1987 3.2 Carrera Backdate project - Sladeys hotrod

[sladey]

Then it was time to actually fit the alternator. I was back and further with this over and over again because I wanted it to be spot on. First I wasn’t sure where the earth was meant to go (two terminals are named, but it’s not obvious what the third one is) - when I looked at the manual on the website it referred to a picture but there was no picture there. Eventually I found a thread on pelican which had some picture and I was able to work from that.

Then when I went to fit it I was working out where each of the cables would actually go and realised I wanted heat shrink on all the big ones to prevent any possibility of shorting so out they all came again.

Then I found the loop on the lamp cable wasn’t quite big enough for the post it had to go onto - so I drilled that out



But finally I ended up with this

Everything (almost) shrink-wrapped and securely screwed in.

Then with the AC shroud in place


I could start to add the main engine shroud


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

[sladey]

I can’t believe what a meal I made of this. First I took my time making sure everything fitted OK - cleaning out some of the threads with a tap


And then it was all screwed in place. Then I went to fit the grey shroud extension and found there were two holes that appeared to need a nut to be added from the back. I didn’t remember doing this when disassembling but I duly undid everything I’d just fastened so I could lift the shroud clear to add in the nuts and bolts for the great add-on (which are the two bolts you can see holding the grey shroud in this pic)



So then I screwed everything down once again. While doing so I noted the small holes dotted around that didn’t seem to have anything going into them

It was at this point that I remembered the piece of tinware I had taken off the main shroud a week ago. It was rusted so I’d drilled through the pop rivets holding it on, rubbed it down and painted it with epoxy mastic. The mastic was going a bit bobbly so it was a crap finish but this part is never seen so it didn’t matter.

I realised that I’d forgotten to re-attach that to the shroud. I also realised that it contained two captive nuts - THESE were where the two bolts in the great shroud should screw in

So I undid everything again, and riveted in that piece of tinware


Finally having done it correctly I screwed all the bolts in for the third time - I was getting good at it now…..


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

[rhd racer]

Good progress - that alternator wiring is always a bit tight in the shroud - I changed the alternator in situ a couple of times on the 914/6 and it was not fun, and the earth that goes on the case is normally pretty short so doesn’t allow much wriggle room.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[sladey]

I’m not sure if I mentioned it the other week but I re-torqued all the head bolts. I say re-torqued but actually all I did was check that they were torqued correctly - nothing was loose - the torque wrench just clicked out every time.

I now wanted to set the tappets - I’m not sure if I’ve done this since the rebuild 10 years ago - I can’t remember.

On reading the Bentley manual it says to find TDC you use the marks on the crank pulley but also the position of the rotor arm int eh distributor.

Now my car no longer has a distributor, but I still have it in a box somewhere. I thought it might make it easier if I temporarily refitted it.
So I did that and turned the engine until everything lined up. It lined up one of the marks on the crank pulley and the rotor arm was lined up.

Great I thought, and started to adjust inlet 1. That seemed just about right so then I went onto exhaust No.1. This was where things got confusing. There was no way I could get the feeler gauge in at all, even when I loosened off the adjustment screw several turns. Also the adjustment screw was incredibly stiff to turn, leading me to the conclusion that it was under pressure from the valve spring.

So I’d obviously not started at TDC

We then had to go away for the afternoon and evening so I started thinking it through. I reckoned I’d misled myself with the dizzy, and I also remember form previous times that when finding the TDV mark there were actually two marks at that point, with the relevant one marked Z1.

I phoned I and an had a chat about it. He suggested a screwdriver down the bore to make sure and added that it was a pity that the cylinder wasn’t vertical. But I can make it vertical……


I tipped the engine on its side and was able to confirm that No.1 was TDC just as the Z1 mark on the crank pulley was hitting the timing mark on the bottom of the fan housing. I ignored the newly attached dizzy.

So I thought I was golden. but not quite. No.1 adjusted OK but when I went to No.6 I had a similar problem to before - the valve seemed to be partially open.

I remembered that there was something about two turns of the engine and it would hit the Z1 mark twice - so I guessed that I needed to turn to the Z1 again and start the process again.

This time it all went fine. Each set of tappers adjusted properly in turn
I replicated a chart I did to keep track of everything



Most of the tappets were OK - I tightened a few but only very slightly - except for the exhaust tappet on No 3 - that had a huge gap in it, which I guess would have meant that exhaust gasses wouldn’t have been escaping very well. So it felt good to tighten that one up.

While Iw as in there I was finally able to fit the set of apart plugs I bought about 15 years ago. The ones that came out were all pretty oily.

