Iain's 20XE Trackday Nova

by a nylon relife valve from sbd i know there a lot of money but worth every penny imo, just wrapp your engine in cling film that what i do, then just un wrap it next time you do something lol

looks good btw lol

I'm using bubble wrap atm, keeping the dust out but not as annoying to unwrap as clingfilm every day lol

I'd very lightly sand then polish the relife valve, i did it on one of mine and it stopped it sticking.

What Benn said ^

Dont bother with this SBD nylon crap either.

According to Haynes this is the outer gear marking to show which way round it goes:

http://iainel.co.uk/images/forums/NovaWIP2/907.JPG

And according to many resources I've read packing the oil pump with Vaseline helps it prime quicker on first startup. So I have:

http://iainel.co.uk/images/forums/NovaWIP2/908.JPG

Sanded and polished relief valve looks perfect now:

http://iainel.co.uk/images/forums/NovaWIP2/909.JPG

Oil pump seal greased as per Haynes instructions:

http://iainel.co.uk/images/forums/NovaWIP2/910.JPG

Started bolting it on and realised I won't be able to! The later pumps obviously use allen headed bolts, d'oh!

http://iainel.co.uk/images/forums/NovaWIP2/911.JPG

So that's me stumped on the bottom end. Time to do some work on the head.

Fancied doing the 'porous mod' with a hollow tube - just in case the head is suffering from the fault since I don't know the history. Bought B&Q 8mm aluminium alloy tube, and sanded it back on a bench drill till it was a better fit. Approx 7.5-7.8mm I think:

http://iainel.co.uk/images/forums/NovaWIP2/912.JPG

Positioned in (followed by Loctite 638 then tapped in to place):

http://iainel.co.uk/images/forums/NovaWIP2/913.JPG

Mmm I've done a damned good job of cleaning it if I may say so myself!:

http://iainel.co.uk/images/forums/NovaWIP2/914.JPG

First valve seat in:

http://iainel.co.uk/images/forums/NovaWIP2/915.JPG

And valve stem seal fitted using a 12mm deep socket:

http://iainel.co.uk/images/forums/NovaWIP2/916.JPG

vasaline FTW :d

Good stuff Iain.
That vaseline looks a neat job, have you used it before?

Oh Adam behave, you know I have.

Oh you big tease, youre making me blush

Not touched the Nova in about a week (which is a long time for me so far).

Been trying to get quotes for local shot blasting to strip the underside of the car back to bare metal. I don't have the patience for it with a grinder tbh (and I hate making that much noise).

Following on from a thread where I was pondering what headgasket I'll need, I realised I should try and work out my compression ratio. So I've bought a piece of polycarbonate and a burette in an attempt to do this myself.

Plug and valves fitted with a bit of grease to seal them, polycarb on with more sealing grease:

http://iainel.co.uk/images/forums/NovaWIP2/917.JPG

And a 50ml burette to measure how much fluid goes in:

http://iainel.co.uk/images/forums/NovaWIP2/918.JPG

Looks good in the pics but I used brake cleaner and it leaked through the valve. lol Any ideas for sealing them better? Or will I need to fit the springs and collets...

engine looks top notch mate!! good work!

Top work yet again Iain
Let us know how much they charge to blast the underneath
will be interested to know

Stop funking about with the blasting. Get the grinder out and you'll have it done in a day.

If its underseal on there blasting wont shift it anyway - its grinder and a wire knot unfortunately

ive always found ive had to refit the valve springs to hold the valves closed tight enough

Count, it's a mixture of: etch primer, normal primer, canned stonechip, seam sealer and Hammerite. Already gone over the underneath removing the rubbery underseal which is why I CBA doing it all again.

Think I'll have to end up doing that Mr Burgo

Stop stalling and get cracking.

Measurement with the above burette was 41.7ml in the head chamber. I have then used this calculator http://www.csgnetwork.com/compcalc.html with the following figures (assumed 1.3mm multilayer headgasket as I know their compressed thickness):

Measurements: MM
Bore size: 87
Piston stroke: 86
Head gasket bore: 88
Compressed gasket thickness: 1.3
Combustion chamber: 41.7cc
Piston dome volume: -1cc (for the valve cut-outs)
Piston deck clearance: -0.4mm (as it sticks out the block approx 0.4mm)

which gives a CR of 11.6:1, so I may use a 1.9mm Cometic headgasket to bring that down to 10.8:1 (standard is 10.5:1) as I'm using standard injection etc.

Today's progress:

Clean valve and a bunch of spring platforms and collets:

http://iainel.co.uk/images/forums/NovaWIP2/919.JPG

Brand new GM valve springs, you can see how much the old one has squished compared to the new:

http://iainel.co.uk/images/forums/NovaWIP2/920.JPG

In they go:

http://iainel.co.uk/images/forums/NovaWIP2/921.JPG

Wahey!

http://iainel.co.uk/images/forums/NovaWIP2/922.JPG

Today's de-progress

Went to bolt up my oil pickup pipe and found one of the bolt threads on the oil pump was stripped :mad: Going to clean up a spare I've got to see how good condition it's in:

http://iainel.co.uk/images/forums/NovaWIP2/923.JPG

Good work, i'm gonna have to do this to mine soon, hate the thought of it.

Shame about the pump.

tidy work on figuring out the compression ratio, must have been tedious work.

