Derek's 308 engine rebuild

As some of you know, I’m in Central London with nowhere to keep the 308 so it has been in storage in a Kent garage with the petrol-heads there doing a bit of tinkering when they have time. They were getting frustrated so I moved it to QV London where Mike quickly figured out the main issue— I’d put one bank of cams in upside down! Because there are no timing notches on the new CAT cams and I’d been in a hurry to finish and get the engine in before leaving Canada, I had one bank 180 degrees off.

Thankfully with a flat plane crank it’s not serious. Mike swapped the plug wires around and it now runs! He will turn the cams over now to get the correct firing sequence which should make it run a bit smoother.

 

I’m still waiting for you to come and collect Patrick- storage charges are accruing!

 

Brock, there hasn’t been as much interest as I expected for the IDF/IDA manifolds- three of us so far and I’d need ten to cover tooling costs. One option for lower volumes would be just casting the tubes and then welding the flanges on. Much cheaper tooling but slightly higher unit cost.

 

They turned the two cams over, retorqued all the head stud nuts, checked the valve clearances, hooked up the clutch cable and shifter, and... for the first time in 23 years it’s driving!!

 

Brock, I just sent off the drawings so should have a price in the next week or so. Usually a bit of haggling too. I've put sockets into the bottom plate so they can be brazed in to reduce bottom plate warpage. The central coolant hole will be a 1" threaded nipple so you can use an SS barbed nipple and hoses with 45 degree bends. I haven't thought about the throttle linkage setup-- open to suggestions??
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

It’s the IDF/IDA top flange with a 40mm ID hole. The manifold is short enough to fit IDFs under the deck.

 

I finally got to drive my baby and it looks, sounds, and drives beautifully— I was pleasantly surprised! Hard to get into despite me being average height and weight, and my feet felt too big for the tight pedal cluster. The fast road cams from CAT cams were surprisingly docile and fine for city driving. Kevlar clutch feels the same as most clutches, no sudden grip, very smooth.

I got my new vintage plates but they are slightly too long for the plate area in the back. I just noticed the Mopar body shop gents put the 308 on upside down— maybe a joke or too much moonshine that day
Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Yes Grigio Ferro. Suspension is standard with new bushes but I sent the refurbished a-arms to the garage to fit and suspect they didn’t torque the bolts with the car on its wheels ( as I instructed.)

 

Joe I don’t think there’s anything controversial about the o-rings, perhaps you mean iron vs aluminium liners? If you have already had yours plated you must have already decided? It makes sense to have them in the same material so everything expands at the same rate. The Nikasil coating seems to work fine with low-sulphur fuels (BMW and Jaguar had problems due to sulphur in fuel eating into the coating.)

 

I just sealed the top hats to stop coolant migration into the head gasket-- nothing on the sides or bottom. You are probably fine following the book but I saw clear signs of coolant getting up into the gasket and can't think of any disadvantage to sealing the tops. I also put a thin coat of high temp RTV on the head gaskets around the water passages, torqued the heads a tiny bit and then fully torqued after 24hrs. Head bolts were re-torqued and shims checked after a few hours of running (two shims were slightly off.) Only limited driving miles so far and no signs of any issues. I just insured it for the road so I can drive it more this summer. I'll give some updates here.