The continuing saga of my Lancia Beta Spider

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

Actual problems which actually matter aside...who the fuck decided on the numbering order on that exploded diagram?

An Italian

[mangocrazy]

Actual problems which actually matter aside...who the fuck decided on the numbering order on that exploded diagram?

The only logical piece of numbering is for parts #1 and #2 - the two main gearshift rods. Everything else appears completely random.

[Druid]

The other thing is that quite a few bike engines can be stripped and rebuilt on a workbench; certainly I've done that to my old LC a number of times during its life.

It's fairly easy to do something rather more complicated than a little 2 stroke I wouldn't like to manhandle anything much heavier though

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

The other thing is that quite a few bike engines can be stripped and rebuilt on a workbench; certainly I've done that to my old LC a number of times during its life.

It's fairly easy to do something rather more complicated than a little 2 stroke I wouldn't like to manhandle anything much heavier though

Early Z900 or 1000, centre crank brace says it's Kawasaki, cam chain type and kick start says pre 1981 engine.

[mangocrazy]

I've got 80kgs of VFR750 motor sat on a dolly in my cellar, which I want to strip at some point. But their layout doesn't make them the easiest engine to move around - probably not as manageable as an IL4 like yours. I'm thinking of fabricating a cradle to hold the engine which can then be bolted to an engine stand.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

I use a fold up work bench to support Kawasaki engines, you can adjust the gap so that it sits level, but it's a lot easier with two people

[cheb]

That's a lovely looking cat.

[Druid]

Early Z900 or 1000, centre crank brace says it's Kawasaki, cam chain type and kick start says pre 1981 engine.

1977 Suzuki GS750

[mangocrazy]

That's a lovely looking cat.

He is. He's also a bit of a sweetie. Mrs Mango is besotted with him.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

Early Z900 or 1000, centre crank brace says it's Kawasaki, cam chain type and kick start says pre 1981 engine.

1977 Suzuki GS750

That's interesting, I didn't think the Suzuki had the centre crank support, but then again I've never split the crankcases on a roller bearing Suzuki.

[MingtheMerciless]

Actual problems which actually matter aside...who the fuck decided on the numbering order on that exploded diagram?

I spent a good while looking for 48 and was verging on thinking it was a wind up

[Skub]

Early Z900 or 1000, centre crank brace says it's Kawasaki, cam chain type and kick start says pre 1981 engine.

1977 Suzuki GS750

That's interesting, I didn't think the Suzuki had the centre crank support, but then again I've never split the crankcases on a roller bearing Suzuki.

The 4 little cam end covers in a tray to the right are a Suzuki thang,though I couldn't have told you it was a GS750.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

1977 Suzuki GS750

That's interesting, I didn't think the Suzuki had the centre crank support, but then again I've never split the crankcases on a roller bearing Suzuki.

The 4 little cam end covers in a tray to the right are a Suzuki thang,though I couldn't have told you it was a GS750.

Didn't see those, 8 valve engines have round ones, 16 valve engines have square ones.

[mangocrazy]

The last gripping installment ended with yours truly finally coming to the conclusion that any mechanic worth his salt would have arrived at months, possibly years, previously.

The head gasket is gefukt, en panne, toast. I can't believe it took me so long to recognise that fact, but eventually I did. Had I heeded the advice given to me by chaps on the Beta forum, I'd have done a compression leak down test on the motor and found out before I took it to France and installed it in the car that the head gasket was blowing.

But I didn't. So silly me.

The sound I'd mistaken fot the exhaust blowing was in fact the sound of combustion gases making their way past the head gasket, or so I surmise. In fact it was surprising the engine even ran at all, in view of the factors mitigating against it; blowing head gasket, timing arrived at by guesswork, carburettor in dire need of a service and a fuel pump working intermittently.

So when I was back at the house in April of this year I bit the bullet and started to strip all the bits that were impeding access to the cylinder head. This meant that I had (once again) to crawl under the car and do battle with the exhaust manifold bolts/nuts - what deep joy. The photo below shows the engine with battery and battery tray, top water rail, sundry pieces of plumbing and carburettor removed. And a can of Plus-Gas; absolutely vital...

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Plenty more parts had to be removed entirely or moved out of the way - the fuse box was a particular annoyance and had to be removed from its mountings and placed in the scuttle before I could get the head off. I was hoping to be able to get the head off without removing the exhaust manifold, but quickly realised that was a non-starter. The camboxes had to be opened up to get at the bolts holding them to the head, and with them off there was appreciably more room. With various belts and pulleys out of the way it was time to undo the head and remove it. I left the inlet manifold on as a) it's a pig to remove in situ and b) it gave me a bit of extra leverage to get the head off. With it off, this was the sight that greeted me:

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Wilko quickly realised this was a photo-op not to be missed and provided me with a cat scan. It merely confirmed what I already knew; it was a manky old cylinder head. To be honest, I was expecting more dramatic evidence of gasket failure. I wanted to see chunks missing and something very obvious. But when I took the parts to an expert (Jon at Stanwood Engineering) he pointed out the evidence of gas blow-by in the areas ringed in red and confirmed the diagnosis of head gasket failure. This was something of a relief, as I was beginning to think I'd stripped the top end and and brought it back to the UK for no reason. So what do I know? Not much it would seem.

