Water pump, Fuel pump, Oil pump

Hi

Well that's it for another 2 weeks, back to work in the morning its been a productive if somewhat dirty 2 weeks off. Cost me 3 boiler suits this time home as they where so oily and dirty Lynne wouldn't allow them in the washing machine, good job I have spent my life collecting them from every company I have worked for; stacks in the loft.

Just little bits and pieces today, I started with the underside as I reckon I'm about done on the top till the gaskets arrive. The sump backing flange came of easily, just 4 tabs to lever over and a screwdriver under to break the rust seal, pretty bad underneath. Something I have realised and the reason I am fitting a half spoiler is that there is zero protection from the elements (anyone have a full spoiler for sale), I am hoping the half spoiler does something about this as everything above halfway up the engine is in reasonable condition for the age and everything below requires either replacing or a lot of blasting. I had to get the needle gun out to get the rust of the sump where the flange sat, it is now in the powder coating pile.

After this I had to remove the original rubber gasket, this required cutting out on the flywheel side as the circular section ran around the bearing housing or seems so. Anyway its cut now, when I come to refit I will have to get a razor on the rubber to ensure its a nice edge and a good amount of hylomar to make sure it seals. I then cleaned as much of the crank and block area as I could and it looks a whole lot better, I was a bit worried about the oil ways being blocked with gunk so I squeezed a good amount of oil in the main oil way from the filter and let it run through then put compressed air down and blew everything out, I repeated this twice and then filled with oil again. I also took the cover of the oil pump to have a look inside and was surprised at how clean this was so a good spray with lubricant then oil and put back.

The fuel pump came out next, this looks quite new so it has just has a good clean then primed and its first top coat put on.

The water pump was a bit more difficult to remove as the bolts were well rusted but I attacked them with a file until I had a reasonable hex then the next size down socket and  out they came. I fully expected the inside of the pump to be gunged up and I wasn't wrong.

Just goes to show it isn't just engine oil that need changing regularly, it was just soft sludge and cleaned off easily, then a wire brushing and like new.

I have masked off areas of the pumps and have given it a good coat of primer.

The parts I bought of eBay have arrived, the new thermostat and the thermostat housing, front and back, the Granada they came from must have better underside protection as they are in good condition and are now in the powder coat box. I also received the timing plate, a little rusty but the numbers are very prominent, just need blasting and spraying. I imagine that the oil pressure switch works just fine but I am not going to take any chances so I have ordered a new one for £8.

Well that's it on the car, now to start clearing up the mess I've made.

See ya

Paul

Engine, Removing Tappets

Hi

Another day working on the engine, I am really enjoying this kind of work. I think its cleaning of the oil and dirt and seeing a nearly new; if somewhat rust pitted engine coming through.

I have also been on the phone and ordered a new set of Payen gaskets, I have already bought a upper and lower set of gaskets from eBay relatively cheap, but as the saying goes 'you get what you pay for'. The Payen set have been recommended by Terry B as being the best out there, I contacted F W Thornton who stock and will source Payen gaskets for any make or model. Excellent service, I called this morning and they had the sump gasket in stock but not the top end, by the end of the day they had tracked down and got in a set ready for dispatch. I have bought the later model rubber gasket as fitted to my engine, the set I have already has the earlier cork type in 4 sections, I have also bought the top end set that includes the head and intake gaskets plus the valve stem seals also I expect everything required for the thermostat housing. Costing £95 including delivery, very pleased.

I have carried on working on the heads and have them as far as I can go until I receive the valve stem seals then just a matter of re-fitting the valves and the heads are ready for fitting.

After I finished the heads I dragged the heaviest engine lifter ever created out again and rebuilt it, I should have realised when I first fitted the engine to the stand that I could not turn it over but it never dawned on me to try it.

Once removed from the stand I lowered the engine onto my workbench to remove the stands swivel mount.

Still a heavy lump even with the heads off.

My choices were to either remove the locating pins for the clutch fitting, fit spacers to the stand offs to give room to turn or to remove the flywheel, out of these three the removal of the fly was the easiest and safest also I needed to check whether the oil seal was good. I marked the flywheel's vertical position before removing the bolts and re-fitted a bolt to the flange to show the vertical  position on the engine.

The back of the flywheel has a number of balancing drill outs, so it is very important to reposition it correctly so I have backed up my pen markings with a good deep scratch in the vertical position. I cleaned up the flywheel and the back of the engine and had a good look at the seal, I have a spare but seeing as how this is not leaking I thought it best to leave well alone.

I then bolted the stand swivel back on and craned it back onto the stand.

