So as I mentioned in my other thread on the manner, I've started the process of installing a higher performance cam and doing just a general refresh of the engine. The following post(s) has been written after the fact so this is more of a recap than a play by play update. I still have to finish a few small things so this won't be the final update on this topic.
My goal was to replace as many of the external gaskets and seals and wear parts as possible without taking out the transmission and leaving the engine in the car. Unfortunately, this means the rear main seal has to be done at a later time; the transmission output shaft seals, shifter seal, and all water pump related gaskets were already replaced by me about a year ago so I didn't touch those. Over the past few weeks I addressed the following:
-timing belt
-timing belt tensioner
-O2 sensor
-spark plugs
-cap/rotor
-valve seals
-cam seal
-front main seal
-aux shaft seal
-head gasket
-cam box gasket
-oil pan gasket
-timing gear end cover plate seal
-aux shaft housing gasket
-cam box gasket
-valve cover gasket
-distributor gasket
-dipstick gasket
-crankcase breather tube gasket
-cam end cover gasket (on the drivers side of the cam box)
-exhaust/intake manifold gaskets
-intake runner gaskets
-AC belt
-new head bolts
-faulty auxiliary air valve
-faulty coolant temp sensor
-Installed a fresher dogbone mount
I knew the valve seals were shot because the car burned oil like it was gasoline and it took about 20 minutes before the blue smoke from the exhaust would go away after a cold start. I pulled the plugs and found they were covered in a 2-3mm thick layer of crystallized oil/carbon nastiness. After disassembling everything and pulling the head I found the cylinders to be extremely dirty with massive amounts of carbon deposits on the valves, tops of the cylinders and the head. Undoubtedly this was from the bad valve seals. Cylinders 3 and 2 were the worst by far - obviously the valve seals weren't doing anything at all there.
Unfortunately I don't have any pictures with everything dirty . . . only after I cleaned. Sorry about that.
Below is the block and cylinders after several hours of scrubbing and half a dozen cans of parts cleaner. They cleaned up rather nicely. (Note the mark on cylinder 2 is a grass clipping or something of that nature, not a scratch. It was a windy day.)
Amazingly the factory crosshatching is still present in all the bores! The motor has about 65K on it. Not sure why buy I only took pictures of #1, and #4 . . .
Cylinder #1
Cylinder #4
I also completely disassembled the head, and cleaned it as best I could with part cleaner and brass brushes. I also lapped the valves. The seats didn't look too bad, so I debated for a while if it was worth lapping them, but I ultimately decided I should since it's not very often I'll have the motor this far apart. I also replaced a badly corroded heater pipe elbow, and replaced all of the exhaust/intake manifold studs with new ones except for the one in the picture below. I couldn't get it to budge and didn't want to risk snapping it or stripping the head.
Looking at the difference between the old heater elbow and new/refurbished one, it's amazing to imagine what a factory fresh engine would look like with all of the appropriate accessories,clips, and brackets finished in Cr6+.
Also shown below is the new performance cam installed in the still dirty cam box. It is this cam from MWB:
https://www.midwest-bayless.com/Fia...uration-street-cam-fiat-x19-128-yugo-new.aspx
While the head was off, I took the time to clean mating surfaces for the dipstick, crankcase ventilation hose, and blockoff plate(?) and install new gaskets. Same goes for the distributor gasket and mating surface. Everything on the back of the engine was extremely crusty with layers of built up oily gunk. Clearly some or all of these were leaking . . .
New headgasket installed. The oil is PB blaster that I used to keep the cylinders lubricated while the engine sat exposed. The head was off for about 2 weeks. Notice that piece of grass has migrated over to cylinder 1 haha.
Head freshly installed but not torqued to spec yet (no bolts). Notice the lash caps installed on the valve tips. Since the new cam is a regrind, I decided to go the route of using lash caps combined with thinner shims to takeup the slack instead of shaving the cam box. The lash caps provide 1.50mm of clearance. This resulted in needing shims that fell in the 3.00mm to 3.55mm range for all the valves. I checked to ensure the cam lobes did not interfere with the edges of the buckets with the thinner shims. Everything was good, however I would not recommend using shims below 3.00mm. 2.95mm is awfully tight, and 2.90mm definitely interferes (for me at least). I actually ended up grinding down a few lash caps by a few tenths of a millimeter to allow for the use of thicker shims to avoid clearance issues.
