1603cc engine build

Its the story of "My Life" as well Rob...

I'm sure the Good Lord is having a laughing fit over the both of us!

Time we both "mended our ways"...

HA!
 
The extraordinary folks on this forum...

...never fail to amaze me!

There was discussion recently about my engine build and what sort of torque wrench I would be using. I said I didn't yet have one good enough but my dear old Dad had an excellent wrench and I wish I had that for this project.

Well, a package arrived in the mail this week with a torque wrench that looks just like me Dads!

Bernice, you are the best!!! :hug: I now look forward to accurately bolting this engine together.

I can't thank you enough...

Warmest regards,

Rob
 
New garage...

...new workbench.



Work will resume soon. Thanks to Steve Cecchele for the one piece oil ring .:)

Cheers,

Rob
 
YOU are SICK! Sick, sick, sick! (HA!)

Is this all there is, the workbench... or is there anymore you can show us???

I'm leaning towards this is the only CLEAN and NEAT corner of the garage for DISPLAY purposes only and to GLEAM our attention... and the rest of the garage is a friggin' MESS housing all your wife's sewing junk and Christmas decorations and old furniture... as you are deprived, insecure and SICK, SICK, SICK!

GEEZ!
 
You know me too well Lawsa

I guess it's an occupational hazard. Bernice is right though, the patient is ready for some intensive care.

Papa T, I will admit the rest of the garage is less organised, we are still in the process of unpacking moving boxes but this corner of the garage has received a wee bit of priority attention.

Cheers,

Rob
 
HA! Congrats! I moved in here 35 years ago...

and still have some boxes to unpack. No need to rush these things...

I useta have a nice neat spot like yours once too... but now I can't find it, and I forgot what it looked like or where it was!
 
Some progress today

After a house moving/renovating induced hiatus from the garage I finally managed some progress on the engine today by installing the pistons and conrods.



That's lovely rows of ARP fasteners top and bottom. :)

I also "made" a socket for the ARP flywheel bolts. The heads on the ARP bolts are bigger than standard and 12 point. This means a standard socket won't fit. I modified a 19mm 12 point socket by shaving just enough off the outside to clear the point of an adjacent bolt. Hopefully there is enough integrity left in the socket to withstand the required torque.



Cheers,

Rob
 
Looks really nice.

Yes, installing those ARP flywheel bolts requires a extra thin wall socket beyond what is normally offered. Take a good quality socket and either chuck it up in a lathe and turn the end small enough to fit or grind it down to clear (socket on bolt in a hand drill chuck and die grinder can get this done if nothing else is easily available) . Both should be OK as long as there is no less than 0.050 - 0.060 wall thickness at the thinnest area of the socket wall.

Figure there will be about 70 ft/lb applied, a 3/8" drive 3/4" or 19mm socket often has a thinner wall to start than the typical 1/2" drive socket which has thicker walls.

Do Not Forget to install the stock Fiat flat plate with six holes between the flywheel and bolts. This is a very important item that helps prevent flywheel failures due to bolt heads gouging into the flywheel causing cracks or stress risers that can result in the flywheel exploding off the crank.

Use Red Loctite on all six of these flywheel bolts after the threads on both ends have been cleaned and completely oil free.

Looks like there is an oil cooler involved with this engine install?


Bernice
 
Rupunzell said:
Looks really nice.

...
Looks like there is an oil cooler involved with this engine install?


Bernice
Click to expand...

Saw that too Bernice. Wonder where the cooler will be???

P1070510.jpg
 
ENGINE GURUS... Question for youse guys...

HEY... If you install performance pistons and different rods... should not the entire rotating assembly be re-balanced along with the flywheel?

Hmmmm?

Rob... Good ta see your out there doing some "manly things"... I must admit I'm in the house these days playing Nurse Nancy... and I really don't have the mindset for it. Keep up the good work!
 
Oil cooler

Bernice and Tim, yep, I'm installing an oil cooler.

Wouldn't consider it for a standard engine build, but:
1) This will be a highly modified 1.6 litre engine,
2) as previously discussed heat exchange is reduced at the altitude at which we live,
3) it does get hot here in summer,
4) I drive my Xs pretty hard.

As much as 25% of heat can be shed with an oil cooler which will obviously take any strain of the water based system. Also keeping the oil within certain temperature ranges helps it do its job better.

There is an inline thermostat to bypass the oil cooler until operating temperature is reached. I haven't finalised the plumbing yet as this will need to go around or over the starter motor.

The plan is mount the oil cooler on the gearbox with some ducting from under the car. Mounting it to the engine/gearbox structure will keep flexing and vibration in the hoses down to a minimum.

And yes Bernice, the plate will go on the flywheel before installation. I didn't take metal off the entire circumference of the socket, just approximately 72 degrees. That way the socket can be repositioned for rotation while maintaining full thickness of metal for the remaining 288 degrees.

Cheers,

Rob
 
Looking good Rob.

Tony, pistons are production Mondial items (balanced from the manufacturer within a gram or so), the gudgeon pins are Ross items (balanced within about 1/2 a gram), the rods are Scat (balanced within a gram and end for end balanced at the factory) , the crank is OE 67.4 stroke item (balanced from the factory), the flywheel is a Miller's lightweight OE item (balanced after machining)

Dynamically balancing it as an entire assembly wouldn't achieve much (if anything) unless you spend macro $$ getting someone to spin the assembly at super high revs (as most dynamic balancing is done at only about 750/800 rpm and hardly replicates the forces involved when the engine is running anyway)

Plus...in practice the crank has a cloud of oil that clings and wraps around it when the engine is running (think of it looking a bit like a cotton candy machine as it spins around) which migrates back and forth under acceleration and lateral forces...and that oil has weight... and that can't be replicated on any balancer that I know of.

SteveC
 
Thanks for the explanation Steve...

I see a lot of the dynamic balancing swinging weights and the like (which looks scary) on hot-rodded V8's and other engines here... and yes, they are the big-league folks.

Indeed, I didn't consider at all the low rpms they were turning and what you say makes a lot of sense.

On this particular engine though... I ASS-U-MED the crank was stock and then was therefore COUNTER-WEIGHTED for the stock weight of the rods and pistons. I think I have assumed something else in that the crank's counter-weights were for balancing the entire rotating assembly and NOT just for balancing itself.

BUT... do they not add or take away weight from these counter-balancers when they dynamically balance the entire assembly?
 
I didn't use the ARP flywheel bolts when I saw that they wouldn't fit without what appeared to be a severely compromised socket. Pity that ARP doesn't have an alternative with a more reasonable head size. I just used stock hardware.
 
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