At 07:39 PM 1/2/00 -0500, Doug McLaren wrote:
>.... rebuilding the engine in my '78 MGB. .... just about back together. ....
>
>1. The Haynes book says to replace the oil pump if more than 6 thou.
clearance on the rotor. Mine has 8 thou clearance looks like something ugly
went through it. It is not smooth. Should I replace it?
Absolutely. You will end up with marvelous oil pressure at idle.
>2. .... There was silicone on the water pump, oil pan, rocker cover + + +.
.... Are there places where it should be used?
I use it on the sheet metal covers, which could be a little less than flat,
oi; pan, valve cover, timing cover, and tappet covers. Clean the cover
well first, then put a film of silicone on the cover and attach the gasket.
When installed the sealer will conform the the cover if it isn't exactly
flat. When removed later the gasket will come off with the cover, easier
to work on the bench to clean and install a new gasket rather than under
the hood. Any place you have a flat steel plate or two machined surfaces
you should not need any sealer, as a gasket will do well without it when
sandwiched between two very flat surfaces. OBTW, I silicone both sides of
the tappet covers, as those buggers are subject to the heat of the exhaust
manifold and tend to suffer an early death otherwise.
>3. I have been reading the many ways to get the front bolts undone on the
oil pan when the engine is in the car and I am considering grinding the lip
off of the front of the pan to allow a wrench in there later if necessary.
Is the flange lip structurally necessary or am I OK to remove it?
DO NOT REMOVE THE FLANGE. This is a structural feature og the oil pan that
ads stiffness to the edge where the gasket seats. Without the flange the
edge of the pan could bow rather dramatically in between the bolts and
allow copious amounts of oil to escape past the gasket. However, if you
silicone both sides of that gasket you might get away with it, just that
you'd have a hard time getting the pan off the next time.
>4. Are there any things I should be aware of such as "Don't forget ....
Lots of "Don't forget" items, one or two of which you will likely learn the
hard way. If you end up with no oil pressure you may have misaligned the
oil pump gasket. Spark at the wrong time means you may have misaligned the
distributor drive gear. And the shop manual can be somewhat confusing on
the drive gear installation, so it's easy to end up with the distributor
rotor pointing 180 degrees out of place. Proper orientation gets the rotor
pointing in the direction of the #1 spark plug with #1 piston at TDC on the
compression stroke. Don't forget to install a new pilot bushing in the
back end of the crankshaft (spigot bearing). And don't forget to paint the
engine really nice so folks can appreciate all the hard work you've done.
Barney Gaylord
1958 MGA with an attitude
http://www.ntsource.com/~barneymg
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