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| Joined: | 04-07-2022 |
| Location: | Oregon USA |
| Posts: | 118 |
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Major update on Rusty - I have the engine back in the car. It took seemingly forever to get the engine ready, as there were many little issues that caused me to order a part and then wait a week. The spigot bearing, a clutch pressure plate, a clutch alignment tool, a replacement intake manifold (more on that in a moment) etc. But it is finally back together and back in the engine bay. Hurrah!
The first gotcha was getting the valves shimmed. After I got the cam installed, I had to measure everything and of course only a couple of the shims were reusable. So I ordered and waited for a new set of shims from Martin Robey. The new exhaust cam has a smaller base circle, so the new pallets on the exhaust side were 0.030" thicker on the average than the originals. The intake side were off just enough to require new shims because of the three angle valve job and the 4 new valves. All of this took a couple of weeks.
When installing the intake manifold, I managed to break it by over tightening a nut. The book says 8 lb-ft of torque. This is so low I said "I will use my 1/4" socket set and gently tighten the nuts - no need to use my mini-torque wrench". Pop! I broke the end off of the manifold. I was barely torquing it, honest! Don't know my own strength, I guess <sigh>. Buy another manifold on eBay and wait a week for that little jewel to show up.
Installing the flywheel and clutch required resurfacing the flywheel. I recalled that the flywheel was in excellent condition and could simply be reused. But when I pulled it out of storage, it was in very rough shape, so off to the machine shop it went. My memory was clearly wrong. When I pulled the pressure plate out of storage, I recalled it too was in like new condition. While handling the pressure plate a chunk fell out of it. Yikes, my memory was wrong again. Time to order a new pressure plate (Identical to the TR6 unit, it turns out). While installing the clutch, I discover two things; My alignment tool doesn't fit, and the spigot bearing is toast. I order a new alignment tool, and a new spigot bearing from Amazon. More waiting.
So today it went back in the car, at long last. Very satisfying. Lots of engine bay work still to do; install the coil, carbs, engine damper, radiator, fan, throttle, choke, air box, etc. What part will next prove to be unusable? Stay tuned to find out, kiddies.
I still need to get the gearbox in place. I am swapping in the Getrag 5 speed unit, famously used in the BMW 2002 and others. I will need to deal with the shift housing support somehow. I also obtained a one piece drive shaft for the new 'box, a shift knob, new mounts, etc. How I am going to jack that thing into place I haven't a clue. I have done only one like this before, the TR7 5 speed, which was a real battle. Yet installing the engine sans gearbox is much simpler and less risky that installing them together, IMHO.
Tonight I will be sipping some wine in celebration of this milestone.
Vance
Attachment: Engine Bay.JPG (Downloaded 14 times)
Last edited on 10-18-2025 10:47 pm by vnavaret