My 3B Coupe project - Total rebuild

[4WheelDrifter]

I am glad I am not the only one that cleans up and paints new parts.

[Rocco]

progressss

[AndyP]

This is the breather mod I did on the cam cover. 16mm breather welded on the back in stock position, needs trimming a little.


I've put this baffle on the inside so the oil does not have a straight shot down the breather under hard acceleration. Not sure if it will work or not but it's worth a try.

[AndyP]

Welding finished and legs blasted


Treated with Metalready and painted with POR15


And finally fitted. It was sitting a little high at this so I've since dropped it down 20mm.


New Febi track rod ends also painted with POR15 and new Bambridge adjusters and hardware

[AndyP]

You would think a 16mm cam cover breather should be enough. Hopefully those tighter feeling VSOS do the trick.

I'm wondering if it's the position of the cam cover breather, in it's stock size it's known to be overwhelmed by oil under hard acceleration. Ideally it needs moving to the top of the cam cover to prevent this, but using the stock inlet manifold, this is easier said than done.

With my new 7A camcover I've made a bigger baffle to cover the breather outlet and hopefully stop it injesting so much liquid. I'll post some pics this weekend.

[4WheelDrifter]

You would think a 16mm cam cover breather should be enough. Hopefully those tighter feeling VSOS do the trick.

[AndyP]

Not much progress has been made recently, mainly because I've been ill since the weekend when I pulled the head off, working for 20hrs in sub zero temperatures didn't do me any good

Anyway, the coilovers are finished and just need fitting, the head is back on and I just need to re-plumb everything. Should get most if it finished this weekend, then it's fingers crossed that the new VSOS fix the problem.

[AndyP]

What's the definition of OK?

I use this system


All I get in the catch tank is a bit of mayo which is emptied every couple of months, anything else just drains back to the sump.

[4WheelDrifter]

Wow! That's a lot of oil seeping past the VSOSs. Is the cam-cover breathing ok?

[AndyP]

The new seals do seem noticeably tighter on the valves so hopefully this if the answer. If not I've no idea what to look at next!

[prj]

I agree, for it to sit on top of the valves like that it has to be coming down the valve stems.

[AndyP]

If that oil is going through the valves that way then doesn't that mean that the piston clearances may not be ideal?

But the oil is on top of the inlet valves which means it can only have come down the valve guides, meaning they or the valve stem oil seals are shot, or it could have come through the inlet pipework from the turbo. I've checked the inlet pipework and it's really clean, there was hardly any oil in the intercooler which is usually a good 'catch tank' if the turbo oil seals are knackered. I did a compression test a couple of weeks ago and it was virtually the same as it was when the engine wass built, i.e. higher than stock.

[A80Avant]

If that oil is going through the valves that way then doesn't that mean that the piston clearances may not be ideal?

[AndyP]

Steering arms have been left as I don't plan on lowering it a huge amount. Too many speed bumps around here

[europeanme]

My car has had a mis-fire for some time now and at first I thought it would be an easy fix, plugs or HT leads at the most. It’s intermitant and only shows up on high boost, if I leave the boost controller on low boost ( 1bar ) it’s fine but turn it up to 1.5bar and the mis-fire appears. So far I’ve changed the following componants:-

Coil
Plugs
HT leads
Distributor
Rotor arm distributor cap
Fuel pressure regulator
Also had the injectors back on the ASNU machine and they checked out ok.

The other weekend I tried another set of HT leads, and whilst I had the inlet manifold off I noticed this






All the inlet valves that were shut had a puddle of oil on them. The car has always used a lot of oil but I’d put it down to the JE pistons needing a bigger clearance than stock pistons. So I’m now thinking that the oil consumption is fouling the plugs. So when I got in from work on Friday I pulled the head off



Considering how much oil the engine consumes, 1litre in 600miles, it was not nearly as bad as I thought, The pic above was taken after I’d cleaned the pistons. The exhaust manifold was spotless as was the turbo hot side. The piston tops and combustion chamber had a good coating of soot, as did the valves.






Looking at the plugs and turbine you’d have thought it’s running lean, but according to my AFR gauge it runs a little rich, a little over 11:1 @ WOT.
Everything has now been cleaned , the valve guides were within factory spec so I replaced the valve stem oil seals and the head is now back on the car. Still loads to do but hoping to have it running for next weekend, and if the suspension is finished, I’ll give it a test drive.

Coil over conversion is almost done

Would have got all 4 legs welded but I ran out of filler rods.


When they’re all welded I’m going to get them blasted and paint them with POR15. New springs arrived on Saturday ( I’m going with 250lb/9” all round) so it should be a simple re-build and re-fit, oh and wheel alignment AGAIN. Fingers crossed this time.

bloody hell mate...that would have been nasty if you hadn't sorted that before "you know when".... at least you have finally got to the bottom of it sooner.

looks like your well on your way to sorting your coupe.....