Since I had the secondary air injection rails off, I liked the cleaner look. So I decided to put plugs in the holes. I looked high and low for bolts that would fit, and that were the proper length, with no joy. They are 16M/1.5 thread pitch holes, that are about 1"/25mm deep. The last bolt supply place I went to suggested I go to the local tractor shop. And guess what?! THEY HAD THEM! The plug for the oil filter housing off a John Deere 5520 fit PERFECT, with a very clean look! YEEEEHAAAA!!! "We all got a Hillbilly bone down deep inside." Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
For the spark plugs I used Autolite 4163 plugs. Been running these in my car for a few years now. Relatively cheap, and perform just fine. Image Unavailable, Please Login
The workshop manual specifies a 0.6mm - 0.7mm gap between the electrode and the electrode ground. I chose to gap them at 0.6mm. The reason is because these re standard spark plugs, and the center electrodes will start to wear over time. So as they wear I will still be within the specs. Image Unavailable, Please Login
I have a spark plug gap tool that I used to quickly set the gaps. I inverted the gapping tool between the electrode and electrode ground, then slide the spark plug alone the gapping tool until it stopped moving. One side of my gapping tool was metric, and the other standard. I adjusted the gap until the center electrode stopped right in the middle of the .06mm line. Then double checked the gapping with my feeler gage. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
If I needed to tighten the gap I simply gave the ground electrode a good TAP on the work bench. Or if it needed a bit more space I opened it up with the hole in my gap tool. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Here is an old school trick called, indexing the spark plugs. The main purpose of this is to get the spark distributed towards the exhaust valve/thrust side of the cylinder, to help create a better burn rate. The open side of the spark plug gets faced towards the exhaust valves and the ground strap towards the intake valves. If you want to learn more about it you can read this SAE paper on the subject. Cyclic Variations of Initial Flame Kernel Growth in a Honda VTEC-E Lean-Burn Spark-Ignition Engine To see where the gap was I marked the spark plug with a Sharpe marker so I could see where the open end was. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Before I put the plug in the head I applied some anti-seize to the thread. Trust me on this you do NOT want a spark plug getting frozen to the head and snapping off. Been there done that, don't wanna to ever have that happen again. It is a right pain in the ass, and I had to pull a head, send it to a machine shop to get it burned out. So……. Put anti-seize on your spark plug threads before you install them. ESPECIALLY since they are going into an aluminum head. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
When you tighten them down don't go nuts. There is a crush washer on the spark plug. You want to tighten them down enough to crush the washer, and have them in nice and snug. So do NOT go putting them in like you are King Kong. Image Unavailable, Please Login
I insert the spark plug and screw it in finger tight. THEN .. I put the ratchet on the extension and snug it down. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
After I snugged down the spark plug I had a look inside the hole to see where the plug was indexed. This particular plug is aimed at one of the exhaust valves (the Sharpe mark is at the 7 O'clock position). Ideally I want it to be right in the middle of the exhaust valves. To adjust the spark plugs you would use different thickness washers to aim the plugs where you want. You don't really need to do this, this is just something I decided to do on my 348. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Excellent progress Ernie! Might be a good time to swap your hoses over to stainless ones. I did mine not so long ago and on the fronts took the opportunity to replace the hard pipes by making my own with solid brass end fittings. Cheap to do and looks much better 348 DIY "Restoration" - Page 132
And now for the rear main seal. I already had it removed because I needed it off in order to replace the sump pan on the bottom of the engine. So these pics here are just a mockup. The six 10mm nuts need to be removed from the seal housing. There are also 2 small bolts that are on the bottom that need to get remove from up under the block, and on the back side. After the nuts and bolts were off I removed the rear main seal, and seal housing. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Here is a close up of the back of the crank. The splined hole is where the propeller shaft, running through the gearbox and into the flywheel, fits. The other drilled and tapped holes are not used. Image Unavailable, Please Login
I set the housing face down, and carefully used my pick to remove the formed rubber gasket. Image Unavailable, Please Login
I had a look at the condition of the seal and found it had a tear in one of the lips. This is the updated seal. I had replaced the old style double seals 7 years ago with the one pictured here. Well guess the "updated" seal doesn't hold up so well. The lip that is torn is the one that faces the gearbox. The other two face the engine. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
To remove them I used my "original Ferrari rear main seal tools" right from the factory. They came with the car. Hehehehe What are they you ask? Why it's my old rear axle connecting flange, and my old factory throw out bearing with the ass blown out of it. The outer rim of the axle flange is the perfect size to fit around the opening on the outside of the seal housing. The throwout bearing fits perfect inside the housing hole for the rear main seal from the back of the cover. So what I did was, centered the housing so that the hole was aligned with the flange. Then inserted the clutch side of the throwout bearing into the cover hole. This allowed me to "press" out the seal with you damaging the cover. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Actually I smacked it out. I put a 2x4 over the back of the TOB, and gave it a good whack. The rear main seal popped half way out because it bottoms out inside the axle flange. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Then I turned it over, setting the back of the TOB on the 2x4 layed on the ground, and popped it the rest of the way out. Stoogengineering at it's finesses. So save your old busted parts boys. You never know when they will come in handy. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
With the bearing out of the housing/cover I cleaned up the old sealant I used, and made sure that the weep hole was clear. Image Unavailable, Please Login
With the old sealant cleaned out I reapplied Hondabond to the bottom lip of the housing. There is nothing to seal the outer race of the seal against the inner hole of the housing. It just metal to metal, and that is NOT good for preventing oil from getting past. So that's why I applied Hondabond to it. I then smeared it around the bottom corner as evenly as I could. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
The updated seal gets installed facing a certain direction. The side pictured here, with the double seals, gets installed facing the engine. It is also the cupped side. The single seal goes on facing the gear box, it has the smooth face. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
