New thread, same car... Other than a few cleaning details I'm pretty much done with disassembly and am just waiting on parts to arrive. After that, everything goes back together, put in new fluids and that's pretty much it. I pulled the water pump last. This is a relatively expensive replacement part for what it really is - a plastic impeller, bearing, pulley and cover:
I did find the source of what had been a slow but annoying coolant leak - a ruptured hose attached to the side union - totally couldn't see it until the pump was off. The hose looked fine except at where it joined the pump it was a time bomb. Another example of why they say the engine should be removed to do the 30K:
What kind of coolant are you guys using? I'm planning to flush out the rest of the green stuff and stick with MB coolant and Water Wetter. On my other cars it seems much kinder to aluminum.
Very nice Shan. Just to add to what Shan said about the water pump, be sure and change your thermostats. If you look at the picture Shan posted you can see the little support bracket that runs over the top of the thermostat. It is held in place by two little clips on the bottom. Well those clips broke on mine. I found the bracket in the right side radiator, and the thermostat was sitting cockeyed in the housing. Not good for the cooling system at all. It's a good thing that the water flow is away from the pump and engine. None the less if your thermostat is busted your car will not cool properly. So be sure to have it changed.
Simply strip & polish wire, re-bend spike connectors (inside the connector tube) firmly re-insert and crimp, and VOILA - "new wire" as verified on the multimeter.
Well shut my mouth. I tried that and couldn't get the crimp opened up. What did you use to pry it open?
Ernie - I used a fine-pointed pick set and a sense of touch to get the jaws of the crimp open again. As they say... sometimes even a blind squirrel finds a nut!
LOL. I tried to fix mine, but ened up ruining the teeny tiny bit of brass that gets crimped. So I had to buy a wire.
ShanB, If I'm not mistaken you can buy the bearings for the H2O pump at most parts houses or bearing shops, if that's what you want to do, and have them pressed out and new ones pressed in..
Nw waterpump, tensioners and belt fitted. Verified belt tension. Forgot to mention - the sprockets on the right bank were switched around - and had been installed that way during the previous service. The intake and exhaust cam sprockets are not the same and have internal or external lips used to help guide the belt. The switched sprockets allowed the belt to slide around slightly while running - which probably accounts for the linear black mark and copious black rubbery dust on the right side when I first opened the front cover. Supposedly a factory-trained mechanic did the previous service. Go figure.
The valve adjustment's done, and now trying in new gaskets. I plan to seal the ends with Dow-Corning 730 (solvent resistant), especially near the front rubber 0-rings and the back of the cover:
Shan, I sent you an email. Nice job with the engine. Hurry up and get it back together so we can take it for a drive. I looked for you at the SA gig this past weekend but didn't see you there.
Shan, Awesome job! Can you explain a little more how you adjust a valve on the 348? How do the shims fit in? Thanks, Vincent.
Vincent - To adjust the valves I used a feeler gauge set to map the clearances on a diagram. I then removed the camshafts and set them aside, giving easy access to the shims - they sit atop retaining buckets and are easy to pull straight out with the cams off. I removed the shims on the (ten) out-of-spec valves and measured them - using those measurements to calculate what size shims were needed to get the clearances within spec. I replaced the "off" shims with ones of correct thickness (some swapped, some new) then re-installed the cams using new seals and o-rings. I then lined up all the cam timing marks with cylinder #1 at TDC and installed the new belt. Then I installed the drive dowels on the cam sprockets after some slight adjusting, re-checked the belt tension and cam timing by running the valve train (clockwise) and re-measured the valve clearances. One intake valve still managed to get out of spec (the new shim thickness was larger than printed) and required the use of a tool to depress the bucket to swap out that shim. That's basically it. Shan
Looking at the image in post #16 you can see the cambelt. The other two belts that fit on the bottom left and bottom right, what are they? And which is which? Thanks
Adnaan the right hand belt will drive the alternator,the left drives the air-con compressor, cheers Dale.
CHeers Dale I looked into the engine bay on sunday and to my horror found a snapped belt! I believe its the ac belt that has snapped. The car is booked to go in for a belt change on wednesday anyway, but its still a bit worrying. I knew the belts needed doing when I bought the car so booked it in. I'm not driving the car now, just to be on the safe side.