F7P Rebuild

Mr Quoter-vator Joined: 16 Feb 2004 Posts: 7405

this is my first block rebuild so thought i would show you how it goes..i only just started a week or so ago so not much missed yet.

BIG CHEERS to JIMBO for the donation of this block to me!

all i have is basically a bottom end, with no ancillaries, so im just gunna get it into as good a condition as i can...not sure how far i will take it, deciding as i go along really.

so so far i have totally stripped it down...sump off, oil pump off, pistons out, crank out, aux shaft out, and every other little nut, bolt and screw i can see... oil jets out too.

only things that are on the block at present are the core plugs, which i may replace too and the two bearing shells for the aux shaft.

well here is how the block looked when i first got it...

usual block, not massively dirty. As you can see it really was just a block with pistons and crank...everything was stripped off to get another motor working...ahem.

well after it sat in my garage for a week or so, having thinners chucked at it now and again when i walked passed, i finally set to it.

pulled the sump bolts off...all 2 of them lol...and for the first time saw the insides of an F7P!

much more compact than i was expecting but then again why was i expecting anything i had never seen before!...still im impressed.

then it sat that way for a few more days in the garage...being played with now and again...just enjoyed turning it over and watchin it work...like a kid with a new toy lol...chucked oil and wd40 and thinners at it now and again...

then sat afternoon decided to start pulling it apart....

first i took the oil cooler off...new tool required big socket...halfords...

next up pistons out...heres a shot of the first big end off...

and heres a close up of the bearings themselves

badly worn ..still no matter, they of course will be replaced.

pulled all the pistons out..they seem in very good nick..i only base this on the fact that the turning marks can still be clearly seen all round just under the crowns....rings are all in tact...no signs of slap or anything.

next i removed all the main bearing caps...the funny one by the flywheel end needed a allan key socket......second new tool...halfords.

got em all off tho...

pulled the crank out....no discoloured journals or anything.

hopefully plan to get that all cleaned up, deburred and possibly shotpeened, straightened if necessary.

once out had to remove it with the front plate attached as couldnt get the pullers claws under it on the block..had to do it after...

found a few interesting things...found the coolant drain plug at long last..always wondereed where that was...its above the aux shaft housing

also found the TDC locking hole..where u can stick a suitable rod/bolt in to engage with a slot in one of the counterweights of the crank to lock TDC...could never find this either

thats front, lower right(viewed from frt of car) of block BTW...not that most need to use it...

also...if u look to the left u may see the remains of the dipstick tube...lol

thats all that remains after i removed it!

anyways...removed the aux shaft

and all the bits in there.

pulled the oil jets out...and anything else i could see....and thats pretty much the block bare!

started cleaning it then...i found a mixture of thinners, oven cleaner (stings) and washing powder works well!...rinsed with copeous amounts of boiling water...scrubbed like feck with different wire brushes...scraped with screwdrivers..and so on..time consuming but strangely satisfying.

started lookin like this....

then so on...

at this stage i am now going to do some detailing...im going to deburr all the nasty sharp edges internally mainly...this removes possible stress risers..points where cracks would like to start (never know how far i will take this) also saves gettin millions of cuts and scratches on knuckles when working on it.

before..nice and sharp huh

got the dremel on the go...started today rounding off nasty sharp bits and have started working on casting marks, flash etc...

this one is good to see a bit of a difference between before and after...ive only worked on the lefthand side so far (not complete)

well thats as far as it is as of today!

i shall continue to work on detailing the block until satisfied...then decide what to attack next...possibly re-hone the bores...but anyway...one step at a time...

Mr Quoter-vator Joined: 16 Feb 2004 Posts: 7405

today i continued deburred and detailing the internals and have got to a point where i shall do no more to it...its smooth enough..got rid of all nasty sharp corners, flash etc....george, i know what your like with smooth things such as broom handles, so better not come near my block lol.

next up is to finish stripping the ext. ready to receive its paint job. i am thinking of using like hammerite paint, that you can buy in halfords; a grey i was thinking.

will have to allocate a day to that...washing, painting straight away and then u gotta get the next coats on within like 3 hrs of each other so cant go far from it in a day.

