You're kidding?
You're kidding?
The Machine speaks for itself !!
Nope - next three months are prime track season around here. Then we have our week or two of cold and a bit of rain, then more track season.
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Well, this is close to November, Yes?
OK then. Let's continue with the engine assembly and fitting of stuff. Next up is the cylinder head assembly, then cam and valve clearances, lift profiles, etc.
Cleaned head gasket surface of assembled short block (pan installed).
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Note oiled, lapped surface. Cometic specs a VERY smooth, flat gasket surface.
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Cometic standard bore MLS gasket with cleaned, bagged head in background.
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Cometic head gasket placed on block. Note shortened block-to-head dowel pins! Also note flywheel paint markings of TDC, & BDC & 30 before and after. A reference check, if needed, after the degree wheel is removed.
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Crank snout extension and degree wheel/pointer installed after TDC was defined.
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Light valve springs for checking valve-to-piston clearance and checking cam timing. Note the massively-huge lifter bosses that are cast to the cam towers. Aluminum flexes a LOT more than iron and the extra material is critical with heavy valve springs.
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The actual valve springs. A dual spring setup from Esslinger than comes standard in their aluminum D-port head.
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Kidney-shaped chamber with the larger valves (standard size for the d-port aluminum unit) at 1.89"/1.59" using standard 11/32" stems.
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Those threaded things that keep the head from coming away from the block. Appropriate lube (oil on the coarse threads in the block, hand-tight, and the moly lube for the washers, nuts and fine thread ends of the studs. The studs come out and get re-installed each time the head comes off and goes on. The bolt and hex shank (between the combo wrenches) is the tool I use to install and remove the studs. 17mm hex, btw.
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Note the front lower recess for the stud. That hole also intersects with the cam belt tensioner spring rest post and the rest post bolt needs to be removed to loosen/tighten that front intake side stud. IMHO that's a very poor design. You can see the threaded hole a bit going towards the front of the first cam tower.
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Studs installed hand-tight (like 20-40 In-Lbs) into the block. The small hole on the side of the cam tower a couple inches above the cam cover gasket surface is the oil drain from the front cam bearing behind the front cam oil seal. Always make sure that hole is clear unless you happen to like oil messes.
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Copious amount of thread lube.
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Hard washer, then nut. 14mm 12-point.
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Tighten those things. This is the first compression cycle on this Cometic gasket. I 3-stepped them to 75 Ft-Lbs. Note I'm only using this gasket to get the proper head-to-block clearance (later measured at ~0.044") for setting/checking the cam timing and valve-to-piston clearances. The head has to come off again anyway to fit the proper valve springs when a fresh gasket will be installed and tightened.
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Time to install the cam belt with associated sprockets, tensioners, shields and stuff. This should all be pretty self-explanatory.
Esslinger adjustable cam sprocket. All round tooth stuff.
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Rear belt cover installed. Note the bolt hole just an inch away from the cam sprocket outer, at about 5 O'Clock just to the right of the timing pointer marks, where the belt cover has a U shape hole. That is the threaded hole that interferes with the front intake head stud area as mentioned previously.
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Race Engineering auxiliary sprocket installed.
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Belt, tensioner, spring, etc. installed and set.
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Magnetic base on the iron block with the indicator on an intake valve retainer to measure valve movement with light valve springs installed on #1.
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Rocker arm installed, indicator zero'd with valve completely closed. Not shown is a threaded, adjustable lifter used to set the lash (clearance between the rocker roller and the cam base circle) to zero. A wee bit of white grease on the lobes. Only the cylinder #1 intake rocker is installed at this time.
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The dial indicator shaft needs to be parallel to the valve movement for accurate readings. Better shot of the height adjustable lifter (test lash adjuster).
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Measure valve lift at 5 crank degree (or 10 degrees if you're lazy) movements and write them down. Plot in Excel to see where the valves open/close in relationship to crankshaft movement, and how much the valves open. Check retainer to guide clearances too. Look for clearance issues with the rocker and the cam lobe, the retainer, etc. throughout the whole lift range
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Here's the lift plot. The yellow vertical line shows the 360 crank degrees point, or TDC overlap. The Blue vertical line shows the split-overlap point of the intake and exhaust lobes (actually valve movement, which is slightly different from lobe position)- where both valves are open the same amount. The split overlap point comes out to 371 crank degrees, with the valves opening after that TDC, what we call "late" or "retarded". To set the cam "straight-up", the cam needs to be advanced 5.5 cam degrees (the lobes shifted to the left in the diagram). Remember that cam degrees are half of crank degrees. And we ALWAYS reference everything in crank degrees.
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So the setting on the adjustable cam sprocket needs to be rotated to 5.5 degrees more advanced than it is now. Then the ZERO mark can then be established on the sprocket inner and outer pieces for future reference.
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Some out of order detail pics for reference.
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The Esslinger aluminum head uses two screws to retain the front cam seal.
