348 Engine Out!!

Hey Ernie - the seals are in really tight, and since the seal lip didn't stick out very far, I thought that the seal lip would just tear off. Also, i didn't have a socket that fit the housing that closely. (see pics) Anyway, here's a link to a short vid I made tonight that shows how the crows foot works. Sorry for the low lighting... that's a dark area of my garage right now. I should not have had my thumb that close, but no harm

http://s338.photobucket.com/albums/n405/rwschumm/?action=view&current=MOV01278.flv
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Jay - thanks for the encouragement! But be sure not to hold your breath

I mentioned a lot earlier in this thread that I removed the vacuum-operated exhaust air injection system, and plugging the exhaust ports. Before putting everything back together on top, I decided to replace all the vacuum hoses. However, after looking at all of these vacuum lines, I realized that almost all of them are devoted to the exhaust air injection system. So I removed all of them, and replaced them with just 2 short vacuum lines. See pics- removed the attached monstrosity and just ran one line from the rear of the left induction plenum to the bottom of the solenoid under the induction system, and then one line from the top of the solenoid to the differential vacuum valve at the front. I forget the function of this differential valve at the moment, but be sure not to damage the white diaphragm on the back of it, which I believe will ruin the valve. So I eliminated about a dozen un-needed vacuum connections. Even if you decide to keep the air injection system, there should be a simpler way to do this.

PS - anyone see a need to keep the vacuum reservoir for proper and smooth operation of the differential valve? I didn't think so, but let me know.

PS PS - I decided not to remove the air injection solenoids... they are bolted down with induction manifold studs, and I didn't want to mess with those and risk a leak. Just left the electrical connectors attached.
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I think it's a good idea Ernie... it's only used for a few minutes when cold, and is a real monstrosity. Even if someone had to leave the system connected for emissions testing (looks), seems you should be able to dummy up most of the visible vacuum connections.

RE: the vacuum reservoir, I was just wondering if it may dampen vacuum pulsations and help the valve work more smoothly. Not sure, but I'm starting to wonder.

 

Just an update: I decided to get a Moroso 18" degree wheel, which I thought would be more precise. It works fine, but was probably overkill. I think the 12" ones are good enough. Also, after removing the exhaust air injection system, I installed the exhaust port plugs that I managed to find with never-seize. They were not cheap.. something like $3.75 each, but had a nice land on them for the crush washer, and are well-finished. For anyone interested, these are from Hydraulic Fittings Co, 215-744-2828, Philly, P/N 9030M-16X1.5 Metric Plug. They have a website which is how I found these, but I don't have it at the moment.

I reinstalled all the cams.. using assembly lube on the bearings and lobes. WSM states 0.88 kg-m torque for the cam cap nuts, which is 6.35 ft-lbs or approx 76 in-lbs. New seals and o-rings on the cam end caps, which came with the Ricambi 348 major kit.

I also re-assembled the water pump, after having it rebuilt at Jordan Co (The Mississippi Water Pump Guy). My friend Steve glass beaded the other half of the pump for me (thanks Steve!), and I used Permatex high-temp black RTV with the Jordan gasket to put it back together. I decided to just keep the original metal finish, and just used hi-temp satin clear on the water pump to finish it.

I also used Loctite 518 Gasket Maker on the outer lip of the thermostat housing, in addition to the standard thermostat gasket. This is interesting stuff. It's anaerobic, which normally means it cures in absence of air. However, this stuff REQUIRES contact with metal to cure. If you use it on a gasket, both gasket mating surfaces have to be metal to cure. I also used it at the water pump/crankcase joint (see red stuff in pic), in addition to the standard 0-ring. It's a red viscous material, and anything exposed to air will not completely cure, if it cures at all. BTW - you can see some excess black Permatex that I used for the front chain cover. I had to work fast, and so couldn't get as fine a coating as I wanted before needing to install and tighten the cover and get the chain drive lined up before it hardened. Not as clean as I would like
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After installing the cams, I also realized I installed the stationary Hill Engineering tensioner on the bracket before putting it on the rear belt cover. DUH. It was easy to remove and reinstall, since I used never-seize, but when reinstalling it in the plastic cover, I cracked the cover. DUH DUH. I don't want to talk about it... Anyway, GT Car Parts got another for me in a couple days. So I installed the large rear cover and tensioners, and then lined up the cams and cam gears. I had 3 of the 4 set up, when I realized the last one didn't have any holes that lined up. The WSM says that the cam gears have timing marks on them, but mine didn't have any. I still thought I'd easily be able to find one hole to line up, but I was wrong. So I had to loosen everything and reposition the last gear. Finally have timing belt on and everything initially set up.

