Ian's S4s refurb

[Chillidoggy]

And continuing the theme of “Let’s all send the wrong parts”, the neoprene sponge I ordered to replace the knackered old stuff between the rear wing and the body turned up this morning, was narrower than what I ordered.  Bloody good job I’m getting to the end of the required parts list.

[Chillidoggy]

All the cylinder head studs cleaned and finished repairing the coolant stub pipes. On checking, I noticed there was a core plug at the end of the cylinder head I hadn't changed, so I did that. Which was just as well because is was on the point of rusting through. All of them were in a similar state, which makes me think at least one PO hasn't run with the correct coolant mix. I know the car was stood for a very long time too, which won't have helped, either.

I might actually get round to fitting the liners tomorrow, then I'm stuffed until the last main bearing shell pitches up.

 

[drdoom]

What may have contributed to such corrosion, other than running the wrong coolant, is running any sort for too long a period. The anti-corrosion elements are perishable and, with the change of coolant being such a fuss with Esprit, the temptation to ignore would be predictable. Just a thought . . .

[Chillidoggy]

All the core plugs looked perfect from the outside, but were rusty as hell on the inside. Apart from the one below the inlet manifold, which did have a pinhole in it. Who knows how long they would have lasted before starting to leak, maybe that's what they get like when they're 25 years old?

Anyway, all the cylinder head valves have been lapped in and installed, coolant stub pipes repaired, and exhaust flanges given a little smear of Devcon alloy where the fly-cutting hasn't taken out the odd pitting/corrosion, so that's all ready to fit. Plus the the correct mix of main bearing shells have been delivered, so I may well have a beer or two on the strength of that.🍺

 

 

[Chillidoggy]

Managed to escape to the garage for a while and measure the liner nip heights. They all came up within the specification, so that's a bonus, and my thanks to Dave Lisle for the use of his engine building tools. Post lockdown hangover weariness has set in, so that's it for the day.

 

 

[Chillidoggy]

Liners cleaned up, 572 Loctite applied, and slid into the block. I’ve cleaned up the old head gasket and used it for the clamping job. I’ve laid the crankshaft in on the top bearing halves, and popped the thrust washers in. I haven’t measured the crank end float yet, but just by eye it’s minimal, and definitely less than before. I was getting all excited about making progress until I discovered I’d run out of Loctite 518 for the main bearing girdle, so that will halt things for a while. I’ll get back to the fuel breather pipe replacement job instead.

 

[tomcattom]

That's coming along nicely. Maybe one day I'll get around to doing something like this to mine.

Sounds like I'm having similar parts supply frustrations as you, at least I haven't been sent any incorrect parts.... YET!

[drdoom]

Hello Ian,

Just reviewed your postings from April '18 pertaining to the creaking bulkhead noise annoyance, may I ask how many miles driven since and whether still content with your solution?

Cheers

[Chillidoggy]

13 minutes ago, drdoom said:

Hello Ian,

Just reviewed your postings from April '18 pertaining to the creaking bulkhead noise annoyance, may I ask how many miles driven since and whether still content with your solution?

Cheers

Steve,  I assume you mean this - ”5mm thick flat bar in the engine bay side, 2mm reinforced rubber jointing between the chassis tab and the GRP, 3mm thick spreader plate over the original plates, and fixed by M10 bolts with nylocs.”

But I can’t take all the credit, I have to thank @Giniw for his insight into suggesting the noise could be caused by the chassis tab working against the GRP, and suggesting I try rubber jointing between them. Without that I really don’t think it would work as well as it does.

I’ve driven the car nearly 7,000 miles since then. And yes, I’m still happy with the solution.

[drdoom]

Yes, Ian, those are the discussion details to which I refer, thanks to you and to @Giniw for the insights. Where do you suggest looking for the reinforced rubber jointing, i.e. what is a typical use for the stuff?

[Chillidoggy]

9 hours ago, drdoom said:

Yes, Ian, those are the discussion details to which I refer, thanks to you and to @Giniw for the insights. Where do you suggest looking for the reinforced rubber jointing, i.e. what is a typical use for the stuff?