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Full system oil pressure runs down the center of the cam so a sealant (I prefer teflon tape) is required. Note with new cam installations be sure to verify there is a 1/4" pipe plug installed at the back of the cam. While it won't leak oil outside the engine if missing, it will not allow the engine to build any oil pressure and usually results in tears for new bearings by the time the issue is discovered.
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19mm hex goes to 60 Ft-Lbs. Easier to tighten it after the cam, belt is installed and tightened.
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THAT is the problem bolt that interferes with the front intake side head bolt recess.
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17mm hex to 30 Ft-Lbs in the auxiliary shaft. No oil comes through there so no sealant is needed.
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Great stuff!
So that is what my engine should look like under all of the gunk.
Looking good Mike, so when do we get to see you fire the beast ?
The Machine speaks for itself !!
Once the cam positioning is set and all the piston-to-valve clearances are checked (always more than 0.080"), it's time to install the lash adjusters without the springs and set the collapsed adjuster lash adjustment between the rollers and the cam lobes. I annotated (in red) the total required shim values for each lash adjuster hole.
Disassemble all the lash adjusters and pull the springs out. These just happened to be new units so there was minimal oil mess.
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Reassemble each springless lash adjuster and put it into a lifter hole. From here on out, lash adjusters and rocker arms are permanently assigned to a particular spot and will not be moved around.
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Note the problem front tensioner post bolt that protrudes into the head bolt recess. Grrr ... This lash adjuster needs 0.066" of shim to raise it for proper cam lobe clearance.
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Valve stem as is.
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Lash cap installed. This cap is from Race Engineering and increases the valve stem length by 0.150". Necessary in this installation to get the valve lift correct. It slides over the valve stem end and is retained in-between the rocker arm edges on the top side. The large valve springs keep it all together. With the Esslinger 2277 cam installed, the lift came out correct with no lash caps.
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The lash adjuster springs have been re-installed after shimming, with all rockers in place. In these pic the intake manifold lower, injectors and fuel rail/FPR are installed.
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This head uses 14mm x 19mm washer seat spark plugs. ( Pay no attention to the exhaust ports behind the invisible curtain. )
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Moly assembly lube smeared on the lobes, rollers, valve tips and lash caps, etc.
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More detail pics of some things already covered.
RE Cam Belt Tensioner.
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RE 0.150" Lash caps.
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Stem no cap.
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With lash cap installed.
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With rocker installed.
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"Short" outer timing cover.
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Front crank pulley installed, still keeping the timing gear extension installed. Verifying TDC on the pulley with white paint to help find the mark.
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Lower intake manifold.
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Note proper (PE) location for knock sensor.
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Knock sensor before installation.
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Helping SVO owners & racers since 1984
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Hey.. I see a red 'B' on the timing belt cover! I have it on my 84 as well.
One of those 'concours' things?
That may well be an original outer cover (well, a partial section of one) from the collective parts pile. Iirc I shortened it a couple decades back. I only use that when I need to locate/verify TDC without wanting the whole cover in place - like when installing a new belt or swapping cams.Hey.. I see a red 'B' on the timing belt cover! I have it on my 84 as well.
One of those 'concours' things?
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I might have video from the Birmingham dyno session somewhere. Another thing to search for (and upload to youtu.be).Looking good Mike, so when do we get to see you fire the beast ?
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Mike looks like you do some really nice work, wish you were closer would love to look over your shoulder and learn! Let me know when you dyno?
Sorry, didn't find any videos of the dyno pulls. The only dyno event it has been to was on September 01, 2006 in Birmingham, AL.
Here's some shots of the track day at Barber Motorsports Park, aka "The Golf Course", it's maiden track voyage after the restoration process with about 500 street miles to get things sorted out. Dave and myself cleaning the front glass with our team shirts on.
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Those white wheels sure do stand out.
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Dyno time.
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Results. 319 HP, 367 Ft-Lbs on 17 PSIG.
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Zetronix logging data. Top-to-bottom graphs are A/F ratio in green, noisy RPM signal in blue, EGT in yellow, TPS in pinkish, and MAF voltage in aqua. I have since fixed the noisy tach signal by taking the low-level signal of the PIP directly from the EEC.
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I know I'm repeating myself.....but this stuff is soooo cool! No wonder I like hanging out here!
Excellent work done by you and your machinist. I'm shocked by the sloppy machine work from Esslinger.
They have only denied their "quality". And still claim their castings are with good, solid aluminum rather than soft, used beer can material.I'm shocked by the sloppy machine work from Esslinger.
I pity anyone that would run one "out of the box".
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I hate to resurrect this, especially if it was mentioned elsewhere, but what pistons did you wind up using, and what rod length?
^
Race Engineering 8.5 CR forged units with a 0.927" piston pin, 0.030" oversize, 5.5" Crower rods properly bushed for the larger pin diameter. Lightened (five pounds removed), cryo-quenched 2.5L crank.
Helping SVO owners & racers since 1984
Poll Finds 30% Of Americans Still Undecided Whether To Vote Out Of Fear Or Spite