I do plan to check each cam individually, and not just trust the cam marks, so we'll see if I have to redo things again. Yesterday I checked final valve clearance. Spec is approx. 0.008-0.010" Intake and 0.012-0.014" Exhaust. Almost all my intakes were at 8, but one was at 9, and on #7, both intakes were around 7. Not sure how that happened, but Rifledriver says no problem. I bought a repro set of tools to replace shims with cams in place, but after trying them, I'm not impressed with that procedure. I'd rather remove the cams if needed. PS - see my previous posts for comments on how many new shims do not measure to what they are marked.

I also plan to do a leakdown test (cold), just as a point of reference. The original leakdown during PPI showed mostly 3-4% with one or two at 5%, but I'd like to have my own reference. This is usually done with the engine warm. We'll see how it goes. Other than that, I'm currently doing chassis and engine degreasing, and plan to repaint much of the subframe, except for the suspension area. I plan to do the suspension in 2009 sometime.
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Thanks Goth! PS - My Gothspeed exhaust arrived today! Looks great! As you can tell, it will be a bit of time until I get it installed, but I'm trying to speed things up.

 

Good question Ernie! Wish I had an answer Goth never really mentioned 2 options, but I did mention once to him that I am doing it more for the sound than anything... I'd like Tubi or even a bit more. Vince was saying that he liked his Gothspeed because it wasn't as loud as some other after market exhausts. Goth said he was including some updates on mine, so maybe that's what he was talking about

Sorry - editing that I meant to mention I did get the high-flow cats from Goth also.

Thanks! Hope it does help. Putting things together takes more time than taking things apart. Have to clean everything, threads, make sure you are careful not to put something on first that would have to come off again, etc etc. I am doing this in hopes it does help some other owners see what worked or didn't work for me. Lots of individual threads on Fchat, but I am hoping this helps put some basic things in an easier-to-find source. I also now think that it won't hurt to have some documentation on Fchat, IF I ever do sell it. As of now, I plan to be doing my next major also... in 5yrs or so. Make sure to let us know how things go with your 355 also!

 

Sounds D) great Goth! As I mentioned in my PM, I'm not trying to quiet it up any!

 

I just finished verifying and finishing my cam timing today. Here's my experience .. it was more time consuming and frustrating than I thought. First, it took me a couple days (Just a couple hrs/day) to get my magnetic mount and dial indicator set up to work well. My indicator has 1" travel, but I still needed a 2 inch or so indicator point to reach the tappet/shim. I didn't have one, and didn't have any material that would work well to make one.. tried plastic, but too flexible. I ended up going to an RC hobby store and bought some long rod. The closest rod had 4-40 thread on it, but after investigating, it seems like these indicators usually use 4-48 thread. I managed to get the rod threaded into the indicator enough to have it stick well. Good luck finding anything 4-48 even online, although I did see a couple 4-48 dies advertised on Ebay. I also had to make an extended mounting rod to move the indicator further out from the mount.

My belt cogs/gears didn't have marks on them, so I wasn't completely sure which position to set them at for my initial setup. I knew things would shift after the tensioner was released and all slack was taken up. I set #1 at TDC, using the piston stop method, and set all cams on the marks. For 5/8 exhaust cam, I had to use Fat Billy Bob's method of putting some card stock under the bearing next to the belt, to keep the cam from rotating. Then I installed the belt, and released the tensioner, and installed the gear pins. Unfortunately, one gear was not close enough to any holes, so I tightened the tensioner to keep it in place, and removed and rotated the gear. Not easy, but do-able. I then rotated the engine a couple times. It seemed that the cams were off a bit when doing this, after the belt was tightened. The ones that were off seemed to all be advanced. In other words, when the cams reached their marks, the crank was not yet at #1 TDC.

I felt that the easiest way to get these aligned was as follows: Rotate crank CW until first cam mark lines up (whichever one). Remove the gear pin, make sure the cam will not turn (to be safe), and then rotate the crank to #1 TDC. Then install the pin in the best-fitting hole. Next rotate crank until the next cam is on the mark. Rotate the crank all the way around again if some cams are already past their mark. This process worked fine. I then checked 1/4 inlet cam with my dial indicator and found that it was at full lift about 2 deg. late. I was using Billy Bob's lobe centerline method per his Degreeing Cams thread.

