Getting ready for the road again

[roy4matra]

I just used a socket that fitted on the shoulder of the seal and a extension bar and gently tapped the seals into place  

Great! I found a rod that fitted and tapped them down. They're now sitting so the valves have 10 mm travel before the narrow section reaches the top of the seal

Now onto other work! Engine room, wiring, alternator

Edit: Photo added

Two things I would add to your posting on fitting the new valve seals, Anders, mainly for others who may not realise this.

Always wet the lip of any seal with engine oil before fitting so it never starts up totally dry, because especially with a rotating part such as a crankshaft, the fast rotation can burn the lip of the seal causing it not to seal as well.

In the case of the valve seals, always fit the lower valve spring seat (typo corrected - thanks Anders) before fitting the seal as it won't pass over the seal!

Roy

[Anders Dinsen]

Thanks for your clarification, Roy! I lubricated the valve stems before inserting them, but I would have thought that the oil being thrown around by the camshaft and other moving parts on top of the would lubricate the valve stems when they are running?

In the case of the valve seals, always fit the lower valve spring seal before fitting the seal as it won't pass over the seal!

I think there's an l that should have been a t there You must mean to fit the lower valve spring seat before the seal.

[Anders Dinsen]

While I'm still preparing the engine room, wheel arches, and the rest of the rear end, I took the cylinder head out and put it on my work table yesterday.

I got two out of eight valve springs fitted  

Compressing the springs requires a good and adjustable tool, and a stable worktable. The difficult part is getting the tool working at just the right angle so the two half-shells end up fitting around the valve stem, and not with one fitted and the other not.  

It took some time and experimentation, and some frustration too.

The tool I bought last year works well for this but the wooden jig I made based on a drawing in the engine manaul did not work well for this. It could work well with a normal spring compressor, that works from both ends, but I have'nt been able to find one that reaches far enough down into the cylinder head.

So I did the work with the head sitting directly on the table, a thick newspaper and a heavy duty plastic bag.

[Anders Dinsen]

I have some rusty parts from the rear brakes that need fixing. Last year my friend and fellow Murena owner Jesper Kobbernagel suggested I should try electrolytic rust removal. The process is simple:

• The rusty part is hung from a bar in a peice of wire into a solution of water and baking soda. This solution is the "electrolyte".
• This bar with the rusty part is connected to - on a 12V battery charger becoming a "cathode" in the electrolyte.
• The other pole (+) on the charger is connected to an peice of normal sheet steel also hung from a bar into the electrolyte. This is then the "anode" in the electrolyte

 
It draws very little current from the charger, but leave it sizzling for a day and the rust disappears from the part! It's pure electro-chemistry. The anode, by the way, becomes *very* rusty, so be sure the get the polarity right!

Remains of rust can be brushed off with a wire brush. The colour of the part becomes greyish as the surface will still be pitted due to the corrosion, and probably also because of carbon in the rust being released as the ferro-oxides are dissolved.

Here's a few photos of my set up and a comparison between a treated and untreated part (the rear handbrake cable holders that go on the calipers). I do it outside as my sister, who is a chemical engineer, suggested that the process may emit CO, which is dangerous, in addition to O₂ and CO₂ which are of course not.

/Anders

[GP]

Hi Anders,

Very interesting indeed and something I have never heard of.

Q: What is the ratio of Water to Baking Soda please?

Cheers, Graham

"Every day is a school day!"   

[suffolkpete]

I have used this technique but I have never heard of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) being used before.  I used washing soda (sodium carbonate) and made up a saturated solution.

[JL]

I use caustic soda, sodium hydroxide - they all work. I usually use a couple of tablespoons to 20lt of water but there are loads of Youtube videos on the subject.
Cheers
John

[Anders Dinsen]

I must admit that Jesper just handed me a jar of white powder and said something like "Use this, don't worry it's only baking soda, it will do you good"

I think there's a range of electrolytes that can work, as long as it allows O^- ions to transfer.

I cleaned the parts with a rotating wire brush yesterday and they are now shiny and look like new (although they were probably painted originally?) The cast iron parts of the calipers are now in the bucket being "processed". My anode is now completely rusty, and I wonder if it's still as effective. The thin wires that held it had detoriated completely.

Progress is slow, but that's fine!

[Anders Dinsen]

"Every day is a school day!"   

