£100 Mystery xk Engine Adventure

[politeperson]

Thanks, a bit cheaper then the ones I found.

[politeperson]

The block has now been crack tested, cleaned bored and decked.

The pistons were +20 8:1 Mahle assemblies. The bores need final honing.

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Just bought oil pump, lock tabs, gaskets, seals, core plugs, a clutch, water pumps, dome nuts, valve guides, tappets, cam bearings, oil filter, copper washers, valves you name it.

So my £100 engine is now £1,800ish.

I will re use my stainless exhaust manifold (SNG), hi torque starter motor (Fosseway), 123-tune distributor, and bits.

So I hope it will all be together fairly soon.

[politeperson]

Well, progress on the temporary engine is good.

The block is together as is the head. John thinks he might put them together next week, so he will need the E type sump, oil filter housing, oil pick up pipes from me.

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I found a couple of cracks on a cam cover, so I tigged them up, now its OK. Some monkey had over torqued it at some point.

So I drove the her into the garage before lunchtime today. Look what I have done.

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What a mess. Cleaning tomorrow.

So it was battery off, bonnet off, Fosseway heat shield off, manifolds off, alternator off, 123 tune dizzy out, wheels off, radiator out, steering ball joints split, top ball joints split, anti roll bar links split, cooling pipes and loom off, reaction plate off.

Look at the state of this bonnet bracket. Best not over tighten them?

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The reaction plate was tight, the bolts came out OK but on one side the plate interfered with an engine/gearbox bracket and would not clear the torsion bars.

When this bracket was removed it waggled out OK.

I bolted the torsion bar ears back in the the chassis, so I can wheel the car around.

Inlet manifold off in one.

Still very impressed with the general condition of everything. It is like working on a car that is only a few years old, such is the general preservation of everything.

Maybe i will drop the lump out tomorrow?

[politeperson]

Well, today was seats out, centre console and tunnel cover off. Propshaft bolts undone.

Rear and center exhaust off, engine and gearbox drained.

Engine stabiliser removed. Oil filter housing removed.

Gearbox supported, rear mount off. Gearbox dropped onto wood.

Engine hoist in place, engine supported. Engine mounts removed.

Down she comes, onto a trolley. Car lifted up on the ramp, and out she came.

My ramp is only a little scissor lift, bought from ebay for £1000 10 years ago. Does the job though, goes to 1.6m.

I them chucked Jizer over everything and blasted it all with a small jet washer dripping over an old blanket.

So I can now do some minor refinishing of the picture frame area, straighten the bent radiator support panel and generally tidy things up a bit.

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[politeperson]

OK progress.

The temporary motor is nearing completion. I know it is a Series 1/1.5 engine in a Series 2, but I don't mind.

Here it is so far, and my frames that are nearly ready to accept it.

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It looks like the correct E-type water pump is now tricky, so I am having to use my S2 timing case for now.

1966 4.2 timing cover

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So in summary, we have had a +20 rebore, new pistons, bearings, cams, followers, guides, valves, oil pump -10 crank grind.

[politeperson]

A 1966 4.2 timing cover that will only take the appropriate water pump for comparison and a couple more pics.

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[politeperson]

Things have progressed now and the motor and box is nearly ready for me to pick up.

Just to recap the original engine was a bit tired, so I bought a 1967 4.2 engine off ebay for £100 to refurbish and use for a bit until I decide how much to modify the original motor (or not at all).

It has been rebored +20 with Mahle pistons, the crank has been reground +10 and +something else, the whole thing has been balanced, the head has been slimmed, new valves cam bearings and stem seals have been fitted along with new timing gear, core-plugs, seals and gaskets etc.

The £100 motor turned out to be eminently refurbish-able, as it had not suffered undue corrosion of machining.

I took the opportunity to check the gearbox. It was dropping a bit of oil. The rear seal that was removed was very hard, probably original; so has been replaced along with new gaskets and o rings. That was a relatively small job when out of the car.

A new 9.5 inch clutch has been fitted in place of the old 10 inch unit that was on it. The old clutch was a bit weak, slipping a bit when I was on the beans. This meant the dowls that were in place on the flywheel had to be moved to the other position as it is drilled for both. The flywheel has had a light skim.

The engine frames have been refinished whilst the motor was out, the heater also as I had painted in satin in the summer. It is now gloss.

