Hi there,

Fairly new here and only owned my Saph for around 4 months. Unfortunatly after covering a mere 1,000ish miles it developed a coolant pressurizing issue and started leaking coolant from the head.

Initial thoughts were probably a porous cylinder head.

After consulting a specialist and the price going up and up, i decided to grab the car by the knackers and attempt the work myself. I'd consider myself pretty mechanical competent and handy with a spanner. I'm a service engineer by trade, although working on wide format printers and embroidery machines.

Anyway enough of me rambling on ...

Time to use and abuse the WD40 and get everything soaked up ready for removal and avoid tears and broken knuckles later



Seems the previous owner skimped out on fitting new cam cover bolts. 5 of them had no existent head left:



So, some abit of bosch here and there:



Ta daaa!!!

Really pleased with the condition of the cams, there appears to be minimal wear on the lobes, but then again i'm no expert.



Turbo and actuator in need of autosol loving. No front and back play, although some side to side. All good?:



Tried removing the manifold from the turbo, although these 4 little sods tried my patients. Unsure how i'm going to get these off . Tried using a breaker bar but even that wouldn't shift them!

 

At least you had fun with the cam cover, those 4 nut/studs are a nightmare, try some heat on them and should crack off

 

Pretty sure this thermostat has seen better days. Time to replace and fit a MSD thermostat at a later date



Here's the culprit and reason for my coolant leak. Looking at the condition of the gasket, i'm really surprised the car went as well as it has been doing. Temperature sat normal and never really over heated.



Block will be removed at some point today so i can get in the engine bay and give it a good scrub! 24 years of grease have taken their tole!

The engine seems to have suffered a cambelt failuire at some point in its life also, as on the inlet side all 4 pistons have grooves where the valves have had an impact at some point. Will these be ok to re use?



Head off ready to be stripped and sent off for a pressure test / skim:



That all for now folks, Might venture down the garage later and see what other bits i can tinker with tonight

Stay tuned.

 

Its all about having fun mate

I'll go invest in a blowtorch at some point next week and tackle them .

 

It depends how hard it hit really as the valve cutlets might be the only damage but if you got it apart I'd wipp of the sump and check the bearings for wearing/scoring just to be on the safe side, I presume it sounded sweet running

 

Cheers for the info mate, much appreciated!

The engine sounded awesome, no tapping, no knocking, no smoke, even on boost.

My thoughts were to replace the bottom end bearings anyway. It'd be rude not to seeing as the engine's half way out.

 

Good work mate

 

Sweet look forward to seeing the engine build

 

Removed the Exhaust manifold / Turbo from the head along with the inlet plenum. Found 3 previous studs on the exhaust side which have snapped. I'll let the machine shop deal with these when it goes in for a skim



Inlet plenum split apart. Long overdue a clean in my eyes!





Spent a few hours cleaning the Plenum up last night ready to be bolted back together. Still needs abit more cleaning but the bottom end will hopefully be out tonight so i can inspect/renew the bearings.

 

A good start Liam,things will only be improved now as your removing, cleaning/refreshing, refitting and renewing gasgets/seals etc.Good luck with it all,I look forward to further posts and pics.


CheeRS.Lee.

 

Cheers Lee,

Just taking my time with it really. First engine i've rebuilt. Just need to find out all the correct torque settings for everything when re-sitting.

 

Nice job with the plenum

 

Top job matey.The yb engines are easy to take apart.

 

Lol, easy to take apart, its the putting back together!

Looking good mate!

 

looking good mate keep the updates coming

 

Thanks guys! I might be back on here with a few questions here and there haha!

I've looked at the cylinder head and cant tell if its border line / last skim or not. My caliper's battery died so i can't measure it accurately.

Anyone with experience bare the good or bad news?

Cheers:

 

 

Can't see clearly but is there a bit of pitting around the water galleries?

 

Liam

that head is in great condition and i would bet has never been skimmed

defo loads of meat left on it

 

Thats good to know! Thanks for the input Paul! I'll give you a call tomorrow regarding that engine you have. Might just use my original as a spare.

 

No worries

If you look in the corner of the head you will see a brass washer located down in the head ( on the face that bolts down onto the gasket / block )

post a pic of that and this will tell us how much the head has left before its down to its limit for SAFE use

 

Seems there's a tad bit of meat left on the head for a skim ...

 

Mongoose system turned up thanks to Paul @ Yorkshire RS spares!

Delivered pronto, Great condition and looks awesome just as described!



Old vs new



Hangin'!! - As you've probably noticed the lower coolant hose is still attached (oops) - A great selling point for the SFS performance hoses!!



Bay now looking empty. The point of no return!



Sent my mate off down to Primarni for some towels to protect the wings / slam panel. Cheapest and effective tool I've bought in a long time.

 

top job mate.

just been through all this with mine. feels great stripping and cleaning stuff, gets addictive!

 

Cheers buddy!

Yeah the cleaning starts tomorrow, just need to pick up some industrial de-greaser .

I've decided i'm going to run 4x4 pocketed pistons but using the original rods. Is this wise?

 

Thats fine mate. i fitted 4x4 pistons with pockets too. also skimmed a mm off the crown of pistons as my head thickness was wasnt great!

You got loadssa meat though!

 

Spun the engine over and removed the sump bolts. All looks well.....



Minus the contamination on the oil pickup! Looks like i caught it just in time!



This is how i left it lastnight, Went to halfords to get the spline drivers to remove the oil pump but as usual being useless they didn't have any :/...

 

Pistons removed tonight, All looks very clean with minimal wear on the crank / bearings.





Has anyone else experienced issues with this sodding nut before? Its so tight its rounded off

 

Will look great when done,any more pics of the car, looks a clean one

 

Could of bin fitted dry or with lock tight, try putting a big bit of weld on top of the bolt head to cook it right up then have a go undoing it

 

Probably my favourite colour for saff,,whats the plan standardish freshen up or balls out monster

 

Appreciating all the hard work

You'll get there in the end, just plod on and you'll do a good job, if starts to stress you out just down tools and go back in the house. That's what I do

Keep up the good work

 

There's some on another thread from when i first signed up mate. No rust, no dodgy panels full of filler. Its solid.

Yeah that's what i thought or weld a spanner on the top and use a bar to lever it off. Just bought a welder, need to do a few practice runs first.

I know what your saying buddy, It got like that lastnight so i just downed tools, packed everything up in order and scoffed out on a chinese lol! Cheers!

Well the car was standard when i bought it except a OMP exhaust system. I'm now planning for 330 - 350bhp. t-34 setup also so its pretty much future proof for 380.

 

380 bhp on a T34 will be a perfect fast road saph!!

Looking good mate!

 

Nice one Liam keep it up mate

 

Your soon have enough practice welding being a ford owner

 

Cheers guys!

Now I've just ordered some standard Mahle bottom end bearings rated upto 400bhp. Will these be ok or on the border line for 380bhp? The car wont be used on a track all day long, only used on summer days on the roads.

 

Cool update. I like the look of your back box.My pipe(oww errr) sticks out further than that.

 

It was only held in position mate. Just needed to get an idea what it looked like on the car

 

Today has been a long day arsing around! Went to machine mart to pick up a valve compressor, only to pick one up that was too small! Quick turn around later and we're back with another larger compressor! All valves removed to make way for some industrial de-greaser (doesn't like skin much haha!)







Found corossion forming around the water channels....Hopefully these can be fixed at the machiners when i send the head off.