Ouch! Those bearings look very nasty, have you managed to identify the all too apparent problem with the oil pump/circulation?
I'm liking your approach to getting the car up and running, keeping it simple works for me, the ARP bolts will keep the engine in one piece pending the completion of a new engine.
Do you reckon you can reuse the old crank? Or does the damage to the journals, combined with the damaged key-way mean a replacement is the best way to go?
Keep on trucking...
Cheers Dave. I stripped the oil pump down today and couldnt find anything wrong with it, gears all looked ok, orifices clear, pick up pipe wasnt blocked. Only thing i can think of now is if maybe the oilways in the block are blocked? how else could there be an oil supply issue. The old crank may be ok, only way to know is to get the micrometer on it, i have a 2-3" mitutoyo which will be ok to do the main journals but i need to get hold of a 1-2" to do the big end as they are just under 2" iirc. I also need to get a calibration piece for both of them. Ive inspected the journals and they dont look scored which is a relief. The keyway im not too bothered about as i think a bit of JB weld would fix that.
So, working in IT sometimes has its benefits, such as occasionally working from home. That meant i also got to pop in the garage for a while. I went to the vauxhall dealer and got an oil pump seal (£15... *******s!!!). I already sourced the gaskets etc on ebay. SO after fitting the oil pump and forgetting that i hadnt put the pump internals back in yet (doh!) i then proceed to shear off about 5 bolts. No idea what was going on but these piece of **** bolts were shearing left right and centre... i ended up taking the pump off 3 times to remove sheared bolts. Good news is i got the bottom end all sorted, arp bolts fitted and torques up, oil pump and sump all back together. New head gasket on and cylinder head sat on ready to torque up the head bolts. So all i need to do now is re-fit the cams with new oil seals, refit the cam belt and cam covers, flywheel etc and then its ready to go back in the car so a couple of hours work hopefully. With a bit of luck it will be back in the car this weekend and maybe ready to fire up (if i can source a loom for the omex ecu). Coolios.
top work mate
I would have been having a right old stress will those s**t bolts shearing. Looks like you're back on track. Looking forward to the weekend posts and some new video of her bursting into life!!
Have some personal stuff going on right now which is making it difficult to work on the car. I did however manage to get the engine sort of 'in'. None of the mounts are on yet but it is sitting on a block of wood with the gearbox bolted up. Hopefully this weekend ill be able to get it buttoned up.. perhaps not ready to run unless i stick the mbe back on it. We will see.
Were you experiencing high or low oil pressure issues?
I have also in the head pressure sensor.
On thin ice with the other half so only managed to get about 2 hours in the garage this weekend. The engine is completely back together now, all i needs is oil and coolant, connect the exhaust to the down pipe and then it should be ready to spark it up! So thats the plan for next weekend. Here are some pictures of the beast, which hopefully now has a new lease of life. Regarding the oil pressure, i didnt have a gauge on it before so dont know if it was high or low. This time im wiring up a gauge so i can keep an eye on it. Its more likely than a span a bearing and this caused some sort of oil starvation. Im using the same oil pump as before as i stripped it and it looked fine, plus its brand new. Roll on next weekend, i want to hear engine noises, healthy ones! not horrible washing machine filled with bricks noises.
I like so much this thread, good luk next weekend!!
Sad news im afraid.
the worse has happened.
My wife has completely lost the plot. She has been treaed for depression which appears to have gotten the better of her again. While i have been working away in London she has been running up huge credit card debts, about 10k, behind my back and hiding the statements so i never found out. This came to light recently in a credit check that was run against me as part of my job. This is not the first time this has happened and i vowed that if she ever did it again it would be the end of our marriage so unfortunately i am now initiating divorce proceedings and will need to sell the rally car to try and repair the financial damage she has caused and also to cover my legal costs.
I have decided the car is probably worth more in parts since most of them are brand new. It has cost in the region of 10-12k to build so far. I will be listing things separately over the next couple of weeks. hopefully in the future i will be able to rebuild my life to the point where owning a rally car might again be possible... and next time ill just ****ing buy one.
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