Cranking it up

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When I rebuilt my motor I missed a criticals step ; I forgot to time the right hand camshaft 180 degrees from the left hand one. This means that the engine was running compression cycles on each side of the engine at the same time...this is why it went "BUMP...BUMP...BUMP". The solution is to re-time the camshafts.

First thing is I had to do is decide how to get at the right cam to re-time it. I had two choices, either drop the engine again or try it in the car. If I dropped the engine I would have to dump all the new oil, disconnect and dump the power steering fluid, all the hoses and electrical connections and so on. I just could not do that and besides I was bored of doing that...so I needed a new challenge. How about setting the timing while the engine IS IN THE CAR? So that is what I did.

I had to support the engine with my megajack and then remove all the stuff off the back of the engine..including the cat, cat mounts, motor mounts, A/C mounts, right top valve covers, air ducting, sheet metal, mufflers, main pulley, belts, cam chain covers etc. I started at 8:00AM and after about 6 hours this is where I was...

DIY Engine Rebuild - Click on the picture for high rez image
DIY Engine Rebuild - Click on the picture for high rez image

Now comes the fiddly stuff. I had to remove the chain tensioner and put in my home-made tensioner and then mount the dial gauge. That proved to be the most difficult due to the space...there is not any! So I backed off the tranny mounts and dropped the engine about 8"..that have me room to work. In this shot I put the main pulley back on because I needed to turn over the engine to do the timing. You can see the dial guage is mounted on the right hand side (facing upwards) on #4 intake valve. The sparkplug is to remove the locking pin...and I have also removed the main cam nut (at 88 ft-lbs). We are ready to time!

DIY Engine Rebuild - Click on the picture for high rez image
DIY Engine Rebuild - Click on the picture for high rez image

A shot of the dial gauge. I measured what I had set the cam to to confirm I had the correct tension on the chain, put the crank at TDC, pulled the pin and rotated the crank 180 degrees, put the pin back in and then checked the timing. I has just a bit out so the adjustment process continued until I had it bang on..

DIY Engine Rebuild - Click on the picture for high rez image
DIY Engine Rebuild - Click on the picture for high rez image

OK Cam timing is set in about 20 minutes. Then it took another 7 hours to take off all the testing gear, put it all back together again, fix a broken bolt on the exhaust, and get back to this postion..

DIY Engine Rebuild - Click on the picture for high rez image
DIY Engine Rebuild - Click on the picture for high rez image

And here is what happened!!

DIY Engine Rebuild - Click on the picture for high rez image
DIY Engine Rebuild - Click on the picture for high rez image

No oil leaks!!

DIY Engine Rebuild - Click on the picture for high rez image
DIY Engine Rebuild - Click on the picture for high rez image

After 20 minutes of break-in, time to dump the oil. There are lots of little tiny specs of metal and dirty oil (from the assembly lube).

DIY Engine Rebuild - Click on the picture for high rez image
DIY Engine Rebuild - Click on the picture for high rez image

Going for a test drive.....

DIY Engine Rebuild - Click on the picture for high rez image
DIY Engine Rebuild - Click on the picture for high rez image

Links to Rebuild Tour

  1. Getting started, dropping the engine and superficial stripdown
  2. Checking the default timing and Cams
  3. Looking at the heads and the SAI passages
  4. Valve guides, valves and carbon
  5. Further Dissassembly
  6. Exploring the SAI passages
  7. Cleaning and getting ready to put it all together again
  8. Rods and last minute checks before putting the case together
  9. Sealing the case (or tomb)
  10. Putting the pistons/cylinders back
  11. Camshaft timing Part I
  12. Camshaft timing Part II
  13. Messing up a clean looking engine
  14. Not quite there
  15. Cranking it up
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