Bradan F355 valve job/major service

Installing coolant rails.
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Rebuilding valve lifters.
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Throttle bodies installed.
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Replacement power steering pump.
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Welded lower timing drive gears.
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I'm going through a major now. Why do you weld the timing gears?

 

Hey Bob,

I've seen this done many times and when I was cleaning up my pulleys - I looked them over and the fence crimp is so tight and over the entire perimeter so I did not see a reason to do it.

But, it takes a few seconds to do so I will probably do it anyway.

If you wish to ship me yours, I can do it for you as I have TIG. It will take under 5 minutes.

 

Cheers Dave, yes.

My old boss would have killed me if I had a box full of valves like this.

When we used to build race engines for customers when I was doing my apprenticeship 20 years ago, we took GREAT care with the valves.

Whether we were doing a standard rebuild or building a race engine, my boss had a plastic 'jig' to sit the valves in so they would not get damaged.

It was to protect the valve seat face from being damaged after it was cut and to also stop them being bent. As strong as they are, it doesn't take much to bend them which would cause them to stick and/or cause premature guide wear.

We used to get brand new valves that were bent straight out of the box. We assumed it was dropped when being packaged and just popped back into the box without telling anyone.

We would check every brand new valve for run out before fitting and re-check every valve we had returned to us from the machine shop. We had a few from those guys also. Must have been dropped.

And when I say bent, I don't mean bent like when the timing belt snaps and bends them like bananas. lol

They are bent, but you can't see that they are bent to the naked eye.

Watch this video, this is how we used check them using a very similar v-block and dial indicator setup.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSt0GpiYZ4A[/ame]

 

What do you do to rebuild the lifters? When the major was done on my car the lifters were sent to Ferrari for rebuilding. Well, actually exchanged for rebuilt ones.

 

John, is your project of making new guides still continuing?

 

That project is on hold since the factory wanting to do it is insisting on my producing at least 10,000 of each. Sintered metal components are incredibly cheap to manufacture, but the tooling costs gets you big time. For a sintered component a run of even 10k is really low so I should be thankful I found a place to do even that. What I think I'm going to do is make something else with this factory and roll the guides in as part of the deal. Will keep everyone posted.

Sorry, didn't want to hijack! This is a great thread. Thanks for posting your work. Always enjoyable.

 

Will all due respect to all, manganese bronze are a great choice and no sinter tooling cost and easier on install and post install machining. And, plenty of places to get manganese bronze made in the USA verse overseas manufacturing.

 

Dan, what is your opinion on the guides, sintered steel or manganese for these cars?

 

Thanks for the reply John.

Again, it is a great thread.

 

I'm sitting here smiling at these comments about a few valves in a box... you guys do realise that the valves are hammering away in the head up to 70 times per second, while heated to >1,000C... What the heck is going to happen to some valves laid in a box? Or should they be laid on a silk pillow and hand delivered by an angel or something?

 

Well, that is true with exception to the valve stem sliding in a guide and the valve closing against a seat and not edges getting nicked up

Just a bit of a difference

 

Much ado about nothing.

 

+1 I would like to hear your opinion Dan. You guys have seen way more real world cars than most of us around here. Your expertise on the matter would carry a lot of weight. Thoughts?

 

Don't know about Dan but the guy who build this monster and did my guides, you may have seen the video, chooses manganese bronze.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KajL7klumA

 

610 hp turbo 348.........nice

 

You simply check by pressing on the lifter with the camshaft removed. A good lifter is rock solid, a lifter in need of rebuilding will easily depress.

The downtime was killing us waiting for lifters to come back from being rebuilt so we figured out how to rebuild them in house, it's been working really well for us.

 

I thought a lifter is only rock solid when hydro locked? Perhaps I don't understand correctly...?

 

Sorry I didn't see this. I'm 100% positive a good bronze valve guide can be made locally by a company like CHE precision.

The main hold back is I don't want to be experiment on customers cars with internal engine parts, my personal car already has Steel valve guides. I've talked a few customers out of doing it to avoid headaches when selling. Your average buyer isn't educated enough to know it's better, they will just think it's a loose end and pass on the car. Plus the steel guides never ever have issues so why even bother taking another path? We service a few 100k + mile 360s with no valve guide issues, it's proven to be reliable.

 

Dan, respectfully, I don't believe this is correct. I happen to have my 95 B lifters out and this was on my list to get into.

I had a little time last night and I check a bunch of mine. Some are rock hard while most I can push the piston and get movement. So out came a small container I filled with oil and submerged the lifter. I tried to pump the piston under oil and no change so I proceeded to take one apart. (One I could move). I'll admit, I used the barbaric method of slamming the lifter to a block of wood to get the piston out (I will be making a tool).

I took it totally apart to inspect and understand how it works. This lifter was clean, no varish so to speak. I'm confident it did not need any rebuild. Using the check valve and a small pick to push it open (very light spring), I proceeded to charge the piston with oil and then reassembled. When done, rock solid.

So I think many were soft because the oil had drained out which I think is normal. Before removing the cams, remember all lifters will be in different positions relative to the oil fill port in the head.

EDIT: these lifters have no seal per say, they are just close tolerance metal parts. The piston has a c clip type ring on the od which may help seal and just add friction to keep the assembly together.
More to come.....

 

Dave,

Basically it is as you describe. If when the engine is shut off a lifter is resting on the base circle of the camshaft, it remains filled with oil and remains -solid to the touch.

If it is resting on the lobe (valve in an open position) the valvespring pressure acting on the lifter squishes the oil out over time. Upon disassembly the compressed lifter extends but is no longer filled with oil and -squishy-.

In a running engine of course they are constantly filled with pressurized oil/cycling so they do not compress.