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Re: Harv's (Grace's) EK ute
Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2021 11:59 am
by EK283
I had the exact same thing happen to me and boy did it have me head scratching.
New steel or alloy gears from that day on in all the engines I put together !!!!!
At least you can move forward now.
Greg
Re: Harv's (Grace's) EK ute
Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2021 1:05 pm
by Errol62
Oh well, should be good when you get the Clive bump stick in with alloy gear. Hope it won’t be too cranky for grace in the Sydney traffic.
FB ute fixer upper, EK van on rotisserie
Re: Harv's (Grace's) EK ute
Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2021 3:10 pm
by Harv
Errol62 wrote: Sun Apr 25, 2021 1:05 pm
Oh well, should be good when you get the Clive bump stick in with alloy gear. Hope it won’t be too cranky for grace in the Sydney traffic.
Grace drives that ute like it has mechanical fuel injection. It only has two speeds - idle and WOT. Nothing in between.
... no idea where she learnt that from
I'd love to find the bloke who last put the engine together. There is blue silastic in it everywhere. Not just on seals, but smeared inside rocker cover etc like someone wiped their fingers clean. This is punishment for the first rebuild I did, with blue silastic on every gasket. The timing cover seal was cactus... vulcanised into the case so hard I near had to chisel it out. The walking stick was held on with a 3" Phillips head bolt... threaded into the sump gasket only.
Cheers,
Harv
Re: Harv's (Grace's) EK ute
Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2021 7:42 pm
by Errol62
True. That is how you must drive a grey or NA diesel Tojo in Sydney traffic.
FB ute fixer upper, EK van on rotisserie
Re: Harv's (Grace's) EK ute
Posted: Sun Jun 20, 2021 11:56 am
by Harv
Bump stick came back from Clive. Hopefully get it put in this week. Lumpy enough for the task... should be fun.

- Graces cam.jpg (228.02 KiB) Viewed 942 times
Cheers,
Harv
Re: Harv's (Grace's) EK ute
Posted: Sun Jun 20, 2021 12:32 pm
by Errol62
Looks serious.
FB ute fixer upper, EK van on rotisserie
Re: Harv's (Grace's) EK ute
Posted: Sun Jun 20, 2021 1:19 pm
by Blacky
That thing is ridiculous, looking forward to hearing it "idle"

Re: Harv's (Grace's) EK ute
Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2021 4:32 pm
by EK DAZ
Had the same thing happened to my FC. It was slowly getting more and more sluggish, Then started to backfire. The car had only done 46,000 miles. Chucked a alloy gear in and all good.
Re: Harv's (Grace's) EK ute
Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2021 5:34 am
by FJWALLY
wow thats a lumpy stick Harv - going to be fun to get it to idle - what are you doing with the head and pistons to get the compression up enough?
The guys at Dynomotive are hinting that I need a lumpier stick for the new head.
Re: Harv's (Grace's) EK ute
Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2021 7:50 am
by Harv
Staged approach for the ute. One step at a time, so that if I stuff something up I'm not hunting multiple faults.
Cam first, and make sure new timing gear solves the firing problem.
Run it for a while, then put the head off the FB onto it. It was ported and relieved by Joe Gatt using his fathers tooling, and really woke up the FB. Plan for this late in the year, hopefully when the Repco head is ready for the FB. Theres a set of roller rockers to go with the head, will get lightened pushrods made at the same time.
Run it for a while, then fit the triple Strommies I built a few years back.
Run it for a while, then fit the magneto.
Cheers,
Harv
Re: Harv's (Grace's) EK ute
Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2021 12:42 pm
by BS
Sounds like a good plan
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Re: Harv's (Grace's) EK ute
Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2021 1:28 pm
by Harv
This thing is fighting me all the way.
Pressed the timing gear on, and despite lube it wanted to “jump” in increments rather than ease it self on. Back and forth, on and off the cam hoping that one of the jumps would give me 4-6 thou float. Finally got there 5 thou).
Cam lubed and in, mandatory photo to remind myself later that yes, I did line up the dots:

- CBD34F38-570B-40F5-8838-86A14B859F62.jpeg (2.87 MiB) Viewed 867 times
Went to press in the timing case seal (late grey motor… big seal). Felt waaaaay to big, and would not start despite greasing. Creased the rotten seal. More homework - suspect the seal is the wrong part.
Lifters lubed and in, pushrods, rockers. Backed off the valve lash adjusters, started tightening rockers then torqued. Had one go soft. Swore. Could I be lucky?
Re: Harv's (Grace's) EK ute
Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2021 1:31 pm
by Harv

- 68283ECD-01BC-4079-81FC-1B5F26A09689.jpeg (3.11 MiB) Viewed 865 times
Whew! Snapped off proud of the head. Easy removal by fingers… not easy-outs.

- 639E52B8-E310-49BB-B20A-832D65FB2766.jpeg (4.69 MiB) Viewed 865 times
Off to the spare rocker department to find more bolts.
Cheers,
Harv
Re: Harv's (Grace's) EK ute
Posted: Wed Jun 23, 2021 3:09 pm
by Harv
Found a bolt, rockers in. Bought two new timing cover seals. Same as the one I stuffed… too big. Dig out a spare timing cover, pull the old seal out. New seal fits new timing cover like a glove.
Then it clicked. Man am I thick.
When I pulled the timing cover off Graces ute, all I could see was a hard rubber seal. Looked like the new ones… no steel outer. Picked the rubber out, cleaned the tinware. No way was the new seal going in… creased the seal, dented Graces timing cover.
Turns out that whoever had last done up the motor in Graces ute had put a steel-backed seal in BACKWARDS… steel side in. Could not see the backer, just the rubber. I had picked the rubber guts out, leaving the steel backer in place. No wonder the new seal would not fit. That backer ain’t coming out… nothing to grab.
From top to bottom: Graces timing cover with special heavy duty Nasco seal backer in place, original steel backed seal, new rubber only seal.

- 363CC928-78EF-41A3-B4C0-1C8C11C0E7CB.jpeg (4.04 MiB) Viewed 835 times
New timing cover ready to go. Pull out the aviation form-a-gasket, and it has almost dried out. Looks so old that Biggles might have used it last. Off to buy more.
Cheers,
Harv
Re: Harv's (Grace's) EK ute
Posted: Wed Jun 23, 2021 3:30 pm
by gpi
omg, you reckon they cast the aftermarket timing covers with the seal in-place?