At this point I also replaced the auxiliary air valve with a different used one I had that seemed to operate better.
With the head mounted, I tackled the auxiliary shaft a and the timing belt tensioner stud. As soon as I removed the tensioner, the stud started dripping coolant. Below is a picture of the surfaces on the block cleaned and ready for new gaskets.
New gasket for the aux shaft cover and new seal for the aux shaft. Note this picture was before I tightened the bolts. I also removed the timing belt tensioner stud and applied RTV to the threads that thread into the block to stop the coolant leak. It seemed like it did the trick.
New tensioner versus old. The old one didn't have any play, but was noisy. Glad I replaced it.
Next I addressed the timing gear cover end plate. Below is an image of it removed with the surfaces cleaned, ready for a new gasket. The oil pan gasket will come later.
Timing gear endplate installed with a new gasket and new front main seal. All parts were cleaned. I believe the front main seal was leaking due to the gunk inside the timing cover and how dirty the timing gear endplate and oil pan were.
Next it was time to mate the cambox to the head after a deep clean and the correct valve shims were installed. I also immediately installed a new timing belt.
New timing belt from below. Luckily my flywheel was not 180 degrees out so I was able to use it as a known good source of timing, to get the belt lined up. I didn't bother with the aux shaft. I'll get the distributor timed later when I reinstall it. At this point it still needed some cleaning and work.
Time to install the exhaust manifold. This is a new one I purchased back when I had my '83X that I never got around to installing. The previous owner of that car had welded the downpipe to the manifold . . . yeah. There was nothing wrong with the manifold that came off of my '85, but why not use shiny new parts when you have them. Note the new exhaust/intake manifold gaskets. Also new studs and anti-seize.
Similar story about the P/O of my '83 as to why I have new intake runners. Again, why not use shiny parts when you have them. Also timing covers have been cleaned and installed.
Fuel rail reinstalled. Nothing much to note here. I replaced all of the rubber lines and hose clamps about 6 months ago, so nothing new for this current project. Also note a new crank case breather hose.
. . . And speaking of the crank case breather hose here's a older picture of the flame trap after it soaked in gasoline for a day. It went in as a black glob.
Next I tackled the oil pan gasket. Below are two pictures after I cleaned and reinstalled the oil pan with a new gasket. Unfortunately I forgot to take any pictures of the bottom end with the oil pan off. The oil pan was extremely gummed up with dirt and oil. There's still some remaining in the crevices, but it's considerably cleaner.
Next it was time to reinstall the intake, valve cover, distributor and reconnect all of the vacuum lines and hoses. Parts also replaced at this time included upper and lower expansion tank hoses (all other main coolant hoses including the elbow were replaced a few months ago), O2 sensor, spark plugs, cap, and rotor.
I think I found why my injector cooler blower motor wasn't reliably turning on . . . I polished these terminals before hooking them back up again.
After reassembling everything, adding oil and coolant, the car fired up instantly! I wasn't expecting that haha. While it warmed up I roughly set the ignition timing to 10 degrees BTDC; that will get dialed in later. I let it run until the coolant fans cycled once, then shut it off. Now I had to figure out how to retorque the head bolts without removing the cambox. It seems that the special tools fiat made to retorque the headbolts with the cam box in place are unobtanium in 17mm. I found a 19mm set on ebay for cheap that I bought.
Some people may cringe at this, but I had no other choice and honestly, my opinion is it's far better to have a modified tool that does the job, than a pristine one that doesn't . . .
I took some measurements and determined that the tools would still fit and seat properly if I welded the 12 point side of a 17mm wrench to the bottom of the fiat tool. I'm not a good welder, so excuse the slop. All that matters is if it fits and holds.
17mm wrench welded to the 19mm tool.