Finally sorted my front arches, both back to bare metal (or as near as I could be bothered!)

http://iainel.co.uk/images/forums/NovaWIP2/924.JPG

And painted in POR15:

http://iainel.co.uk/images/forums/NovaWIP2/925.JPG

http://iainel.co.uk/images/forums/NovaWIP2/926.JPG

Rear arches will get the same treatment, and I think I'll just chip off the Hammerite on the underside as it's only the top layer (unlike the arches). Think I'll try using my compressor to spray some UPOL Gravitex all over (thick and rubbery stuff that dries properly unlike underseal?)

http://martinbrownpaints.net/images/product_grav.jpg

Yeah it dries hard, but i've found always cracks after time. (its what the bodyshop use after doing mot welding)

Got a new front seal for my new pump housing. It's a bit thinner than the standard one so sits a bit in, but shouldn't be an issue?

http://iainel.co.uk/images/forums/NovaWIP2/927.JPG

Bolted on with new allen headed bolts:

http://iainel.co.uk/images/forums/NovaWIP2/928.JPG

Am I right in thinking the bottom pulley bolts tight to the thrust washer that sits inside the seal? Surely this will put a lot of pressure on the inner oil pump gear?

http://iainel.co.uk/images/forums/NovaWIP2/929.JPG

Thought I'd mention a problem I've encountered. There's no info on this forum about it but there is some people on MIGweb who discuss it.

The thrust washer/ring/spacer that sits inside the oil pump and behind the bottom pulley can wear a groove in from where the oil seal lip sits, like so:

http://iainel.co.uk/images/forums/NovaWIP2/930.JPG

This means it may not seal right. Some suggestions on MIG are reverse it so the groove sits inside, but since this one is a little corroded I'm not sure it'll seal 100%. Hoping to find somewhere that'll sell one cheaper than Vauxhall's £40 :roll:

cripes those arches look smooooth as.

Rear arches are now equally smooth, ordered some 3M stonechip so there'll be more pics when I put that on.

My Cometic gasket turned up so looking to get the head on and engine finished.

In preparation for this I wanted to check my head bolts have plenty of room for tightening down.

First off I measured the amount of bolt protruding when it has bottomed out in the block:

http://iainel.co.uk/images/forums/NovaWIP2/931.JPG

Then summed the gasket thickness (1.5mm), the depth of the head, and the thickness of a bolt washer:

Head:

http://iainel.co.uk/images/forums/NovaWIP2/932.JPG

Washer:

http://iainel.co.uk/images/forums/NovaWIP2/933.JPG

This sums to 84.7mm which means I've got about 5mm of thread left in the block. This should be fine as I measured the length of a new and old bolt and they only stretch about 0.2-0.3mm, does this sound about right?

http://iainel.co.uk/images/forums/NovaWIP2/934.JPG

Uprised your not putting it on studs & nuts to be honest Iain.

What's the benefits? Re-usable?

Think you need to come clean/paint and measure stuff up on mine - i can never be bothered lol

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by iainel

What's the benefits? Re-usable?

---

Yeh and you can torque them down better as they dont feel as though theyre going to snap.

Good progress with this mate.

With regards to the underseal, if you mix in a little old engine oil it makes the mixture tacky and it stays tacky. Not great to work round and it will get dirt cling to it but it won't crack and you won't get water bubbles under the surface. My old man swears by it, that and covering brake pipes with grease.

Hmm not sure about that, I really want to avoid tacky underseal for the reason that it's annoying to work near! Plan is to apply some 3M stonechip with a brush to get a textured effect, and I've ordered some Glacier White 2pack to brush/roller over it. :)

Got the bottom sprocket on and torqued to 250Nm, only managed to angle tighten it another 20 degrees and not the 40 like Haynes says but Jesus is it tight! also got the oil pickup bolted on with 8v sump gasket.

http://iainel.co.uk/images/forums/NovaWIP2/935.JPG

Ooooh look how clean that sump is, think it's been blasted cos it's quite rough:

http://iainel.co.uk/images/forums/NovaWIP2/936.JPG

Bolted on with some new M6x20 bolts:

http://iainel.co.uk/images/forums/NovaWIP2/937.JPG

Think one of the oil pump sump holes was threaded (don't think I did it?!), but not to worry as I can put a nut on the other side :)

http://iainel.co.uk/images/forums/NovaWIP2/938.JPG

On with my Cometic gasket. Quite a tight fit around the dowels but it fitted quite well otherwise:

http://iainel.co.uk/images/forums/NovaWIP2/939.JPG

As per Cometic instructions, make sure the rivets are not on the block face:

http://iainel.co.uk/images/forums/NovaWIP2/940.JPG

Head on and tightened finger tight for now:

http://iainel.co.uk/images/forums/NovaWIP2/941.JPG

http://iainel.co.uk/images/forums/NovaWIP2/942.JPG

Rocker on to keep the dirt out (dunno what colour to paint this...)

http://iainel.co.uk/images/forums/NovaWIP2/943.JPG

And a bit of mincing from the other night, my new storage for all my new nuts and bolts (each tray is a different size and length!)

http://iainel.co.uk/images/forums/NovaWIP2/944.JPG

Glacier White rocker ;)
oh and it's good to see you look after your nuts

Funny, the trays all look the same size :p

Good work though, You just need a decent car to fit it to now.

Dunno about glacier white, was thinking more red, dunno if it'll be too much though. You're welcome to come round and touch my nuts Connor. Very funny AW lol

White same as the car, awesome work dude! Engine looks great.

Looking good dude! i say either White with red plug cover (OEM look) or Red with dark grey/white plug cover..

Fancy rebuilding mine for me lol