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Near enough to an ounce. Fair bit of metal.


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Blacky wrote: Wed Jul 16, 2025 9:50 pm Good to see you back mate the old ute didnt miss a beat after we left your joint (palace) before the nationals until we got home about 6500 km later

What eventually happened?

Craig Allardyce wrote: Thu Aug 14, 2025 6:06 pm

Blacky wrote: Wed Jul 16, 2025 9:50 pm Good to see you back mate the old ute didnt miss a beat after we left your joint (palace) before the nationals until we got home about 6500 km later

What eventually happened?

We drove to Sydney, then Temora, then all over the shop having a wonderful time all the way then we got home. Had a bit of gearbox trouble between Wagga and Mildura.We gave it a top up the oil and used an occy strap holding it in top gear for about 600km until we got to Whyalla and after that it didn't jump out of gear for the rest of the trip.

Good progress this week. Ended up having to machine down the rocker shafts as they were badly worn. With that the rockers needed to be be rebushed with oversize bushes and honed to suit the new shaft size. Block dummied up again with the rebuilt rockers, cam, and hydraulic lifters in place so I can get dimensions for the new pushrods. I also threaded the internal ends of the rocker shafts for fitment of tapered/threaded plugs. The originals are small welch plugs which I wasn't going to risk popping out with the higher oil pressure I will be running. It also helps with cleaning out the 60 years of gunk inside the shafts.
One other job I do to all of these heads is bevel the top edges of the valve guides. This stops oil pooling close to the valve stem which gets drawn down the valve guide causing high oil consumption and carbon on the crowns of the valves. This is generally missed these days, particularly with the advent of positive valve guide seals.

You get used to seeing rockers with half a century worth of muck over them. Clean and machined ones like that really stand out.

Cheers,
Harv

More progress today.
Finished clearanceing the alloy side plate for the bigger pushrod diameter. Also started work on the spacer plate for the oil pump as I'm fitting longer gears to increase the pump capacity a little more. This is due to the extra flow I wanted for the change to hydraulic lifters, and for the increase in compression and ultimately the power output of the engine.

Craig Allardyce wrote: Thu Aug 21, 2025 5:47 pmAlso started work on the spacer plate for the oil pump as I'm fitting longer gears to increase the pump capacity a little more.

GMH 308 gears?

Cheers,
Harv

Yes mate.

A little more progress this week.
Finished the spacer plate for the oil pump upgrade, and shimmed up the relief valve a little more. I did spend some time checking the valve dimensions incl full travel vs coil bind. I will eventually do a test run driving the pump at a set speed to make sure the pressure is in the range needed for the bearing loads and clearances. Interestingly I compared the grey oil pump with a red motor unit. Both run the same gear dimensions and the same relief valve spring and valve diameter. Higher oil pressure is achieved by compressing the spring more by a 1/4" but the relief valve port is at a closer opening position than the grey. This would give a higher pressure low rpm but prevent over pressuring at high revs.
Whilst stuffing around with some timing covers I came across a different cover with regards to the front of the pressings, something I've never noticed over the years working on these engines.

I think from memory in my build the star embossed cover is from a late Ek EJ grey.motor. I'm sure Rob will pipe up.

Craig Allardyce wrote: Thu Aug 28, 2025 6:41 pm Finished the spacer plate for the oil pump upgrade, and shimmed up the relief valve a little more. I did spend some time checking the valve dimensions incl full travel vs coil bind. I will eventually do a test run driving the pump at a set speed to make sure the pressure is in the range needed for the bearing loads and clearances.

One option is to drill out the relief valve bore, tap the end of it and fit an ARP stud to act as the spring seat. This gives you an externally adjustable oil pump, at least externally once the sump is off. A jam nut on the stud locks the setting. There is a picture on p20 of my FED thread of this type of setup.

Cheers,
Harv

(piping up)

The "+" cover, the one without the seal, is the later one. In the later engines some of the 1/4" screws were enlarged to 5/16". The front main bearing cap, front engine plate and timing cover were modified to suit. The aim was to improve sealing of the front engine plate to the crankcase.

You'll also need to find the reinforcement to suit the later cover.

Rob

ardiesse wrote: Fri Aug 29, 2025 11:35 am (piping up)

The "+" cover, the one without the seal, is the later one. In the later engines some of the 1/4" screws were enlarged to 5/16". The front main bearing cap, front engine plate and timing cover were modified to suit. The aim was to improve sealing of the front engine plate to the crankcase.

You'll also need to find the reinforcement to suit the later cover.

Rob

Hi Rob, yes I was aware of the changes to the block and hole sizes in the cover, but never took notice of the pattern on the front of the cover. Thanks.

Harv wrote: Thu Aug 28, 2025 10:07 pm

Craig Allardyce wrote: Thu Aug 28, 2025 6:41 pm Finished the spacer plate for the oil pump upgrade, and shimmed up the relief valve a little more. I did spend some time checking the valve dimensions incl full travel vs coil bind. I will eventually do a test run driving the pump at a set speed to make sure the pressure is in the range needed for the bearing loads and clearances.

One option is to drill out the relief valve bore, tap the end of it and fit an ARP stud to act as the spring seat. This gives you an externally adjustable oil pump, at least externally once the sump is off. A jam nut on the stud locks the setting. There is a picture on p20 of my FED thread of this type of setup.

Cheers,
Harv

Hi Andrew, yes I've seen that modification before. I know of one that was done with an access hole in the sump. I don't see the need for it considering once it's set, it's left alone. I'll be testing on my dyno before it goes in the car so pulling the sump wont be an issue. Thanks.

Slugs in today and confirmed piston to valve clearances, and camshaft timing.