The Morbidmobile Blog

[TomSaintJames]

The block has been standing in the conservatory for some time now on the engine stand, it came from a car that ran very well so even though there is a slight wear ridge at the top of the cylinder bores I will leave that alone - I'm not taking the pistons or rings out, if issues emerge then I suppose I'll have to build a bottom end to use the Penta crank and pistons I have put aside... How terrible! I hope not, if at all that'll be years down the line. The plan is to disassemble, clean, change all the gaskets and reassemble. Easy.

I've been setting up on the patio in the sunshine and heat, quite a pleasurable work environment The patio does need doing of course, all in good time.





You can't really see it here after my phase 1 clean, but this face of the block was covered in gunky crap, I think the water pump must have been leaking with an oil leak nearby also, creating creamy coloured gunky crunchy slimy crap.



Clean


Reassembled with new seals


Sump off, between my fingers was a patch of silicone/sealant around the gasket that protruded into the block innards - I'd cleaned it off in this picture.


Interesting items inside the oil pickup... This is as I found it


Now I ran into an issue, there is a double step up from the patio into the conservatory of 6 and 8", this takes some careful manoeuvring of the engine on the stand to get it in and out, when I was packing up here and pushing the engine up the step the bottom of the engine stand came off of the vertical section - the engine then went smack into the nasty lino floor cracking the only fragile-ish alloy part on the entire iron block - the crankshaft end plate... FFS! Luckily my limbs weren't in the way or it might have been very messy!





Luke to the rescue with a good replacement part, meaning I could then get on with the next step - painting. I wasn't going to paint the block due to time/effort etc, but I had an extra few days waiting for the part in the post, so why not? Amazon Prime next day delivery on Rustoleum primer and Red UHT enamel engine paint and here we go!

Cleaned and de-greased


Primed




Painted




It's not the worlds best paint job by any means, I got about 80% of the flaky/knobbly old paint off and all of the loose stuff, the primer coats went on very nicely (rattle can) but the enamel was brush on and was VERY thick, even in a warm conservatory - so even after 3 coats it's a little patchy but never mind, I'm sure it'll be covered in oil and road grime in no time.

More work has been done, but no photos yet (I'm writing this from work) so further updates to be had. I've got to get my bum in gear as Luke is coming down a week tomorrow to fit the thing!

[Laird Scooby]

Your patio is better than mine Tom, i'm almost jealous except for the steps!

I'd love to see your work reports - "This person is suffering from "creamy coloured gunky crunchy slimy crap" so should be given antibiotics and an ATF transfusion!".

[baggy798]

Who is the company that did the turbo?

[TomSaintJames]

Dave - we're saving up for a new patio, we spend a fair amount of time there in the summer so it has to be nice! All our work reports are digital with very little scope for amusing comments - fortunately or unfortunately depending on your level of inner child

Originally Posted by baggy798

Who is the company that did the turbo?

https://www.turbodynamics.co.uk/

Local(ish) company to me in Christchurch, Dorset. Nice guys and a pretty slick service. A standard turbo service seemed pretty reasonable, I think it was £100ish? Upgrades are quite a bit more!

[classicswede]

Originally Posted by TomSaintJames

I have spent waaay too much time gasket matching the inlet and exhaust ports on this head, if you look back you'll see that the exhaust ports 4 and 3 needed welding and so were a bit misshapen and knobbly (this was a Penta marine head). Cylinder 1 and 2 weren't too bad at all really, I spent more time on cylinder 3's exhaust port than 1 + 2 combined and then I spent more time on cylinder 4's exhaust port than all of them combined! It was dire. I wanted the port to match the gasket, and for a nice smooth surface for the exhaust gasses to get pushed through by the turbo.
The cylinder head is pretty much finished, I just want to check all the ports, do a final clean of the valves and assembly, then put all the nuts on the cam cover and seal the ends to prevent oil leaks. I hope to have the head on the block over the next few days.





Cylinder 1 and 2 finished


Cylinder 3 and 4 finished




It isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, I could have spent many many more hours grinding and sanding away - hours don't really have!

.

I had a engine come in that was supposed to have been a ported head. When I took the manifolds off I found someone had done exactly the same so with it been a 530 I just stripped the usable bits off and scrapped the casting as far too much work to make the head usable again.

Not sure what to suggest you do to repair the ports other than weld up the port floor and smooth it back out to restore the flow.

Sadly pub tuning still says you gasket matching and polishing is a thing

Reasons why not to gasket match

1) the ports are already too big in that area
2) by having the manifold and head port match you then must dowel the manifold to the head so that it fits exactly every time. Get it wrong and you have a ridge causing reverse flow
3) the ideal is to have a step up in the direction of gas flow. The head slightly bigger than the intake runner and the head slightly smaller than exhaust manifold. That is what already exists. making those areas bigger is only slowing the gas speed rather then encouraging flow
4) the port floor on the exhaust side has a VERY tight turn radius so the gas speed at the bottom is very slow, making it any lower is only going to make the problem worse.

The point of restriction is around the valve and that is where the porting work needs to be done

[baggy798]

Did you know you have ported it with the gaskets on upside down? 🤔

The flat part on the gasket matches the flat part at the top of the port. When you put the gasket the right way around none of the ports will seal now. The metal side is supposed to be on the manifold side too, so it won't last very long flipped.

[TomSaintJames]

Thanks for the replies folks (not sarcastic), I did not know any of the above things - I put the exhaust gaskets on in a best fit orientation.

I'm now very glad I spent pretty much £1k on welding and head work as well as hours and hours of my time 'improving' this head (very sarcastic)

[360beast]

Originally Posted by TomSaintJames

Thanks for the replies folks (not sarcastic), I did not know any of the above things - I put the exhaust gaskets on in a best fit orientation.

I'm now very glad I spent pretty much £1k on welding and head work as well as hours and hours of my time 'improving' this head (very sarcastic)

What do they look like when you have the gaskets the right orientation?

[TomSaintJames]

Originally Posted by 360beast

What do they look like when you have the gaskets the right orientation?

I'm at work now for the next 12 hours so not sure, I will check tomorrow afternoon. I do remember that they fitted quite poorly in all the other 3 possible orientations (back to front, upside down etc) - the head has had a fair amount of welding and helicoils a while back at the machining shop.

I think the inlet side will be ok TBH, there will still be a small step up in diameter from the inlet manifold to the head, I took off only a very small amount from the inlet manifold edge/lip.

[TomSaintJames]

In other less depressing news I'm almost there with the block reassembly as of this morning, everything that has been reassembled has been cleaned with fresh gaskets or O-rings there are a few more things I need to do:

-Figure out a way to get the engine off of the stand to get at the crank seal and endplate housing at the other end, but in a way that I can get it back onto the stand for manoeuvrability!
-Correct the upside down engine mount bracket that i've just noticed
-Attach the turbo oil feed and drain
-Bolt up the alternator and a/c compressor bracket (once I either find the bolts in my stash or purchase new)
-Do a final clean the bores and pistons before the head goes on







I think the oil cooler may have been leaking based on the condition of this O-ring! Glad I changed it. Also some of the old core plugs were very corroded, my tool went through two of them on removal.