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Engine Removal
The engine and box came out this weekend. The first job was to pick up the engine hoist. I’d arranged to borrow one of the works vans for the weekend, but ended up having to go and collect a hire van for work, and pick the hoist up in it on the way back. A LWB Mercedes Sprinter van is probably overkill for the job, but at least it was empty, unlike the works vans which are usually full of junk! So, van and hoist collected and breakfast eaten, we headed off to the garage. The first job was to pull the car out of the garage a little way and jack up the rear end: Before supporting the gearbox and removing the mount. Next job was to hook up the engine to the hoist and tension it so I could remove the engine mounting bolts: I used a strong … Read More
Stripping The Engine
Now that the car is the right way round, I carried on with preparing the engine for removal and stripping everything out of the engine bay. It took me about four hours, but it’s all more or less done now. Apart from a couple of jubilee clips that were rusted solid (I hacksawed a couple of the hoses in the end – they were perished anyway, so no great loss), nothing gave me any particular problems. The inlet manifold was fun though – who decided it was a good idea to put a bolt where no spanner or socket can get to it properly? Time, patience and two different spanners got it out eventually though. After a bit of soaking with WD-40, even the exhaust manifold didn’t give me any problems – obviously I’d tried and failed at the start of the project, as I found a spanner wedged onto … Read More
Getting intimate with a hot Swede
My Saab, that is – When I bought it, it had a leaking head gasket and some overheating issues. Well, what did you think I meant? So a couple of weeks ago, I took it into my garage and started stripping the engine bay out. All I can say is: what a pig of a job! It seems like everything on this car is bolted to everything else, or at least is in the way of something else you need to remove. I’d just got started on the stripdown when I got to the bit in the manual that says ‘The tensioner spring must now be compressed and held in compression using a home-made tool’. Aargh! In spite of reading the manual twice, I’d managed to miss that bit. So off I went home again to make my tool. So much for doing the job in a day! Day two … Read More
Heads back
I phoned the machine shop today – the heads have now been skimmed and cleaned, and are ready to pick up. Nice and clean and shiny now! As for the rest of the engine, I’ve just got to clean up the outside of the block, then the sump, and it’s all done – I can put all the bits to one side and forget about them until it’s ready to be reassembled and installed. Thankfully – I’m starting to get fed up with constantly smelling of paraffin! I also checked all the crank journal and piston sizes, no problems there – they’re all well within tolerances. So that leaves me to get a new camshaft, followers, rockers and shafts, timing chain and gears, rings, bearings, gaskets and seals. It’s not going to be cheap, but as I’ve said before, there’s no point cutting corners here. Next up after this: the … Read More
V8 power – Part 2
I’ve now got the top of the engine stripped down – what a mess! Although everything I’ve looked at so far seems to be in very good condition (with a couple of notable exceptions), the whole thing is caked in sludgy oil deposits. Yuk. A couple of examples: As you can see, I’ve got a lot of work to do – and messy work at that. I’m not too sure what’s going on with that chamber on the right – it looks like water has got into it at some point. I don’t know where from though – from the looks of it, it leaked in while the engine was sitting around, certainly the HG wasn’t blown or anything. The heads and block will be getting shipped off for dipping and a light skim, but all the rest of it is going to be cleaned by hand. I’ve done a … Read More
V8 power – Part 1
Well, as discussed before, I’ve decided to go for the V8 option. I bit the bullet a couple of days ago and won an ebay auction for an engine. I got it home today, and have already started stripping it. First impressions: As you’d expect from a £100 ebay engine, it’s looking a little rough: But apart from the obvious, it looks to be pretty solid. I’ve got as far as removing the manifold and stripping that apart, and so far everything looks fine – just a bit dirty! Of course, the real test will come later, when I pull the heads off. Whatever happens it’ll be having a rebuild anyway, but hopefully I won’t have to replace too much apart from the usual bits. It also came with a gearbox, but I have no idea what sort it is! the gearknob says it’s a 4 speed, so I doubt … Read More