Next was the tappets, but a good clean first, I had been giving this area a regular spray to loosen the oil and now it was easy to clean up, I also cleaned up the piston crowns and polished up the gasket faces. The engine turns nice and freely and a good oiling kept it that way.

The tappets are easily removed, I found that a long legged allen key worked very well at removing the tappets, I worked on one 4 tappet section at a time and turned the engine until each tappet was at its highest point before inserting the allen key and lifting.

A lot of dirty oil was trapped in the lube section and was released with the removal, a good clean and oil then back in and onto the next one.

I have also given the inside of the liners a polish and oiling, I turned the engine over for each cylinder a few times oiling and cleaning each cylinder until the paper towel came up clean.

Looks like a different engine from just a few days ago, will have to make the underside look the same but that's for tomorrow.

See ya

Paul

Stripping heads

Hi

Looks like its going to be engine engine engine for the foreseeable future.

I did manage to get some parts bought though, a new 81 deg thermostat is on its way and I have also managed to buy a pair of thermostat housings front and back along with a timing plate, they look to be in good condition and with the thermostat cost around £25 far better than the £94 for a new housing and gaskets +£9 p+p. Once powder coated they will look like new, I have also bought some lapping paste and a spring compressor from Halfords and got to work.

I started on the air inlet manifold; I plugged the holes to prevent any oil and dirt getting inside the air intake section and gave it a good spray to loosen the oil. Once clean I again used the wire rotary brushes and gave it a good brush ready for a coat of primer.

These have been transformed with only a couple of hours work.

Next came one of the heads, I have to remove the valves not only to clean out the sludge but also to check for any damage to the valve seats and of course to give them a little lap. Well I'm pleased to say that there is no real damage to the seats, there is a little pock marking which I imagine is the norm for the millage.

I cleaned all of the oil off and again attacked with the wire brushes.

The photo is a little out of focus, the inlet is as you would expect in excellent condition but the exhaust has a number of pits.
I removed the valves by compressing the springs with the special compressing tool.

This tool works on a cam type action, the head goes over the spring and the threaded anvil goes under the valve and tightened, the handle is then moved forward to close in a pliers type action. I was a bit weak for this and had to use a length of pipe to move the handle.

Once compressed the collets can be removed and the compressor removed, all the parts from each valve have been marked and kept separate ready for lapping.

You can see from this photo the oil and dirt coating the valve and spring, these soon cleaned up nice then I put them on the wire wheel and polished them.
I then lapped the valves in, the inlet just required a medium and fine lap while the exhaust required coarse, medium then fine to get a good finish.

I have only lapped one set in and shall carry on tomorrow if I get a chance.
I have a new set of rubber stem seals for the re-fitting of the valves but I am a bit unsure about the quality, I have sent an inquiry to a firm concerning a set of Payen gaskets as I have been told these are of the best quality and shall ask if they have oil seals as well before I re-build the heads.
See ya
paul

Stripping the Engine

Hi

A good day today I really enjoyed working on the engine, I do this for a living but its different when its at work and a fuel pump requires a crane to lift it and an injector has to be carried on your shoulder.

Also a lesson to be learn't for those out there who are somewhat reluctant to get your car serviced, strangely I was watching a  you tube video   I came across about not changing your oil regularly and guess what I found when I had a look at mine.

I started out this morning having to go and buy some more rotary wire brushes as I wore mine out yesterday and also payed a visit to the nut & bolt man at the flea market and stocked up on stainless nuts & bolts, got quite a collection now. I carried on cleaning the engine starting with the air inlet manifold and had this complete when I thought I'd get the rockers of and have a look inside, this is what I found.

The dreaded black sludge; I guess this car has had either no oil change ever or its been a long time ago as it only has 35,000 miles on it, maybe 10 15 years ago when the last owner was keen.

There is no way I would ever leave it like this so its back to my original plan of a full strip down and clean, it also leads me to wonder whether the last owner was diligent about the unleaded additive so I am going to remove a valve or two and check the seats. So where to start, rockers first so off they, came and got a good cleaning before putting safely away.

I stripped the first one and cleaned with white spirit and it came up nice in comparison the the other.

This one got the same treatment.

All clean

These were easy enough to strip and clean, I left the centre hold down in position and cleaned around as the Granada manual says that a groove is cut at the end and should face down for the oil ways, well there is no groove on mine. Maybe I have a later model, think I'll bin the Granada book and stick to the Capri, anyway I left the centre hold down in position so as not to lose the oil way position.

