The Beastie lives again!

[chedder]

After my Wedge decided not to play anymore on the Saturday morning of BBWF2009 (no oil pressure) The post mortem strip-down revealed that the problem of the cam skew gear missing all the teeth that drive both the dizzy and oil pump was my own fault! During the rebuild 18 months ago the spacer plate from the cam to the Duplex cam chain wheel had been put on back to front, effectively starving the cam skew gear from any oil lubrication, not only was the skew gear wrecked but also the front cover, oil pump and gears where in a bad way, fortunately on checking the big end and main bearings these showed no damage or marking, the magnetic sump plug had done it's job TFFT!
Replaced all the U.S parts flushed everything as best as I could and the Beastie roared back into life tonight with good oil pressure and no funny noises.
I'm thrilled, but I bet the neighbours aren't as I haven't put the baffles back in the exhaust yet

[Campbell]

Nice one Chedder you must be releaved to see the bottom end of the engine is ok, i gess yopu will have to wait for that 4.5 up grade.
When you had the car set up on the rollers at Carlisle what power did you get from the wheels, i forgot to ask at the BBFW...
Ill have to mail you some time as i would like to upgrade to emerald setup like your done by the same chap at Carlisle
Glad to hear the car lives again, im nearly ready with mine for the road but i have to look after 3 other cars but im getting there

Cheers

Cambelt

[grahamw48]

Really pleased for you mate, especially as you'd worked so hard to get BBWF organised.

[chedder]

Cheers Cambelt, My wallet is more relieved than I am about the engine, not much spare cash at the moment due to redundancy,still plan on the bigger lump in the future once I am gainfully employed again.
Cant remember off the top of my head what the extra wheel bhp was with the Emerald set up, not much of a gain in bhp but a huge boost in torque, 330flbs at the fly!

Chedder

P.S Like the pic of you and the lads!

[chedder]

grahamw48 said:

Really pleased for you mate, especially as you'd worked so hard to get BBWF organised.

Thanks Graham, will have to start thinking about BBWF10 shortly!

[adam quantrill]

What a relief! When I did the cam on the 350i I drilled an extra hole from the V to the front cover to aid the oiling here, sounds like you did exactly the opposite!

Just goes to show what these engines can put up with on low oil pressure, eh.

[Jonny weggie]

Nice to hear your on the road again Tony,I see that the wee rusty nail has put some scottish blood in you because you are calling your car [ the beastie ] a grand scottish name. You'll be welcomed here anytime bro.
PS - if you need a hand with anything for the BBWF10 then just mail me..
cheers jonny...

[chedder]

Thanks Jonny, the 'Beastie' got it's name from an ex girlfriend who happened to come from north of the border originally.
I will let you know about BBWF10 in the near future, another change of venue is on the cards, as it's possible that Herons Reach will be the venue for 'Back home/BNG' next year providing the hotels events team can get their act together.
Scotland would be a great location, had my Wedge up there a few times, fab roads and scenery and good weather each time I have been, not sure we could entice the Southerners up that far though, maybe we could have a mini Fest at some point Buchanan Arms at Drymen near Loch Lomend would make a great venue, good selection of single malts too!

As Adam said, it's surprising the amount of stick that these old engines can put up with, I doubt very much that the newer designs with much closer tolerances could survive running for very long with no oil pressure and a few ounces of shrapnel floating around the sump.
All being well I will road test the Tiv this afternoon after I have re-torqued all the nuts and bolts and checked fluid levels again.

Chedder

[Waynester]

chedder said:

grahamw48 said:

Really pleased for you mate, especially as you'd worked so hard to get BBWF organised.

Thanks Graham, will have to start thinking about BBWF10 shortly!

That's the spirit, i might even make it this time.

Out of interest, how many miles did the skewgear survive being tortured??

[chedder]

Waynester said:

chedder said:

grahamw48 said:

Really pleased for you mate, especially as you'd worked so hard to get BBWF organised.

Thanks Graham, will have to start thinking about BBWF10 shortly!

That's the spirit, i might even make it this time.

