Back from the dead? Rebuilding a K blog

[Shug]

Brilliant - keep it coming dude.

[woody]

Steve, what head are you using? The one that was sitting in the hall?

[steve_weegie]

So after a long absence, progress has been made as you can see below, where Ali is pretending to be an engine



Spent the whole day at SLS yesterday and got the engine out the car, gearbox off, sensors stripped off and all ready to transplant onto the rebuilt unit. As usual the car was fighting back and took a bit of blood from both Ali and myself! Ali thinks the engine will go into the car on Monday, so I should be able to try the first start shortly

Found a couple of bits that will need replacing, as one of the rear shocks and the exhaust flexi are "nowhere near" MOT standard...

Hopefully more to come shortly

[mwmackenzie]

Nice one looking forward to seeing the final results...

Mark

[VXJON]

[steve_weegie]

The car is ready to start, 399 days since it last ran
I will be going across to turn the key later on

Please wish me and WeegieSport engine #001 luck

[BiggestNizzy]

about bloody time too

[VXJON]

[r10crw]

Good luck mate, been so long Id forgot all about this thread. 399 days is a long time to be lotusless

[r055]

[meatball]

Good luck!

[mwmackenzie]

Good luck fella may need you engine building expertise to sort mine out next hahahaha That is assuming all is well with yours first

All the best

Mark

[steve_weegie]

Well, I turned up at SLS to find the car sitting outside, in 1 piece and looking great! Turned the key and she started first time without any knocking from the bottom end! Woohoo!!

Trouble is, only on 3 cylinders.... Suspected a HT fault and changed coil packs and leads but to no avail.

Round about this point i started to worry & we broke out the compression tester. Cylinders 1,3 and 4 all register 12 bar, but cylinder 2 registers 0.... not even a blip of the needle.

We think it can only be 3 things....

1. I've fudged the piston ring install - unlikley as all the others are spot on and there is absolutely ZERO compression
2. Dodgy MLS gasket or fire ring sealing problems - again unlikley as everything has been machined spot on
3. Stuck open exhaust valve... Prime candidate #1 as this is the first time the 135 head has been on since the "timing issue"

Head comes off tomorrow

Not exactly the high end to the day that i was looking for, but i know that it will get fixed very soon

Will keep you all posted

[kenny]

but i know that it will get fixed very soon

You're a 'glass is half full' kinda guy. aren't you?

[Rich H]

Were the cams out?
I had issues with valves sticking open as the tappets expand over time if left uncompressed and hold the valves open -
I sh!t myself as half of them were stuck open, after a couple of days they settled back down.