Beheading.

I did not have a great deal of time yesterday to do much before I go away for the best part of two weeks, but my curiosity led me to commence work in the engine, partly to ensure it was dry.

Rocker cover and heater tap off I then moved to removing the head. I had suspicions of a HGF, and the engine has been a little sluggish generally so I was keen to see if there were major issues. I cracked the bolts off by hand in the tightening sequence, before spinning them out. Head lifted off it was revealed that cylinders 2 and 3 had been communicating.

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Generally it could do with a good clean. There is hardly a wear lip to speak of so a light hone should clean that up. Valves and seat will be lapped. There was some debris in tappet guide No. 1 – so I’ll have to find were that was from if not the gasket.

Valve stem seal and guides will all be replaced as will the tappets.

Spinning the block over, with bucket to catch last of coolant, oil and sludge, I set about removing the sump. This took a bit of persuasion to remove despite the fact it was leaking. The sump had some sludge in it but not too bad. The oil pump and screen look as good as new.

There won’t be anymore work until November 20th. I’ll get back to the chassis, start the axles (mainly diffs and cosmetics), refurb the springs and crack on with the engine. It’ll be nice to finish some bits!