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Started My Engine Overhaul

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Webb Sledge

Webb Sledge

Jedi Warrior
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I started overhauling my TR6 engine today. Had to take some of the interior out (center console, tranny tunnel, sterio, seats, carpet) to unhook the transmission from the engine, and then disconnected all that was connected to the engine from the car. Grabbed a bigass engine hoist, and lifted her out (after the ritual beating, cursing, and deftly smashed fingers). Fuel, oil, and water pumps were removed, along with the coil, distributor, clutch, flywheel, and the oil was drained. Then it was set on a table and the hoist removed. Turning that thing on its side without dropping it was hard as heck. TRs have iron blocks, remember, not fancy modern aluminum so it weighed about as much as my house. Then we got the various valve train bits out and head off. Bottom end next; bearing caps and main bearings out, and then big ends of the con rods off. Crank removed (also weights as much as my house), and valve cover, tensioner, and chain taken off. We then took the pistons out. The cam came out next, after beating on the lifters for 30 minutes trying to figure out which one was holding the cam in, and then the lifters got popped out. By that time the engine was down to bare block, and ready to be taken to a machine shop for measuring of clearances and the possibly, probable boring.

My engine is completely original, except for a timing chain and main bearings, so it's going to need a bit of work, though not excessive. The lifters ate my cam, and both are pitted and the rule is you shouldn't ever replace just the lifters or just the cam, as they'll just destory each other again, so I've gotta have $60 worth of lifters, and a $330 cam... dangit. When it's all done though my car is gonna kick some serious ass. I'm replacing the dual Zenith-Strombergs with twin Webers, a free flowing intake manifold, and a Pacesetter Monza exhaust. I can't wait. Before we started on this, it had basically no compression (bad rings. We couldn't even get the head to pop off with compession because it leaked around the rings so badly), less than 40psi oil pressure at full throttle, though the gauge read about 65 because it was rigged with a bolt. Even with all that wrong, it pulled moderately well at low revs, so I can't wait to see what a proper 6 engine with some hop-ups can do.
 
Take a look at the thread out exhaust systems. It might be worth reading.

Since you have it all apart, look into the cost of balancing all the flinging bits and lightening the flywheel. REALLY makes a difference. As I remember from doing my GT6 2.0 lump, getting the crankshaft endplay set can be a challenge. I wound up using one standard shim at one end of the crank and a first over shim at the other end to get it right. If the cam sprocket is the same on the GT6 and the TR6 engine be forewarned that there are FOUR different ways that the sprocket can go back on, and only ONE position will be zero degrees on the stock cam. I hope you marked it.

Good luck.
 
I think some parts of my engine may already be balanced. A couple of the piston rods had had a slight bit shaved off of the big end, while others hadn't. As for the exhaust system, I've already bought a Monza off of a customer of ours, which was convenient because he bought it for his 6, then changed his mind and decided he wanted stainless steel.
 
Hello Webb,
Bob is right about the cam sprocket, it is a very simple way of getting some adjustment to the cam timing. What you cannot rely on is that your new cam will time as your old one; i.e. do not replace it to the old setting without checking it, you may need to use a different setting.
What Weber carburettors are you going to use?
Kas Kastner's competition manual is a wealth of information for rebuilding these engines, try E-Bay, if you don't have one.

Alec
 
[ QUOTE ]
I've gotta have $60 worth of lifters

[/ QUOTE ]
Unless your mechanic gave you a significant discount on those lifters, the $60 set is probably not the right way to go. You need to spend over $100 to get the proper hardened lifters (APT or PRI). Also, strongly urge you to spend an extra $20 or so on bronze alloy thrust washers at (rear side only) given the critical function they provide. Have fun!
 
Ditto on the hard lifters, PRI tested at 64 rockwell.(tested by elgin cams) lifters eat cams for lunch. Elgin said that they tested a bunch of MG lifters that were junk. I paid 100 for 8.
 
Yes, I get a signifigant discount on all parts because I work there. As for the thrust washers, I trust Joe knows what he's doing, given that he's been in this business for quite a while, and built more than his share of 6 engines. He knows what's good and what isn't. I'll keep this updated as we go along the rebuild. We sould start the actual rebuilding process end of week.
 
I am about to tear my engine down too, Second time in about 5 years, the time before this was because of a thrust washer falling out into the oil pan, ruined my crankshaft but luckily not the engine block. I decided to pin the thrust washer into the block for peace of mind. this tear down is because of dropping a valve into number 3 cylinder (broken valve spring)This left a couple scratchs one inch down from top of block on cylinder wall, dents on top of piston and broken valve quide. Also bent the exhaust valve. these were all new valve springs from the initial rebuild. After reading some on engine rebuilding, I found out that if you shave your head(mine measured 3.448, about 105 less than stock) you need to go with shorter push rods (british spec)in order to keep your rocker arm geometry correct. When my engine is tore down, I am considering putting a tr5 cam in (my car is a tr250) and also installing a toyota 5 speed transmition (not had very good experience with the a type overdrive) anyway, I have found engine rebuilding to be very enjoyable specially after driving and seeing the results, keep us informed on your progress, and happy building
 
No new exciting updates, my block, crank, and pistons are still at the machine shop, and I just sandblasted the oil pan, timing chain cover, engine mounts, engine bay cross brace, and the oil canister the other day. They got painted black. On Monday I'll be painting the valve cover Valencia in the paintshop with the paintgun and all. Hopefully I won't have to many runs. I'll also be swapping in the new exhaust system and my old on out, as well as starting prep work on the engine bay to get it ready to sand and prime. Parts are getting ordered Monday too, and they'll take about a week to get in, and then it takes the machine shop 3 days to bore the holes to the pistons (they need to go .030" over). When you bore an engine, you don't just bore it and put pistons in. The pistons are measured precisely, and then the holes are bored to match.

