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Mar 14, 2010 18:35:02 GMT
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 More time than sense leads to polish and shiny bits. Had nothing better to do one evening than to sit in the bedroom polishing the rocker cover. Sad.  Stripped the rear of the interior out, where somebody had previously tried to tear the trim panel off and torn it quite badly. Interior in the back is a right mess because the sun's gotten to it and previous owner had a dog, which has shredded the armrests. Managed to bash out the dent just behind the driver's door with a lumphammer and piece of wood. It's a bit pocked because I missed getting the hammer and dolly set at the local auto place. Still, better than it was.  Still have to fix this though, where someone's towed the car in the wrong place. --Phil |
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Last Edit: Feb 18, 2012 21:36:05 GMT by PhilA
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Mar 14, 2010 22:29:21 GMT
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Lots of progress all of a sudden. Whipped the head off the block, stuck it on the pallet and dragged the lot out onto the driveway. Head promptly fell off the pallet (no loss, that one was scrap) but completely smashed the knock sensor I forgot to remove. That's $80 I didn't want to have to spend.  Decided to de-grime the thing somewhat. Wazzed over it with some noncorrosive bathroom cleaner (a bit harder to work with but it doesn't stain the driveway!) and got this:  www.flickr.com/photos/philandrews/4432845171/Result ;D |
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Mar 15, 2010 23:13:25 GMT
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Spent a bit of time today after work on the engine. Split it from the gearbox.
Prodded about and then jumped back sharpish as some nasty looking spider ran round the clutch release fork. Chased that out with a socket and stamped on it. I have no idea what it was but it looked evil and would probably hospitalise me. They say working on engines is a dangerous job lol
Input shaft feels good, but don't know what 'good' is on these boxes (JB3) because I've been warned they get whiny as the input bearing wears. Further investigation required.
Managed to get the water pump to rotate a little, jammed the pulley, took the three bolts off and knocked that off. Undid the myriad bolts that hold the water pump on (including the top one that goes all the way through into the main water gallery... that's a Hylomar candidate if ever there was) and managed to lever the thing off. Insides are mucky and rusty, clods of rust everywhere. Think it needs to sit in a chemical bath for a while.
Stuck my TDC locating pin in the hole and locked the crank up, tried put a bit of force on the crank pulley nut but that was a no-go. Should have listened to my own advice and loosened that off before I lifted the engine out. Oh well, too late now... think I'mma get me a proper flywheel locking tool as I don't want to damage the crank and/or pin as whoever put this thing together last time seemed to be rather fond of using the rattle-gun to tighten stuff up. That and every bolt so far has been at a random torque, so figures Billy-Bob just did everything else up "tight enough by hand because that's the way I've always done it".
Gave the bearing surfaces an eyeball, so far so good. No rust thankfully so tomorrow I'm going to try find what I did with the broken cambelt and make a tool so I can pull the oilpump drive toothed pulley off.
Stuck the sump back on and sat it upright under a plastic bag.
Mosquitoes are exceptionally bad this year. I burned out a brand new bug zapper last night, the first night of running it because there were so many it fouled up the grid and burned out the HT supply. Joys of living here sometimes...
More to follow, I'm sure.
--Phil
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Last Edit: Mar 15, 2010 23:14:34 GMT by PhilA
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Sorry for the tiny little pictures. If you click them they get bigger though   Finally got off my behind and started some work on the car again. Cleaned the deck of the block a bit, punched through the collected cack in the water galleries (to discover a lot of internal corrosion) was about to do some more and it began to rain. Gave up and hauled the lot inside, much to the displeasure of the wife. Now have over half the engine in the bedroom. Piston rings arrived at the weekend, so that's good. Set about gapping them today.  Pushed them down the bores evenly with a piston on each, then accurately to 30mm, right where the wear is worst, to see how much of a gap there is at the worst case.  Turns out the bores aren't bad, they all feel about the same at 12 thou (0.30 mm). Next up, having brought the block inside, inspected it more thoroughly is to haul it outside again and clean it up thoroughly, including the water jacket. Progress is slow but steady. Thinking about using some rust converter- something with ascorbic acid in (ain't that vitamin c?) which'll get rid of the nasty muck in my galleries so it can't come off and block up my thermostat and radiator. --Phil |
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MattW
Part of things
Posts: 841
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Awesome car, I've seen one of them in my life about two years ago up here. It was all red.
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DutyFreeSaviour
Europe
Back For More heartbreak and disappointment.....
Posts: 2,944
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Apr 21, 2010 11:00:57 GMT
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Missed this earlier - that's a LOT of pain for a R9 fella. I take it the 16v didn't make it your way then?
