Engine Pt1

Just had an email from Andy Roberts, he is very kindly rebuilding the engine for Libby. He sent me some photos and an update on the initial strip down and assessment of the engine. I've just copied and pasted his email and pictures.................... thanks Andy!

I thought you might like to know how I’m getting on with the engine – LF25961HE.

I’ve removed the heads. ALL the studs came out!! Just had a brief worry with the last one (there’s always one) but after a bit of gentle persuasion it unscrewed. Three cheers for Churchill tool S350. There’s lots of gasket goo everywhere, and the heads have been well skimmed, but they don’t look (at first sight) to be too bad.

One of the plugs (No. 7) was almost half way out, and from the gloop all around it I would say it had been running like that for a while. Four of the bores had water in them, but I think that was probably a result of the previous owner’s attempts at cleaning things. Some of the plugs were oily (one of them was very bad) but from looking at the state of the combustion chambers it seems likely that it was running OK. However there were signs of a gasket leak into the water way at the rear of the LH head and impending leaks elsewhere, so it’s just as well that you decided to overhaul it. The bucket tappets all seem to be reasonably good but I haven’t inspected them in any great detail yet. Both cams look good, although there is slight wear in the camshaft bearing housings – not unusual, – but I might try to get them scraped.

I then stripped the rest of the engine down to just a block assembly. The right hand timing chain was on its last legs, but the left hand one is OK! All the chain guides are OK. Both tensioners are OK too, so why one chain should be worn out is a bit of a mystery. All the sprockets seem to be OK, but I’ll be double-checking the right hand ones just in case that’s the problem. Rear oil seal is shot. There’s a bad wear ridge on the rear of the crank where the oil seal runs, so we might have to do something about that – fit a sleeve, perhaps. I haven’t inspected the oil pump yet, but I have taken it off.

I’m guessing that it hasn’t been rebored, and I’m also guessing that it still doesn’t need to be. But that will become clearer once I’ve stripped the bottom end. I’m pretty sure we’ll want to fit new rings though.

Oh, I almost forgot… there’s loads of crap in the sump – but I’ve seen worse.