Leon

Long-time, no-update. Just to keep this up-to-date, the car is currently on jack-stands because I've sold all but one set of wheels. This leaves me with 4 wheels for 2 cars... However, the main reason for the car going up on stands is that the throwout bearing started making terrible noises back in April. I drove it a bit, but of course it was getting worse. The current plan is to drop the transmission, install lightweight flywheel, new clutch, and put in a late 5-speed. I'm also planning to drop the diff at the same time and finally install the CLSD. Carbs will also be replaced at the same time with 40DCOE151, replacing the 18s in it now. I can see this turning into a major while-I'm-at-it project... In the future, I'll build an engine for this one although I'm unsure of exactly what it'll be. In the meantime, the green car gets the attention so the action here will be slow until after September.

Awesome, that's reassuring. Thanks Matt!

Nice! I wasn't sure how many guys were running an OEM 225mm with a hotter L28. Is it holding up so far, i.e. no slipping? No need for an expensive "brand-name" clutch if my car doesn't call for it, is my thought.

Perfect! I just got that exact B/A oil sender from Rockauto yesterday.

Awesome project, I love it! That's a sweet engine and you're doing a nice, thorough job with the conversion.

And the source of said lash pads? I may need a set of .260" pads pretty soon.

Classiczcars.com has a lot of useful SU-specific info. These carbs are very simple to work with. It's clear that you need to sit down and read the FSM. It's FREE to download at xenonS30.com...

My first response would definitely NOT be to tear down and rebuild the carbs. As long as nothing is sticking, I bet that you can get it to run well unless the shafts have severe leaks. It's not a simple bolt-on and go affair, the carbs must be adjusted to run on your engine. Go through the procedure outlined in the FSM, Haynes, or countless posts online. How did you come to the conclusion that they need a rebuild? All I'm getting from your post is that you bolted on the carbs, it didn't run right, so now you've decided to "rebuild" them.

After looking at it, the procedure shouldn't be very hard. Of course, whenever I say that some stupid little thing goes wrong... The toughest part of the job looks to be extracting and installing the seal. I will try to get to it if time allows!

Famous last words...

Sure thing! Cool project.

Gotcha, I was thinking that might have been what you meant! I'll think about doing tranny seals but at this point I need the car on the road ASAP. Not that I want to cut corners, but I may be dropping the tranny later anyway if the OEM 225mm clutch doesn't hold up.

That's definitely some DEEP sarcasm...

You know, that's a great idea! I'll only be temporarily installing rockers to check the wipe pattern anyway so I may as well not install them until the engine is ready to fire. Thanks! Wood was the plan, thanks for the affirmation there! Maybe I'll even set some microfiber towels down on the wood, ha! Yes, the oil pan is a concern of mine. I have two and so far I've checked one of them. Indeed the mating surface was not flat. I'll check the other pan in my inventory before proceeding. Thanks for bringing that up and good idea on the straightening! I'll flush the engine after I run it, definitely. I work at an injection molding facility and I've cleaned a few of our molds. I tried to take the same measures when cleaning the engine as I do with the molds, including using toilet paper and solvent for wipe downs. I cleaned until there were no traces of any sort of buildup on the TP. I'm sure I'll find all sorts of crap in the break-in oil, regardless. Which transmission o-ring do you speak of, the speedo gear seal?

Yeah, I can't imagine Aluminum teeth sized smaller than their steel counterparts lasting very long. Aluminum has poor fatigue properties.

I'll throw another graphic into the mix. I believe this one comes from David Vizard's flowbench.

I was thinking something like this: But after doing some research, the elliptical profile came away as the better one: Blair and Cahoon's write up on bellmouth design is a great read, if you're interested! Source: http://www.profblairandassociates.com/pdfs/RET_Bellmouth_Sept.pdf

Great research on the measurements though, it's good stuff for the archives. Regarding the cam tower shims, shimming is typically done to correct valve timing. The shims may have been avoided by design, to get the cam dialed in.

How did you diagnose the worn rings? Low cranking compression doesn't automatically dictate a rebuild. Your long-duration cam bleeds quite a bit of compression at cranking speeds, so a compression gauge will show a lot lower than stock numbers. Was there a leak test done? How much oil did it burn? This rebuild may not have been warranted...

That comment does make more sense now. However, the original one I was correcting has not been clarified! By putting the sprocket into the #2 hole, he is altering valve timing for a lower rpm power peak. I don't know how many times I need to repeat myself. Unless I'm somehow misunderstanding what you meant by that...

Thanks! It's taken way too long to get to this point. DAMN YOU procrastination! I think I'm just being overly cautious, if not paranoid about priming and initial lubrication. Yes, I do remember that, and what a pain it was! Plus, the screw up by your machinist was just a dagger in the heart. I'm very much hoping my progress to be a bit smoother! The priming method you shared seems most common. Like I told Jim, I'm just being overly cautious. I'd like to see oil flowing before even cranking over the engine, especially to the cam as it has high lift (.540") and uses stiffer springs. I'll probably take one of my hand pumps I use to fill transmissions and diffs, and try to pump some oil into the galleries. In other news, I finished installing my taillights yesterday. As far as non-engine stuff goes, I need to install the radio, re-connect some wiring, install console, and trim the studs protruding from my upper strut mounts. There is interference between the stud and hood. The hood cable also seems to need an adjustment as well, it has too much slack. I still need to do a brake check (PO said one of the fittings leaks) and clean up the engine bay prior to dropping in the engine. Then there's painting a few more parts, like the oil pan, valve cover, and transmission. The head still needs to be assembled and wipe patterns checked. That will probably take a day on its own. Lots to do still! Speaking of building the head, how did you guys position the head when installing the cam? I'm wary about putting it down on its deck surface, but that orientation seems easiest for reinstalling cam towers and the camshaft.

As to this question, the plan was to have the car ready for my wedding on 8/31 so it better be running by JCCS!

Very cool! I'm assuming that you can't radius them so much as to create an undercut in the mold? I don't have much CF experience...

"Easy-does-it"...