Pulled out my engine today

[RaceDiagnostics]

I got the inlet manifold back from the welder today. I am pleased with the results!

Now what can you do with these tools and 4hours?

Still a few small areas to finish off with a Dremel.

Finally I dropped the timing cover and the inlet manifold off at the vapour blaster, that will take a week or so.

Still lots more cleaning to do.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

@RaceDiagnostics Your continuing attention to detail is highly commendable, keep up the good work, and the updates.

 

[roofman]

I bet Retirement is a wonderful thing...enjoying this thread here

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

Retirement is fantastic, I love it. I started work when I was 12 and worked since holding down two or three jobs at a time so I could retire as young as possible. Did my last day of paid work on 31th October 2017 designing part of the large hadron collider in CERN when I was 54. Yes I'm a lucky barstuard.

 

[Cobbler]

Retirement is fantastic, I love it. I started work when I was 12 and worked since holding down two or three jobs at a time so I could retire as young as possible. Did my last day of paid work on 30th September 2017 designing part of the large hadron collider in CERN when I was 54. Yes I'm a lucky barstuard.

Been retired 10 years, love every minute of it!

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

Well a bit of a boring day, but it had to be done.

Lower inlet manifold and throttle body strip down then wash.

Far from perfect but it will never be seen.

The seal for this part of the rear cover plate is listed separately but is NLA, just looks like a strip of closed cell foam. The full part with the seal is also listed but is ~£250, so I will refurbish this one.

Rear cover also needed washing.

That's enough cleaning for today.

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

Someone suggested to me to use oven cleaner to tidy up the lower intake manifold, it didn't really work very well.

Potassium Hydroxide + pitted Aluminium => Hydrogen + "soot that is not easy to remove"

Perhaps they were thinking about a different recipe for oven cleaner or smooth aluminium.

After wire brushing and power washing, marginally better than what I started with.

I needed a wire brush for cleaning/polishing parts so .....

The used CAM bearings from ebay also arrived, they are in perfect condition.

Taking a closer look at the valve guides. The intake guides have plenty metal to drive them safely into the head from the top end, however the exhaust valves look very delicate at the top edge which will take the driving load.

Here is a pc of both intake and exhaust guides from the top and below, plenty meat on the bottom of both.

I'm thinking about removing the snap rings and driving the exhaust guides in from below. Either way I will heat the heads to 80degC and buy some dry ice to cool the guides and drive in tools down to -80degC.

The original MB "drive in" tool (110589011500) looks like this. Looking at it's shape it would seem to me that the drive in pressure must be applied to the top edge rather than some lower part of the guide. Hence the need to ream the guides after use.

 

[Seadog]

Pressing them in might be kinder to them.

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

If only I had a press....

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

I worked out that the CSA of the top edge is about 30sqmm and that the snap ring shoulder is 50sqmm so I'll make a tool to push down on the snap ring shoulder from the top then replace the snap ring..

 

[minimutly]

If only I had a press....

I would suggest you find one to use..
One question about those cam bearings - are they guaranteed to line up?

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

I'll find out when I bolt them to the head. No guarantee. However others have bought used and found them to be a good match with no binding.

 

[Bullet2012]

Still love the attention to are applying to this project

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

This morning I made up two new tools to push in the inlet and exhaust valve guides.

The tool pushes on the shoulder of the intake guide and one the snap ring locator on the exhaust guide.

Chased out the spark plug threads.

Then cleaned up the starter motor.....

....and got them primed.

 

[Bullet2012]

Very nice work, it must be great to be able to make your own special tools. Very jealous.
I am still very much enjoying your thread.

 

[jsf55]

How about warming the heads, freezing the guides and a big G clamp ? o

 

[armalites]

I friend of mine got a mate to fit some valve guides to a Land Rover head. Mate worked at place where they rebuild classic race engines. They had the heads warmed and the guides chilled and had some issues. He ended up buying some new guides and went to Land Rover engine specialist and he said there was nothing clever they just pressed them all in in about 5mins

@RaceDiagnostics top work on the tools for fitting the guides, personally I would drop the head/valves and guides off and get the seats recut. We just had a Fordson major head skimmed,new guides fitted and valves lapped. £140 all in. We did supply new valves and guides though. Even without the skim we would have spent hours getting the seats tidied up. The stupid thing is getting the little end bushes fitted and line bored cost more than the head work.

 

[OJCar]

<snip>
Finally I dropped the timing cover and the inlet manifold off at the vapour blaster,
<snip>

Who do you use for Vapour Blasting, if you don't mind my asking?

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

I used these guys, https://www.vapourblastscotland.co.uk/ for the first time.

I told them top spend no more than an hour on the parts I dropped off to limit the cost, I'll pick them up tomorrow so I'll see what kind of a job they have done. I have also asked them for a quote to ceramic coat the exhaust manifolds.

As for the head, I will heat it to 80degC in a water bath and chill the guides in dry ice to -80degC before driving them in.

Here is a pic of someone doing a 380SL, they don't have the same stupid thin exhaust guide. He heated the head but didn't chill the guides and didn't have any problems.

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

I paid for 1 hour of vapour blasting on these parts. Not perfect but more than good enough.