Out of interest, how many miles did the skewgear survive being tortured??

Just under 7000 miles, surprisingly the skew gear on the dizzy that mated with the knackered one is unmarked and in perfect condition, can only guess that it is made from a higher quality material.

[rev-erend]

Cheddar - congratulation on finding the fault and getting it fixed. Not easy with no cash.. sorry to hear of your redundancy.


Sounds like you are not going serpentine on the front..

Re BBWF 2010 .. I think Blackpool was too far for many southerners. So Scotland might be a very quiet gathering.

[Jonny weggie]

Yes, Scotland would be to far for the guys/dolls from down south, especially when theres only about 12 wedges in scotland so we dont mind travelling down south if need be. PS -- Mini wedge fest would be brill up north [tony]. In fact if you fancy one somewhere up over the borders then Sandy & I would arrange it, if enough folk are interested.
cheers jonny..

Edited by Jonny weggie on Thursday 9th July 14:30

[SEvans]

rev-erend said:

Re BBWF 2010 .. I think Blackpool was too far for many southerners. So Scotland might be a very quiet gathering.

Might drop off the end of the world at Watford.....

[convert]

Tony, Good to hear you've got it sorted.

As for BBWF10, I'm up for it no matter where it is.

[TVRleigh_BBWR]

chedder said:

As Adam said, it's surprising the amount of stick that these old engines can put up with, I doubt very much that the newer designs with much closer tolerances could survive running for very long with no oil pressure and a few ounces of shrapnel floating around the sump.
All being well I will road test the Tiv this afternoon after I have re-torqued all the nuts and bolts and checked fluid levels again.

If you comparing to the newer Rv8's 4.0 and 4.6 X-bolted. the tolerances are not much different, also as most of you know I built a semi race spec 4.0 blue printed and balanced to < 1 gram (per complete piston setup).
Well the camshaft decided to melt and fill the engine with bits of metal, destroying most of it. (not totally striped yet so don't know the full damage).
Even so the engine kept running and it was even hard to tell much was wrong, apart from it not wanting to rev past 3k. and was a little tappy. at 1st we thought it may have been fuelling or timing, as it was a new build and new ECU.
( it still had lots of Torque under 3k and would pull fine if you short shifted.)
but after finding nothing wrong we stripped the top end to find no lobes on the camshaft. well there was 4 one in each section.
So the new 4.0 non dissy engines can take a lot of stick also.
Things I know are fooked.
Camshaft
Camshaft bearings
Lifters (only due to light scoring)
Push rods (due to light scoring)
Rockers and rocker arms (due to light scoring)

Not had a look at mains or small ends yet. ( hoping it's not too bad)
Also hope the bores are still ok.

[chedder]

SEvans said:

rev-erend said:

Re BBWF 2010 .. I think Blackpool was too far for many southerners. So Scotland might be a very quiet gathering.

Might drop off the end of the world at Watford.....

Don't think any gathering of Wedges could be called quiet Rev

I suppose the Lake District is out of the question then?

Edited by chedder on Thursday 9th July 15:55

[Gandalf]

Glad to hear the fix was "relatively" simple and economic to get the beast back up and running Tony.

[chedder]

Torqued up the bolts again, dropped it down off the axle stands, fired it up and went out for a drive.......phew! All ok, oil pressure remained at 40+ psi (normal for mine) temp ok, no oil or water dripping after a 20 mile run on back roads, plus a bit of rush hour traffic, slight squeek from the Supercharger belt thats easily sorted with a bit more tension. So it looks like the 'Beastie' has a strong heart again just need to clean all the oiley fingermarks off the wings and front valance!

Chedder

[gsx600]

SEvans said:

rev-erend said:

Re BBWF 2010 .. I think Blackpool was too far for many southerners. So Scotland might be a very quiet gathering.

Might drop off the end of the world at Watford.....

Some of us can get a Wedge that far

[Monkey400SE]

Tony,

Glad all your wedge problems are sorted.

I enjoyed BBWF09 so much. Met a lot of nice fellow wedgers.

I'll be at BBWF10 wherever it is in the country.

Valerie.