PM…
by Darren on Sep.24, 2009, under Build
not with Eddie Mair, but Post Mortem, with me.
After Rallyday’s little issues, it was time to fix the car. There were two things – firstly I was fairly sure the input shaft on the gearbox needed re-shimming (for whatever reason), and secondly… the rough running. Last night I did a compression test and found that No.1 cylinder was only 6 bar, while the others were up around 13! This explained the 3½ cylinder feel to the engine, but obviously didn’t make for comforting knowledge. Still, it had to come out anyway to get the gearbox out, so I may as well get the head off, right?
I’m clearly in good practice at this at the moment, and in addition every nut and bolt is fresh, so it only took 2 hours to get the engine and gearbox out, split them, find out that the input shaft on the gearbox is indeed in need of being shimmed properly, AND get the head off the engine. Not bad, really, on my own, but then it’s not the first time I’ve done this, is it?
So, the engine….. I had two ideas – either the shimming of the liners (the tubes the pistons run in) was wrong, or the head gasket had failed for another reason. Once I got it off, I saw something I’ve not seen before – what looked like a burnt, crumpled gasket. At the moment I have no idea why this has happened, particularly because it’s only happened on one side of the cylinder; I’m not sure if this is down to a mechanical fault (i.e. the combustion chamber shape), manufacturing (head gasket), assembly (i.e. me messing it up) or fuelling/ignition. The upside is that the cylinder protrusions seem fine, and despite what I will only refer to as the “RallyDay water incident” the head is NOT warped, which is a massive relief.
Odd pattern on head from gasket
Crumply, burnt-looking gasket.
So, I’m currently with a car with no engine or box in it, both those in bits in the garage, and at present still needing more sponsorship to make Rally GB a reality. Come what may, I’ll get the car running. The rest is now out of my hands; hopefully this weekend should see some coverage in the Bournemouth Echo, but as to whether that makes the difference, only time will tell. Oh, and money.
