Discussion
AA turned up about mid-day in a flat bed truck, loaded it on and took us all home.
Now sitting in garage bonnet off and me thinking umm maybe not as easy as I thought to take the engine out !!
Took lots of pictures of how all wires / pipes go etc, but probably good job I've got a working Wedge for reference as it looks a nightmare !!!
Other than that Michelle and I enjoyed ourselves immensly and look foward to the next one !!
Now sitting in garage bonnet off and me thinking umm maybe not as easy as I thought to take the engine out !!
Took lots of pictures of how all wires / pipes go etc, but probably good job I've got a working Wedge for reference as it looks a nightmare !!!
Other than that Michelle and I enjoyed ourselves immensly and look foward to the next one !!
Probably not as much grief as you think!
For a start, you can whip off the fuel injection and inlet manifold. With the rocker covers and inlet gasket out of the way you can see the camshaft and all the valve train and can spot any major breakage thereof. Then it's a simple matter to unbolt the exhaust manifolds and pull the heads off (I heard that the noise seemed to be from one side of the engine rather than both, so you may be lucky and just have a bent valve or similar). The camshaft can be changed with the engine in the car, but for the amount of extra work, you may as well take the engine out.
After that, if it looks like bottom end, drain the oil, drop the sump and take the bigend bearing caps off. By now you'll know if it's a bigend bearing. If not, you can then push the pistons out if you like, just to save weight
If you then need to take the engine out, you can whip off as many ancillary bits as you see fit and hoist away. Stripped this far, it doesn't weigh much...
One thing that may be worth doing: have someone stand on the brake pedal with the car in gear while you crack the crankshaft pulley bolt with a long bar. It's a pain trying to do it with the engine on the floor...
I took my engine out by myself, and only needed Julie as ballast on the engine crane when I put it back because I made a longer jib for the crane and it wanted to tip over with the engine swinging from it...
If it's any help, I had a full rebore, set of pistons and rings, bigend and main bearings reground and reshelled, all new conrod bolts, head bolts, gaskets (of course), oil pressure relief valve spring, pilot bush etc. and all parts & machining came to about £800.
Ian
For a start, you can whip off the fuel injection and inlet manifold. With the rocker covers and inlet gasket out of the way you can see the camshaft and all the valve train and can spot any major breakage thereof. Then it's a simple matter to unbolt the exhaust manifolds and pull the heads off (I heard that the noise seemed to be from one side of the engine rather than both, so you may be lucky and just have a bent valve or similar). The camshaft can be changed with the engine in the car, but for the amount of extra work, you may as well take the engine out.
After that, if it looks like bottom end, drain the oil, drop the sump and take the bigend bearing caps off. By now you'll know if it's a bigend bearing. If not, you can then push the pistons out if you like, just to save weight
If you then need to take the engine out, you can whip off as many ancillary bits as you see fit and hoist away. Stripped this far, it doesn't weigh much...
One thing that may be worth doing: have someone stand on the brake pedal with the car in gear while you crack the crankshaft pulley bolt with a long bar. It's a pain trying to do it with the engine on the floor...
I took my engine out by myself, and only needed Julie as ballast on the engine crane when I put it back because I made a longer jib for the crane and it wanted to tip over with the engine swinging from it...
If it's any help, I had a full rebore, set of pistons and rings, bigend and main bearings reground and reshelled, all new conrod bolts, head bolts, gaskets (of course), oil pressure relief valve spring, pilot bush etc. and all parts & machining came to about £800.
Ian
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