Part 4 Top End Rebuild:

So the job is to check out the front cover and oil pump, clean it all up and re fit.

Removing the oil pump.	Oil Pump
Which exposes the oil pump drive and idler gears. The drive gear is on the right.	Drive Gear Exposed
The oil pump gears can simply be pulled out from their housing. Keep them the right way up so that they go back the way they came out.	Removing the Gears
I then used a lever to remove the front oil seal before placing the cover into the cleaning tank.	Front Oil Seal
Out of the cleaning tank, and dried off with the air gun. Remember the oil pump is fitted to the front cover, so cleanliness is absolutely paramount.	And Cleaned
Using a soft-faced hammer to put in the new front oil seal. The seal should be tapped down until it is flush with the casing.	New Oil Seal
Not forgetting the stud at the front of the engine.	Stud on Engine
New gasket in place. I put a very light smear of sealant on the face of the engine before fitting the gasket.	Gasket Seal
Front cover in place, just need to bolt it down now. I also smeared a small amount of sealant on the gasket face of the front cover.	Front Cover In Situ

Whenever I use gasket sealants I always make a point of using them very sparingly. As far as I’m concerned, if the gasket faces are nice and clean and you use a new gasket, there is no reason why you shouldn’t get a good seal. To be honest the best use for the sealant is to hold the gasket in place while you position the cover.
Next I cleaned the water pump and made sure the gasket faces are nice and clean and all traces of old gasket material are removed. Then a new gasket and refit the pump.

Water pump ready to be re fitted.	Water Pump
And here’s the completed front cover.	Front Cover

Now that the front cover is in place I thought it would be a good time to fit the cylinder heads. I’ve spoken to a few people and they’ve all recommended that I use the new type stretch bolts for the heads.

Looking at the tightening method I knew I was in for some fun when I reached the last stage, as you really do have to put some pressure on to them.

Firstly you have to tighten the bolts to 15 ft/lbs, which is hardly anything, then you back them off, and re tighten them back to 15 ft/lbs.

At the next stage you have to tighten them by 90°. And finally by 90° again.

My problem was, how am I going to keep the engine steady whilst I tighten the bolts? A bit of lateral thinking was called for, and the solution is below.

Helpfull Jeep

The cylinder heads I’m using are from V8 Developments, they’re stage 3 and I’ve had them for some time.
Now’s my opportunity to use them.

I haven’t really got a lot of info on the heads other than the fact that they’re totally rebuilt and the combustion chambers have been polished and matched. And the inlet and exhaust ports have been polished and opened up.

Cylinder head development and modification is a bit of a black art to me, so all I can do for now is fit them and see how they perform on the dyno.

At least I haven’t got to mess around stripping and rebuilding my TVR heads, although I will get around to that sooner or later.

This is one of the heads I bought from V8 Developments. As they’ve been lying around for some time all I needed to do was drop them into the parts washer and give them a good blow down with the air line.	V8D Head
Here’s a close up of an exhaust port. Sad aren’t I?	Exhaust port
You guessed it, a pair of inlet ports.	Inlet ports
Fitting the heads begins, first I used thinners and wiped the face of the block and the head to make sure they’re really clean. Then I placed a new gasket over the dowels on the block.	New Gasket
The new bolts and special lube, that’s supplied with them.	Ne Bolts/Lube
Just a very light coating of the lube was applied with a brush.	Lubing the Bolts
I had to use my longest breaker bar to get the leverage I needed to tighten the bolts. And this was only the first 90° of the sequence.	First 90 degrees
That’s it, the final 90° of the sequence. It made me sweat I can tell you.	Final 90 degress

The way I went about it was to number each bolt according to the tightening pattern given in the Range Rover manual, that way I wouldn’t have to remember which bolts I’d tightened, I’d just follow the pattern.

I was convinced that I would either strip a thread or snap a bolt, on the final 90° turn, as not only was I using an 24” breaker bar, I also had a piece of pipe for more leverage. But all went well, and the Jeep idea certainly helped.

Both Heads Fitted	And there we have it, both heads fitted and ready to be put back onto the bench.
Dirty Front Pulleys	The next job is to clean up the front pulleys and re fit them. Here they are waiting to go into the washer.
Clean and in Place	And here they are re fitted to the engine.
Timing Pointer	And the timing pointer fitted to the front cover.