I also changed the steel bulkhead heater pipes behind the firewall, with new stainless items. This i covered in another post.

I took the bonnet up the road to a local painter who redid the sides to remove some chips it is now back looking good.

I had never re-calibrated the speedo after I changed the dif ratio from 3.54 to 2.88, so that went off to JDO and has now been done too.

So the next job to do will be to refit the engine and box from underneath and add the manifolds, distributor radiator bonnet etc.

I hope to add some pics soon.

[politeperson]

Well it turns out the all synchrobox has a front seal and that (unsurprisingly) was rock hard as well, so a call to Barretts yesterday has resulted in that arriving in the post and being fitted today.

So on the motor side, it is now 95% complete.

The plan is to turn it over with full oil pressure to check for leaks. This will be for a couple of hours on SAE30 with the plugs out and a capillary gauge in situ.

If this happens next week, which I hope it does, I shall post a picture of the rig. It is something else.

In the meantime, I have just about completed the underbonnet area.

Today I refitted the wiper,heater, heater valve and clipped up the loom. I checked cleaned and re wrapped the loom in "cotton" tape.

So, just about ready to bung it all back together again.

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[politeperson]

My frames before and after for comparison

Before

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After

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[politeperson]

I stopped in today to see how progress was.

Looks like the engine and box might be tested for oil pressure and leaks later today or tomorrow.

So I might be able to get into reassembly in the next few days.

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[politeperson]

So it looks like we are almost there. Gearbox off, mounted on the test rig (a big lathe).

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The engine has now been run for a few hours on SAE 30 on a 12 hp lathe at 200 rpm.

Here are an exciting couple of videos.

It is producing 50psi at 200 RPM.

No oil leaks are visible. No plugs are fitted.

John, the engine builder says he likes to build em' tight then run em' in for a bit.

Compression seems excellent, but John does not want to overstretch the lathe at the moment, so it has been a finger in the hole only test. Apparently it seems good.

The rope seal was certainly tight to start with, but is a bit better now apparently.

The block was producing quite a bit of heat from the internal friction of the engine.

So it seems to have passed the leak test and is having the final seals fitted in preparation for me taking it away later this week. I shall post the videos separately in cases anyone else is interested.

[mark10337]

This is my favourite thread of 2016. I've enjoyed seeing it progress immensely.

[politeperson]

Thanks Mark,

Not over yet.

We have to get to Geneve for the skiing.

[mark10337]

Wrong side of Switzerland - can't understand a word they say over thee ;-) I think Andrew is that side.
I'm waiting for David to find a picture of an OTS with a ski rack :)

[politeperson]

Well tomorrow is the big day, I am taking one of the Hiluxes from the farm to pick the engine/gearbox unit up.

Then all I have to do is fit it.

Its a heavy lump.

Don't want to scratch my frames.

Looking out for some dry roads over the next week or so. I need to put 500 miles on her, drop the SAE 30 and filter and replace it with 20/50.

[politeperson]

Merry Christmas.

I picked it up, and put it in.

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On the way I fitted the starter, filled the gearbox, attached the clutch slave and the inlet manifold.

Quite a tight fit I would say.

All scratches avoided.

Not particularly easy. How they did 100,000 of them beggars belief.



James

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[Hugo]

Bit late to say this, but I would be wary of spinning it at only 200 rpm - may not splash enough oil up the bores. Still, it didn't seize so I guess it must be ok ;)

[politeperson]

Well 50psi is 50psi, even if it is only at 200 rpm.

Should be enough to squirt the pistons.

[Hugo]

Well 50psi is 50psi, even if it is only at 200 rpm.

Should be enough to squirt the pistons.

I'm not so sure. That's only one third of idling speed. Don't confuse pressure with flow! The old Austin Seven engines, if you had high(ish) oil pressure it was a bad sign, as it meant the flow was restricted somewhere. I should add that I have no scientific basis for my assertion - it's just instinct. I don't like running engines below about 1,000 rpm to make sure the oil gets thrown around everywhere it should.

[politeperson]

Ho ho ho.

I think you will find that the oil pressure control valve takes care of the flow.

The excess pressure drops back into the sump.

Otherwise, your oil pressure would continue to rise in proportion to your engine revs.

You want a constant pressure throughout the whole rev range.

278 rpm is enough for the motor to produce 50psi throughout this engine.

Anyway it is too late now.