Mr Quoter-vator Joined: 16 Feb 2004 Posts: 7405

today i finished cleaning the block! didnt bother gettin it grit blasted, that was just being lazy. so i finished scrapin and rubbin all the old paint and muck off...washed it all down with thinners and then got some washing up liquid on it with hot water from the hose to rinse it good and proper...worked out how and where all the lube system goes (v. interesting! also sussed out the head too...they must have had long drills!)

....anyway, after washing immediately cover entire block in wd40 cos otherwise u can watch it turn orange. so now it sits awaiting a bit of a rough up on the bores, as suggested, rubbing them down slightly with some wet n dry and wd40, just to break any glaze there may be from the previous umpteen thousand miles its done. then ill wipe the bores down with some automatic transmission fluid (apparetnly very good for removing all traces of microscopic grit n shit) then wd40 it again.

then shall pick a day...rinse the wd40 off the outside and paint it.

no pics of this as u can imagine what the block looks like now...not much diff to the other pics.

also today i pulled the oil pump apart...looks alright like...nothin untoward in there...

cleaned up all the bits...

stuck em all back in, checked the clearances as indicated in haynes. all fell within tolerance so shall use it again, unless i happen across a new pump. all bits back together, filled with oil, in plastic bag.

update here...i will get a new pump...would be foolhardy to rebuild a block and not replace something as fundamental as the block

Mr Quoter-vator Joined: 16 Feb 2004 Posts: 7405

this week..i have mostly been.....measuring stuff.

ive been waiting for a while for a collection of goodies off ebay.

got a bore gauge, 0-4" mike, 0-4" depth mike, dti etc etc.....luv ebay

anyway, i just wanted to chk everything was fine with everything.

started off to measure the bores...checking for size and taper/ovality.

go one measurement and the poxy bore gauge stopped working. grr...took it apart (as u do with presicion instruments:D) mech stuck..bashed on bench...and that was the end of the bore gauge! fumed about for a bit. so meausring the bores will have to wait. the one i did manage to measure was bore no. 4 perpendicular to the crank:

measured 82.0674mm at the top with a taper of 0.006mm by 80mm down the bore! so if they all end up like that then theres not a lot to worry about

started cleanig up pistons and rods...taking the piston off the rod. polishing the beam section to remove all flash, burrs and general nasties that could cause problems...plus reduces weight by a fraction ;)every little helps!

done 2 of them now....the pistons cleaned up nice...nice to see them silver again! pics will follow. u will see that this engine has been the victim of a snapped cambelt....theres like a second set of inlet valve pockets its so bad. measuring the pistons up too (may as well)

cleaned crank, pull strip of rag soaked in thinners through all the oil ways...

measured crank journals...in both directions to check for size and roundness:

----mains--------------------big ends

---X-----Y-------------------X--------Y

2.158 - 2.158 ------------ 1.890 1.890
2.158 - 2.158 ------------ 1.890 1.890
2.157 - 2.157 ------------ 1.890 1.890
2.157 - 2.158 ------------ 1.890 1.890
2.157 - 2.157

not bloody bad eh! modern technology! (inches obviously)

also measured the crank runout to see if it was bent at all....nope! i would estimate (dial barely fluttered) that it is less than 0.00025" runout ..thats less than 1/4 of a thou! id say thats acceptable.

cleaned the block a bit more...will just break the glaze and then paint it and then that will be done.

oh yeah also did a test for main bearing journal alignment on the block by puttin a straight edge across the lot and seeing if i could get a 1thou feeler gauge under any...nope so thats good....

i think i have got too paranoid reading about what could go wrong and also too many books based on american v8s that seem to be hideous when it comes to accuracy!

oh well....peace of mind at least. shall press on when i get more time...

Mr Quoter-vator Joined: 16 Feb 2004 Posts: 7405

pics...