I’ve still got to fit the oil pump and distributor to the front cover, but I’m waiting for some new seals for the oil pump, and the distributor will just get in the way, so for now I may as well fit the rest of the valve gear.

To do this I need to clean the rockers and rocker shafts, check the pushrods for straightness, and fit the new cam followers.

One of the other jobs I’ll need to do is set the follower pre load.
So what is follower pre load? Well it’s the amount of pressure that the pushrod is placing on the follower when it’s not under load, i.e. when the valve is closed.

The gap that you’re trying to measure is really awkward to get at, and normal measuring tools wont get in there, so again after asking a few people in the know, it appears that the best way to do it is to use a piece of welding wire of a known gauge.

If you take a look at the follower below you can see the measurement I’m trying to make.

When the pushrod is fitted, it pushes down on the cup area to form a gap between the piece of wire and the cup. It’s this gap that needs to be measured. The pre load needs to be between 20 and 50 thou.
Here I’ve set an old follower up in the vice and pushed the damper down with a bolt. The arrow shows the gap that needs to be measured. The trouble is that you can only do it when the followers are fitted in the engine, and all the pushrods and valve gear is fitted.

Before we get to the followers however, first I need to check out the rocker gear and give it a good clean. The rocker shafts are actually handed, so it’s important to keep everything in order or the oil ways won’t line up.

Here’s the rocker shaft stripped down and ready for the washer
Cleaned and re assembled ready to be fitted to the engine. But first I need to fit the followers and check out the pushrods for straightness.
Here’s how you identify which side is which. This notch must be uppermost and face the front of the engine on cylinders 2,4,6 and 8. On cylinders 1,3,5 and 7 the notch still faces up, but points towards the rear of the engine. Notice also the use of new split pins.
To check the straightness of the pushrods, all I did was roll them on a piece of granite. You could also use glass for this job.
New followers ready to be fitted.
The followers are fitted dry and unprimed for pre load checking.
Then the pushrods are fitted.
And finally the rocker shafts. The shafts are torqued down to 35 ft/lbs.
I made sure that each pushrod was seated properly into the recess in the rocker and the follower.

 To check the preload I found a couple of pieces of wire, one was just over 30 thou and the other bang on 50 thou. So I figured that as long as the 30 thou wire fitted and the 50 thou one didn’t, I’d be ok.

30 thou welding wire

50 thou wire

I had to bend a small hook onto the end of each piece if wire, and with the follower against the back of the cam lobe, i.e. with the valve closed; I inserted the wire into the gap on the follower.

Unfortunately for me, the gaps on all followers are well over the 50 thou allowed maximum. So now I need to buy a set of shims to fit under the rocker posts therefore lifting them and reducing the clearances.

This is a long and tedious job, but the thing is I’ve put so much effort into checking everything out it’d be a shame not to sort it out properly. And that’s just what I intend to do.

This is the gap I’m trying to measure.

So to finish the job off properly I ordered my shim kit.

The shims come in 3 thicknesses they are nominally, 50 thou, 30 thou and 15 thou.

Because my clearances are so large I started by fitting the thickest shim and re-checking the clearances.

This made the gaps a bit to small, so I removed the thickest shims and put in the middle one’s. This did the job.

I ended up so that I could get the 30 thou welding wire into the gap, but the 50 thou wire wouldn’t fit under any of them. So I concluded that my gaps must be around the 40 thou mark.

The rocker shaft shim kit showing all 3 thicknesses.	Shim Kit
Fitting the shims under the posts on the rocker shaft. It’s important that the shims are kept straight when the bolts are tightened down, or they could cover an oil feed hole.

Now that I’ve got the pre load right I may as well sort out the followers and fit the inlet manifold gasket.
A lot of people fit the followers dry and let them fill with oil on start up. I prefer to prime them before fitting, so I left them in a container of clean oil for a couple of hours.

Priming Followers	Allowing the followers to prime with oil before fitting.
Refitting Followers	I refitted the followers and gave them and the cam a liberal coating of the special lube that’s supplied with the cam. This should reduce the chances of scuffing on initial start up. I also fitted the rubber end seals that go on before the inlet manifold gasket.

