Flaminia engine rebuild

[lancianut666]

Another day three more pistons!

[lancianut666]

Hi all
Back on the tools after the weekend. The main job today (Tuesday ) was to get the engine suspended on the crane so I can handle it a bit more safely as it has become heavier and more awkward to work on. So first job was make room to get the crane assembled and hooked up to the engine. I have become concerned about detritus getting into the engine so I decided to put the sump on temporarily, this will help me to suspend the engine better as I can drop it down onto something level as the bottom of the sump is nice and flat. The next problem was to get a safe height to work at and it struck me my ex GPO toolbox is very strong and I had fitted a set of supermarket trolley wheels to it. Result! Then it was home time meaning on Wednesday with a bit of look I can get the timing chain and cam sprocket on, the flywheel on and the crank pulley. My mate Terry is coming over so we will be able to make a bit of progress in between drinking tea and putting the world to rights that is.
Clarkey

[lancianut666]

Hi all
My mate Terry came over the river to help out and between us we got the timing chain and tensioner in, fitted the oil pump and distributor drive shafts, fitted the oil filter housing and spent a frustrating hour trying to recover a camshaft locking plate from my spare engine. The end result is when the crankshaft rotates the distributor rotor arm turns. I will check out the space under the car tomorrow and see if there will be enough space to finish of the various bits and pieces and if so I will put the engine back in the car and set too on the cylinder heads.
Clarkey

[Kevinlincs]

Seriously impressed with the efforts Jim, gonna be a nice motor when you've done.

[Richard Fridd]

Is it important to install the fan/ water pump assembly at this stage?

       Lovely job Jim,

                Richard

[lancianut666]

Hi Richard
It is just to keep debris out of the engine and somewhere safe to keep it.
Clarkey

[lancianut666]

Hi all
Another day another disaster (only a minor one) I had wanted to fit the dynamo to see if it would be easier done with the engine out of the car but firstly the tensioner bar fixing bolt thread was crossed in the block so I had to re tap that but when I went to remove the tensioner bolt from the lug on the dynamo it fell off, I had decided it was bent over at an unfavourable angle! So we need another dynamo or shall I convert to an alternator? If any one has done the conversion please share the problems etc. So back to the engine and as the front pulley is heavy and has the dampener on it also heavy I had a trial fit but it would not go on as the key in the crank had popped up and was jamming but after a slight tap with a nice boilermakers hammer I have acquired all was well, but I would have found this tricky under the car so a job well done. The next little job was to make sure all the oil cooler pipes will go on as access to the oil filter mount is awkward, no problems encountered and the nice new oil cooler pipes look rather good. The las thing we did today was put a new oil pressure gauge pipe on and connect the banjo to the top of the oil filter housing as access is tight, unfortunately the original banjo had gone AWOL so the spare engine came to the rescue again. I had another look at the camshaft lock plate on the spare engine and I think it is made with an offset hole that leaves an overlap just where you could tap it down into the slot in the funny nut thing. Another easy task was lubing up the cam followers and dropping them in. Last thing I managed was to put the engine back on the crane so I can have a think about how to tighten up all the cap bolts on the crankshaft.
Clarkey
ps I'm quite pleased with the progress as it is starting to look like an engine rather than a collection of scrap metal parts. 

[frankxhv773t]

Perhaps a Dynamator would do the trick, giving modern electrics with a period look.

[lancianut666]

Hi Frank
Hmmm the bank of Jim says no at £669.96. Looking at the dynamo the front plate should come off so I could repair it.
Clarkey

[frankxhv773t]

I was looking at ones for a couple of hundred but that wasn't checking compatibility of mounting. With alternators I've swapped end plates to adapt mountings between cars so I imagine dynamos would work similarly.

[lancianut666]

Little bit done before the weekend...starter motor on, airfilter checked to see if new element fits OK, and a start on stripping the carb down as I have an overhaul kit and I think it will break down enough to fit into the ultrasonic cleaner (most of it)

[lancianut666]

Hi all
Hit a snag with the carb as the top cover screws are not playing ball so have left them to soak a bit of oil. Terry was bored so he came over and we manoeuvred the engine into a position where we could take the sump off and torque down the big ends and main bearings. When this was all done we thought right get the sump back on fit the front pulley, flywheel and starter and pop it back into the car. No such luck because where is the sump gasket...must be in two halves but where was it? answer nowhere it would seem from the parts book there isn't one. Can anybody shed a light on this?

[DavidG]

When I took mine apart there was evidence of a sealant slaloming around the studs. It looked like it had been some sort of cord that had compressed. I imagine a silicone gasket would be the answer here but it would need to be pretty thin because of the need to get the holes on the timing cover and flywheel cover to line up with the sump.

Getting it back in the car will feel like real progress. Nowhere near that stage myself.

[lancianut666]

Thanks for that information, it makes sense as I can't find any sump gaskets in the parts book.

[lancianut666]

Hi all
No work done over Christmas but I picked up a new tube of the silicon sealer as the old one had gone off so tomorrow I will get the sump back on.
Clarkey