Plucking up the courage... Head gasket and cambelt

James is the man to answer that question lol as this is till all new to me, I'm not sure what there doing with the bores James I was just asked to get the +0.40 sized pistons as he couldn't get them for the price I could, I was going to do it myself as I thought it was just the pistons but after stripping it I found the whole of the bottom was falling apart, even the oil pump was nearly blocked due to all the shrapnel in it.

I just decided to get a professional to do it as I would end up making a mistake, I'm now going for a full rebuild. The only thing I'm not replacing is the con rods and the long thing. The shaft thingy Kilmarnock Engine Services are doing the work for me. http://enginerepairsscotland.co.uk/

I also gave them my injectors to test

2ndyouth said:

As far as I can tell there's no damage. There's a bit of blackening which shouldn't really be a surprise. No perceptible damage to the bores than can be seen or felt with the fingers although you can feel a ridge running around the top of the bore at the point where the piston reaches. There is no sideways movement of the pistons in the bores. Not very scientific but, short of taking the block out and sending it away, there's not much I can say. Once I get a known good head back on I could do a compression test.

What other indications might I look for?

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then bores are worn ,not saying it wont run, but if you can feel a step its worn out

I'm not surprised to hear that the ridge at the top of the bore means it's worn. By definition, it must be. Problem is, I really need the damn thing on the road and I just won't have time to take the engine out, get it rebored and rebuilt and re installed. I'm hoping it will run reasonably for a few months - will a compression test give some idea of the amount of wear?

By late summer, when number one son goes off to spend my money at university, we won't need the extra wheels and I can have a winter project.

In the meantime I just want it to be safe and put one foot in front of the other.

When the time comes, what will it cost to send it off for some engineering and a rebuild?

Costing me 1.3k so far

2ndyouth said:

I'm not surprised to hear that the ridge at the top of the bore means it's worn. By definition, it must be. Problem is, I really need the damn thing on the road and I just won't have time to take the engine out, get it rebored and rebuilt and re installed. I'm hoping it will run reasonably for a few months - will a compression test give some idea of the amount of wear?

By late summer, when number one son goes off to spend my money at university, we won't need the extra wheels and I can have a winter project.

In the meantime I just want it to be safe and put one foot in front of the other.

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they will run when worn out ,so hopefully you can wait

RodneyA

What are they doing to your engine?

Now that's a Q, stripping it fully down, skim and pressure test on the head, rebored and a skim on the block as it's a tad rusty on it around the waterways, there are replacing all the parts except shaft and con rods.

I would love to get that done at the end of the summer and then, ideally, rebuild it all myself with the big book of knowledge. Sadly, with no garage or shed that may have to wait a little longer. If I tried to do it in the house, the good lady would get the electrodes out!

So, a reconditioned head has been procured and took several weeks. I've now got it on the block and was refitting the rocker assembly when a hitch occurred. I couldn't get the rearmost pedestal to seat properly. In fact, I stripped the thread on the bolt, not the head bolt but the smaller pedestal securing bolt (near side of the head).

On inspection, there is a raised collar on top of the head. The front pedestal has one as well as shown here:



But that's not a problem because the pedestal has a recess to accommodate it. However, the raised collar at the rear of the head



can not be accommodated by the pedestal since it also has a raised collar



I'm reluctant to send the head back. Does anyone know the part number for a rear pedestal with a recess rather than a raised collar? Alternatively, I could drill the collar off the pedestal but I don't have an extensive set of tools, a vice or any skills to speak of and I'd rather get the right part.

Advice would be appreciated.

they arent raised collars they are dowels that can be pulled out ,there should be 3 one at each end and one in the middle

Marvellous, didn't even occur to me. Now I just needs tap and die set to repair my threads!

What size are these pedestal retaining bolts? Metric or imperial? Probably imperial I guess.

2ndyouth said:

What size are these pedestal retaining bolts? Metric or imperial? Probably imperial I guess.

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possibly pre 1980 bolts are 5/16 unf after 8mm metric,unf is a very fine thread

Thanks for that, it's a 1985 so I guess it's 8mm.

OK, the head is on and torqued appropriately. The rocker assembly is now on and also properly torqued down. The valve clearances have been set (not easy without a crank sized spanner) then I thought I needed a quick bit of progress so I found my shiny new glow plugs -same size as the old ones. Only two will fit. Cylinders one and three seem to have glow plug holes smaller than the glow plugs. I've tried the old ones and it's the same story. Any ideas? I'm beginning to get a bit emotional over this thing.

2ndyouth said:

OK, the head is on and torqued appropriately. The rocker assembly is now on and also properly torqued down. The valve clearances have been set (not easy without a crank sized spanner) then I thought I needed a quick bit of progress so I found my shiny new glow plugs -same size as the old ones. Only two will fit. Cylinders one and three seem to have glow plug holes smaller than the glow plugs. I've tried the old ones and it's the same story. Any ideas? I'm beginning to get a bit emotional over this thing.

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Should be all the same. Are the threads in two of the holes in very bad condition, preventing you screwing the plugs in?

Doesn't get as far in as the thread. The heating element at the end stops it going that far in. All the hot spots were in the same way so I can't imagine they are blocking them. I'm flummoxed! Can't face it at the moment but I suppose the head has to come off again and possibly back to qualitycylinderheads in the south west but that would be a major pain in the neck.
Desperate for some ideas to save the head coming off again.

2ndyouth said:

Doesn't get as far in as the thread. The heating element at the end stops it going that far in. All the hot spots were in the same way so I can't imagine they are blocking them. I'm flummoxed! Can't face it at the moment but I suppose the head has to come off again and possibly back to qualitycylinderheads in the south west but that would be a major pain in the neck.
Desperate for some ideas to save the head coming off again.

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Did you locate the hotspots with the little roll pins?

It was assembled by qualitycylinderheads. The hotspots were in when they sent it to me.