Once I had got used to the idea of taking off the harmonic balancer and timing cover again, it wasnt so bad, just a bit of a nuisance, even more so when I couldnt save the gasket and had to buy a complete bottom set just to get the gasket replaced. The oil slinger was duly fitted, and all was put back.
I decided to stay with the stock exhaust manifolds, but they got a bit of gas flow work before they were (VHT) painted and fitted. There is considerable room for improvement there as the casting narrows quite a lot to make way for one of the bolt holes in each port; I cant believe how bad that design is 😯 . But this was easily reduced and smoothed out to make much better gas flow. This together with the bit of porting work I did on the heads should make the stock engine punch out a bit more BHP. I noticed that each manifold had seven large mounting holes to allow for tolerances, with one normal hole. To ensure good port alignment I made a dowel tool to get a second hole aligned (same principle as the intake). No point in wasting effort matching ports if the manifold are not aligned properly 😕
Now is the time to remove the engine from the stand, and put it back onto the trolley, ready to fit the flywheel, clutch and gearbox.
The new flywheel was then duly fitted (nearly forgetting the engine plate!) and checked for runout (max 10thou), then the clutch was attached with 6 bolts. A new thrust bearing was installed onto the fork, and the bell housing attached to the block complete with slave bracket.
Next job will be to fit the gearbox carefully using an improvised alignment dowel, and we will be ready to put the whole show back into the car.
I keep looking at all the bits that are left trying to work out where they will go, making sure nothing is forgotten. So far so good but it’s amazing how soon you forget exactly how it all came apart!
Looking forward to driving it again soon 😀
