Maybe I missed it, but did you ever get the electric power steering installed?
Maybe I missed it, but did you ever get the electric power steering installed?
Not yet - I was going to get the engine sorted out first, so it'll take a bit :-)
Got the engine all broken down today and found a few culprits in addition to the obvious wear: top rings on cyl 2 and 3 were broken to pieces, and at least the intake lobe for #4 is wiped. Some of the others seem to be worn but #4 is awful.
Turns out the specs from Tony's memory were a little misremembered, or there had been changes: there was a stock B20B 'C' cam in there and a standard weight flywheel. So with that it's off to the machine shop, assuming he has an opening, for a 0.100" overbore, fresh B21 pistons, skim the deck and head and do a real valve job, and lighten the flywheel. Yum.
Looking good! And I am NOT going to say "put a LS in there...".
Nope, not me. I won't do it.
Try to get a new camshaft that is made from billet steel. The factory iron ones have always been lobe loosers, even when all oils had plenty of zinc. Mostly I blame the rocker arm ratio for this, I have never seen a way to increase the lubrication. Nor did I have any problems with the billet cams that we were able to source 40 years ago.
Nice tip - do any suppliers come to mind?
Noddaz, believe me I've looked. The Amazon engine compartment is tight for a V8. A Duratec/MZR, however... but not for this one, which has a little history.
The feeble wet ware memory says Iskenderian VV77, and a Sig Erson of unknown type number. The Isky was in my daily driver Duett that I parted with in 1991. That had such short gears that 7000 RPM was only about 100 MPH. Ran it long distances at 6k too. I have a buddy who refuses the internet that runs a 123GT clone down in Florida that I will call to inquire what he runs. I know in OD top his car pulls 130 MPH, and it hasn't been apart in close to 30 years, though he has enough cars that the mileage is probably less than 100K.
Super, thanks. VV71 maybe? That one looks not too much bigger than a K, which is good.
I started a new job this week, for a CA company and I'm on the East Coast, so decided to flip my day around some. I still get up at 6 to stay in sync with my wife who teaches school, then get some exercise and do my own stuff until 1130 or so when I go to work. This has made me more intentional about how to use free time and I've taken the advice seen on the boards here to spend 30 minutes in the garage every day. It's a nice way to start and so far thi week I've cleaned up there and rebuilt the starter, too. Have to be careful to obey the go-to-work alarm but the discipline is helpful.
Sweet car, can't believe I've missed this thread for so long, as I have about a dozen of these cars laying around, and parts from another dozen that have passed through my hands...
Best of luck with the build. These are great rally cars, from my own personal experience...
Couldn't help but notice ipdusa.com still sells the D ("fuelie") cam for this engine. It's aftermarket cast iron but should be harder than the OEM.
Conversely, there's a guy in the Netherlands with a new K cam for a boatload of money and a bunch of shipping too.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/114932568536?hash=item1ac283d1d8:g:usQAAOSwH3xhFOrm
I ended up with a USA-cast K cam from VP. Hopefully with good assembly lube, regular use of high-zinc oil and some sacrifices to the gods it'll stay pointy for a while.
Upside of tearing it down is that there are clear signs someone paid attention when building the engine. Rods and old pistons match to the gram individually, so if I match the new pistons to each other I should end up mostly balanced. The machinist is lightening and balancing the flywheel.
VCH which organizations do you run with? Central PA isn't far from here at the top of VA.
In reply to paddygarcia :
It shouldn't cost that much to have your inline 4 professionally balanced, including the pressure plate.
paddygarcia said:VCH which organizations do you run with? Central PA isn't far from here at the top of VA.
Susquehanna region SCCA.
http://www.scca-susq.com/rallycross/
Got an update from the machine shop. Block is done, head needs an exhaust valve but otherwise ready to go, valves seated and set for 100lb. It had already been worked over some as Tony indicated so he didn't touch the ports.
Parts are ordered, hopefully won't take too long to be delivered. In the mean time I found a proper radiator shop and will drop off the rad tomorrow. It's in decent shape but shows some signs of leaking.
Back home from the spa.
Nice build thread and 122 padygarcia. I have a few questions; it looks like the block's head gasket surface wasn't cleaned up, how about the head? Are you using stock valve springs? Also, no hardened exhaust valve seat inserts? I am looking forward to the engine assembly.
Both surfaces were found to be dead flat so he left them alone. Head has both hardened valve seats and stock springs.
I bought a set of double springs but we had a miscommunication so the head didn't get machined for them. Not too worried as the engine seems to have come from Tony with singles. If they float I'll have to pop the head off and have the spring pockets machined.
Rotating assembly mostly assembled! The new pistons are 40g heavier than the ITMs that were in there, but pins are 20g lighter so only a net 20g gain. The pistons were very consistent - 2 @ 546g, 1 @ 547 and 1 @ 548. A little grinding on the bosses and now they're all 546g. The Hastings rings and my machinist's bores were also consistent and needed very little fitting.
Pistons are about 0.007 above the deck, so should give a little over 10:1 compression.
Now, do I paint or keep the patina?
Patina + cosmoline > paint because racecar.
I've been trying the 30-60 minutes per day in the garage goal, which has worked well this week: the bottom end is pretty much done, along with vacuum manifolding on the intake. It'll be useful to have vacuum advance on the street now, and like the coolant temp sensor will be essential for the hoped-for EFI.
Now on to wiring the car for the GM alternator to both work with the dash light and also keep a bunch of current off the original harness. And also haranguing the machinist per his request to finish the flywheel so I can get things reassembled.
The last piece of the puzzle is back from the spa, trimmed down to sporting weight and balanced like the chakras of a yogi.
My pal Ray and I dropped in the engine this weekend. I'm pretty happy with the way the alternator wiring turned out. Stock (or at least as fitted) alternator is an externally regulated 2-wire 55 amp Bosch, with a heavy charging lead running to the starter solenoid. The stock wiring harness picks up power from the solenoid and the battery is charged by the heavy + cable running from battery to solenoid.
Old alternator was shot, so replacing it is a 63 amp 3 wire GM. A new 10ga cable runs from the alternator to a buss bar, feeding the new additional circuits, the to-be EPAS, and the battery, which then feeds the solenoid and the stock harness through the heavy + cable. The old alternator's charging cable stays connected at the solenoid and becomes the GM's voltage sensing wire. The same alternator warning light wire for the old alt gets used for the new.
At some point I'll put the headlights which will get the headlight current off the original harness and hopefully keep the smoke in for years to come.
As Galileo said whenever he fired up a new engine, E pur si muove.
Suggestions appreciated. This is the way the car came to me, and it makes sense to me for an open crankcase system - same as a filter on each port + a catch can. There's no plenum to run a PCV valve into.
It would be nice if my manifold had those ports, but alas not. There's one on cylinder #1 but dumping all of the crankcase ventilation into one cylinder doesn't seem like a good idea.
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