Engine Strip Down – Part 1

First step was to remove the rocker cover, exposing the rocker assembly.

One of the things I did learn by reading and watching was that things need to be kept in the same place from where they came off.

Using the rocker cover upside down, keeps it all together.

Off comes the flywheel. Another tip taken from videos, was to use two bolts, a selection of washers to pull the fly wheel off. That all went pretty easily.

Then removed the fly wheel cover.

Then it was a case of removing all the other ancillary parts, the oil filler pipe, distributor, heater pipe tap, engine mounting brackets, oil filter assemby and various other bits.

Once all those bits were off and safely stored, next was to tackle the head. Taking care to undo the bolts a bit at a time and in exactly the right order (reverse of the order used to tighten them).

Humm, even me with my little knowledge knew this would not be easy, but I was surprised! the bolts started coming out fairly easily, until that is 2 snapped.

Then there was one bolt that I could not get a socket on, and could not find a spanner with grip to undo this little bugger, which had a slightly knackered head.

So, looked for a tool that would help and found these little things, sockets with a spiral inside that grip the bolt head, and small enough to fit in the gap, just.

With the help of an extension bar, out it came.

Next, the timing chain. Removed the timing chain cover, which needed 4 bolts removed from the sump.

Now, the right way to do this, is to set the engine to TDC (Top Dead centre) on cylinder 1, and mark where the gears are to maintain the timing between the crank shaft and the cam shaft.

Because the engine had locked up, I couldn’t do this so will have to re-set all the timing when it goes back together.

With the timing gear off, the cam shaft can come out. To do this, all the rocker parts need to be taken out first.

Again, all these were bagged up in separate bags to keep them in order.

Next then, is to remove the sump, so I can get at the crank shaft, main bearings and ultimately remove the pistons.

Cant quite see it here, but in the bottom of the sump is a collection of small metal bits! Something somewhere has gone to poo!

Removed the top of the piston connecting rods, keeping all of them in separate plastic bags.

This should allow the pistons to come out the top of the block.

Difficult to know how much work this engine has done, but suffice to say enough to create a small lip in the piston bores to make this a bit of a challenge.

A little cleaning with some emery cloth, and got all the pistons out eventually, except number 4, which was the one that had caused the engine to lock up.

With three out, I was able to remove the crank shaft, which gave me better access to No4, which eventually came out.

To finish up, cleaned up the case a little and took out three of the casting plugs.

Will re-new these during the rebuild, after the block gets a nice, original coat of paint.