I next started on the heads working from the centre out I broke the torque on the head bolts and removed all of these, I then removed the air manifold bolts and nuts and was ready to lift. One problem that I had is that the engine stand is bolted to the bell housing holes, which is the only place it can go, unfortunately there are 3 clutch positioning pins that stick out of the fly wheel which prevent the engine from turning more than a few degrees either way as they hit the stand off. To remove the distributor I really should have have unit #1 at tdc but I can't turn the engine to get it there, the other problem I have is that the timing plate with the engine markings on is so badly rusted that there are no readings (just bought a used one from eBay) so it would be difficult to find where #1 tdc is. So I had to remove the distributor without it being in the correct position which I imagine will cause me all sorts of problems later on.

Once all the bolts were removed I took a large screwdriver to the corners of the heads and lightly levered until the seal was broken

 The air manifold lifted straight off

 The gasket was well stuck but a large knife slide around lifted it off.

Lots of sludge in the corners.

The heads came of next

On close inspection its not just black oil deposits but the waterways are also partially blocked and I bet the oil ways aren't much better.

So a lot of work ahead to get this mess cleaned up and a lot of learning, I shall buy a spring compressor tomorrow to check on the exhaust valves and see if there is any damage, I have a full gasket set already bought so no problem there. The main problem is getting the engine to turn, I may have to get the crane out again to take the weight while I fit spacers as I doubt I'll be able to remove the pins inserted in the flywheel but I'll give it ago.

See ya 

Paul

Stripping the Engine

Hi

Today been all about cleaning the engine and removing parts, I started at 0830 and finished at 1700 and I reckon there is still a day or 2 left.

I started with the oil pan, it was pretty thick down in the depth's but once the heavy was removed and a good spray with thinners soon had it all clean. They was also a fair amount of rust on the flange area which should not be there, I cleaned all of the rust from the flange with a wire wheel so it should seal well. I still need to remove the flange strength bar that runs under the flange and is kept in place with knock over tabs. I had already bought a set of upper and lower gaskets, but I can see by the quality of the one that's on that the ones I bought are not of sufficient quality to go back as the sump gasket is in 4 pieces as opposed to the 1 piece rubber that's fitted. I have seen the rubber one in the Burton's for around £25 plus p&p, I originally said no chance at that price, but I don't want to have to remove it again so I'll bite the bullet.

The sump pan went back on before I started cleaning as the inside's are bad enough and don't need any more dirt inside.

I think because of the state and the long time it been sitting in the gunk I may remove a couple of the bearing caps and check the shells as I remember on the tv program A Jag is reborn that the bearing were damaged by acids in the oil after sitting for a prolonged period.

I am very pleased with the engine stand and I now realise that there would have been now way of doing it without the stand although it is very hard to turn, I would have had a smear of grease on the turning part if I had of realised.

I started on one side and removed the exhaust manifold, I managed to remove 1 nut with just the impact wrench but the other 3 would not budge even with heat applied so I had to resort to a chisel to split the nuts, even then it took a lot of persuasion to get the manifold of its gaskets.

Once of I got stuck in with the rotary wire brushes.

This was the really bad oily side and it is coming up very nice, when this was done I turned the engine and repeated on the other side.

The removal of the viscous fan took a bit of a effort, the Haynes manual for the Granada had every fan in apart from this model but I found it in the Capri manual, this fan has the temp controller fitted and instead of 4 bolts at the front, it has a concealed nut at the back. Unfortunately it is very difficult to get at without the correct spanner which is 32mm or 11/4" and only 5mm thick, you can fit an adjustable by removing 2 of the pulley bolts but the spanner still won't fit as the remaining 2 bolts won't let it slide in as the gap is to small. So I took my large adjustable to the grinder and made it fit, a couple of good whacks, remembering its a left hand thread and off it came.

With the fan off I was able to clean up the front of the engine.

The water pump connection was removed and the thermostat housing, this was in a pretty bad state.

Somehow I don't thing this will have worked to its optimum performance, I need to look at the pump next and see what condition this is in, they are plenty of these available so no problem sourcing one.

Plenty to carry on with in the morning, especially the 3 sheared bolts that need drilling & tapping and who knows what else.

See ya

Paul

Engine removal

Hi

Today was pretty momentous as far as the strip down is concerned as it was engine out day.
It came out quite easy, due mostly to all my prep work yesterday i had only left 2 nuts to remove. The hardest part was the building of the crane, this was originally from a garage before the paint shop got it and its a pretty heavy bit of work.

The strop I had was a tie down strap around 20ft long so I had to knot it to get the correct length, not something that's allowed on board ship. But no one was looking. 

