Back in beige

[neilbardsley]

Jamie your patience is amazing. Thanks for keeping us up to date and keep the faith!

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[jamie]

Back on it...

New plug installed. I cleaned the old sealant from the hole with MEK and a brass wire brush. Bloody love MEK.

Then installed a new plug - different type to the old one - which I cut down as not to block the main bearing oilway.

Applied Loctite 545, then nipped it up.

Then realised I hadn't ordered a new 60x80x10 mainseal, so I did that. Gives the 545 some time to dry...

I hope this works. If it doesn't, I'm f*cked.

[neilbardsley]

Good to hear.

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[sladey]

Good luck Jamie - fingers crossed!

[Mike911scrs]

HI Jamie
did you pick up the flywheel oil seal fitting tool from Nick's.

regards mike

[jamie]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for offering it, but I didn't - I wasn't in the UK till the end of Feb, and haven't been around much since. That's why the car is still on axle stands, even though I really hoped / expected I'd have it rolling around under its own steam by now.

I worked-out a way to get the seal in on its own (this time a proper Viton one). It's seated fine. I put the engine back in the car, and with the new plug installed, the big leak is gone.



(This was too long and would have blocked the main bearing oilway like the crap brass plug, so I chopped it in half before installing it. It's sealed with Loctite thread sealer).



That same evening I ran the engine for a few minutes, but my girlfriend came out to tell me it was too late at night for this kind of thing. So I stopped, and decided to fix some of the other leaks that were going on. It was at this point that I sheared an Aeroquip connector going to my remote oil filter. I ordered another one, but had to go away on work again.

When I got back, I had a morning spare, so replaced the broken fitting and ran the engine at 2000-3000rpm for the last seven minutes of the cam burn-in.

There were still other leaks to fix, and a horrendous scraping coming from inside the fan housing. But I had no time to sort it, so it stayed like that for a few more days.

Last night I got an hour to fiddle with the car, so I pulled the generator and fan, and noticed one of the generator fixing bolts had fallen off and the other was looks and rubbing on the fan. I fished the missing one out from the bottom of the fan housing, then replaced both with lock-nuts, and because the job was a total arseache, Loctited them on for good measure.

The engine runs really well. I can wind the idle down so slow that the tach doesn't register and you can count the revs like the ticking of a metronome. So I did - about 72rpm! Bang, bang, bang, bang... Obviously it doesn't rev-up well from this speed, so I wound it back to 900rpm or so. The engine feels extremely smooth, with very little vibration, and a really beautiful big-valve exhaust note, accompanied by a furious rasp from the stainless steel pipes.

It is extremely rev-happy and the tach needle flicks up and down quickly, despite the flywheel being standard weight and diameter. All those lightweight components earning their money! I don't know where the revs are supposed to end, but I can't wait to find out how the power curve feels.

All in all, it seems like a very eager engine.

Next job is an oil and filter change. The oil that's leaking out of the engine has that metallic look of old oil, only without the blackness. I don't know if there's meant to be this much metal in there, or whether my escapades with that first shitty brass oil galley plug might have blocked the oilway to the forwardmost main bearing, ripping it to pieces. I'm hoping it's just stuff bedding-in.

But I actually don't care anymore - now I just want it on the road so I can mercilessly rag the f*uck out of it.

[jamie]

One question - I have an oil temp sender and an oil pressure switch installed on the engine.

I think the pressure switch is for the standard 912 'idiot light' low pressure warning system, as the pressure gauge just pins to max when the ignition is turned on.

Which pressure gauge do I need to buy to work with the 911 gauge?

[neilbardsley]

Well done!


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[Gary71]

Good news! (I hope)

[squirejo]

Hooray, well done Jamie really hoping its plainer sailing from here and you are soon behind the wheel!

[inaglasshouse]

One question - I have an oil temp sender and an oil pressure switch installed on the engine.
I think the pressure switch is for the standard 912 'idiot light' low pressure warning system, as the pressure gauge just pins to max when the ignition is turned on.

Which pressure gauge do I need to buy to work with the 911 gauge?

Well done Jamie. When it's working I'm sure you'll have plenty of places to go, but if you fancy a little run to Farnham let me know.

One question - I have an oil temp sender and an oil pressure switch installed on the engine.
I think the pressure switch is for the standard 912 'idiot light' low pressure warning system, as the pressure gauge just pins to max when the ignition is turned on.

Which pressure gauge do I need to buy to work with the 911 gauge?

With apologies I don't know the exact sender you need, but I will regurgitate some advice I heard separately from two engine builders.
Advice is that, in addition to the gauge, rewire the idiot light to warn "just in time" not "just too late" on pressure drop.
So use a dual output sender like this one:
https://www.merlinmotorsport.co.uk/p/vd ... 0081030070
which has both a variable voltage to drive the gauge, and a (normally closed I think) contact to drive the light.

At the time I looked at this, I think I found one where the trigger pressure for the warning light was easily adjustable, but not sure I can find the link now.
This is somewhat useful, but would mean a t-piece and 2 senders:
http://www.thinkauto.com/acatalog/On_li ... ms_33.html

Anyway adjustable might be quite cool - engine builders' scheme would be to leave the trigger set at quite high pressure (so slightly annoyingly lights up when idling at the traffic lights) meaning any unexpected drop while at operating revs would immediately catch the attention. Adjustable would mean you could set it lower if lending (or selling) the car to folk who would expect the light to behave more normally.

Cheers, Richard.

[jamie]

Awesome. Thanks Richard.

Nice to see you at Barry's the other day!

[sladey]

Fantastic news - well done Jamie

[inaglasshouse]

Awesome. Thanks Richard.

Nice to see you at Barry's the other day!

No worries, likewise, good to see you.
View of the orange car on the way home was awesome (when I was anywhere near you). Did you enjoy the drive? Are you DEAF?!
Cheers, Richard.

[jamie]

No word of a lie - I think Darren's mongrel may have one of the best engines of any car I've ever driven. The very last bit of the rev range is hugely exciting - colossal sensory overload and a resonance that goes straight through you. What a day out.