ANY TIPS?

[bill]

Hi, I am going to strip the head off the car, I have the brown workshop manual and a cd to follow.
Just wondering if anyone can give me the odd tip and things to look out for, should I set the timing before I start,  is there any sequence to loosen the head bolts? any advise will be a help.
Thank You.
Bill.

[roddy]

Hello Bill

One thing I think the manuals don't tell you is if the car is in a driving state with coolant, then draining the system via the drain valve still leaves the rear of the block/head with some coolant in it.   If you intend to remove the water pump, that will empty the system - all over the garage floor!   If you intend to leave the pump undisturbed, then jack up the rear of the car under the axle, first, as high as possible.  This will let some more coolant drain out, thus reducing the risk of coolant getting down into the sump oil when the gasket seal is broken.

Roddy Young

[Jai Sharma]

Suggest make a careful note which head bolts go where - because there are two of the long ones that are a different length to the others. Worth replacing the head bolts with some capheads of suitable quality.

[bill]

Hi, thank you for your replies, progress so for every thing stripped down, just ready to remove timing chain and head. After slackening the timing chain do I need to remove the cam wheels or will the chain lift over them. I know some of these question may seem straight foward to the experienced, this is the first time I have taken on a job like this and I am determind to learn how to do it.
Thank you for your time.
Bill.

[Jai Sharma]

If you rotate the engine, the timing chain has a link that can be removed (a clip on the side facing you at the front of the car). Once broken (be careful with small parts falling off!) you can break the chain easily.

[fay66]

Hi Bill,
I'm fairly sure someone has already said to keep to the chain taut as if it drops it can knock off the oil feed nozzle for the chain, which will then mean dropping the sump and a lot more work, I just thought it worth repeating.

Brian
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[roddy]

Hello Bill

Rotate the crank until the chain split-link is between the timing wheels.  Mark with Tippex or similar, the flywheel position and the cam/chain-wheel position to the front cam bearing caps.  Stuff rags etc into the timing chain chest to stop anything dropping in when splitting the chain.   Note that the spring link holding the chain pins should have the open ends following the direction of chain travel, when refitting it.   Tie bits of string on to each end of the chain - it can be easier to loop through your hand than have chain slipping through your fingers!   Don't let the chain drop off the toothed wheel on the crank, or you run the risk of loosing the timing (as well as the risk of damaging the oil feed end - as mentioned).   You shouldn't need to disturb the chain wheels from the camshaft ends - just lift them off after undoing the bearing caps.   See Peter Gerrish's timely reminder concerning the various lengths of bearing cap bolts and their relevant positions ie best advise - keep them in the same position as they come off.  Get another pair of hands to hold the bits of string taught when you lift out the head - my wife is a fully fledged Fulvia mechanic now!  Anchor the bits of string to keep the chain reasonably tight in timing chest.

Regards - Roddy Young

[roddy]

Hello Bill

Another couple of points that might be of assistance nearer the end when everything is being re-assembled.   Again as Peter Gerrish has written on, take care when replacing the camshafts on to the head that the drilling in the bronze shell of the front bearing of each cam is correctly located on to the little dowel pin, before fitting on the cap.   Even if you have an S3 engine which has the cam wheels key-way'd on to the cam (and therefore not adjustable), it is still worth-while checking the camshaft timing.   It is surprisingly easy to be one tooth out on a wheel.   Checking is explained in the driver's glovebox handbook, but basically you set No. 1 piston tappets to 2.2mm and using the thinnest feeler in two feeler gauges, as the flywheel hits TDC, one gauge should just be pinching the tappet and the other releasing.   If you are 1 tooth out, you need to split the chain again, and move the cam-wheel;  and re-check.   All very time consuming, but it has got to be perfect!    If you have the vernier adjustable cams, then you can adjust the timing there;  but I will leave the explaining to someone else?

Regards - Roddy

[bill]

Hi, thank you once more for the valuable information, sprockets all marked with tipex.
Do I need to slaken off the tension when taking out the spring link, if so how do you do it, does the water pump have to come off, if so does it come off via the allen screws or the bolts from the crankcase?

Thank you once more.
Bill.

[ncundy]

You should find that there is enough slack in the chain (the tensioner is pressurised, engine off no pressure no tension) but you can push the tensioner back with a long screwdriver if required. There is no need to remove the water pump.

[bill]

Thank you Neil for the quick reply, do not know what I would do without this forum. back to the car.
Cheers.
Bill.

[nistri]

A simple way to slacken the tensioner is to undo the top bolt (13 mm socket) which cannot fall off into the timing chest because it has a long untreaded shank.
It is a good idea to check the condition of the tensioner spring (sometimes it is badly worn) and the tensioner pad. The tensioner bolt should have a small hole for oil flow. If this is blocked (or even welded in the attempt to raise the oil pressure), the tensioner body becomes full of junk. Andrea

[bill]

Hello again,I have the head off the car now, not sure how to tell if it is the head gasket. This is what I found, some of the head bolts were coverd in a thick sludge (mud) and in the middle of the gasket there are two holes around 20 mil. over 3/4 of the hole was coverd not allowing full water flow.
I could not see any tracking where the water maybe getting into the combustion chamber. I did notice no. three combustion chamber looked oily although the exhaust port was dry. this had a reading of 150 when checked. I think and hope this was when the mechanic was putting oil into the bores. Also there was slight drips of water coming out of the exhaust it looked more like condensation, I noticed that last week.
Thank you for all the tips the pad on the chain tensioner looks to have score marks on it, is this normal?

Thanks once more to everyone for your time and interest
It is more than appreciated.

Bill.

[Philm]

Bill, can you post pictures of the gasket faces, cylinder head face and blck face? it would really help with advice!

[fay66]

Bill, can you post pictures of the gasket faces, cylinder head face and blck face? it would really help with advice!

Bill,
I would agree it's much better to see what the actual condition is, if you're not sure how to go about it, here's what I posted for information previously for someone.

"As far as adding photos, after you've typed out your message, below the box to the left it says "Additional Options" if you click on this it will open a browse box, browse & find your photo and click on open, this will then put the Photos address on the box; to add another photo click on "More Attachments" alongside the browse button and repeat browsing, and so on to a maximum of 8 items, from experience I would suggest you resize a copy of the original to about 100kbs, much larger than that and you can't see all the photo without adjusting the frame."

Brian
8227