Engine Swap Questions and Progress (was "Rebirth!")

[ga.spyder]

Good luck,I wish I could be there!The oil of choice seems to be Shell Rotella 15w-40.It has the zddp that some of the other oils lack.It is rec. for our type engines.
Craig

[rlux4]

You are right on top of this thing Rey. I was just going to check if there would be a compressor there.
Ace and I are hooking up in Valencia and driving in to Glendora in caravan. Can two cars be called a caravan?
Ron

[spiderrey]

only if they are dodges, with soccer mom stickers. lol. and steve, i want to see those orange covers.....

[fiasco]

It's 11:30 and the last coat of paint on the last part getting painted is drying in the garage.

Finally got around to testing the thermostat in a pan on the stove. Got the water to 160 degrees and it hasn't opened up, so that may be something I need to fix.

Will have to make a run to Kragen tomorrow to buy oil (I'm guessing that won't be the only thing). Got gaskets from Mark and bought two types of sealer on his recommendation.

Steaks are marinating overnight in the fridge.

Never did check the oil level in the steering box - should probably do that tomorrow before burying it under the engine.

Reyy - I'd love to power wash the bay before we put the engine back in.

Too tired - need to go to bed. See you tomorrow!

-- se

[ventura ace]

Hey Steve,
You did good. Rest up buddy, it's all going to turn out fine.

Alvon

[So Cal Mark]

thermostat won't open til 190, so 160 was just part of the warm up procedure

[fiasco]

thermostat won't open til 190, so 160 was just part of the warm up procedure

Oh - I had 110 in my head. I'll try it again.

-- se

[TulsaSpider]

Sounds like you have a fever!

[rlux4]

We had a good time today. Five guys showed up including Mark who brought over some parts that were needed and stayed around to offer advice. He did a very commendable job not laughing at us novices. The work crew included Gary Pogue (you may remember he was interviewed on TV last year when the wildfires got right up to his house) Ryan (SpiderHead), Alvon (Ventura Ace), and me to help Steve get his engine ready to install. We ran into a couple snags that cost some time, so by 7:30 PM when I had to leave it was not quite done yet.
This first picture shows the cars that were there:



This is Ace and Gary getting a cam tower ready:



This is the whole crew torqueing the flywheel on: (We had to hold the engine and the stand to keep it from spinning)



Here's the crew (minus me, the photographer) working on the bench getting cam towers put together:



And here we are sitting down to some awesome steaks Steve bbq'd for us. Seated left to right is Ryan, Gary, Steve, me and Alvon:



This is the first time I've been involved in a "barn raising" Fiat engine style, and it was a day I'll remember forever. Fantastic!
Ron

[fiasco]

It was great to have Ron, Alvon, Ryan and Gary at the house all day, and to have Mark stop in for a cameo appearance. The work we got done would have taken me weeks at best, and a number of things we did, I just would never have known to do. So much gratitude to all you guys for your help, and the effort you went to to come from far and wide to help me.

-- se

[So Cal Mark]

sorry I didn't make it back, what's left to do?

[SpiderHead]

I'll come back tomorrow.. er.. lol... today, but later this morning if you are going to be working Steve..

I'll call ya to check.

The detail work has been done, now we can just crunch on... if you are up for it.

-Ryan

[mdrburchette]

It looks like you guys had a great time getting all greasy. When will we know if the engine's a runner? Steve, you're a lucky fella to have all those guys in the area willing to help ya. Are they going to let you have the honors of flushing the new engine?

[pope]

Steve, Looks like you've been "OverHauled".


What?...no Dr. Pepper!

[ventura ace]

Yep, we had a great time -- as we always do when you get a bunch of Fiat guys (and gals) together to work on a project like that. Steve had everything laid out nice, neat, painted, and orderly on his work benches and other staging areas.
Reyy had helped a lot in the preceding week to get the old engine out, and parts cleaned up and bead plasted for painting. Mark had been working with Steve to get new parts availble (gasket, seals, pilot bearing, clutch, etc), and advice as needed. We ran into a few snags with stripped threads (cam tower to cylinder head bolts), which is a common weakness with these Fiat engines, and had to run to the store to get a helicoil kit. Had to do a few other little things for improvising the switching of parts from one engine to another, where the parts were slightly different (smog pump mounting), or showed signs of wear, but made good progress by the end of the day.

Steve, one thing we didn't get a chance to do, but is a good idea before you go any further is to put oil into the engine and turn the aux shaft to verify that the oil pump is pumping oil up to the cam towers. You may want to wait to do this until the day you are ready to put the engine back into the car. Here's what you do:
1) Install oil filter pedestal and oil filter, making sure that the oil filter is filled with new oil
2) With cam covers still off, fill the engine with oil (4 quarts total, including what you put in filter). You can put some of the oil in the top of each cam tower to get a good pool of oil around all the valve shims, springs, etc. All the excess oil will drain down into the oil pan as you do this.
3) With engine positioned at TDC, and cam pointers on their marks, remove the timing belt just enough to be able to turn the aux shaft pulley freely. With belt off, do not move the cranshaft or cam shafts until the belt is back on -- do not want to bend any valves!
4) Spin the aux shaft pulley clockwise by hand continuously until you see oil sqirting out through the ports in the center and ends of each camshaft. After verifying that oil is reaching the cams, you are ready to button thngs back up.
5) Reinstall the timing belt, making sure you are at TDC and cam pointers are dead on. Aux shaft pointer should be at approx 1:00 position (this is very important).

Also important: Make sure that the bolts holding the 3 pulleys (2 cams, 1 aux) are torqued up as tight as you can get them. We did not torque those yet -- the torque callout is 87 ft-lbs, which is a heck of a lot. When doing so, make sure that the timing belt is on good and tight (push sideways on belt at approx halfway between aux shaft pulley and pulley above it), and does not slip while tightening these bolts.

Keep up the good work, Steve! Be sure to review your manual to understand each step before picking up the tools.

A