[Project] Starting My Xu5T Build

[Tom Fenton 1,524]

Next I turned my attention to the liners, after being in an engine for 18 years or so there is plenty of scale and crud on them. I cleaned them up with the wire brush attachment on the angle grinder, aggresive enough to get the scale off, but not to remove material from the surface, spot the difference.

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

The liners had been honed at the machine shop, they are in pretty reasonable condition, there are a few small areas of discolouration, but no serious pitting and I'm confident they will be fine.

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

With all the liners cleaned up they need to go back into the block. I used a smear of wellseal around the liner seat to help the o rings seal to the block and also a smear on the liner.

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

The new o rings are then carefully put in place.

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

And the liners replaced in the block. As I'd cleaned them up they slid nicely into position.

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

[Tom Fenton 1,524]

Next on the agenda was the pistons. These had also been to the machine shop so they could order me the right replacement rings, and also to go through their parts washing machine. This had got the bulk of the oily crap off, but there was still carbon on the crowns and in the ring lands.

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

First off I removed the old rings, this is when you find out how easy they are to snap, and scare yourself at the prospect of installing the new ones.

Then with some wire wool I cleaned away all the crud from the crown and skirts of the pistons. Next I used a section of old bust ring to carefully scrape all the crap out of the ring lands, before a blast with the air line and a final clean off with some brake cleaner.

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

Much better. Next up is the oh so enjoyable job of fitting the new rings. These have to be handled super carefully to avoid breaking them when fitting. There is a tool on the market specifically to do this and to help avoid breaking them, but I haven't got one, and everytime I could do with one I am too impatient to order one and wait, so I do without. First thing is to check the ring gaps. The machine shop tell me this isn't absolutely needed, but only takes a moment. As it turns out they were right as the gaps were fine.

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

Next is to assemble the rings onto the piston. By being careful I got them all on intact! The gaps should be positioned so they are staggered around the piston circumference.

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

With the rings on, the pistons go into the liners. Need to make sure the piston ring compressor is right up tight to ensure the rings aren't damaged on the way in. I also use some light oil on the rings and liners so they don't scuff.

[/url]205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

Final job last night was to check the big end running clearance with plastigauge.

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

As with the mains the clearance was pretty much as I expected it would be, so all the big ends were graphogened and built up.

And voila! we have one build bottom end! I can still just about turn it over by hand by pushing on the web of the crank, it is harder now though due to the drag of the rings on the bores.

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

[taylorspug 7]

Very good write-up on how to build a bottom end.

 

Im also a fan of using Graphogen when building.

[Dan Ingram 1]

Another slightly stupid question from me. Whats the plastiguage for and what are you actually measuring there?

[welshpug 1,621]

You use it to measure the clearance of the bearing to the crank on the big ends and mains.

 

Lay a strip of plastigauge on the journal, fit the bearing cap and torque down, temove the cap and with the gauge shown in the picture you measure how squashed the plastigauge strip is, the wider it has been squashed the tighter the clearance

[Tom Fenton 1,524]

Continued with this tonight. First jobs were to mount it on the engine stand and then install the oil pump and end cover, no drama here just bolt them on! Mine has the keyed oil pump drive gear, much better IMO!

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

Next was to tap out the head stud threads to give them as much of a chance as possible.

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

I've a special tap for this, its TIG'd into a long shank stainless T-bar, makes the job easy and quick.

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

And so on with its head! This was built a few weeks ago and has been waiting on the bench to be fitted, making sure the spacer is above the water pump.

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

I also fitted the thermostat housing, my mate Phil had TIG'd in an alloy plug, and milled it back to flat, and then re-counterbored the holes for the coilpack lugs to sit into.

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

With the head bolted on the turbo and manifold have been mocked up so I can start thinking about plumbing.

[matty_gti 20]

Cant beat a good turbo project, keep the pics coming! .

 

Out of interest did you replace the con-rod bolts or use the old ones?.

[Tom Fenton 1,524]

I reused the old ones, its not going to be a high revving engine and they were all in good order when I inspected them, all the same length etc.

[chrisj21 2]

Excellent write up Tom, I've been following this from the start and have learn't so much. Your bottom end rebuild is a great guide.

 

Just a few quick questions if you dont mind.

 

1. What is the Graphogen and its use?

 

2. I assume the plastigauge is some kind of putty type stuff you put on its squashed by the journal? then you measure?

 

Keep up the good work

[Tom Fenton 1,524]

Graphogen is engine building grease- to give first start up protection basically, and also to lubricate when first cranking the engine on the starter motor to build up oil pressure.

 

Plastigauge is used to measure the running clearance of the journal bearings, so you can make sure there are no problems with crank pin size or that the housings have not distorted. It comes in small strips of specific cross section, hence when squashed you use the supplied gauge to give a clearance measurement.

[matty_gti 20]

The wellseal your using sounds like a good idea on the oil pump and liners , think ill get some!.

 

Did you use any sealent when fitting the end plate on the block?.

[Tom Fenton 1,524]

Yes, Wellseal again.

[Tom Fenton 1,524]

A bit more progress, first mounted the inlet manifold just to see what it looked like and to see how much space there is around the oil pressure switch to do the oil feed

 

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

Next up offered up the turbo heat shield, hopefully I can keep this in place to keep the under bonnet temps reasonable, it does all look like it will be tight down there though.