I decided to get real accurate and try to get spot-on. As I was trying to reset this cam, something moved or slipped, and my intake cam ended up way off. So I decided to start from scratch. The second time, after setting up on the cam marks, releasing the tensioner, installing the pins and rotating the crank, I ended up having all cams a bit retarded. In other words, the crank hit #1 TDC before the cams reached their marks. Not sure why. The manual says not to turn the engine backwards during the process. Obviously, there's quite a bit of belt slack when doing this, but it seemed to me this was the only reasonable way to get retarded cams on the marks.

This is the method I used: Rotate crank CW until the mark on the first cam to be adjusted lines up. Remove the pin, and make sure the cam will not rotate. Now rotate the crank CCW until the other cams also rotate backwards... ie take up the belt slack. Continue rotating CCW a bit further... perhaps 10 deg or so. Then rotate the crank CW to #1 TDC and install the gear pin for the cam. (The CW slack has to be all taken up before you reach TDC) Do the same for the remainder of the retarded cams. I used this process for all of my cams, and I now have all marks perfectly aligned at #1 TDC. My 1/4 Intake cam is still at full lift about 2 deg. late, but the exhaust cam is, as close as I can read it, dead on. I haven't checked 5/8 yet, but assuming these are also this close, my cam timing is done. Especially considering the difficulty and time involved of trying to adjust each cam by 1-2 degrees.

When degreeing the cams, if the cams don't line up, I think it's easiest if the cams are off to the advanced side. This way, you can continue to rotate the crank CW to readjust them, and don't have to rotate the crank CCW at all. Next major, I might install the cams a bit to the advanced side, so that after the tensioner is released, and slack is taken up, that the cams are still to the advanced side, if they're off. Hope this discussion helps others.

PS - based on my process here, I also confirmed that Fat Billy Bob is correct that the cam lobes are symmetrical, since the lobe centerline method worked very well for me also.

 

For those interested in following my project: after my last post on Cam Timing my 348, I checked all cams again with the dial indicator, and although they were all on the marks, I found one cam was off by about 8 degrees. In other words, the CAM Mark was off 8 degrees. That explains why this cam was off about a line width when I opened the engine up. So the marks, at least in my case, were close to start, but for 1 cam, not close enough. Anyway, I thought I was basically done, but had to continue adjusting things, and got within 2 deg. on each cam.

However, in an OCD moment, and after getting better at the process, I decided to shoot for +/-1 deg. per the manual. After achieving that on 3 of the cams, the gear on the 4th cam slipped off and things slipped. So I decided to start over. After a couple more days of adjusting things (Hey, I only work a couple hrs/day on the car) I finally got there. However, I had not yet completely torqued up the tensioner cap screws. I didn't have any problem reaching 35ft. lbs on the adjustable tensioner, but I couldn't even reach 30ft lbs on the fixed (right) one. It stripped out!! Not totally sure what happened, but even though the helicoil was 0.75" deep, I seemed to have only about 0.5" thread engagement, and the cap screw threads were also damaged.

This was about 2wks ago, and I had to take everything apart again. My friend Steve (Thanks Steve!) said he would make up a new insert for me, so I removed the helicoil, drilled out the hole, and installed the new insert with Loctite red a week ago (see pics). Steve also had a longer cap screw that I shortened, and gave about 0.75" thread engagement. The good thing is that after messing this much with the cam timing, it only took about 5hrs for me to get back to +/- 1 deg on 3 of the cams, and 2 deg on the other cam. So I finished, and reinstalled the belt covers last Friday. Finally........
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Several months ago (OK, too many ), after reading up on 348 transaxle issues, I pulled the side covers off of mine, and verified all the ringnuts looked good and were staked. I recently read a thread in which someone mentioned the ringnut under the lower cover, behind the clutch. Although my clutch was installed, yesterday, I took it off again, and removed this cover to check the nut. Looked good and staked well, just like the other ones I checked. Note that the cover has an O-ring on it, and fits inside the case. It's a bit of a job to wedge out as a result. Check pics. Today, I changed out all of the radiator hoses. I didn't realize it before, but a couple of these were looking fairly dry on the outside. Best to change them now!!
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