Mr Quoter-vator Joined: 16 Feb 2004 Posts: 7405

got new main, big end and thrust bearings thru and a set of ARP bolts...Very Happy

also got some plastigauge thru the other day so i can check the bearing clearances...altho if they are wrong not sure what the feck im gunna do about it but hopefully they;ll be ok.

honed bores too. with a drill attachement jobby

given the crank another clean up, inc. a brief polish of the journals with some very fine emery cloth. .

ideally i would now:

balance pistons and rods weights to one another.
get crank/flywheel/etc all balanced
still need to determine whether i need to open up valve pockets on pistons and do it if necessary

thingd i will definetaly do next:
check bearing clearances;
check ring end gaps
paint block
dependant on how much of the above i do, stick it all back together...

then theres a few other things to acquire before attempting swap over, such as cambelt kit, fancy a new rear mount while its off, may as well have new clutch, ...it all adds up

Mr Quoter-vator Joined: 16 Feb 2004 Posts: 7405

well i stuck the crank in....check new bearing clearances with plastigauge...all within spec so good.

also stuck the piston/rods back together. then stuck them in and checked the bearing clearances on them too...all good again.

balls..just rememebred i forgot to chk ring end gaps...do that another time.

FYI a nice little 8mm dowel about 60mm long is what you need to lock the crank up via the hole at the frt of the block.

bought some bolts to attached flywheel to crank and new clutch to fly...then hopefully take that assy for balancing and maybe lightening..who knows.

money is the prob at the mo...each thing like clutch....balancing has to wait til money is free...so things like that only happen like once a month.

still im in no rush really.

Mr Quoter-vator Joined: 16 Feb 2004 Posts: 7405

today i finally got round to painting the block.

took it out to the drive, got a bucket of hot soapy water and a brush and scrubbed it down well to remove a few months dust and leaves. then i scrubbed it down with thinners to remove all grease and hosed it down with hot water.

then immediately wd40'd the internals again to stop the rust forming, this time being careful not to get it on the outside which i had just degreased.

into the garage, next to a fire, got painting. worked out well...hour break inbetween coats.

pics to follow.

now i can reassemble the pistons with their new rings back in with the crank and new bearings and all other bits which i have availabel to put in at the mo.

due to money i will not be doing much special with this lump, no balancing or lightening or anything. just rebuilt

things holding me up at the mo:

new pump
new clutch
new idler/tensioner
cant think of the rest but basically i need all things necessary before i take the engine out my current one so the swap over is as quick as possible. money of course prevents this at the mo.

Mr Quoter-vator Joined: 16 Feb 2004 Posts: 7405

last night i gave the insides a final clean and wd40. then fitted the oil sprayers after cleaning them too.

next i cleaned up the crank with thinners. oiled up the journals a bit.

fitted new shells to the main crank journals in the block, oiled them and sat the crank in place. turned over no probs.

new shells fitted to main caps, oiled up and lowered into position. before lowering no.1 cap filled the slots down its sides with sealant. torqued all the caps down. crank turning over lovely.

next, final clean of piston/rod assy with thinners and fitted new rings to them and oiled the new shells. oiled up the bores one at a time and assembled the pistons into the bores at last using the tool.

lightly attached each big end cap using new ARP rod bolts until all were assembled in.

then torqued up the arps, which had been treated under head using the grease they supply. slackened them all and then re-torqued them again.

obviously a bit harder to turn the crank over now with the added friction of pistons and rings in bores but it does without jamming.

pics WILL follow soon

tonight i shall stick the rear and front oil seals in along with the frt plate. maybe a few other bits. whatever i can really with the bits i already have.

Mr Quoter-vator Joined: 16 Feb 2004 Posts: 7405

well my camera is playing up so i am finding it difficult to get any...only lets me download some of them for some reason. bah

heres one of the crank and pistons all back in...

the colour looks blue in that pic for some reason but it is actually just light grey

Mr Quoter-vator Joined: 16 Feb 2004 Posts: 7405

well no more pics as my camera is dire....

tonight i got the bolts needed to attached front plate...so i did.

started assembling aux shaft assy, gears in, but then the seal i got isnt actually the right one so will have to order yet another item. also need to order sump gasket, and aux housing gasket apparently.

getting there painfully slowly. really want to get this in asap, but money is holding me back.

Mr Quoter-vator Joined: 16 Feb 2004 Posts: 7405

finally i got some pics off my camera...altho it wasnt easy...
anyway. just some more random pics of progress...slow progress that is.

nice shot of the paint work...enjoy it while it lasts...it will be minging when its in.

arps in place....thanks for them Chet!

in fact big thanks to chet as i got many parts off him...inc. piston rings, arps, various seals....

ill get some more laters...

