Sunday, February 25, 2007

Block Preparation

Spent most of Saturday afternoon preparing the block, lapped in the oil pump, used some valve grinding paste to ensue a good seal between the pump and the block. Checked the piston ring gaps, these all came out out 0.010" to 0.012", a little higher than I would have liked but within spec.

Then commenced the clean, although the block had been in the cleaning tank at the machine shop, I was not entirely happy with the with the coolant passages, Following some advice given on one of the Club Triumph message boards, I managed to get hold of some Milk Stone Remover, this is used within the dairy trade for descaling pipes and cleaning equipment. It is based on Phosphoric Acid which is used in rust removal products. I mixed this with hot water, filled the block cooling system and left it to soak for 30 minutes - care must be taken when filling the block to ensure it doest spill on to any machined surface as it is corrosive. I then set to work with the steam cleaner to remove all traces of the solution - the results were pretty impressive.

After blowing of most of the water I set to work with the paraffin gun and airline to ensure things were as clean as possible - this was then dried off and the whole block treated to a can of brake cleaner to ensure it was completely degreased prior to a coat of gloss black engine paint.

Finally the core plugs were fitted with a smear of Loctite 648 retaining fluid.

The whole process may seem like a bit of an overkill but I like to ensure that engines are built as clean as possible.

2 comments:

vitessesteve said...

How does that engine hold onto your stand? Have you got any more pictures? I see it attached to the engine mounting at one point.

Mike said...

Steve it has aa 8 or 10 mm steel plate which picks up off the engine mount casting on the side of the block(4 bolts)2 of the fixings also attach to the engine stand, the fixings on the far left clamp the steel plate to the engine stand. The engine will hopefully be coming off at the weekend so I will post some more pictures.