I also had a look in the distributor, and I frankly don't know how the car ran at all. The weights that are supposed to fly out under centrifugal force are connected with springs that bring them back in at low speeds. The springs were rusted firmly closed, and they wouldn't even budge with a screwdriver. The points were totally fried, and after looking at the pistons 3 cylinders were running rich, 2 lean, and 1 was correct. Even the pressure plate was on the verge of being bad because the friggin PO rode the clutch, so now the throwout bearing squeels even though it's been in less than 8 months. And on top of all that, the crankshaft was running hot, basically with no oil because the engine was making so little oil pressure. I just can't figure what it was running on....
 
Are your parents saying "We told you so" about now? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

I seem to remember they didn't much agree with your choice of transportation. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
Hah, My mother says that repeatedly, but my father likes the car. The main reason she didn't (and doesn't) like the 6 is because of safety. If you get hit or hit anything at a decent clip, it's over.
 
Maybe if you take her for a ride she'll change her mind
 
She's driven it a lot. She loves the convertible, and that it's small and "cute" (I translate "manly"), but she maintains that it's a rolling deathtrap.
 
We built the engine today! It ready to go in the car minus a flywheel, distributor, and plug wires. A 10 minute job. I had to hire someone to scrap and wirebrush the firewall. There was no way I would've been able to get the engine bay ready for paint in just this weekend. Tomorrow I'm going in bright and early to start sanding the engine bay with 120 grit. It has to be ready for paint by the end of the day, so I've got my work cut out for me. All of my of performance goodies are here and ready to be bolted on though, and I can tell you, it's gonna be nice when it's all done.
 
Webb,

Would you mind telling me what you did to prep your engine bay for paint and what did you paint it with? I'm in the process of taking out my engine for a rebuild and I've been pondering the idea of spraying my engine bay as well.

Thanks,
Shannon
 
The engine is completely built, minus the headers and carbs, and the engine bay is painted. Last Saturday we put the engine in, too, so it's drawing to a close... FINALLY! After taking my master cylinder out of the car for paint, we checked it for a rebuild and found that I need another one of those, which sucks. When I took the cap off the actual cylinder, black, oil like stuff ran out which was actually the seals inside that were deteriorating. Then the bottom of the cylinder was pitted badly... so much for that. By next Saturday, I should have all the stuff at the shop to start the engine. Definitly looking forward to that.

As I mentioned, the engine bay is also painted. I made the BIG BIG BIG mistake of not wiping down the entire compartment before sanding with cleaner, so if you look really closely in some areas there are fish eyes. You can't see these in the pictures, but if you stick your nose down in the engine bay in person you can. Fish eyes are when the primer doesn't stick to the body, due to oil, brake fluid, or something else still on the body. You end up having to put on Bar Coat, which is a primer that sticks to just about anything, because it seals the surface. These "fish eyes" show up as little dimples in the paint because it's not as high as the surrounding area due to where the primer pulled back. If you sand before cleaning it, you grind the oils down into the paint, and there's no way to get them out after that. So, learn from my mistake and don't make it yourself. That said, I'm very happy with the color and paint job, and it looks great despite a few fish eyes. Right now it looks absolutely horrible with the blue engine bay and green exterior, but this summer I'm painting the exterior the same Valencia Blue as the engine bay. I just don't have time to do the sanding with school going on. I might add, too, that the pictures are slightly misleading. The actual color is somewhat darker than it looks in the pics, but pretty close. Valencia was used on Triumph racing cars in the '60s, and is very rarely found on street cars.

I've only done a few modifications to the engine, and 1 of them out of necessity. It's getting twin Weber DGV (downdraft) carberetors, a free-flowing exhaust header, and a Monza exhaust, which is a true dual that splits into 4 tips. Also it was bored out to .030" over, with new pistons installed.

Here's a picture of the engine before and after the work was done. Quite a difference, huh? You can also see that I don't have the Webers mounted yet, just the secondary, downdraft manifold that's required for them.

Go Here for a pic of the engine before and after.
 
This is what your supposed to do. I left out the first, most important step:

First you spray it down with a clean, I'm not sure what it's called. All I know is that you put it in a pressurized bottle and it sprays out like a mist, and what isn't wiped off evaporates. I'll see if I can find what it's called on Saturday. But the ENTIRE bay has to be cleaned, and I mean every nook and cranny. Then you can start sanding. Doesn't need to be down to metal, just the original red primer. Once that's done, blow it out with compressed air, and clean it again. Then your paint area should be thoroughly cleaned and swept. Then you should wipe it down again, and it's ready to prime and paint.
 
I just realized that the color on my car isn't Valencia though. It's way to light to be Valencia, which ticks me off. The proper color should be darker and have a little bit of green in it. They must have mixed it wrong.
 
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