im rebuilding the yb this summer and just have a few questions to make sure im on the right lines

first of all should i rebuild the hydraulic lifters as they are noisy as fook first thing in the morning, ive read guides before on the vauxhall website on how to pull them apart drain the old oil are re-oil them.
Would i benefit much from this, also which one's are the good lifters? is it the ones that depress easily of the ones that are solid (if youve ever taken one apart you'll know what i mean)

Will i benefit at all from matching up the inlet ports to the manifold and taking out the casting marks with my dremel? i know that it helps an N/A angine but would there be any benefits on a turbo as its all forced air rather than pulled in

I have been told that diesel is good for soaking cylinder heads etc.. apparently its a great cleaner and also helps loosen studs etc. can anyone recommend this?

 

I would just replace the hydraulic tappets if going that for, If you are stripping the head down to a bare casting and having the guides replaced just get the machine shop to chemically clean it afterwards, main thing i would add is that cleanliness is very important and after any machining has been done clean out every nook and cranny to make sure no swarf or dirt is there to ruin all your hard work, I put my own engine together but had the block and head cleaned by the place doing the machining, also be carefull of the studs in the cylinder head the aluminium is a lot weaker than the stud and to much force will break the casting, I had one exhaust stud that caused grief and had to pay extra to have it removed also had to have a little welding done on the head because of it.

 

Personally I would just buy a new set, if you do make sure to get INA, there are a lot of cheap copies around, that don't work! Sometimes Wynn's hydraulic lifter lube can revive them. Yes Diesel is a very good penetrating lubricant.

The lifters that are soft, these are the bad ones.

Martin

 

I've used BGA in the past 1/2 the price of INA, and just as good, as said the soft ones are the ones that are noisy, think about what the hydraulic lifter/follower actually does, it is very simply a vessel/cylinder that is supplied with oil UNDER pressure, inside it is a ball and spring the spring pushes the ball onto the seat,(unless some carbon,foreign object stops it) and so holds the pressure inside against the cam trying to push on it, as liquid is not compressible the movement of the cams lobes are transfered as movement of the valve to open.
It will take you about 2-3 hours to strip and clean the valves, the easiest way is to use the flat part at the rear of the normal engineers bench vice, just whack them down on this squarely, do NOT hit them with anything, just a few sharp slams down on this will get the insides out, make sure you slam on the vice as squarely as you can and use the bottom of the follower, you are trying to use the momentum of the insides that want to keep going top pull themselves out.
They do NOT, and should NOT be re oiled other than a very light coating, do not under any circumstances fill the valves, if you do and they expand too much they can hold a valve open, oil doesn't come out, just goes in.
Personally I'd clean out the old ones, diesel/parrafin etc is a good cleaner, not the best by any means, it's more useful as a soaking agent for stubborn nuts/bolts.
It doesn't matter who you use, or what they tell you about block cleanliness, it WILL need cleaning out, this WILL take you the best part of a whole day to clean and prep the block done properly, if the hea dis being re done and has more than about 40-50,000 on it the guides will be shagged, budget around Ł450 for this, as valves are also likely to be shagged, more so exhaust valves.
When getting new guides try and get COLSHIBO material, it will be the last time it ever needs doing that way, the std material is ok, but not the best, they were built to a price!!
As for taking out machining marks etc, don't waste your time, you'll never notice any difference.
Don't remove any studs in the head, you don't need to unless broken of course, let the machine shop do this, the exhaust studs will need removing for head skim anyway.
If new pistons for Ł45(for all four) get them pocketed then don't need to worry about future cams, get the flywheel lightened, this will give you a massive difference in comparison to the cost, in acceleration for around Ł40-Ł50.
tabetha

 

cheers for the replies guys

Many thanks for sharing the info tab, must have taken you ages to type that

 

I need another life!!
If you get stuck, I use B.E.Randall, of Hepworth near diss, 01359 251888 for all my engineering work, they are not the fastest turn around as always snowed under, but are ace, Brian is I think 70 now, built his first race winning engine at age 14, so should know what he's doing by now!!
He's also going to be making/casting his own pistons and rods etc so he can control quality better.
tabetha

 

only down the road, you must be quite local to me mate