I started to lift with a central pull, the strop was through the exhaust manifolds but the engine started to drop back, so I used the jack to lift the back of the engine and fitted a second strap around the fly wheel.

It took a bit of shaking to free the rubber mounts, but once loose it was just a matter of guiding the engine clear of obstacles while pumping the handle.

Once the engine was clear I pushed the car back until well out of the way of any accidents.

I have been waiting for this moment since the day I opened the bonnet.

Once free I could really get a good look at the engine and see just how bad and where the leaks are, and it looks like the rocker covers may have been to blame all along.

Now time to strip it, I removed the mounts first and put these in the powder coating box, the clutch came next.

This was pretty simple, just a half dozen bolts and the pressure plate dropped of (literally)
I still had one of the hoses attached from the water pump and this is what greeted me

I hope the ally parts clean up as I have been searching on eBay and a thermostatic housing is on for £96 plus £8 postage, so once they are of a lot of careful cleaning work ahead of me.

The last thing I had time for was the removal of the oil pan,removing this has created a lot more work as 3 of the bolts have sheared, strangely none sheared where the oil leaks are, wonder why.

Don't know why I was surprised with what I found in the sump, although this is the first one I have had off so it may be normal, somehow I doubt it though. Just thick black gunk.
The inside of the crank case needs a good clean as well.

I was just going to rest the edges of the block on wooden blocks until I saw the condition inside so I had a need of an engine stand were I can spin the engine. My boss Richard was going to show me how to strip and re-build the engine but now that I have lowered my ambitions I saw no reason to drag Richard down here just to help clean the engine. He has an engine stand he was going to lend me but as he is building a mini for his son and may need his, so I am now the owner of a lovely red Machine mart stand.

Before bolting it on I got out the wire brush and cleaned up the fly wheel and plate gearbox mount gasket as the stand bolts onto the gearbox mount.

I am pleased with progress so far, and will carry on with the strip down tomorrow.

see ya 

Paul

Stripping the engine

Hi

Thing went pretty much as I had planned today;

After dropping Lynne's car of at the paint shop I got a lift home from Tony the boss who is going to do the re-spray on my car and he wanted to have a look, I am pleased to say he is quite looking forward to doing the job. He is already suggesting paint and say's Jaguar do a lovely plum colour with flecks in it and is considering designs.

My friend came round after to help turn the car and this went without a hitch, I am pleased to say that the steering which was one of the MOT failures performed great, as if it was powered, I even gave the car its first wash and the garage floor as well.

While Ben was here I roped him into helping with the bonnet, only 2 bolts each side and 1 in the stay, which is also looking a little worse for wear. I have seen these on a site for around £15 maybe car solutions, I'll check.

Now it was time for the engine;

I have borrowed the lifting gear from Tony who dropped it of when he delivered Lynne's car and a proper heavy one it is to.

I started by photographing and videoing all around the engine then labelling everything as my dread is not having a clue where bits go when re-building, so it was hoses and electrical connections first. Its not before time either that the hoses are being changed as the fuel pipes especially are quite bad, I would imagine that they were flexible once but now its as if a steel tube was inside the rubber. The inside of the water hoses are quite bad also although these are full of a white oxide so the pump will have to come off and either be replaced or see if it cleanable.

The alternator and bracket was next, this to was seized and no way would it move to tension the belt without a crow bar on it, I have had to leave the bracket in place as the torx bolt attaching it to the engine is seized solid. I have it soaking in WD40 overnight but even with the impact gun it would not budge.

I'll have another go when the engine is out as the bracket is for powder coating.

The next major part to remove was the carburetor, lots of connections on this to remove so as well as the photos and video I did a drawing of each connection.

The first part was the throttle control linkage and bracket, only 2 bolts hold this on and 1 clip to the carb.

On having a good look at the linkage I can see basically how to detach the wire and mechanism from the frame as again this needs to be powder coated, I shall spend a bit more time having a good look and a read of the manual before I attempt it.

Only 4 nuts holding the carb down and these came of without a problem and I carefully laid the bits down as they came off, I did not realise how many plates and gaskets were under the carb, somehow I thought it was just bolted down.

There are a total of 7 parts here, gaskets plates a hose and the carb, I have been making enquiries about the carb; is it Solex or Pierburg. Every search comes up with the same carb, and the answer (i think) is that they are one and the same animal. The outside looks stained and dirty but looking inside from underneath it is pretty spotless, so a good clean and polish and a good blow with compressed air on the spring should clean it up. I now need to track down the gasket set for re-fitting.

The inside of the air intake manifold is also spotless and to keep it this way I have plugged the holes and shall make a cover to go over the top for when the dirt is flying. You can see the white oxide on the thermostat housing, this is also inside the pipework, the lower pipe was mostly plugged with the stuff.