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

However this should help, twin cylinder bias pedal box. The threads on the adjuster bar were damaged so I stripped it, retapped the threads and put it back together again

 

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

With that done I then bolted up the rear engine mount, this is already fitted with a BBM hard rubber bush.

 

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

With that done I welded up a lobsterback elbow for the oil drain and then drilled a hole and welded it into the sump. The sump is an utter git to weld, galvanised and oil impregnated for years! Not the tidiest welding ever but shouldn't leak.

 

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

I also popped into the local hydraulics place after work yesterday and picked up the unions I needed to do the oil feed to the turbo, the turbo inlet thread is 12x1.5 so I got a parallel nipple to -4 JIC so I can use -4 pipe and fittings.

 

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

Last job was to take the angle grinder to an exhaust downpipe, I bought it "already modified" but thought it was horrible, but I can re use the flange. Out of interest there seems to be two different sizes, as I offered up an Mi16 flange I had, and this seemed to be 80mm, whereas the turbo one is 78mm.

 

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

[Tom Fenton 1,524]

I forgot to post a picture of something I've just bought myself that will be a huge help to getting this project done......

 

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

[Anthony 1,000]

I forgot to post a picture of something I've just bought myself that will be a huge help to getting this project done......

Those things are awesome and warm the place up in no time at all.... just watch out for it belching flames and smoke out of the front when it's sucking up the last drops of diesel out of the bottom of the tank!

[swordfish210 20]

Lookin really good now, did you TIG or MIG the oil drain pipe in to the sump? I tried to weld a nut to a sump once for a oil temperature takeoff and it just leaked like a little bitch I ended up tapping a 3/8 BSP thread in to it, much easier/leak free

 

The guy i used to work for had a space heater in his workshop, only trouble was that he was one of those blokes who thought that unless the temperature was hovering around absolute zero it wasn't cold enough to have it on, so we just used it for heating bearings out of aluminum housings

[Tom Fenton 1,524]

I TIG'd it halfway round, but couldn't get the torch in for the rest so then blasted all the way round with the MIG! I welded a bit of a baffle plate in the sump and that was also horrible to weld.

[Tom Fenton 1,524]

Some more progress

 

Oil feed on the agenda, I got Carl to make me an adaptor for the oil pressure switch, he spotfaced and pilot drilled the offtake but left it for me to finish.

Tapped it 7/16UNF and then screwed in the -4 nipple, and then fitted it to the block with a new dowty seal.

 

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

Next I assembled the union onto one end of the aeroquip, and ran the pipe to see what length I needed

 

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

With this done cut the pipe and assembled the other end, voila! one oil feed pipe.

 

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

With this done I turned my attention to the cambelt. A new water pump had already been fitted and a new cambelt tensioner arrived in the post during the week from GSF.

 

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

With the belt fitted I cranked the engine round with a spanner on the crank pulley bolt, turned over lovely no problems there. Also spot the sexy part fitted!

 

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

Next job is the water take off on the back of the block, but I've an idea how I'm going to do this and have ordered some alloy pipe.

[tom_m 0]

i think i've got a spare dist block from a 2ltr turbo engine if you need one tom

[DrSarty 90 1 Cars]

i think i've got a spare dist block from a 2ltr turbo engine if you need one tom

 

But it looks like one is already fitted, although I suspect you're favouring the metal one for reliability reasons. S16 and diesel ones are metal aren't they?

 

All looking sexier Tom; good stuff dude.

 

Also, you're head-block oil feed is tapped off an oil pressure switch (i.e. it makes the warning light come on only), but are you also running an oil pressure sender?

Edited January 17, 2009 by DrSarty

[Tom Fenton 1,524]

i think i've got a spare dist block from a 2ltr turbo engine if you need one tom

 

Thank you for the offer, unfortunately I've got one already; offered it up and the fixing hole centres are different and also at a different angle. Looking like I'm going to have to make something..........

 

Sarty- standard sender for guess-o-meter is in a different tapping into the gallery, its alloy block remember.

Edited January 17, 2009 by Tom Fenton

[tom_m 0]

Thank you for the offer, unfortunately I've got one already; offered it up and the fixing hole centres are different and also at a different angle. Looking like I'm going to have to make something..........

 

Sarty- standard sender for guess-o-meter is in a different tapping into the gallery, its alloy block remember.

 

ahh yes that old chesnut, i've come up against that one myself, don't know why i didn't remember! well i'm sure fromt he standard of your work so far whatever you come up with will be far superior to an oe pug part

[taylorspug 7]

What is it exactly you need from the water takeoff, one big outlet for the bottom hose (obviously) and then three smaller ones?

 

If so i may have something kicking about that would do the job, IIRC its for an alloy block aswell.

[Tom Fenton 1,524]

It needs the one large obvious one, then 2 off smaller type, but the position of the smaller type is important, as the end of one of the standard take offs is about 2mm from the wastegate actuator........

I've spent about £15 on material now to make something, so if its OK I'll have a go at that first, if I fail miserably I may be in touch though! Thanks for the offer!

[danpug 1]

Are you able to make up those oil pressure switches with takeoff if need be?