Distributor & Tappets

Hi

Got home on Wednesday evening my last day working for DFDS; and am home for only 3 days before heading of to Aberdeen tomorrow to start my training for a week, then 5 days at home before another week away for more training so I need to squeeze some work in where I can.

I had arranged for the new head to arrive on Thursday and they didn't fail 1130 and the bell rang, can't say how impressed I am with The Car Clinic, a lovely job on the head.

So first job was to get the head painted then when dry the gaskets went on and the heads torqued down, again back to the Haynes manual for the correct sequence and torque values.

I opted to re-use the inlet manifold gasket after giving it a good inspection, it only had a very small torque at 23Nm so a good squeeze of Hylomar blue into the corners where the cork edging goes and gradually went through the torque giving it time to settle and finally finished the torque this morning.

Next came the rockers, I had these all marked up so as to get them back into the correct positions, then torqued down to 65Nm, I left the tappets until this morning and carried on fitting the Distributor.

To do this I had cyl #1 at TDC with the timing mark at around 10 degs, I checked this by putting a thin screw driver into the plug hole and could feel the piston crown; just to ensure I was not 360 degs out. Then positioned the rotor arm to #1 and fit the distributor into its hole then turned the engine back and forth until the cog messed with the gear and the distributor dropped into position. When clamped down I turned the engine until the timing mark returned to 10 degs before TDC and the rotor ended back onto #1 (phew).

If anyone remembers, I had a problem in fitting the new oil pressure sender under the fuel pump, this was because of a bend in the pump pipe which placed it over hole preventing the fit of the sender.

Well After having a talk with the car clinic I have bought a new fuel pump which does not have this bend and leaves the hole for the pressure sender clear.

It may be a bit extravagant paying £36 for a fuel pump when I have a perfectly serviceable one especially when I have a sandwich plate to fit the sender onto but I had a oil leak from the sandwich plate so thought it best to splash out. Need to change the wiring now but that's no problem.

Today's job was to get the tappets done which was quite straight forward and only took around 15mins.

During all of this I have taken great care to ensure that nothing ends up inside of the engine that does not belong there.

I have topped up the oil and given the engine a few more turns then on with the rocker covers to make sure nothing goes in that way.

I have also fitted the alternator but seem to have mislaid the belt and the tensioning bar, they are around somewhere and will be fitted once they come out of hiding.

I have also received an email from Houston Texas from a guy called Alfonso Cruz who has a Lima under restoration, his you tube name is 19charger74 so have a look and he is after any help Lima owners can give on sourcing parts etc.

Well that will be all until I return from the course and a weekend in the Lake district for a good walk around Windermere.

see ya Paul