And then I fitted new gaskets - I’ve got those fancy-ass silicon ones for the lowers so fingers crossed this helps


Also since the last time I did this I’ve bought a bike torque wrench with effective range from 3-15Nm. I was able to use that to torque down the cam covers to the required 8Nm and have some faith in the correct torque.

I’ve enjoyed working on it today as I’ve been able to take my time on stuff to make sure I get it right.

I’ve got a full day on it tomorrow and am hoping to at least get the engine back together and ready for going in

Thanks for listening/reading


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

[sladey]

I forgot to write about the stud that caused this whole thing!

This went in OK. The stud was supplied with loctite already applied to it which was useful.

I screwed it in by hand but it just kept on screwing in so to keep it at the right depth I popped a bolt in from the other side


Once I’d torques the earth cable nut up (which went fine this time) I was able to wind the bolt out by hand - leaving this


Yes I know I’ve taken the picture from the back but I wanted to show that I’ve got the same stud depth as the other studs.

Glad that part’s done now


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

[RobFrost]

I wonder if the greater tappet space on number three exhaust valve indicates that it's not getting oiled as well as the others, or even that the valve was stuck when adjusted?

Sent from my SM-G988B using Tapatalk

[jb]

I love your posts Mark.

[jtparr]

Well done Mark….top of the class for perseverance….

[sladey]

I did an update last Sunday but it was lost in the upgrade. Will try and re-do it this weekend along with current progress

[greeny27rs]

Hi Mark
following your a/c install with great interest as I’ve been thinking about doing this for some time.
Also as the engine is being tweaked and box rebuilt there is a set of heat exchangers that are here if any good to you as I’m going to SSIs. They aren’t in bad nick. Also a virtually new Dansk I think back box which looks standard but sounds fruity!
Let me know if any use to you.
All the best
Nick

[sladey]

Thanks for the offer Nick but if I changed from the 993 heat exchangers then I’d probably go to to SSI’s myself


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

[sladey]

OK So I posted an update last week-end but it was lost in the forum update, so I’ll try and remember what I posted.

In answer to the suggestion that there had been excessive wear on the camshaft or rocker due to oil starvation I took the cover off and had another look



The wear looks OK, and I can’t see any swarf round there or in the oil so I’m calling that OK for now.

Then on with the assembly

Gotta love new gaskets


I was having issues screwing in the first barrel nut so I took the time to tap all the threads out - very satisfying




Then I had a bit of an issue with the cylinder head temp sensor. As I was moving wires around I realised it seemed loose. To tighten it up I needed a 14mm ring spanner with a slot cut into it so it will slip over the wire. Funnily enough I had one!

Here’s the offending sensor


However when I tightened it up it seemed to be just spinning. I got it relatively tight and with the wire in the grommet and the grommet secured in a nicely bolted piece of tin I thought it would be OK

When Posted that last week Wayne suggested it would be sensible to put some thread lock on there. He had some left over so I nipped round to borrow it (thanks Wayne)

It’s not the best solution but it’s better than it was. It’s all pretty solid down there so hopefully it won’t move.

Looking at it in more detail the thread on the sensor is OK. The thread in the head looks powdery. The sensor whereas is about 8mm long but the depth in the head is about 15mm.

I’m thinking that a proper repair would doing a thread repair/timesert type thing. I don’t know how you would do that in a ‘flat bottomed’ hole. The thread is M10x1 and Ive seen thread repair kits for that (aimed at spark plug holes). If anyone has Ideas I’d be interested to hear them.

For the moment though it’s gone back in with a fair bit of locative on the threads so will hopefully be OK for a while.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

[sladey]

Next was the heater hoses

Now I’ve never been entirely happy with the diameter of the hoses I’ve been using. In order to fit onto the 993 heat exchangers I had to order 76mm ID hose.

The problem is that they are too big to fit onto the pipes coming off the fan


or more closely,


So I had a look online for pipe reducers and eventually I found these. I also ordered some 60mm pipe that would fit the pipes coming off of the fan and go into the smaller part of the reducer


These are after I’d cut them down to size and drilled holes to fit them.

This, however was after I’d managed to f*ck one of them up big-time.

I needed to cut the adapters down to size and thought it would be good to do it on the lathe.



It was all going well and then BANG! And it wasn’t


I spent the next half an hour beating this back into shape

It ain’t perfect but it’s close enough

So then I was able to fit them on.

I went from this fitting, which is basically a piece of aluminium bent into a circle and wrapped around the hose


And now it looks like this

The reducer tube screws into the heat exchanged using the two bolts which go into rivnuts. The hose is then securely fitted on with a hose clamp. A much better solution

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

[rhd racer]

Neat work Mark


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[sladey]

Thanks Wayne