23 of them!)



After the sump was on, the bellhousing plate was bolted back on.



And with that, that's pretty much the bottom end done.



The only thing that needs to be added on to the bottom now is the oil cooler take off plate and the crank breather tube .

But the next job to do is start stripping down and cleaning the head. That's going to be a fun (read: mucky) job.

[peterux]

GOO,

don't forget this little tip.............

http://www.madabout-kitcars.com/foru...read.php?t=426

wouldn't want to see all your nice work messed up now!

You get the prize for best prepared engine.

regards

Peter

[GreatOldOne]

Yeah - I remember reading that when you first posted it...

Thanks for reminding me again.

[GreatOldOne]

I've started on cleaning the head up

Rocker cover is almost done - all it needs is the lacquer applying:



The dipstick has been painted red:


Before I could start cleaning the head, all of the bits needed to be removed first. You can see the camshaft, the two rocker shafts, the camshaft oil seal and the oil spray bar in the centre. All the bags in the carrier are the various ports valve / spring / rocker combos.


After that lot was removed, I could attack the bare head casting with the degreasant and my trusty brass brush. It was a pig decarbing the exhaust ports though, due to their shape - but I got the majority of it all off in the end. I'll probably do another pass on them before rebuilding, but so far the results are pretty good, IMO:




I laid the head gasket on, just to see what it'd look like:



Pointless, I know - You'll never see it anyway. But hey - At least I know I've got the right one and all the holes are in the right places!

When I got in from work tonight, I degreased all the shafts and the spray bar, cleaned up the oil seal carrier and replaced the seal and o-ring it contains. I've also started the laborious task of cleaning the valves up - doing them one at a time (as not to get them mixed up) is going to be a time consuming affair... I managed to get one done!

[GreatOldOne]

A bit more progress to report on.

All the cack had to be taken of the valves. The easiest way I found to do this is to stick them in a drill, and then use various grades of wet and dry to clean them as the valve is spinning. It also lets you know immediately if a valve is bent, as it'll spin off-centre.


This is what they look like after the first couple of grades of paper (a course synthetic scouring pad and 240 grit)


And this is what they look like after attacking them with 400 grit and 1200 grit, with a final buff up with some metal polish:



I did each valve in turn, and cleaned & degreased the springs, seats, rocker and collets at the same time. Each valve got it's own container.


Another 8 valves later, and I had done them all:


I gave all the ports another quick going over with a brass cup brush in my dremel, to get the last of the carbon off. Then All the valves and the valve seats where lapped with some fine grinding compound and a drill mounted lapping tool. I couldn't be asked to use the old 'twiddlestick' type valve grinder. I didn't fancy the blisters!

After cleaning the grinding paste away, I flipped the head over and installed the new seals (the brown rubber bits in the pic):


After that, I started to install the valves one by one, using a jury rigged spring compressor - I had to add some depth to the cup on the spring end to get the collets in and out, as the compressor frame would have marred the head / rocker cover surface without it after setting the depth enough to get the little blighters out. Hence the bent metal spanner ziptied to the tool!


All of the exhaust valves in:


And finally, all the valves in.



I've also got a bit further in the rebuild than the pics suggest - On sunday I managed to get all the rockers and rocker bars back in, as well as the oil spray bar and the front oil seal. All of the rocker bar 'bungs' (The shield shaped rubber bits that sit in the slots at the front and back of the head, where the rocker bars slide through) have been replaced as well, and I've also reattached the coolant 'spout' on the back of the head after replacing the gasket.

I should be able to button up the engine this week. Just need to get a timing belt, and remember where TDC is on the head and the block...

[Patrick]

Excellent progress again The valve stem oil seals need doing on mine as it puffs a little smoke when you first start it up!

[GreatOldOne]

Originally Posted by Patrick

The valve stem oil seals need doing on mine as it puffs a little smoke when you first start it up!

I suggest that you download the technical article on rebuilding heads from e30zone. I've been following that, and has several top tips in it - my favourite being using a deep 14mm socket as a seal installation tool. Once again, who needs special BMW tools?

[Patrick]

Originally Posted by GreatOldOne

I suggest that you download the technical article on rebuilding heads from e30zone. I've been following that, and has several top tips in it - my favourite being using a deep 14mm socket as a seal installation tool. Once again, who needs special BMW tools?

Good tip, they have some excellent articles on there - the other site thats great for technical stuff is www.e30.de but its all in German (I've not got a problem with that luckly!) I'm going to tackle the engine over the winter if I have time, would like to get it on the road before the end of the year.

[GreatOldOne]

Cor blimey. It's looking like an engine again!

I got the head on last night, and got the bolts tightened down to the correct torque. The good thing about these replacement bolts is you don't have to faff around - with the old bolts you'd have to tighten, wait a bit, tighten a bit more, then run the engine until hot and then tighten again. These ones can be tightened all the way up without waiting (although you still do it in three stages), and can do it cold. All the bolts got a dose of copper grease:



After I'd done the head, I reassembled the intake manifold by putting the injectors back in place and then bolting the fuel rail back on. The injectors are just push fit, with o-rings top and bottom to seal. The o-rings got replaced (new ones came in the head gasket kit) and then lubed up with some red rubber grease.


After that, I put new o-rings top and bottom of the crank case breather tube , slipped the tube into the block and bolted the intake manifold on, after putting the new gaskets on.




You can also see that the fuel pressure regulator has been bolted back on (again, with a new o-ring). The thermostat housing has also been bolted back on, and the oil filter plate has been reattached.

I now need to get the timing belt on so I can put the timing covers back on, and then the pulleys and mass damper can go on. I need to paint up the little bracket that sits on top of the rocker cover that bolts onto the back of the intake. But then that is it for the engine - anything else will get done once it's in the chassis.

[Patrick]

Award for the shiniest engine in a Sportster goes to

[Patrick]

Where did you buy your bearings sets from? I've had a look around, and on KMS and GSF a "main bearing set" is between £30 and £35, the genuine parts dept on E30zone is suggest £150 - something doesn't quite add up there!

[GreatOldOne]

I believe (it's a while ago now) I got mine from Motormec, as I wasn't sure which ones I needed (my block is an 'early' one, which required different shells).

I took some pics of the old shells and sent them to the chaps there and they ordered the correct ones for me.

http://www.motormec.co.uk/

[Patrick]

Thanks