I have undone what bolts I can on the engine mounts and hope its enough to lift, if not I shall undo the bolts holding the brackets to the engine, other than that the engine is ready to lift, but that's a job for tomorrow.

See ya 

Paul

Monday 13/02/2012

Hi

Ever woke up in the middle of the night knowing there was something you forgot to do and not quite knowing what it is. When I got up it dawned on me that I hadn't fed the wiring thru for the sender unit when I fitted the tank yesterday, so first job this morning was to check

and my dream came true. There was the wire still in the filler hole where I had tucked it away to prevent it falling down, easy you would think, just feed a bit of wire thru, tape the ends on and pull it, na; I had to drop the tank to make room which meant removing the brackets again then feeding the wire thru.

I fitted the sender yesterday but when I tried to fit the rubber gasket it had shrunk quite a fair bit, I have stocked up on gasket material so I made a new one and it fit in nicely.

Once the petrol tank was back in position I masked off the rest of the area and set up the Tetra spray gun, I had already bought a new tin and just had to heat it up in boiling water for ten minutes, the result is quite impressive.

Hell it comes out so good I may have the whole car done in Tetra Shutz black although it goes a little dull when dry.

When buying the Tetra I also stocked up on oils and brake fluid, I still had to finish filling the diff so I bought another liter of Comma gear oil and topped it of till it came out off the fill hole. I have also bought 2 Lt of semi synthetic gearbox oil, I have drained the gearbox and its just sitting there dry inside, I am a bit worried about moisture getting in so I'll fill it tomorrow and give it a turn by hand every now and then to coat what gears I can in oil.

My main task today was to get the car on its wheels so it can be turned around, 2 jobs to accomplish first.

The engine was being supported by a axle stand which had to go, so I strapped the engine to the inner frame and tightened up hard.

I then jacked up the engine to release the stand and it held quite well.

Next was the brakes, although the handbrake works independently of the hydraulics I still wanted it all up and running while the wheels were of to save future wheel removal. I still have not found the nuts to secure the brake pipe to the new brackets or the old brackets either, but to future proof and to save losing the new bracket I have fitted it. When I eventually get nuts I shall just clamp the brake pipe and fit it.

I have a auto brake bleeder that works of my compressor and make single handed bleeding a doddle.

I started at the rear drivers using DOT 4 and sucked it through until the bubbles started to go, I then moved to each side of the front doing the same topping up the reservoir as it dropped and worked my way around to the rear again. To test the brakes I jammed a piece of wood under the steering wheel holding down the brake pedal then went round each wheel hub trying to turn it. All tight and would not turn.

Nice and simple now just 4 wheels to bolt on and I was ready to lower, it was at this point that I remembered doing the suspension on my MX5 and that I had left the bolts slack until it was down on its wheels, I know this is the procedure for void bushes but was not willing to take any chances with my poly's.  So back under the car and everything got slackened off.

I had forgotten just how high I had the car jacked up and had to lower it in stages but eventually I had it on the garage floor, now the difficult bit of getting back under the car and tightening all the bolts again, this is one low sitting car. Once tight all round I moved onto the tie rods, the front subframe had to be jacked up a little and the 2 bolts slackened off to center the rod and bushes then tightened until the bushes where held in the small sockets for them although one of mine was mostly rusted away it still tightened Ok.

Now it is back on its wheels I can see that my efforts the other day trying to straighten the steering wheel was in vain as it is still out of alignment so another job on the list.

I have given a friend a call and he is coming round tomorrow morning before college to help me push the car around so the engine faces into the garage, when its out of the garage I can get the pressure washer out as both the car and the garage floor / walls are desperate for a clean, you can also see the oil under the car from not tightening the drain plug hard, this will have to be gunked.

So now that the suspension and underside are all finished/ish its time to move onto stage 2, the engine.

I have, after discussion's watered down my engine re-build plans and the reason is the reason I sought and bought a low millage car. It just don't need it

So the plan is still to remove the engine as it needs the oil leak found and sorted, the oil pan and removable parts taken off for powder coating or painting. 

The heads will remain on and they will stay un-leaded.

The rest of the engine block will get the same treatment as the gearbox, a lot of hard cleaning work with wire brushes and elbow grease and painted with engine enamel.

The carburetor will just be cleaned up and re-fitted, if and when it don't work then its byby Solex hello Webber.

New plugs and leads

New hoses.

New K&N round intake

So new challenges and plenty of mistakes to make ahead of me.

See ya 

Paul