I'd also be tuning the bejeezus outta it - good luck with that part.
Looks a good save - you looknig at any race series over there once it's done?
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Back from the dead..... kind of
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berendd
Europe
why do I need 3 keys for one car?
Posts: 1,449
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Apr 21, 2010 11:24:28 GMT
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nice work on this odd machine, and i like the akropolis scheme you sketched up.
good luck getting the engine back in full working order.
what r you aiming for in HP?
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Apr 21, 2010 15:17:10 GMT
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Missed this earlier - that's a LOT of pain for a R9 fella. I take it the 16v didn't make it your way then? I'd also be tuning the bejeezus outta it - good luck with that part. Looks a good save - you looknig at any race series over there once it's done? It'd be a lot of pain if it were all compressed into a tight space of time. I've been doing it in drips and drabs. If I were back in the UK the first thing to happen would be the 8v lump would have been out and in the bin, and a 16v conversion would have been in order- there's an excellent white 9 on here that's had it done, it'd be in the same vein. As parts are limited and this is a bizarre one-off engine concocted by AMC and Renault soley for this car, it's going back together stock. New, they're rated at 94bhp with a fairly soft cam and quite a lot of torque so they could compete in the SCCA's non-GT sub-100hp class. Once it's up and running it will probably never see any racing, as there are very few circuits locally, they're all further up north. I'm doing the paint mostly because I'm cr+p at bodywork and that'd hide the dinks a little, plus dinks and bumps on a works rally car is expected, innit? --Phil |
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Apr 21, 2010 15:18:14 GMT
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Awesome car, I've seen one of them in my life about two years ago up here. It was all red. They were a lot more popular in the Northern states. This one was sold locally and has spent all its' time down here, hence the bleached dusty paint and total lack of maintenance. --Phil |
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Apr 21, 2010 15:23:17 GMT
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nice work on this odd machine, and I like the akropolis scheme you sketched up. good luck getting the engine back in full working order. what r you aiming for in HP? Thanks! Initially aiming for as close to factory as possible, about 95bhp. The original ECU is capable of tolerating a little bit of tuning- it's got the Renix/Fenix management system but it's only singlepoint injection and the breathing on the stock 8v head isn't wonderful, though this one with the 1.7 turbo head that was used on some Volvos is a little better. The ECU suffers badly from poor wiring and failed or failing sensors, so my plan is to get this setup working properly first, then working on giving it a little more pep once I get used to how it runs to and from work. --Phil |
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Went to the shops today, found the cheapy store-brand oil was on sale from $2.99/quart to 1.99/quart so bought 6 bottles. Also bought some Evapo-Rust after having read up that is does a good job. Put the old feed pipe on the water pump inlet and filled the block up with it, intending on it to sit overnight. Go out a half hour later to check on it and all the Evapo-Rust has found a hole in the old water pump and leaked out all over the driveway. Not impressed. Gave up with that and got the hosepipe, spent a half hour flushing out all the flakes and crud from the water galleries of the engine. Dried off what I could and brought the block inside to sit in front of the aircon set on dehumidify. That and I go to fire up the compressor and a bird flies out the motor housing. In a day and a half a bird has made a nest and laid three eggs in my compressor motor housing. I have left them be but I have a feeling that now disturbed the bird will abandon the nest. If there's no bird poop everywhere tomorrow I think the nest shall have to be removed.  Five hours later it's all nice and dry and clean and sadly, just about as rusty inside as it was before. Mojo fail Still, ordered a new set of thrust bearings for the crank, $8.80 plus $10.95 shipping. Sucks when the shipping costs more than the part but that should be here before Friday. --Phil |
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Last Edit: Apr 25, 2010 5:00:42 GMT by PhilA
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Lifted the block out of its box last night and set it down on the floor, much to the chagrin of the wife. She can't have been too upset because she took a photo.  Cleaning the grease out of the bores that I'd sprayed in to try and protect them from the elements. My flywheel, stored in the boot of the car (no longer leaks!) is almost solid surface rust now which is a concern. Leaving metal unprotected outside here is a recipe for disaster.  Cleans up nicely. Went outside to go dig out the thrust bearings from the boot of the car so I can fit in the crank. Cleaned them up to see if they are serviceable...  ...that'll be a no then. Someone was loving that clutch pedal. Discontinued item here as of April 5 of this year. Ugh. Now comes the fun of trying to find which part number they are so I can source a replacement from Renault. Rebuild set back again over an $8 part. --Phil |
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IIRC it was the production line for these that was the set for the movie "Gung Ho" (Obscure 80's Michael Keaton comedy)
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'83 GTM Coupe. 4A-GE Powered
'00 GTM Libra Auto. Ick.
