cleaning a v8 engine block, coolant drain removal + cam shells + more

In news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com, Tom Woods wittered on forthwith;

Eeeeek.

Be careful with the cam bearings. If they're ok, leave them alone. Very alone.

hard to do then? The one i can see at the end looks almost perfect, so i'm happy to leave em alone if its normal to do this.. all other bearings were worn but not terribly..

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In news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com, Tom Woods wittered on forthwith;

According to Rover they're impossible to do. "Replace cylinder block" being the best way to deal with knackered cam bearings.

They usually need reaming/honing into alignment on a line honing machine, and no, I don't have one of them.

Avoid changing if you can.

Steve

ok definately avoiding them!

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Yes, no probs there.

Proper square fitting next time! They are sodding tight and sealed as you say, but they've always came out for me as long as I've used the correct fitting tool........

If ok, leave well alone. You can replace them, but you need the correct stepped mandrel tooling to do so, and even the so-called "finished" bearings need sizing when fitted. Also worth fitting with loctite if you do them, saw a good engine wrecked once by a slipped cam bearing which allowed all the oil pressure to leak away.

Proper tool is a standard bi-hex (or 12-point) socket.

OOPS!

Not much!

Stick the crank back into the block loosely with a couple of old main bearings, attach the ring gear & plate, attach a strap from a threaded hole in the ring gear (there are a few) and the other end to a bellhousing bolt to lock the crank. Now undo the 6 allen-headed fasteners, they'll be tight, I normally give 'em a whack with an impact driver to crack them then undo them from there with a breaker bar. A good fitting 8mm hex bit is required. You'll damage the rear main seal if you try fitting it with the crank torqued in place. Badger.

Can i get a proper square socket for em? any idea what size it should be off the top of your head? about 9.5mm in imperial i assume? Have only had a quick chisel at one and slipped off the other one with a spanner once so they are still largely square..

im now scared of em so they arnt moving! ;)

Which i believe my old socket set is...

I couldnt find the adaptor i needed to get my 8mm hex head socket (it is awol along with the 6mm hex socket) onto my 1/2" breaker bar which i why i left them.. Then as i was removing the last main bearing i realised i hadnt come back to it!

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I seem to remember making a spanner from an old 3/8" x 6" extension bar with a handle welded to it...... last one I did I used a square spanner that came in a pipe & brake spanner set, but I didn't measure it. If pressure washing the block anyway, stand it on the timing cover end and blast the water jet into the water gallery at the rear of each head face, after removing the core plugs, then blast through each core plug hole as well. That'll shift anything that's in there without worrying about the drain plugs! Tip - brush some truckwash onto the exterior of the block and the valley about 10 min before pressure washing it.

Woose! ;-)

My advice still stands, loose-fit the crank, lock it and remove bolts. Buy a new adaptor if needs be. Oh, and on reassembly, loctite those 6 allen bolts if you are using the adaptor for an autobox. If manual, remember to fit a crank spigot bush and loctite the 6 flywheel bolts. Badger.

Pressure washer worked a treat. Now have a nice shiney block sitting in my hall ;) (didnt want it to get dirty outside or anything!)

Took the core plugs all out too so the waterways are spotless too (not that they were bad).

To do the end of the crankshaft i put the crank back in with 2 bearings and ratchet strapped the block to my engine trolley to stop it moveing, locked the flywheel thingy in place with some bolts and used a new big socket on my powerbar with a 4 foot scaffold bar and a liberal dose of jumping on stuff and swearing..

The coolant drain plugs came out by hammering a 10mm ring onto them and then using the same scaffold bar. Didnt even break the spanner! ;)

My tools are a mix of halfords and clarke mainly (with some older stuff mixed in). considering that the clarke stuff is a bit cheaper i've actually broken less clarke tools so far..

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On or around Wed, 01 Aug 2007 10:18:23 +0100, Tom Woods enlightened us thusly:

if it's 9.5-ish then it'll be 3/8". As badger says, socket drive parts or buy one of those sets of drain plug tools.