Help: REbuild is leaking oil like crazy

[magic930]

Before going to the trouble of removing the pulley make sure it is not leaking at the base of the distributer, oil from here might appear to run down behind the pulley.

[mtelliott]

Worst case scenario confirmed. A fellow Denver Pellicanite (Grady Clay) came over and helped me pull it apart. It's coming out from the outside of the bearing.

Therefore, it's either a pinched seal or the bearing was bad, not perfectly round, or something. Anyway, it's a complete disassembly.

Wayne, look for some more orders coming from me in the near future. Not sure what I will be needing until disassembly.

Grady did mention that we should have a disassembly party when I get it back down to the block. Seems like a good idea to have people analyze what went wrong.

Also, I'm planning on doing a leak test before I start disassembly to make sure everything looks good from that side.

So, what's next. Beside the birth of our next child which is due any day. My thought is to pick up a used engine so I can drive the car then take my time with the rebuild and maybe do some more modifications to improve it's street performance.

Thanks for the advice. And, if anyone has an 80 - 82 engine they want to loan me, I'm all ears.

[mtelliott]

So, any thoughts on what I did wrong?

[john walker's workshop]

i had that problem a few years ago on a 77 930 engine. seems the 574 anarobicized as a thick mass between the case halves, and the nose bearing o ring didn't get squeezed properly. 9as well as the rest of the engine). that stuff is supposed to be applied with a tiny roller, a very thin coating. now for years i just swabbed it on with my finger and never had a problem, that i know of, until that 930 engine. so now i'm scared of it. dirko rules.

[Wayne 962]

Uh oh, John fuels the sealant argument here.

Sorry to hear about your news. In all honesty though, since you have assembled the thing so recently, you should probably be able to tear it down and slap it back together within a weekend. Not too much cleaning to be done - you don't have to separate the heads and the cam towers, and you don't have to do any clearance checks. Since you're familiar with it right now, and all the nuts/bolts are not frozen on the car, I think that you will be very surprised at how quickly you can drop the engine and tear it down.

Tips for saving time:

- Drop the engine without the transmission
- Remove the injection as a single unit, including the fiberglass shroud
- Keep the heads and the cam towers together (no need to remove rockers then)
- Keep the pistons inside the cylinders (no need to reseat the rings)

More thoughts - did you put in the dowel pin for the bearing and align it properly?

-Wayne

[mtelliott]

Update:

On Thursday, February 19th, my wife gave birth to the most beautiful little girl in the world. We're all doing great. Helps to put everything in perspective. Thank you to everyone's best wishes.

It's going to be a couple of weeks before I'm ready but I'm intrigued by the idea that I don't have to pull the towers and cams out. How do you handle the connection from the rods to the pistons if they are all together as one unit. That was probably my least favorite part and I did that one at a time. Is there a special tool that makes putting those little retainers in easier.

Question for the board. A fellow Pelicanite suggested that I run then engine for the break in period (adding oil of course) to check to make sure nothing else isn't working. Note that I bought the engine in boxes so this is the first time I've seen it run. Do you all think this is a good or bad idea?

[Jim Sims]

Congratualtions on the birth of your daughter; she is what really counts. Loctite 574 can be easily and uniformly applied onto the case sealing surfaces with a $.79 acid brush and an "axial dabbing" technique. Jim

[Porsche_monkey]

As far as aplicators go I would strongly recommend a plastic glue spreader over the acid brush. The brush can leave bristles which will cause leaks. The glue spreaders can be found at arts and craft stores, even cheaper than acid brushes

[magic930]

When I dissasembled my engine it was clear that 574 had been applied around the seal of the #8 bearing. Is this normal practice? Wayne's book has it going in dry.

[john walker's workshop]

In spite of the general feeling that o rings should be free to move, which is 99% true, i always use a bit of sealer in the case bore where the o ring would contact. preferably something that doesn't set up hard.

[mtelliott]

TWo things:

Wayne: Have you ever pulled the cylinders and heads as one unit and are there any lesson's learned?

John: What type of sealer do you recommend?

[john walker's workshop]

the chain housings are removed first. next, the heads and cam towers come off as a unit. the P+Cs next. it'll be easier next time. it will be interesting to see what you find as the reason for the leak.
i've been using an ELRING product called DIRKO. just go easy on it and it won't squeeze out to speak of. part # UN 125 3000 from IMC, elring #036.161. elring makes curil, so it shouldn't be to hard to find. try pelican first, they can get most stuff.

[mtelliott]

John,

Thank you, that makes sense.

[mtelliott]

What does everyone think about running it and breaking it in while it's still in the car? Does it make sense to see what else might be wrong or is better for assembly / disassembly to not run it?

Thoughts?

[john walker's workshop]

yank it.

[snowman]

If this were a chevy you wouldn't have this problem.

[Porsche_monkey]

I agree with Mr Walker(completely). And Snowman (a bit).

[mtelliott]

Wanted to Provide an Update:

1) So, having a two year old and a two month old has slowed down the rebuild significantly.
2) The issue was that I didn't get the case halves sealed down quickly enough and the Loctitie hardened in that area. You could actually see some spots where it was pretty thick. Sometimes you can read, and reread, and still do something that is fundamentally stupid.
3) The engine case halves are back together. And to Wayne's question, the dowl pin was in the hole.
4) I'm putting the P&C's on this weekend if I can get a few hours. Once again, having a two year old and a two month old diverts your attention away from the hobby. But it's a great diversion.

My question. I removed the heads as one unit. I tried to keep the cams from moving but one side moved slightly as I was pulling the chain off. What's the best way to put the heads back on. Should I just loosen all the rockers, get the cams set at the appropriate location, then perform the cam adjustment like I did previously?

All help greatly appreciated.

Michael

[dtw]

Just did this a weekend ago. You can rough time the engine by getting both your cam "dots" on the ends of the cams pointing up, and then setting the engine to TDC on 1. You can then carefully assemble the head/cam blocks back to the short block. Then attach your chains, and re-time the engine as normal. We didn't even really need to loosen rockers, although we did loosen 1 and 4 to be safe. With SC cams I can't imagine you'll need to.

[john walker's workshop]

guess i was right on the 574.