Ranger's Dec09 motor rebuild thread (lol)

#281

King Tut wrote:

[quote]Ranger wrote:

Does having the homeowners association send me a letter about my E30 on jackstands in my driveway for a couple weeks and then having a heated 10 e-mail conversation with the administrator of the association count? Not sure if she is hawt, but I could e-mail her and ask since I just put the E30 back up on jackstands again yesterday.[/quote]
Must be a yankee that doesn’t understand that one or more cars in varying states of disassembly is the norm for the South.

#282

The difference between a redneck and a rich redneck? The rich redneck has two cars jacked up in the front yard:laugh: Chuck (Actually there are 3 race cars at my house at this time!!!)

#283

Because the car spent the winter out in the driveway I didn’t get much in the way of winter projects done. But this time it’s in the garage so I’m getting to those winter projects.

Replaced another front wheel bearing. Replacing the LF bearing a couple months ago made only “most” of the bearing noise go away. And I read at BF.c that the high end guys replace their bearings every couple of years anyways, so I thought that I’d go ahead and replace the other front bearing instead of just carrying it around as a spare.

I removed the camber plates because they are all screwed up. Most of the bolts all rotate in the aluminum plates and one of the slider holes has it’s threads stripped out. I used red locktite to fasten the bolts and I’m taking them to a machine shop today to see what additional ideas they might have. Like maybe the edge of the bolts can be whacked such that the steel bolt and aluminum plate impinge on each other. Or maybe some kind of tac weld can be done.

I’ll get a thread repair kit today and repair the stripped threads over the weekend.

I swapped out my old GForce pull down harness and put in a Schroth pull up harness w/ 2" lap belt. The GForce belt will go on my passenger side so the Impact harness can be retired. The adjuster on the Impact belt are designed to resist loosening up. I find that they also resist adjusting making them a real pita.

#284

Some sand got thrown in the works this morning.

I have a spare motor. It’s head tested poorly so I’m getting a valve job done on it before I decide whether or not to install the spare motor. I went by the machine shop this morning and the machinist showed me a worn out cam. A new cam is ~$250. I could save some money and get my cam repaired by Chuck’s shop in California, but that would certainly cost me a couple weeks. &$^&$@#!!!

On the way to work I got the idea of calling Metric Mechanic. Sometimes they end up with used but serviceable parts. And now I have a cam inbound for 1/2 of the cost of a new one. And it will be here in a couple days so I’m not losing much time.

The cause of worn cams is probably the modern oils certifications that restrict ZDDP.

The machinist also whacked my camber plate bolts with a big chisel. I think the combo of chisel marks and red locktite will hold them.

#285

A regrind is about 75$ plus shipping each way. Usually the cam wears over the nose, and can be reground to stock specs without welding and still have adequate adjustment. In some cases, larger eccentrics must be used, and in extreme cases, lash caps.

Dammit man, ask before you jump. I have a good used cam that I have no use for. CB

#286

cwbaader wrote:

[quote]
Dammit man, ask before you jump. I have a good used cam that I have no use for. CB[/quote]

Oops, oh well. With my luck I’ll be buying it from you next month.

Re. “Dammit man”. I was immed reminded of Leonard “Bones” McCoy.

#287

cwbaader wrote:

Hey, I’ve got two parts cars, my old pickup and a Lemons car in the back yard. Redneck heaven! :lol:

#288

My repairs to my stripped camber plates didn’t work too well. The red locktite didn’t hold the stripped bolts. Then I tried to take them to a welder but he said that you can’t weld aluminum to steel.

That got me looking harder at other camber plates and some old threads here, and comparing them to my camber plates. I’m not sure what camber plates I have, but they have a stack height about an inch higher then anything else I’ve seen. None of the camber plates I’ve seen mentioned here resemble mine. The GC plates are similar, but mine has the bearing piece inverted to “maximize” stack height. So I said “heck with it” and bought new camber plates.

#289

I just spotted that my truck is leaking brake fluid out of the left rear like a seive. The MC reservior was not just low, but practically empty. No warning light on the dash. Cheap Dodge POS.

#290

Ranger wrote:

[quote]My repairs to my stripped camber plates didn’t work too well. The red locktite didn’t hold the stripped bolts. Then I tried to take them to a welder but he said that you can’t weld aluminum to steel.

