So probably about time for an update!
The 6 Rib is in and actually the 1600 isn`t too bad at all although i`ve not been up any long hills yet! Fine for pottering around town in!. I have found that the van doesn`t appear to be revving its nuts off anymore so thats a good thing
Between sanding the old brush paint of , i`ve been building my engine up. Ihave actually built the short block about 4 or 5 times now!
First time, i forgot the oil thrower washer - doh!
Second time was to repair two of the studs on the edge of the case which had pulled their threads with a couple of helicoils.
Third time, the machine shop had made a mistake and one barrel hole in the case was not mahcined perfectly in line with a step in it so the barrel woudl`nt go in!
Forth time, i didn`t realise but the edges around the barrel holes in the case has been spot faced for barrels with a small edge to them. My barrels have got a thicker mating surface so were sat on the rough case rather than the machined edge!
I also had more bad luck with one of my barrels had actually been cast incorrectly and was oval so would`nt drop into the case easily! The mahcine shop fixed that for me for free. To be honest they had no quibbles about putting the errors right and luckily are fairly local to me. Guess i`ve had plenty of practice now tearing down and rebuilding the short block!
Some random pics of engine assembly including one of the timing marks lining up so i can`t wory about that later! -
I also had more bad luck and dropped one of my heads - argh! broke off 3 fins - ouchy!!
I was very lucky though to find someone locally who was able to weld and willing to have a go at reparing it -
£30 and done in an hour - very pleased!
I also decided i`d like to fit a new steering box given that i`m going to have an engine with a but more umph in the van. I looked at rack and pinion, but decided it was a bit much work for now with little time that i have.
So i removed the old steering box which wasn`t actually that bad and modified my chassis mount to fit a brand new late bay steering box. It was n`t that dificult. You have to make the hole int he chassis a bit bigger - which a dremel is extremely useful for (!) and the move one of the pins in the chassis and weld it in in adifferent location. i also had to run a larger drill through one of the other pins to make it all fit.
Didn`t get too many photos unfortunately, but here is one part way through the work -
I have got a some sanding in the other night and this afternoon - i finally feel like the paint is coming back!
Picasso who did the Dulux job unfortuantely sanded through the OG paint in a couple of spots when prepping for his job, so there are few sand throughs, but could be a lot worse - iactually t-cut a bit of one of the front doors today and it came up pretty good.
Latest pic (in bad light i`m afraid!)