'71 Detomaso Pantera. Current Resto
'89 GMC Safari Tow/Kip bus
'05 SAAB 9-3 Daily
'71 Siva Moonbug. Not even contemplating resto yet.
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IIRC it was the production line for these that was the set for the movie "Gung Ho" (Obscure 80's Michael Keaton comedy) Probably made more money off the film than they did building cars...  --Phil |
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Been working on the engine a bit more today, as I have the day off. Started, then decided to photograph things, despite that slowing everything down to wash hands and take a picture every two minutes  These are clicky-to-make-bigger, by the way.  Got one in already there. Started out with a collection of stuff: (Kitchen knife is important part of the toolkit)  Took a look at the bores. One has got a hazing of rust on it, despite me trying to be careful. That occurred over about fifteen minutes after wiping things down  Started fitting the new big end bearing shells:    Got them all pressed in evenly. Kitchen knife useful here because it gets down the back of the bearing shell without damaging it when it doesn't go in and sit right the first time. Start assembly:  Finger tight to stop the shells migrating for the time being:  And checked for matching numbers. In this instance I have proven my mathematical skills and gotten the right bits:  A good soaking in O'Reilly's finest 20w/50 and it's ready to go. Give the bore a good daub and wipe round of oil.  Fit ring compressor. Discover how slippy oil is and how sharp the edge of the tool is:   Begin gently easing piston into bore. Last thing I want to do is bust up $120 of custom-made piston rings...  In, nice and snug, slides up and down with only a finger to push it. Two more to go, but they're the same so just scroll up and then back down again twice more and you'll get the idea ;D  More to follow. --Phil |
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Last Edit: May 7, 2010 21:43:07 GMT by PhilA
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With the bottom end together I set about torquing things up to measure. Bought a length of Plastigage at Autozone.  Torqued the bearings down and then undid them to read the results.  The mains all came up an even 0.003" and the big ends all an even 0.002" That's a good result. Just out of interest I figured I'd measure the endfloat on the crank as best as I could with the totally worn out thrust washers in.  Came back less than six thou. New thrust washers should improve that. Checked to see what the float on the big ends was.  Came back good, just under six thou because I couldn't properly get the feeler gauge in. Engine's now held up waiting on me to be able to find new thruat washers, and got some Rhodorseal in the post- the bathroom sealant that the engine's been reassembled with in the past didn't seem to be up to task... --Phil |
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Really lame update, but I got email today that Renault have shipped my thrust washers from Billiancourt(!), their HQ in France, so I should be getting them soonish.
Then I can actually put my engine together!
...and still the block is in the workshop bedroom ;D
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On a positive side-note I managed to evict the birds from my compressor motor. I'm not cruel enough to kick them out of their home whilst they're still living there.
At least I can pump my tyres up now. That's about as much as I've managed to do on the car recently.
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Finally got a decent set of feeler gauges and dusted off the engine for another round of fun. Accurately measured up and calculated the clearances, and received the order in from Renault in Bristol for the new pair of thrust washers.  Picked up a tube of the right sealant, after picking traces of this (Mastixo, formerly Rhodorseal 8130) compounded in with bathroom caulk and red RTV out of the threads and oilways.  Turns out they've changed the design of them over the years, shaving a few grams here and there off the cast-iron block, by making the new thrust washers in a horse-shoe shape and out of some lighter alloy. I hope they last. Took it all apart again.  This seems to be the story of this engine. Together, apart, together, apart... Got the new bearings in place, they sit in snug.  ...and torqued down again.  Again, things are on hold as I realise I managed to totally muller the front oilseal taking the crank pulley off Thought I was being more careful than that (more to the point I thought the rebuild kit had one in with it. It doesn't!) So, on the hunt for a new seal, as this one has a funny lip to stop it migrating. Joy oh joy. --Phil |
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Last Edit: Jun 17, 2010 2:10:44 GMT by PhilA
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it is so cool to see some "exotic" cars from what we have.
I am french so, those AMC or alliance etc, are son uncommon, i would be so pleased to own a LeCar...
Anyway, you do great work, so better when we know how hard it is to find the parts in Us for those cars!
If you need some particular parts we can have in France, do not hesitate to Pm me, i would be glad to help you!
keep up the good work!
Nicolas,
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'93 Volvo 940 GLE station wagonsold
'81 VW Passat CL station wagon (not runing but lowwwww)
'85 VW Golf C (running lowwww) sold
'96 VW Passat TDI station wagon US (will be low very soon) sold
'83 BMW 318i E21 (soon to be swapped with 2,0L)
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