Pick up Restoration (Part 2)

[maverick]

Excellent turnaround David!

[ptitterington]

Are you planning to rebuild engine and gearbox? If its been sat around a long time I would imagine lots of seals and things will need replacing. But a shiney casing is a start

[Jared]

It's looking very good and this thread is excellent maybe i t could be stickied as it seems to be full of information and inspiration.

[davidmiles]

Thanks for the comments chaps, the gearbox cleaning continued this morning and the clutch linkages were stripped out from the gearbox and cleaned up, ready for a close inspection.[frame][/frame]

[davidmiles]

some new parts needed there, the clutch withdraw lever is itself ok, but the release bearing is worn out. Its a false economy not to replace it when the gearbox is out anyway, and that boot looks a little ,erm, chewed. [frame][/frame]

[davidmiles]

So some parts to order there then, turning my attention back to the engine, and stripping off the parts from the outside.[frame][/frame]

[davidmiles]

and the other side of the engine, the manifold came off without a hitch.[frame][/frame]

[davidmiles]

Manifold itself looks in good order, but I wonder if the pipe is cut off to short[frame][/frame]

[davidmiles]

The engine without the manifold, look at that colouration. Still, its getting closer to clean up time, just a few more bits and pieces still to come off. Worryingly, still can't crank it over with the starting handle, somethings sticking in there, hope its not too heavy like a seized bearing. Time will show all.[frame][/frame]

[aupickup]

put some deisel down the bores
i would say that the bores will be heavily rusted
take head off and have a look before doing much else to it

[chickenjohn]

There does seem to be a lot of rust in those head ports!

was the engine left outside in the rain?

[davidmiles]

You could say that, for over twenty years it was left out in the rain, it was also left out in cow/horse dung, rabbit warrens, mouse warrens, hedge and thorns... you name it, nature threw at it, but despite this image, the bonnet was down the whole time, I mean rusted down. [frame][/frame]

[davidmiles]

I had a job getting the bonnet catch to free, not that it looks as if the bonnet being down protected the engine much, We shall see when I start taking it apart.[frame][/frame]

[chickenjohn]

In that case, I would concurr with AU's advice and take off the head to inspect the bores. At the very least if rusted, your engine will need to be bored out.

[davidmiles]

Thanks John. So to start with off came the rocker cover this afternoon, no problems getting that off.[frame][/frame]

[davidmiles]

Alarm at first glance it all looked rusted to hell..[frame][/frame]

[davidmiles]

then with a gentle scrape with a screwdriver, the red colour proved to be decaying oil with strong metal underneath, so out came the rocker assembly with no problems at all.[frame][/frame]

[davidmiles]

It all seemed to be going swimingly, if thats a descriptive word, it most certainly describes what I saw next...[frame][/frame]

[davidmiles]

Oh my gawd wheres's my pistons gone! he was heard to yell, then I remembered the oily diesel crap I poured down the spark plug holes to help protect the innerds.[frame][/frame]

[davidmiles]

It'll take some sponging to soak that lot out of the pots, more tommorow.[frame][/frame]