3.5 V8 Rebuild

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im going for a single two barrel carb on mine, must look in the book for the timing on a 4.4 though. still a fair way off though as real steel are waiting for the main stud kit to come on from the us before they ship my mega order and i am still waiting for the cam and lifters from aus.

noisy and mark, what did you use for sealant on the inlet manifold to head joints?
 
im going for a single two barrel carb on mine, must look in the book for the timing on a 4.4 though. still a fair way off though as real steel are waiting for the main stud kit to come on from the us before they ship my mega order and i am still waiting for the cam and lifters from aus.

noisy and mark, what did you use for sealant on the inlet manifold to head joints?

I just used the rubberized inlet gasket, it seemed like it would make a rather good seal.
 
ive got an all in one valley cover and inlet gasket, not much squidge in it tbh so not sure where to go. silicone seems to be too weak!
 
Well yeah you get the valley gasket that doubles as an inlet gasket, one thing I noticed make sure you get a good one, the all makes PR2 was a nice unit, FAR better than the shonky cheap one that came on that engine originally and far better than old skool tin one, then I used some loctite non setting gasket sealant round the water ports, got it from Halfords actually can get a pic tomorrow when back at garage, good stuff, used it on timing cover etc, all water joints.

Similar to hermatite blue
 
is it the black silicone one? thats hat I have already if so, its ok but you can pick it off easily if you ever need to. post the pic to be sure though bud.

trouble is the tin one with a little bit of paper on it is my only option as the valley on the 4.4 is bigger, it came from aus at great cost. I wonder if I need something harder and more sticky like what I spent hours cleaning off from around the water ports when I stripped the heads. fook knows whats it was though
 
So bit of an update, engine was running well when I done the 20min run in until a knocking rattle sound appeared.
Had a look under the sump and knowing I had previously mixed up the con rod caps, and couldnt see much.
But I thought it would be best to have another go at matching them as I was unsure where the sound was coming from and it was the only logical option I could come up with.

Got the engine out and re did the matching and now I'm happy its good, started her up and sure enough the rattle is still there!
so last night I had listen with a bar in my ear, or though I didn't hear the same noise, I was hearing more noise from the drivers side cat.. I angled my head between the cat and sump and sure enough it was a bit louder on the cat side!

I took the y section with cats off, gave it a shake and sure enough lots **** rattling around and also some bits come out the pipes! cut open the cats and removed all the remaining ****, welded them up, refitted and hey presto no rattle!


But now its having problems starting, seems the spark is very weak after entering the dizy..
I changed the rotor and cap and still no luck.
I try for a while and of course it floods and all the plugs are wet with fuel.
Also it seems it is a bit random weather it wants to spark at all!
once it runs it seems fine, the timing is good, got 12v at the coil both sides, the rotor and cap are good clean with no big scratches to arc across and got brand new genuine leads.

Bit unsure on where to go from here, finally seem to get it sorted to get yet another issue, Dam landys! lol
 
bit of an update, checked the distributor pulse with an oscilloscope and it was very intermittent, sorted the gap on the trigger and now its much better, but still not starting.
Seems it gets flooded before it get a chance to start, don't know if its down to a weak spark (after going into the cap)
also checked the rotor, it seems a good size, it must be close to the contacts.
 
Found today i have a dead ECT sensor, Can anyone tell me what resistance it reads (cold) so I can stick a resistor in place and try start this thing!

Thanks :)
 
Well took a guess (the range is from 150 Ohms hot - 28k Ohms cold) with a restister of 6.8k and BOOM it fired up!
No knock or rattle! so it was the cat.. freeky that Ben and I both had rattles from the cat, must of been the faffing around with the exhausts to get em on and off causing something to come free inside on mine
 
Okie dokie, I want to try and sort my rough running between 2k n 3k rpm. Im pretty sure its not to do with the distributer as I checked timing at 2500 and its what it should be. It stll does it with the vac removed, so must be something else.
Could the fuel regulator cause it? And does it need to have a certain length vac pipe as I had to trim it as the end was split. Also is it correct to get the vac from the plate on the rear of the plenum that houses the idle valve? Seems a bit of an odd place to me!

Any input appreciated as ide love to sort it!
 
Also have another questions for the v8 gods, when the cars moving the idle speed is rather high, is there an adjustment to lower it a bit?
 
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