Mr Quoter-vator Joined: 16 Feb 2004 Posts: 7405

fitted idler to block and aux shaft housing with sealant and new oil seal.

fitted rear oil seal too.

need a good allen key set...the sort that will go in a ratchet...

Mr Quoter-vator Joined: 16 Feb 2004 Posts: 7405

clutch arrived yey!! getting there....slowly getting there.

Mr Quoter-vator Joined: 16 Feb 2004 Posts: 7405

more bits at last, some bought, some donated to the good cause Very Happy

flywheel, hoses for oil cooler, driveshafts all thanks to Jimbo

and an ally sump thanks to Stan.

now with the sump i can put it on and turn the bugger over at last.

flywheel before and after...

cleaned up alright...will do the job., and it also means i can fix it onto the crank and fit the clutch.

Oil pump arrived today, finnaly found someone who could get me a reasonably priced one from round here.

here it is next to the OE one...

and here it is after the baffle is attached...

filled with oil, spun the spindle and it moved oil which is good, heh.

stuck it into the block...

also u can see i bolted the oil cooler on.

tomoz, i shall put the flywheel on, clutch, hoses for oil cooler, sump....

also need to replace the gaiters on one of the driveshafts but thats not a problem heh heh.....

Mr Quoter-vator Joined: 16 Feb 2004 Posts: 7405

got a sump...(thanks to stan)

before...

and after...bit of bling, not as much as intended but got bored of scrubbing...certainly not worth it as it gets filled with oil on the inside and covered with shite on the outside...

the baffle was removed and cleaned too...

attached the flywheel...

note that one of the bolts is slightly out of pattern to the rest, this ensures you can only get it on one way...

then the clutch...

heres a few shots with the sump on...not attached yet tho due to lack of bolts...

starting to look more like an engine now.

Mr Quoter-vator Joined: 16 Feb 2004 Posts: 7405

sump bolted down.

new waterpump on...

turned it over at last...

Mr Quoter-vator Joined: 16 Feb 2004 Posts: 7405

some pipework goin on...

poor pic i know....

Mr Quoter-vator Joined: 16 Feb 2004 Posts: 7405

well it is just sitting there at the mo waiting for me to do something...

need to buy the bits to do job now...

oil
box oil
gaskets
coolant..blah blah

but i have recently acquired a new head....only a 1.8 one but i may hold off the block job until i have the head prepared and i can attach that to it as well to make a more complete engine..

hmm so many possiblilties not enough time/action/decision making

Mr Quoter-vator Joined: 16 Feb 2004 Posts: 7405

righty...as i said in t'other thread, this btm end is now goin to be the new one for the hatch. with a new head.

the btm end is still pretty much as it was, altho it is now minus the oil cooler as jimbo needed the bolt that holds it on for something....so i let him have that and in return he is giving me the one of his meg, which is thicker.

-----------------

the head that is going to go on it will be a 1.8 head, fitted with mi16 34.6mm inlet valves, running willy cams (to start with) and the ports will be worked on, using JB weld to reshape them as i want them.

this plan has been in the pipeline for a while now, spurred on by seeing stans head coming together with the same valves, albeit in the meg head, but has been a "plan" for too long. so i am getting on with it...

i have the valves and collets.

the head this very moment is being pressure tested...dont want to do all this expensive time consuming work to find it was a cracked head...

when that is clear, next off it will be off to the machinshop to have the new valve seats fitted to take the bigger inlets. that will take a few weeks,and cost a fair bit, but it must be done else i will never move fwd.

so that will happen this month.

need to get:

JB Weld - i need 8 packs approx. to do the whole head, each costing 5.99...not cheap

some sort of fucking die grinder...i have been hunting for one of these for ages...a leccy one, as i dont have a compressor..but leccy one sell for shit loads...even on ebay they always go for at least about 75 quid!...so stilll need to sort that problem...may even be cheaper to get an old compressor and buy a air die grinder...or i have been offered the use of stans, which i may well have to take up.

vernier pulleys - not cheap,

r-tuner

...lots to be done...

Mr Quoter-vator Joined: 16 Feb 2004 Posts: 7405

well it passed the pressure test ok and i am 45 quid lighter for the privilidge...maybe the valves wont get fitted this month....feckin hate not having the free cash to do as i wish...