Lancia Motor Club

Just removed the cam cover from my engine to find i'm a cylinder head bolt missing?  :'( tried to attach a pic but too large, why would someone put it back together with a bolt short? i haven't started on the bottom yet, god knows what else i'm going to find

Whe I took off my cam cover a couple of years ago on my 1600 Z I noticed one of the middle/edge bolts head had snpped off with the head lying on the valve gear area but not interferring with anything. Luckily I was able to unscrew the remains of the Fiat bolt and replaced it with a Hitensile cap bolt (will replace all next time I need to work on the head). No idea why it happened although Fiat bolts are notorious for not taking the strain.

I assume your bolt is totally missing and not sheared during assembly and left like that??

Tim

Hi Tim, It was no. 15, one of the middle outer at the top, I couldn't find any remains and poked a screw driver in the hole which went in a long way but not all the way home, I reckon it was never fitted but hopefuly i'll get the head off tomorrow and see whats what.

hi Tony ,if you need a [s/h] bolt let me know.maybe worth checking the helicoil as well incase this was the reason the bolt was left out!best regards richard

How about someone had lost one of the short bolts (is 15 a short one, can't remember?). If the cars been running ok I wouldn't get too worried. You shouldn't have a problem with inserts as the head bolts go into the block which is steel. Might be tricky to get out if there is a bit at the bottom.

I'll have the head off tomorrow so will be able to see the real problem. Car was running fine without it but how long for I dont know as it's not done many miles since it was restored and rebuilt by a classic car dealer :D

Sounds like a Classic Car Dealer could soon be receiving a call ::)

Brian
8227 8)

I've been under the rest of the car to check out brakes and suspension and all I can say is whoever did the work likes cable ties! they seem to be holding my car together, why didn't Lancia ever think of them? lol
Brian, as I didn't buy the car from the dealer and have no receipts of engine work carried out by them I think a call and a moan would be pointless however, the chap I bought it from told me he had a new timing chain fitted by Peter Gerrish and I KNOW he would have pointed out the missing bolt, never mind, on with the strip down and more surprises, i'm taking some pic's but need to find out how to reduce the size so I can post them for your amusement :D

hi Tony,when i mentioned that helicoil i was thinking of the camshaft cap bolts-must be that talk of those nurses in the appia thread!anyhow what is the most inventive use of one of those cableties you mentioned that you have found so far!? best regards richard

Well, head now off, remains of missing bolt removed from block and one other that snaped off and one that was loose! Bores look good, sump pan now off and will drop bottom out and remove pistons this week, i think there are problems with big and little ends, mains i think will be ok. I'll keep you posted with my boring thread! :-[

Well it's good news the bits have come out unopposed!

I would check the thrust bearings as well while you're in there. I'm surprised that you think you have little end problems - I've never seen much of them (and I suspect they are a bugger to change, usually they have to fitted with a press and then either reaming to size or they pull a ball bearing through), a good check of the gudgen pins for wear? Centre mains are a usual casualty as they take the biggest bending moment from the crank.

Good luck and keep posting (misery loves company :D )

My money will be on no3 bigend....

Tim

Shame the work wasn't done for you and also about no receipts.
Peter Gerrish would have certainly pointed it out if he'd seen it.

Do you have a photographic program? I use adobe photoshop elements 2, while a bit long in the tooth it is more than adequate for what I need.
If you have click on "Image", the first thing I do is make a duplicate image ,that way you can play about without affecting the original, and if you don't want to keep it, close, and when asked if you want to save click no.

After duplicating image click on "Resize"
Then image resize. this will then show boxes with numbers in them, whatever the top box says replace by a number of about 1/3rd value, ie 3000 replace by 1000. then save, don't worry if the photos now appears and seems to be tiny, this is OK.
Click on file to open, then click on save as. after saving close.
When you then want to upload the photo, goes to the saved version and it should be small enough to send

Brian
8227 8)

I open, resize as above typically to 600 pixels wide for landscape or 400 pixels for portrait format.  I don't bother making a duplicate to start with as I've yet to mess one up and I always back up to CD the moment I empty the camera into the PC.

After the resize I click on the FILE menu then SAVE FOR WEB.  Here you get the original on the left and the compressed version on the right.  Where it says SETTINGS far right I use the top drop down box to set it to JPEG HIGH or MED or LOW depending on what looks ok.  The other setting below follow on and don't need touching. 

Once you click OK there's a chance to choose a new name for the picture, either something meaningful like "lost bolt" or when my imagination fails me I put a little "s" on the end of the file name so I know its a small one - eg DSC04138.jpeg then gets a twin DSC043138s.jpeg

Hope that's a help.

David

There's a little, free program called VSO Image Resizer 4 which is dead simple to use.  Google it.
David

Thanks David,
That sounds a bit easier than what I do ::)

Brian
8227 8)

Nice little utility. 

Upto now when wanting to do a whole heap at the same time I've used JAlbum (also free) but its a lot more faff than that...

Thankyou!!

David

I simply use my phone for photos to be posted, the file size is thus automatically small. For someone as computer illiterate as me it works very well !!

                 Andy