big block to go in ashley's zephyr

[mygasser]

ok, that's it stripped ready for a cleanup now......again
neil.

[mygasser]

reassembly time tomorrow.... again, lol.
the flushing/pumping went like this. pump up bottle (set on 'jet') filled with petrol to clean the cam bearings front to back followed by drain the oil and filter. drain and refit the filter and add a gallon of diesel through the lifter valley. hand prime via the oil pump driveshaft til we had diesel gushing from all the cam bearings followed again by draining the sump and filter. lastly pour 1/2 gallon or auto trans fluid/oil in through the lifter valley and hand prime again. drain yet again followed by pouring a couple of litres of clean engine oil down the valley while the sump plug was still out to clear most all of the tranny fluid out.
so it's as good as it's going to get without a full tear down and rebuild.
hopefully we'll be able to get it back together and have a 'take 2' moment a week to the day after the 'take 1' failure.
fingers crossed it goes well and all 16 lifters keep their shape as they should've done last week.
neil.

[mygasser]

we're nearly there, it's too late for a noisy cam bed in procedure now (7.30pm) so it'll be tomorrow afternoon when ash' finishes work. the new 19" wide blade flex fan arrived from summit racing today, she's a biggun. the back edge of the blades just touch the damper/crank pulley so needs spacing forward a couple of mm to clear. easiest way to do that was to super glue 2 crash repair washers over each bolt hole on the front of the water pump pulley. that'll go on tomorrow along with the radiator and fanbelt ready for the fire up. we may 'hang' a 14" spal leccy fan i have here down the front of the rad' with temporary wiring and switch to a slave battery to boost airflow if needed during the run in. fingers crossed all goes well this time.
oh, the destructions with the melling cam kit say run the engine at 1500-2000 rpm for 20 minutes. most others say 2-2500 rpm, maybe they're being careful what with how common failures are these days. who knows but we'll do as they say.
neil.

[mygasser]

t's almost groundhog day today. it runs cooler with the bigger fan, but.... and it's a big but it's done the cam/lifters AGAIN!!!!
ashley's delighted..... not. i'm not happy either. the plan for now is pull the engine, swap the poncy bits back onto my fe and bolt that in. at least he'll be back on the road again. he said he wishes we'd left it alone now as it was ok if a little slower than he wanted. i had to say i told you so i'm afraid, i couldn't help myself
good job my glass is half full is all i can say really.
neil.

[mopar_mark]

Wow, that’s a tough one to take again…..

[mygasser]

Wow, that’s a tough one to take again…..

sure is. first time just one but this time it was 3 different cylinders and 5 lifters/lobes that are hardly showing any lift at the valve.
it makes me a bit concerned about the new cam and lifters i've yet to fit in my 318 engine
neil.

[ScottyDave]

t's almost groundhog day today. it runs cooler with the bigger fan, but.... and it's a big but it's done the cam/lifters AGAIN!!!!

Argh damm not good

[mygasser]

ok, yesterday we had a good day on the zephyr. all the engine's ancillaries are off and we're just left with torque converter and bellhousing bolts holding the engine in. the flip front's ready to lift off so we can get the crane in, so early next week we can get on with the swap.
neil.

[mygasser]

forgot to say the flip front was removed and put in my garage over the road saturday afternoon. we'll lift the engine out this evening once the weather cools down i bit.
neil.

[mygasser]

the engine came out easily enough, almost like it wasn't there long at all . we've harvested the new oil pump, it's driveshaft and the roller timing set. the pump will be stripped, cleaned and checked before we decide if it'll go into the 'new' engine. next is sit it down and remove the inlet manifold which will be swapped back to the engine it came from.
neil.

[mygasser]

so we started removing parts from my fe engine to swap some new parts in and refit the 4 barrel inlet. after whizzing the damper bolt off it's always giving them a bit of a tap with a rubber mallet before getting the puller out, you know just in case. anyway a couple of taps and it moved forward about 1/8" ish and i though that moved easily. so we gave it a tug/wiggle and nothing then we noticed it moved 'back' the same 1/8" ish. ohh noooo!. it was at this point i remembered something my dad said from time to time...... ''just when you think it's going ok you get the obligatory kick in the bo11ocks!''. that's where we're at now as that movement is crankshaft end float. i spoke to ash' this evening and he's going to have a think about where to go from here. initially he said he'll collect the car and stick it back in his garage. then he'll save up to build the full chassis and the 440 mopar engine the car was meant to have this time anyway.
neil.

[mygasser]

well the zephyr's gone back to ashley's garage for a nap while we both get on with other stuff we should've been doing. next to do here is my conservatory roof, lol.
neil.

[mygasser]

we sorted through the timber laying about along with 4 swivel wheels from screwfix and knocked up another engine trolley for ashley's fe. it's so much easier to move them around on a trolley than with a sack barrow that's for sure.
neil.