Yep, the engine is in bits (again), this time to check general condition and replace bearings due to low oil pressure problem.
The prototype (mild steel!) gears show very little wear after about 500 miles, so they will stay in for a bit longer I think.....
Engine resting upturned in the garden while having big & main bearings changed.
In what could only be described as a burst of rational thought, I decided it was time to scrap the badly welded sandwichy block/box adapter and make nice solid 'real' one from 3mm steel plate. Then there was the radical concept of using proper gasket paper instead of orange goo......
The transfer adapter, while looking ugly, doesn't need to be reworked (at the moment anyway).
TIP !!! Use your engine hoist to get the car on to axle stands, it's far funnier than using a jack !
Extra mods to the subframe. As one of the pot joint boots had become a bit abraded (shredded) by rubbing on the flangy edge of the driveshaft hole in the subframe, I ground them flat
TIP !!! Use a spanner from one of the clutch cover bolts to one of the housing bolts as an easy way to lock the flywheel while doing up the crank bolts. Far nicer then the old 'screwdriver in the ring gear' trick.
The old clutch release bearing shows a few more mm of wear than should really be allowed, and a nasty crack in the casting. Hooray for finding a clutch kit on Ebay!
The old cover is considerably scabbier than the new one too.
Lump news. The shaping on the bulgy lump thing is mostly done now, but maybe we need to draw on some stretch marks to help the illusion of 'engine pushing up through bonnet' ??
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