I was advised to go for a tin gasket rather than the composite, as the covering on the composite gaskets has been known to come loose, allowing bits of gasket to drop inside the engine. As the old engine also had a tin gasket and this wasn’t leaking I decided tin it would be then.

End seals and clamps fitted, all that’s needed now is the inlet manifold.	End Seal/Clamps
Even Wally the 8kg Black Panther is showing a keen interest now that most of the hard work’s been done.	Wheres Wally

Next job is to fit the inlet manifold, fuel rail and trumpet base. But before that I thought it’d be interesting to have a look at 3 different trumpet bases side by side.

To the left is standard rover, middle TVR 500 and right we have ACT with aluminum trumpets.	Trumpet Bases
Same again, but from the underside.	The undersides

My mate’s been having a look at the inlet manifold, and he’s spent a fair bit of time with the Dremel, just smoothing out the ports and matching the trumpet base. He’s a bit of an expert at tuning 2 stroke motorbike engines, and has far more patience than me for this type of work.

	Here’s a sample of his handy work. I recon it looks pretty good.
	This time from the other side. This is the standard 500 TVR manifold by the way.
	That’s the injectors and fuel rail fitted, just got to bolt it to the engine now.
	I just laid it on top of the engine and nipped the bolts either side to get it seated. Then I torqued them down to 38 ft/lbs.
	The trumpet base is next, just a very light application of sealant, and fit it onto the manifold.
	And that’s it. Tighten down the last bolt and its ready for the plenum chamber.

I decided to spend today re fitting the engine covers. Sump, rocker boxes, oil pump a few pipes distributor and fly wheel.

I started out by cleaning the sump. Here it is before going into the washer.
Whilst the sump was having a soak I fitted the oil pick up pipe. I put some thread lock on the bolts as I’ve heard of a few pickup pipes going AWOL.
Here’s the sump washed and dried and with a new cork gasket fitted. I refuse to use horrible silicone when a gasket will do a far better job.

	I then turned my attention to the rocker boxes. I still think these are the best rocker covers TVR ever used. A bit of a clean and they’ve come up a treat. These were also fitted using new cork gaskets.
	While I’ve still got good access I fitted the thermostat to the front of the manifold.
	Nip the bolts up and jobs a good un. Don’t worry I’m not going to leave those old jubilee clips in place. Only new ones will do.
	Next I fitted in the distributor, remember those marks from when I stripped the engine?
	Now the oil pump gears. I packed the pump with petroleum jelly to help it prime on start up.
	Now the pump’s well packed all I need to do is fit the cover, relief valve, pressure sensor and oil light switch. I made a point of cleaning the pump housing thoroughly, and no silicon is going anywhere near it.
	Nip the bolts up on the cover and that’s another job done.
	And here you have it. I’m on a roll now so I may as well finish off the front end with the header tank and alternator.

But before that, and to help balance the engine out on the stand, I thought I’d fit the flywheel to add a bit of weight at the back.I was surprised at how light the flywheel is.Only 20 lbs.,No wonder these engines are pretty responsive for an old pushrod design.

I only lose fitted it for now as I have some new bolts on order. When these arrive I’ll use a bit of lock tight and torque them down correctly.
 

 Back to the front end.

The header tank and alternator are now in place. Again I’m waiting for my fan belt before I can adjust everything up and bolt it down properly.
And now the first ceramic-coated manifold fitted. Now I really feel like I’m making progress.
New rotor arm being fitted.
Then the new distributor cap. Number 1 lead goes just to he right of the retaining clip.
Then just follow the firing order around. Remember even Numbers on the left and odd on the right as you look at the engine from the front.
I spent a lot of time and effort making sure the leads are fitted tidily, but I think it was worth it.
Now the plenum chamber. I did use a very light smear of silicon around the face to ensure a good seal.
Not forgetting the ignition coil, may have a bit of trouble starting without that.

And here she is, just a few final checks and just about ready for the rolling road. the next photos you’ll see will be at V8 Developments rolling road. Should be interesting and good fun.

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