sabreuk project

[sabreuk]

well seeing as ive done my intro heres the project/progress ive done on the van. well from day 1 it never ran right due to the lifters knocking and when i stripped it down i found a few things i wasnt expecting like a snapped vac hose which wasnt a big deal but i found some rust on the fire wall so decided to srt that and found more than i bargained for.

removing the scuttle panel i found that these vans have poor drainage from the windscreen so set about sorting that heres the pics of that.

[sabreuk]

heres the remedy sanding down filling priming and undersealing then painting. ill get a pic of the finished panel

[sabreuk]

so on the engine like i said the previous owner neglected the maintainence on the van and hat lifter knock so what started as a fairly easy job has turned into a knightmare. so stripped engine down replaced the lifters and all the gaskets and serviced the whole van greesing and oiling everything.

i did make a school boy error on the strip down which was i didnt mark the dizzy for timing when i took it out so that took a while to get it started which eventualy it did. it ran perfect for all of 5mins and then i heard a what sounded like a backfire and then seconds later i had the worlds amount of grey sludge shoot out the driver side rocker cover grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr head gasket. so then i stripped the whole thing down again the new gaskets i put on were trashed which cost £197 that was for the top end gaskets and service items like spark plugs etc not a happy bunny.

so from there my concern was if the heads or block had cracked but looks like it was just gaskets but need to get the heads compression tested and skimmed. on inspection of the heads the gaskets were a ticking time bomb looking at the state of them. spent hours cleaning scrubbing sanding everything to get it all nice clean n shiny ready for the new new stuff to go on. so heres some pics of all that.

[sabreuk]

so after the head gaskets went this is what i found

[sabreuk]

so after the clean up this is what i have

[sabreuk]

so next is skimming and compression tests, then getting the new parts. so the list includes new head bolts, head gasket set, exhaust manifold gasket, timing cover gasket, oil pan gasket, plenum and intake gaskets, new spar plugs again, new dizzy cap and rotor arm, new oil pressure sender, oil, coolant and a lot of patience lol. the dizzy cap and rotor arm are needed due to the old being fubar.

[sabreuk]

and the last thing something i noticed when i was cleaning up was a hole in the block which i wasnt sure if it was supposed to be there or not so was nearly crying like a little girl at this point. im told its the valley return oil channel and the hole should be there. its located by the dizzy housing in the block.

[sabreuk]

so at this point any comment help hints tips or just general abuse or banter most welcome sorry if ive bored ya all by time you got to this post lol.

[chevymaher]

Yea that a oil return hole.Looks like your doing a good job cleaning it.You should be fine.Change the oil a few times before schedule help wash out those deposits.I would get it running temp with fresh oil when your done.Put in sea foam let it idle 10 minutes then change the oil again try to get that carbon deposit built up broke loose off the rings and from inside the lifters.Then just keep changing the oil every time it gets nasty looking.Till the crud washed out.

[sabreuk]

cheers for the tip bud, i was going to flush the engine through with parafin and then follow that up with new oil so as not to kill anything with the parafin eating it. but sea foam is a good idea. the lifters are brand new i replaced all 12 of them and they have been cleaned out thouroughly along with the rods. but once its running the van will be the most pampered in the uk i dont fancy do all this hard graft by being lazy lol

[sabreuk]

Well had a constructive day today started by fixing the mrs micra a bolt fell off holding the window runner on so quickly fixed that and as it was a nice warm day thought sod it ill crack on with the van.

Well finished prepping the block and pistons etc ready for the new shinyies to go on again had a good degunge all over the engine and then the job i was putting off i dropped the sump.
Glad i did realy the strainer was blocked with mayo gunge from the gaskets blowing and the sump was holding a good 2litres of gunge in the pan so thats all been cleaned up ready to go for the new gaskets etc parafined everything up cleaned off and lightly re oiled everything so just waiting for the bits to turn up from us automotive should be here thursday, and need to get compression tests and skimming done on both heads which is costing £168 to get that done then its rebuild time.

The only thing ive got left is to flush the coolant but im goung to do that once the heads are back are to be continued..............

[sabreuk]

well the heads have been dropped off now for compression testing and skimming so ill get them back next friday. all my new shiny bits have turned up from us automotive and boy theres a fair bit of kit there anyways ill get them pics up of the new stuff going on. ill also motivate and get the pics up of how clogged the oil strainer was aswell.

so on a lighter note ive actualy completed my first job on the van aswell with nothing blowing up, no sludge being slung at me not even loss of any dna ive successfully changed both window wipers yay job 1 completed

well ive deleted the pics of the gunged up stariner oh well the sumps still off but ill have to wait until its not raining to get an after shot of that but heres the new bits.

head gasket conversion set (pretty much every gasket from the heads up)
timing cover gasket set with sump gasket
oil sender unit
rotor arm
dizzy cap
fuel filter
oil filter to replace the gunged up one
2 new spark plugs to replace the 2 that were soaked by the oil gunge
head bolts 1 head per box.

[sabreuk]

Well got cylinder heads back all good bar the £168 it cost to get skimmed and compression tested. Started on the rebuild today all was going well heads back on bits and bobs going nicely then got to the intake plenum, us automotive have only gone and sent the wrong gasket kit so this kit is called a conversion kit i told them what i needed and this is what they sent except the intake plenum is a platic type gasket thing which defo does not fit anyway you try it :-/

So now as it come complete with the head gaskets im flapping big time incase they are the wrong ones, they looked and fitted ok except mine which i took off were metal type affairs and this one is a fibre type head gasket, didnt think nothing of it until the other gasket didnt fit so im now stuck until mobday to have a chat with us auto.

[MadMaxiVan]

be careful what gaskets you use.
make sure you dont block off the water flow/check all the gaskets
metal types are very thin,whereas the thicker fiber ones will actually drop your compression ratio.
the gasket for stick them in and forget about them,is Cometic,but be prepared for the price shock.

[Lumpy]

... i was going to flush the engine through with parafin...

I had to scratch my head for a minute on that one. I think in the UK parafin is what we call kerosene here in the US. Parafin, to us, is wax.


LumpAfin

[sabreuk]

in the uk parafin is kerosene lol my bad.

on the head gasket lumpy is a felpro head gasket and fitted fine looked spot on im just a bit concerened it might be the wrong one since the other gaskets dont fit im not sure if there was any difference from 95 to the 96+ block and cylinder heads im told you can put the the 96+ heads on a 95 block but how true that is im not sure. but like i said the hg fitted spot on.

[Jasen]

in the uk parafin is kerosene lol my bad.

See, this is the sorta thing that lead us to secede from the UK...



As well as spanners and watching the show Bobbies just doesn't sound as entertaining as watching Cops

[sabreuk]

lol yep agreed then you have fag (gay )we say fag and we are going for a smoke your gas to our petrol your marker lights to our side lights, i think when we colonised ya bud we didnt have chance to finish teaching you guys the queens english lol

[Jasen]

Well you know how teenagers are, got all the answers

A fag is a small bundle of wood, well it used to be...lol
Yea you better be careful when asking where to buy a fag here, you might not like the neighborhood you get sent to, or end up in jail

[sabreuk]

lol ive seen americas most dangerous prisons on sky, a lot tuffer than ours by far. ours is like being signed in to a 4star all expenses paid hotel.