I haven’t updated my blog since July!! I know I know, BAD AARON! haha. If you have been following on Facebook, Youtube and Instagram, you will know I have since completed my engine rebuild and in mid-January 2017, I departed Toronto heading back down to Mexico to escape the cold, catch some waves and of course visit my girlfriend.
Last I checked in via my blog, I had started my first ever independent engine rebuild. In June I fried a head gask and there was no other choice but to drop the engine and pull her apart.
I say independent but in fact I got lots of help from youtube and various online forums. I had a couple major set backs. The first of which came when I went to bolt down my cylinder head. My head gasket slipped down and I sadly tightened the head down before noticing.
Luckily I caught it before going any further, however the damage was done. The gasket scored the head so badly that I essentially had to make a call to order a brand a set of refurbed heads. A refurbed set was about equal to the cost of having mine machined and they were already in rough shape after my 50,000km journey to South America and back + however many years of wear they had previous to the trip.
After receiving my new set of heads shipped in from California, I went at it again. I learned how to measure the volume of my heads combustion chambers. and I grinded one out so all chambers were perfectly equal.
Then I went to install them. This was where I experienced my second major set back. I snapped a stud when tightening down the head. I had borrowed a torque wrench from my neighbor, and either it malfunctioned of the stud was already weak but either way, I had to once again disassemble the head, clean it up, replace the stud and do it all again.
[youtube src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/8iMWEVAj2Zk"]
Finally I got it all back together and with a bit of luck it fired right up. While I had the motor out, I also took care of a few other maintenance and restorative tasks. I used Phosphoric acid in order to strip the engine tins of rust, and coated them in high heat paint.
I also painted my fan shroud and engine bay after cutting out and repairing some rust. I also refurbed my cv joints.
[youtube src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/Kd96YxSqEUA"]
I’ve put close to 6000km on the motor since the rebuild and so far so good. Fingers crossed it keep pushing me along on this adventure. As always, more updates to follow. Don’t forget there are lots of videos from my rebuild up on Youtube.