The block was equally manky and actually showed more obvious signs of blow-by, especially on cylinder #1 (far RH cylinder in the picture below). Looking at this picture reminds me that I will have to do a proper clean up job on the block face if I want the new head gasket to have any chance of doing its job. I've bought a selection of various-sized rubber bungs to stick in the oil and coolant galleries so I don't inadvertently deposit crap in them while cleaning the block face. The oil will get dumped and refilled with new, as it will be contaminated quite badly with coolant. And the threads that the head bolts screw into will need thoroughly tapping and cleaning out, otherwise torque values will be all to cock.

And I haven't got a clue what the white flaky stuff is in cylinder #4, before you ask...

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Currently the head, cam boxes, cams, cam buckets and shims are all with Jon at Stanwood. He's going to pressure test the head, clean up the valves and seats, grind the valves in and reassemble the whole shooting match so it's pretty much ready to drop back on the block. He's also going to soak all the parts in cleaning fluid to try and remove the frankly disgusting build up of crud on all the interior surfaces caused by previous owner(s) neglecting to change the oil for what must be millenia. These engines must be tough; I can't see any modern engine tolerating that level of abuse.

And all this just so I can drive the car back to Blighty. I really do enjoy creating work for myself...

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

The white flaky stuff is very burnt carbon, you can see it on your exhaust valves, the one on the left of your picture is full of it, looking at your head all four cylinders have different mixtures, left is leanest, 2nd from right the richest.

Your rings could be a bit worn on no.1, going by the deposits on top of the piston.

But none of it is much to worry about, it will probably run fine if the head gasket seals.

[mangocrazy]

Nice one, LFG. LH Cylinder (#4) is the one that normally runs hottest, as it's farthest away from the standard coolant flow. I'll be remedying this before the engine is rebuilt. There is only a single carb on a 4 branch manifold, so jetting is always a compromise. I'd be surprised if there wasn't some ring wear on all the cylinders, but it doesn't look too bad, and I only need it to manage the approximately 1000 miles between the SoF and Sheffield.

[mangocrazy]

All the parts that I'd sent to Stanwood came back clean, shiny and for the most part fettled and reassembled, at the end of August. These parts along with a surprising amount of other stuff were placed in a large plastic tray and put on the van for taking to France. The box weighed an absolute ton (Beta cylinder heads are heavy, maan) so I even had to request assistance from Mrs Mango to get it loaded.

Anyway, long story short I'm now at the ancestral pile in France and it's bloody hot for September, I can tell you. Tomorrow one of the Beta forum stalwarts is due to arrive (at his own cost!) to assist me in reassembling the motor and drinking wine. But probably not at the same time. This is what the rerurbished/rebuilt head looks like now:

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[Rockburner]

Best of luck. We'll be in France next week, but not sure we're coming as far south as you. (No time to visit anyway, it's a FLASH weekend. )

[mangocrazy]

It was all going so well, right up until the time it went to shit...

Before fitting the head and as part of the block prep and cleaning I ran an M10 x 1.25 tap down the threads in the block to clean out any crud and make them ready to accept the head bolts. Nine of the threads cleaned up very nicely, but one gave serious cause for concern - the one between cyls 3 and 4 on the inlet side. When I ran the tap down it there was consistent resistance to the tap, nearly all the way down. This reminded me that when undoing the head bolts back in May one bolt had been particularly difficult to remove and had needed me to use quite serious force to unwind it. After tapping it I tried a head bolt in the thread and discovered a worrying amount of slop. It only started to straighten up and fly right towards the end of the thread.

We decided to carry on and torque the head up in stages (as per instructions) and all bolts passed muster at 20 lb/ft. When we upped the torque to 40 lb/ft Nigel (who was wielding the torque wrench) came to the iffy bolt, tightened it up until nearly at torque, at which point it just went floppier than a floppy thing. Many imprecations and bad language followed, as you can imagine. We didn't even get to the point of torquing the bolts up fully (60 lb/ft).

So now we need to try and track down a supplier of an M10 x 1.25 helicoil kit in a part of France where engineering suppliers are few and far between. I've enlisted the services of a Brit ex-pat I know who runs a number of old cars and he wiil try and track down a source for a Helicoil kit, but as of Tuesday afternoon I've heard nothing back. As a back stop I've ordered the kit I need off eBay, but it probably won't arrive until next week.

So not the best of news to report. Both of us want to get this thing buttoned up and finished before Nigel flies home on Thursday, but that is looking increasingly unlikely with each passing minute. It also means I will need to find another helper, as lowering the head down in a controlled manner is much easier and safer as a two man job.

No-one ever said it would be easy...

[DefTrap]

Roughly whereabout in France are you by the way?