(Click on the images to see them full size)
I've had a good opportunity to use the compressor on quite a few jobs and it's made it a much easier rebuild than it could've been! That said not everything went according to plan!!
To start with the engine block need cleaning which has to be done by hand. Really I shoul've done a before and after shot but I only remembered the camera in time for the after:
It's a bit of an awkward and boring job but the end result was quite satisfying. Next up is placing the new gasket on ready to fit the cylinder head:
The new gasket seemed quite flimsy compared to others I've seen but was definitely the correct one and aside from being a bit bendy and wouldn't stay in place was fine. With the gasket in place it's time to fit the head:
So now it's starting to looking like an engine again.. however there are still some important bits missing and the one job I was a little worried about. The job I'm talking about was refitting the camshafts and timing chain, here the camshafts are in place in the engine but not bolted down:
Now it's probably worth explaining how I was planning on fitting these. Usually I would've locked the camshafts however this time I was being very careful and decided to follow Haynes and do it a ridiculous (but ultimately succesful way). I had fitted a crankshaft locking pin which you may remember I had to wait quite a long time to arrive in order to remove the crankshaft pulley... well it turns out the pain actually bent whilst removing the crankshaft pulley which is ridiculous since it should be designed for this sort of job. I'm guessing this happened due to the crankshaft pulley being overly tightened by whoever last put it back on and also me not having an impact wrench to remove it. Anyway, luckily I was able to extract the locking pin from the engine but this presents two problems.
The first problem was that when I had stripped the engine it wasn't at TDC (top dead centre) as I had thought. This made rebuilding a problem as I needed to fit the camshafts in the correct position with respect to the crankshaft. My first attempt was to use a photo I had taken whilst stripping to try and place the cams in the correct place:
You can see on the end of the camshaft there are notches which should be parrellel and clearly here are not!!! I rebuilt the engine to look like this so it would match up with the crankshaft. Sadly after bolting down the crankshaft, fighting the timing chain and guides back on I tested the engine by turning it over by hand. There was interaction between the valves and piston which means if the engine had been started by the key it would've bent all the valves and caused a terrible mess pretty much destroying all the work I'd just done! However since I checked it was alright but meant I had to go for plan B. Going for plan B also meant having to remove the recently fitted timing chain, guides and camshafts which were hard enough to put on the first time!!
The problem was that plan B required me to find TDC and without the timing peg/locking pin locating TDC is a bit tough. We had to resort to the screwdriver in the spark plug method, whilst not quite as accurate as a timing peg (a straight one that is) it did the job nicely:
Now in the above picture you may see a ruler and some screwdrivers wedged to hold the camshafts in place, after some debate we decided this wasn't good enough but still I wasn't willing to spend the money (and more importantly the time) getting a specialist Ford tool delivered. So we headed off to B&Q and after a great deal of searching found a 5mm strip of metal which was used in place to lock the camshafts. On a side note its nearly impossible to find anything 5mm thick in B&Q!!!
That was the end of Yesterdays efforts. Today I neglected to take any photos but I can be forgiven for this as I got quite a bit done: We found TDC using the screwdriver and then had to move the piston about half a turn to avoid damage whilst fitting the camshafts, the camshafts were bolted down and the timing chain and guides refitted. Now once again the moment of truth I turned the engine by hand, this time however it turned as I expected and a it had done before it was stripped. Once this gap had been bridged it was just a matter of pressing on. The timing cover and side of the engine block were cleaned and a new silicon gasket applied and the cover fitted. Next the crankshaft pulley went back on, followed by the water pump pulley and drivebelt tensioner. Once those bits were in place the engine mount was back on and the engine was once again being held in place by the car and not a jack as it has been these past weeks! Not content with what had been done so far the inlet and exhaust manifolds were refitted and the camshaft cover had it's gaskets replaced and was refitted, just as it was getting dark the power steering pump was being repaired. I'm not entirely convinced this repair will hold but removing the power steering pump is not the toughest of jobs but will mean that the power steering fluid level must be checked daily at first and if it's ok checked and refilled weekly from then on.
Tomorrow will be relatively easy in comparison, that is if everything has worked so far! the jobs for tomorrow are:
finish fitting power steering pump
attach fuel injectors
reattach wiring loom
refit air intake and various bits of body work
perform a service
buy and put in some power steering fluid
and finally after wondering what all the spare bits I've got are for I can attempt to start the car! This will either be a moment of great celebration or disappointment (as is always the case after rebuilding something).
Either way lets hope I remember to take a few photos tomorrow!
No comments:
Post a Comment