Discussion
Well Sat now the day for engine out, after having removed most bits over the last week, just have 4 gearbox bolts, engine mounts and nearside exhaust manifold to come off.
Any one know if it's possible to remove engine with exhaust manifolds on - with out damage to the rest of the car as they are a bu**er to remove !!
Spoke to someone else about the symptons and apparently there is a thrust washer to stop the crank shaft going foward / back, if that goes engine still runs ok but makes a lot of noise until it finally destroys the rest of the shells ! Sounds like my symptoms
Let you know more Sunday
Any one know if it's possible to remove engine with exhaust manifolds on - with out damage to the rest of the car as they are a bu**er to remove !!
Spoke to someone else about the symptons and apparently there is a thrust washer to stop the crank shaft going foward / back, if that goes engine still runs ok but makes a lot of noise until it finally destroys the rest of the shells ! Sounds like my symptoms
Let you know more Sunday
I doubt it'll be the thrust washer. It's on the centre main bearing, and for it to go as suddenly as yours appears to, it would have to be able to fall out past the crank web. In which case you'll find the raggy remains of it in the sump. For it to wear gradually that much, the rest of the bearings would be pretty tired as well.
You could test for thrust washer by trying to lever the crank pulley forward against the timing case (if you haven't taken it off yet). With a sound washer, expect no more than about 4-6 thousandths of an inch (human hair is about 2 thou). If it moves a definite distance with a clank, that may be the trouble.
Engine may not come out with the manifolds on as they may obstruct your exit. They shouldn't be THAT hard to remove; the bolts are 3/8" UNC and are more likely to be rusted to the manifold flange than corroded into the head. You may be able to get a better swing at them if you pull the engine forward and up a bit with the crane. IIRC my l/h manifold curls under the gearbox bellhousing so I doubt it would clear.
Good luck anyway
Ian
You could test for thrust washer by trying to lever the crank pulley forward against the timing case (if you haven't taken it off yet). With a sound washer, expect no more than about 4-6 thousandths of an inch (human hair is about 2 thou). If it moves a definite distance with a clank, that may be the trouble.
Engine may not come out with the manifolds on as they may obstruct your exit. They shouldn't be THAT hard to remove; the bolts are 3/8" UNC and are more likely to be rusted to the manifold flange than corroded into the head. You may be able to get a better swing at them if you pull the engine forward and up a bit with the crane. IIRC my l/h manifold curls under the gearbox bellhousing so I doubt it would clear.
Good luck anyway
Ian
I've had the lump out of mine a couple of times, the manifolds definilty need to come off and one engine mount. You'll need to get a bit of an angle on it to weave it out from under the bulkhead but with the right crane its not too bad.
Don't forget to loosen the front pulley nut while its still in the car otherwise a bit diificult!
Matt
Don't forget to loosen the front pulley nut while its still in the car otherwise a bit diificult!
Matt
Sorry to hear your woes GSX and sorry we didn't meet last week.
Tis worth doing the gearbox input seal whilst engine is out. I think it costs £3.50. I did the clutch on the SEAC when the engine was out - £100 ish I think.
Good luck with the engine. Call Ray at V8Dev'ts he's really really good on these sort of issues and very reasonably priced.
TaS
Tis worth doing the gearbox input seal whilst engine is out. I think it costs £3.50. I did the clutch on the SEAC when the engine was out - £100 ish I think.
Good luck with the engine. Call Ray at V8Dev'ts he's really really good on these sort of issues and very reasonably priced.
TaS
Tas
Which seal do you mean ? Is it on the gearbox ? Easy to do with gear box in ?
New heavy duty clutch going in to cope with the 4.5 power.
Now got everything of the inner wings to clean up, the chassis has come up a treat so need to paint the odd bit and then waxoil ?
Any one know if oil cooler is a one way system or can the pipes go back feeding either way ?
Sems to be a lot of cracks in the fiberglass around the engine bay, is it worth filling these with paste to either hold the body / hie the cracks ?
Which seal do you mean ? Is it on the gearbox ? Easy to do with gear box in ?
New heavy duty clutch going in to cope with the 4.5 power.
Now got everything of the inner wings to clean up, the chassis has come up a treat so need to paint the odd bit and then waxoil ?
Any one know if oil cooler is a one way system or can the pipes go back feeding either way ?
Sems to be a lot of cracks in the fiberglass around the engine bay, is it worth filling these with paste to either hold the body / hie the cracks ?
GSX: there are two oil seals on the 'box that may be worth considering: one is on the input shaft (ie the shaft that the clutch fits on) and the other on the output shaft (where the propshaft bolts on). For the slight amount of extra work, it would definitely be worth pulling the box out and changing them both. The LT77 box uses an oil pump to lubricate all the parts, this means that if you have a leak, there's more oil trying to find a quick way out! You'll probably notice a weep from the point where the gear linkage enters the box: 'they all do that Sir' and there's not much you can do about it unless you fancy having the casing machined to take an oil seal...
Another thing that would be worth doing is renewing the gearbox oil (it's auto transmission fluid) and the rubber blocks that hold the 'box to the chassis. They get sprayed with stray engine or gearbox oil and turn to mush, allowing the box (and hence the engine) to squirm around. In total a few quid.
I found it easier to spruce up the chassis with the engine out and there's certainly no harm in doing it. One thing I've found is that the heat from the manifolds takes the paint off the chassis nearby, so you may prefer to use a heat-resistant paint rather than, say, Hammerite.
As far as I know, the oil cooler itself could be plumbed either way, but you should have an oil thermostat (usually bolted to the shell cross-beam in front of the engine) which DOES need to be piped correctly.
Cracks around the engine bay are quite common: it frightened the life out of me when I saw the extent of them, until someone said it wasn't too important and can be easily (if messily) rectified with resin or one of those ready-mixed (P40?) mat-and-resin fillers. I used a drill bit to clean out a decent cavity and rammed in lots of P40 (or is it P38, one is just a filler, the other has glass fibres in it), then cleaned it up with an orbital sander. After two years hardly any cracking has recurred. Of course this is the are where the upper and lower body halves are bonded together; despite the chassis the shell still flexes, hence the cracks.
Guess what you're doing tomorrow...
Ian
Another thing that would be worth doing is renewing the gearbox oil (it's auto transmission fluid) and the rubber blocks that hold the 'box to the chassis. They get sprayed with stray engine or gearbox oil and turn to mush, allowing the box (and hence the engine) to squirm around. In total a few quid.
I found it easier to spruce up the chassis with the engine out and there's certainly no harm in doing it. One thing I've found is that the heat from the manifolds takes the paint off the chassis nearby, so you may prefer to use a heat-resistant paint rather than, say, Hammerite.
As far as I know, the oil cooler itself could be plumbed either way, but you should have an oil thermostat (usually bolted to the shell cross-beam in front of the engine) which DOES need to be piped correctly.
Cracks around the engine bay are quite common: it frightened the life out of me when I saw the extent of them, until someone said it wasn't too important and can be easily (if messily) rectified with resin or one of those ready-mixed (P40?) mat-and-resin fillers. I used a drill bit to clean out a decent cavity and rammed in lots of P40 (or is it P38, one is just a filler, the other has glass fibres in it), then cleaned it up with an orbital sander. After two years hardly any cracking has recurred. Of course this is the are where the upper and lower body halves are bonded together; despite the chassis the shell still flexes, hence the cracks.
Guess what you're doing tomorrow...
Ian
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