That got me looking harder at other camber plates and some old threads here, and comparing them to my camber plates. I’m not sure what camber plates I have, but they have a stack height about an inch higher then anything else I’ve seen. None of the camber plates I’ve seen mentioned here resemble mine. The GC plates are similar, but mine has the bearing piece inverted to “maximize” stack height. So I said “heck with it” and bought new camber plates.[/quote]
Send me the old camber plates and I’ll repair them. We have a car they’d go well with…

#291

First pic shows camber plate correctly oriented. As you can see the top of the strut is fastened well below the surface of the plate. The second pic, with the quarter, shows the camber plate upside down and shows just how much additional stack height the camber plate created. It was almost 1.5"

#292

Second pic

#293

That stack height is probably needed to keep the top of the spring hat from rubbing on the inside top of the shock tower. Allen Garner’s car has this problem that must be addressed because the steering is very heavy and wants to spring in awkward directions. CB

#294

If your camber plate is rubbing you will need a shim/sleeve between the camber plate spherical bearing and the spring perch. I do not remember the dimensions. Shim/sleeves are available in metric and are designed for use with spherical bearings.

Karl M. BoschB)

#295

Knew that: I doubt the torrington bearing is even used, much less the spacers to clear the spring hat. Chuck

#296

My camber plates turned out to be Ireland. Now that I have them apart I’d have to say that I’m not crazy about their design, but I was wrong about the high stack height. The stack height seems to be about par for the course.

The aluminum plate of the Ireland camber plate doesn’t anchor the bolts very well and the bearing design seems to require that you put some washers on top of the strut, which is a little odd.

#297

I decided to press on with the spare motor even tho it’ll be another week before it’s head is ready. I’m signed up for NASA-MA’s VIR event at the end of Mar and if there’s going to be problems with the spare motor I want to find them out with some time to resolve them.

I think that I can get the motor in without the head. The trick is a place to fasten the hoist at the front of the motor. I think I’ll put in a couple 12mm bolts into the deck’s headbolt holes and then attach the front chain to them.

I pressure washed the motor and then sprayed the insides with WD40 to minimize rust. The exterior of the motor was just so godawful cruddy that I just had to make an effort to wash it.

I replaced the tbelt and prepped the block’s deck for the eventual HG and head. Then I removed and cleaned up the oil pump drive shaft access port plug. I’ll need to be able to get to the pump driveshaft later and I’ve learned that removing the access port plug is a helova lot easier if it’s already been removed and cleaned.

The adapters for oil pressure and coolant pressure also went in.

The block’s deck is a little pitted, and that’s a bummer. And ideally, I’d go in and replace rod bearings, but I’m undermotivated to spend $200 for bearings and bolts.

I installed the flywheel and clutch. And then mated up the transmission to the engine. Finally, I put the starter in.

Having learned from all the loose bolts found during disassembly, everything was locktited.

#298

Engine and tranny are in. Nothing is fastened to anything, but they are in. It shouldn’t be too hard tomorrow to connect up the shift linkage, clutch cylinder, and drive shaft. Oiling system can be hooked up I guess. Then I just have to wait for the head.

#299

Am I getting this correct?

  1. you pressure washed your motor with no head installed?
  2. you installed your block without at least taping over your open block deck?
#300

jlucas wrote:

[quote]Am I getting this correct?

  1. you pressure washed your motor with no head installed?
  2. you installed your block without at least taping over your open block deck?[/quote]

Sure, why not?

Pressure washing is is the best way to clean the completely disassembled block too. These are hard to hot-tank because in order to that you have to remove the oil pump drive shaft bearings. Some folks will tell you that removing those bearings turns the block to scrap, but I’ve read others saying that they have figured out a way to replace those bearings. But why take the risk? So you pressure wash the block, blow out the excess water and then give it a liberal spray down of WD40.

And if you can do that with a bare block, I ought to be able to do it with a complete bottom end.

Re. taping over the deck. Why? This block has been open for months, with just occasional spray downs with WD40 to prevent rust. What’s going to happen to the block that hasn’t already? It’s just a junkyard spare, not some $7k pristine thing. I’ll do an oiling system flush before the motor is ever started. Then after running it for a couple min I’ll flush the coolant and (again) oiling system.