Nothing fancy, it’s rubber insertion which is used for water pipe flanges on ships and other industries, it comes in various thicknesses, and it’s composition depends on the fluid being conveyed. In my case I used jointing for water as I had quantity of it left under the bench. 

This kind of thing - https://www.par-group.co.uk/sealing-and-jointing/rubber-sheeting/insertion-rubber-sheeting/

[Chillidoggy]

The Loctite arrived today, so I carried on fitting the main bearing housing and shells. New olive for the oil pump pick-pipe, and assembly torqued up. The wife’s new digital torque wrench worked a treat; I spoil that woman. I was pleased to see that the sealant has squeezed out nicely around the block/bearing housing joint, too. Went on to fit the oil pump/auxiliary housing and oil gallery cover, and replaced the oil gallery taper plugs. I’ll give the liners another day to cure before I remove the head, and put the clamps on.

Lockdown is certainly much easier to cope with when there’s an engine to build, and I’m now wondering whether to ration garage time in case it goes on longer than expected.

 

[drdoom]

Thanks for the link, gratefully bookmarked. Whilst drifting off to slumber last night I recalled the bootlegs of our Wellies appear to be formed from fabric reinforced rubber, so perhaps one might cut sections out of someone's cast-off.

Cheers 

[Chillidoggy]

3 hours ago, drdoom said:

Thanks for the link, gratefully bookmarked. Whilst drifting off to slumber last night I recalled the bootlegs of our Wellies appear to be formed from fabric reinforced rubber, so perhaps one might cut sections out of someone's cast-off.

Cheers 

As long as it has rubber on either side, it will tend to grip the GRP and the tab. If it’s a welly boot, then one side will probably be fabric.

[Chillidoggy]

Finally got the rear wing foam cut to size and hole punched to our satisfaction. The old stuff was hanging out and waving in the breeze. It wasn’t a hard job as someone had been there before and fitted stainless set screws, although they weren’t tight enough. Looks much smarter now.

As a result, engine progress didn’t go to plan, but I did manage to fit all the pistons and bottom end bearings. Tomorrow’s jobs are cylinder head and sump to fit.

 

[Chillidoggy]

Got to the sump earlier today. I’d forgotten I hadn’t cleaned up the sump baffle, so spent another fun hour getting that to the point where the sealant would stick to it.

The dipstick rubber O-ring was a bit of a faff, I ended up securing it to the flared tube with a smear of PU sealant, and waiting until it had set. It looks as though that did the trick. The dipstick tube union nut proved a complete pain to move, it was seized onto the tube by 25 years worth of baked-on muck and, and I ended up using a blowtorch on it before it finally came free. Having cut the old olive off ready to fit the new one, it occurred to me I had no measurement of where it should sit on the tube, so that took a bit of doing to get it in the same position as the old one. A small panic then set in as I realised I had no clue as to how much A136 I had left, the baffle and the sump itself need to be sealed with it. My fears were unfounded though, a little goes a long way. The sump has about 4 different sized bolts, but the positions are clearly marked in the Service Notes, so they all went back without a hitch.

[Chillidoggy]

After a brief sojourn, I summoned up enough enthusiasm to continue the build. Today was one of my all-time favourite jobs, fitting the crank seal carriers. The engine has to be removed from the stand for this, so I slung it from the chain block I have next to the work bench.

Of course, I’d thrown the beautifully-sculpted piece of plastic 2-litre lemonade bottle I previously used for the rear seal the last time, telling myself I’d never need it again.   This time, a plastic soup pot proved to be the fitting medium of choice, although it had to be cut and taped as before. Thankfully, it only took two attempts before it went on. I thought the front seal, being a lot smaller, would be a bit tricky, until I found an aerosol cap that could be modified to suit. Both seals are now in place, however the way my luck runs both seals will probably leak.

I continued with the air-con bracket and tensioner, and trial-fitted the front cam gear and pulley. I put a smear of copper grease in the bore of the pulley, given it had to be beaten to within an inch of its life to get it off the first time the cam belt was changed by Sparky.

