Tatton and New Engine Start

[RichDyne]

Engine install completed today - two solid days of graft and tomorrow is the big day to see if it starts.

Have bolted in a couple of "tweaks", namely 9.75 pistons and hurricane cam + duplex timing chain. Hope to get a bit more out of the Edelbrock 500 carb setup. Broken piston rings pretty much destroyed everything so went the whole hog and had it all completely re-machined and uprated.

Wish me luck.... if it starts and runs ok then its off to get the MOT on Thursday and tax on Friday so all being well I should be at Tatton next weekend (weather forcast looks good so far)...

How else is going - I saw our stand has place for 20 cars. Also I noticed we are next to the Rover SD1 oweners club - should we have a sign pointing to them - "COBRA DONERS!!"

See you Sat / Sun if the enigne does not eat itself tomorrow.
Rich

[TINKA]

Well done and good luck I know how you feel as I only recently got mine back on the road after the engine consumed itself

[Sidecarbod]

Are you going to run the cam in?

[RichDyne]

yep fully intend to but spent the whole day trying to get oil pressure. She fired up and within about 3 seconds realised that the oil light was still on and the pressure gauge reading zero... Switched off and decided not to try and fire it up again until I could get the oil system primed on ignition only.

Unfortunately I also cut out the old EFI wiring loom (only impact we found was an earth loss on the fuel pump relay - soon had that fixed). Not sure therefore if the light not going out and lack gauge operation is an electrical fault or if indeed I'm not getting oil pressure...

We pulled out he Dissy to check that it was properly engaged with the pump drive (and it was). Last thought (after I finished for the day of course was that Ii forgot to prime the oil filter before fitting - is it possible that an oil lock here could cause this problem?

Any other ideas?
Thanks
Rich

[Sidecarbod]

Originally Posted by RichDyne

yep fully intend to but spent the whole day trying to get oil pressure. She fired up and within about 3 seconds realised that the oil light was still on and the pressure gauge reading zero... Switched off and decided not to try and fire it up again until I could get the oil system primed on ignition only.

Unfortunately I also cut out the old EFI wiring loom (only impact we found was an earth loss on the fuel pump relay - soon had that fixed). Not sure therefore if the light not going out and lack gauge operation is an electrical fault or if indeed I'm not getting oil pressure...

We pulled out he Dissy to check that it was properly engaged with the pump drive (and it was). Last thought (after I finished for the day of course was that Ii forgot to prime the oil filter before fitting - is it possible that an oil lock here could cause this problem?

Any other ideas?
Thanks
Rich

The oil filter should be filled with oil before being fitted if you were doing a filter change but in your case as the engine has a at least a partical rebuild you need to prime the system. You do not need to remove the filter as it will fill with oil as part of the priming process.

You need to fasion a priming tool out of a piece of steel tube, you can "work" the end into a rectangluar hole so that it fits over the drive peg for the oil pump. You then need to spin the tube with a decent mains powered drill. The oil pressure should come up after 10-20 seconds of spinning. (start the drill nice an slowly and build up to a medium speed).

If the pressure won't come up after 30-60 seconds of spinning then you may have to pack the pump. (I've not had to do this with the two RV8's engines that I've built).

In my experiance of running in a cam you WILL need to have a hosepipe ready to blast the rad as it will overheat otherwise. Run the motor for 20 minutes at 2-2.5K rpm and if you have a problem just kill the motor and stop the clock. Once the problem is sorted you can then continue.

HTH,

Pete

[RichDyne]

Thanks Pete. Am going up to the car tomorrow evening and will prime the system up and all being well will go for the Cam run in on Thursday (MOT on Friday - always down to the wire )

Hopefully all being well she should be perfect for Saturday/Sunday as it is the Tatton Park Classic (my favourite local show of the year).

So any tips for ensuring an MOT pass - especially for a car that has not moved all winter?

Thanks again
Rich

[RichDyne]

Originally Posted by TINKA

Well done and good luck I know how you feel as I only recently got mine back on the road after the engine consumed itself

Tinka - what happened to yours?

[TINKA]

Originally Posted by RichDyne

Tinka - what happened to yours?

Whish I knew for sure but can only guess.

Did a sprint day at Cuborough and after spinning out and the Starter motor dislodging itself my engine started making a scraping noise. I originally thought this was the flywheel catching on the engine plate, which on my car was made of 2 pieces due to the weight on the flywheel catching it originally. When I got it home and took the gear box, clutch & flywheel off I found this was happening, so thought I had got away with it. As it was all in bits I decided to fit a sump guard so took the sump off and it was then I found what looked like a bit of tin foil in the sump which turned out to be what was left of No7's big end bearing with No 3 close behind. So I pulled the engine and stripped it to find ALL the big end and main bearings were completely shot, the con rods on No 7 & 3 were damaged and the cam shaft lobes were badly worn. Took it all to the machine shop to get it dipped and cleaned, whilst there they checked out the oil pump which was on plus one I swapped out a year earlier and was told they were both knackered due to them pumping metal fragments. All sorted now but in the end I think that either when a different engine shop I used originally re-bored and cleaned the block, or the people who balanced the engine never cleaned the oil ways properly and I never checked well enough, so basically it has been destroying the bearings from the start from crap in the oil ways. I can tell you I have never taken as much care checking everything is clean in my life when I rebuilt it. All seams ok now and I took the opportunity to install a more aggressive cam whilst I was at it. Morel of the story is check it is all clean no matter what the engine shop tell you they have done when they dip it or whatever.

and that is the short version

[RichDyne]

Well my Dad and I managed to prime the oil system today without too much fuss. Made up a tool out of some old copper pipe flattened one end and with a drill bit in the other end my dad shaped the pipe into the thread of the drill bit - perfect... 30 seconds of turning and the system tightened and the pressure gauge shot up to 25 psi - perfect!!!

Next had the rocker cover off and checked that the oil was feeding up to the rocker shafts - it was time to be happy again!!!!.

All go for the Cam Break in on Thursday morning - fingers crossed we don't get any problems - most worrying moment of the week I'm sure...

Tinka - you have me worried now that they really did clean it all out properly when they dipped the block and heads..... Glad you got it all sorted though - funny how small jobs always seem to get bigger the more you dig into them.

[Sidecarbod]

Originally Posted by RichDyne

Well my Dad and I managed to prime the oil system today without too much fuss. Made up a tool out of some old copper pipe flattened one end and with a drill bit in the other end my dad shaped the pipe into the thread of the drill bit - perfect... 30 seconds of turning and the system tightened and the pressure gauge shot up to 25 psi - perfect!!!

Next had the rocker cover off and checked that the oil was feeding up to the rocker shafts - it was time to be happy again!!!!.

All go for the Cam Break in on Thursday morning - fingers crossed we don't get any problems - most worrying moment of the week I'm sure...

Tinka - you have me worried now that they really did clean it all out properly when they dipped the block and heads..... Glad you got it all sorted though - funny how small jobs always seem to get bigger the more you dig into them.

Good to hear that things are going well.

Make sure you have a hose pipe ready when running the cam in as the rad will probably need blasting with cold water!

Pete