YES - and today I learnt that a rusty anode doesn't work! I filed the rust away, and *whiizzz!* the process worked again

It must bubble and look like on the second picture.

The end result is beautiful, isn't it? The thrid picture shows one of the caliper holders after brushing with a rotating wire brush. (The other one is still submerged in the bucket.)

[Anders Dinsen]

Sharing a single photo today showing one of the conntecting links from the rear semi trailing arms to the anti roll bar. This is after the galvanic process and brush cleaning with a rotating wire brush. In this case I submerged the whole part complete with the rubber bushes in place into the electrolyte. I'll spray paint it with acrylic paint next.

/Anders

[Anders Dinsen]

A little status, mostly to get thoughts out of my head

The engine room is almost done now with the tank reinstalled including the filler pipes and hoses. The engine room is zinc panted and rust protected.

I've derusted and painted the engine mount brackets so they are ready to take the engine.

The lower transverse bar in the engine room has been zinc painted and will be rust protected once fitted. I'm also going to fit my new handbrake cable, and the anti roll bar as all brackets have been electrolytically derusted, brush cleaned, and painted now too.

I don't think these items will be in the way once the engine is ready to go back in. If they are, I can easily remove them.

Once those things are in place I'll fit the long gear change rod. The reason for that is that I'd like to investigate whether I can make the modification Herman has made on the last picture in this post: http://www.matrasport.dk/forum/index.php/topic,3224.msg23679.html#msg23679 It will be impossible to work on that once the engine is back in the car. Of course, I'll have to remove it again to get the engine in.

It was more than a year ago I removed the engine. I originally planned to work on the engine immediately, but lots of things happened in my life and I never started. Instead I started working on the engine room this summer. I want to finish that and make sure I have all the bolts and nut I need before I need to put the engine going back in.

The engine is therefore still sitting undisturbed in my workshop. Next step with that, once the engine room is done, is to take the cylinder head off, seal the chain cover, fit that and the blanked off water pump housing, paint the block and fit the new cylinder head moving over the cam followers, cam, chain and everyting. Also, the flywheel must be lightened and the new clutch fitted. Etc...! Remember, the new cylinder head is ported so I'll need to work on the inlet manifold to ensure it fits straight on the inlets. I must also do some work on the engine wiring loom and wiring for the electric water pump controller etc.

Still lots of interesting work to do!

Todays pictures show various derusted and painted parts, and my well worn anode
Edit: Photos showing the engine room, my "paint shop", and the engine mount brackets after receiving a coat of linseed oil on the sides facing the chassis.

/Anders

[Anders Dinsen]

As I'm installing the electrical water pump, I will need a new engine wiring loom. As I already made my own many years ago, I'm again preferring to build a new one integrating wiring for the new parts: A separate oil temperature sensor; the temperature sensor for the EWP controller; wiring for the booster water pump driving the heater circuit; and the electrical fuel pump.

The fuel pump is a membrane pump. I wrote about it earlier in this thread as I struggled with it, it turned out to have failed, and I needed a new one.  It's run from a timed relay so that it only runs for 5-10 seconds after ignition is turned on, and while the engine runs.

The electrical water pump controller will be fitted in the engine room with the pump itself fitted behind the radiator in the front.

The wiring will be made partly reusing the existing green connector housing, and partly with a new five way water proof connector. I will also fit a two pole connector for the fuel pump.

I'm running a separate wire for the ignition sense for the fuel pump relay. This is a left over from my old design where I fount it easier to route a new wire rather than tapping into the wire going to the rev counter. This additional wire will also drive a separate rev counter which I installed years ago as I found the original rev counter imprecise.

Other work has progressed already in the engine room. Pictures later...

/Anders

[Matra_Hans]

Remember to include a crash sensor, that will kill the fuelpump in case of qan accident.

[Anders Dinsen]

Remember to include a crash sensor, that will kill the fuelpump in case of qan accident.

Thanks, Hans. This is the relay that's activated by the engine rev counter signal so it stops pumping fuel as soon as the engine stops running, even if there is ignition. This provides the same safety as the original design with the mechanical fuel pump. I designed the circuit particularly for my use around a 555 years ago. It's inspired from a Bosch relay circuit with the same function with an added "enable" feature that can be driven by a separate relay to cut off the fuel pump in case of unauthroized attempts to start the engine. I don't remember the source, but here it is.

[Anders Dinsen]

I promised pictures from the engine room, here's one showing the right hand side with the engine mount...