I left the water pump off for now just because I want to give myself as much space as possible for valve clearances and cam timing, but I’ll plod on with other bits and bobs if I think they won’t be a hindrance.

[Chillidoggy]

Back in the garage, and now tackling one of my all-time favourite procedures, shimming the valve clearances. Getting this one right is the ticket to a smooth running engine. Get it wrong, and and it’ll be a rough runner. Get it badly wrong, and it’s game over. I have a few spare shims from the previous C-service I carried out, but with the work that’s been carried out on the cylinder head, I suspected they were never going to be sufficient for the task. Thankfully, those nice people at Connaught Competition Engines have boxes and boxes of all different sized shims, and offered to lend me the one in the ranges I wanted, so I don’t have to order any up. The downside to this was not all shims were in the right place in the box, so I did have to spend time measuring them up with a micrometer before I started.

Last time around, the inlet valves were all within specification, the exhausts weren’t, but as I said, the head work meant those went out of the window. As I had to start from first principles, I first used identical shims for all the valves to get a baseline, and checked the clearances to determine the required shim thickness. The inlets worked out fine, however the exhausts proved a bit more difficult to get right. This wasn’t helped by me putting an incorrectly sized shim in when the magic marker I’d used wiped off it, which prompted some choice language! I’ve now got to a point where I’m happy with the clearances, though. I prefer to take them to the lower end of the specification, which has proved to be the best solution for my needs. I should finish the cam housings off tomorrow, so can continue with the sprocket change.

[Sparky]

Nothing beats a damn good shimming.

[Chillidoggy]

Indeed not!

I finally finished them off this morning with no further incidents or issues, and put the old cam belt back on for now. I’ll start the Vernier pulley cam sprocket job tomorrow, assuming I don’t get waylaid. This should be fun.....

[Chillidoggy]

The cam timing is as good as I can get it after several restless nights waking up at some ungodly hour wondering whether I’ve got it right. I ended up going through the whole process maybe 6 times to be absolutely sure I got as as close as I could. If anyone is considering changing to Vernier sprockets and adjusting the cam timing, I recommend you do yourself a favour and have a good read of Dave Lisle’s posts on the subject, because it’s not a particularly easy job to do. I would eventually have got there (probably in about another week or so!) however his assistance was invaluable in me staying sane. The cam timing is now locked off at 104/104.. I’ve marked up the sprockets to make it easier when the next cam belt change comes up.

This means I can start the easier bit of bolting on what I took off, and watching the pile of bits in the garage get smaller. I used the Clavis meter to check the belt tension, a very nice piece of kit that is, and deadly accurate, too. I’ll recheck the tension again before the engine is replaced in the car.

[tomcattom]

Hats off to you Ian, that's a very clean build you've got there.

Do the verniers make a discernable difference to the engine? What was your reasoning for fitting them, have you changed other things internally to need them or do they benefit a standard engine? I've got too many other things to deal with on mine to have given much time to fully understanding the engines on these yet!

[910Esprit]

Ian - As a non-scientific experiment, could you try a back to back tension comparison with a phone app such as Gates Carbon Drive?

[Chillidoggy]

Thankfully, the pile of bits is getting smaller, I made some reasonable progress today. I’ve got a longer PAS pump belt to see if I can get over the problem I always seem to have whereby I can’t get the PAS belt on without taking the pulley off. For a fiver I thought it was worth a punt so I’ll see whether it’s a goer, but I’ll have to do that another day.

i bought the Vernier sprockets because I was sure the head would have to be skimmed, although as it turned out it wasn’t necessary. From my previous research, the cam timing was altered to cater for emissions, and having sought advice from the experts, it would be a worthwhile thing to do.

Regarding cam belt frequency, I don’t have a phone app for measuring, I’ve always used the Clavis meter to check it. Or occasionally I’ve used a Sparky, as his nether regions resonate when correct belt tension is achieved.

[Sparky]

And that's a scientific fact.