V-12 Engine into 308 Build, over on Grassroots

I'll bet every mechanic has their own solution to leaks.....what works on different engines can be different. We were talking about permatex aviation sealant which is a very old school product but works quite well, but many mechanics like to start with just replacing the gaskets and that should fit it without resorting to glue of any kind making future service easier....others will say they they never expect to see it again so they go straight to sealants. I usually work on junk, so I'm in the sealant camp

 

Re sealants:

I have not used the aviation stuff until recently. My ‘go to’ fix for stubborn sealing head gaskets on heads or blocks that like to flex entirely too much is Loctite 518, just a small amount around the coolant and oil passages. I have never had an issue using this. I learned, recently, that Aviation sealant has an even higher (much higher) tensile strength and remains in a sort of sticky gummy state, which is perfect for this sort of thing as well. Seems like a no brained to try. I recently applied it on a 3L Citroen SM engine head gasket which are sort of notorious for blowing head gaskets. Will will see how it holds up.

 

There are a lot of sealants because there are so many designed in applications. On your Kawasaki is it leaking at the rubber plugs at the end? I used to have hot rod Kawasaki 4's and that was the only problem area. I'd use Hondabond or Yamabond there (Same stuff) or one of Permatex.s Ultra series of silicone. .

 

Thank you so much Sir.

 

Hello Sir, the valve cover is leaking from right above and below the bolts that are securing it, the cam end seals seem to be ok , the leaks are coming from the sides of where the came seals are, but not from the seals, but at the edges and dripping down, where the cover sits on top of the cylinder Its a real pain in the neck to say the least. Well I will suggest this aviation stuff and see what he thinks.

Thank you

 

Last week/weekend I sat on the sofa with Lana watching in disbelieve at what wis happening in her country.

This weekend trying to leave the TV off so out in the shop to have a look at motor mount. First up rebore them from 3.125 to 3.625 so the TR mount fit in.

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Once that was done I did a quick check on the engine

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Looks good.....wait a minute....its upside down, DOH!

after pondering a bit I decided I can swap the brackets front to back and flip them upside down and get a reasonably good outcome. but the puts the mount on the top so I figured I should have all 4 bolts, which meant cutting ans welding a bit to move a support

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But now it looks pretty good, I just need to make a spacer to go under as it should be touching the blocks siting under it.

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forgot this pic, it shows way I swaptted the mounts. The swap lowered the mounts about an inch, so the spacer needed in the back will be about an inche and about 2" in front vs 2& 3" if i left them as was....at 2&3 it just seemed the engine would be sitting on stilts and that made me a little nervous about how stable it would be.
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I let the TV suck me in this morning but after lunch I finished up the motor mount brackets and got them painted. Some of might want to avert your eyes at the graphic images of welding on tabs...as in making tabs from weld because I'm too lazy to actually make them so I #D printed then with the TIG

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Next up is replace the shifter shaft seals so I'll post this....when I filled the trans I used redline 75w90. Looking now I'm thinking maybe the 75w90ns would have been the better choice so I ordered a gallon of it.
Thoughts?

 

For stock 3x8s, it seems to be subjective as to how much ns works best. The most popular lately is using Redline MTL.

 

MLT 75w80?

Here is an interesting line on the spec sheet

• Safe for brass synchros, as it lacks the reactive sulfurs found in most GL-5 oils that cause damage

The redline site suggested the 75w90ns and then said add a differantial tuning addative if needed...I'm guessing its the same for the MTL as it doesn't say anyhitng about LSD used?

 

Quick update as the weather here is clearly turning to spring and I'm clearly not ready.

I got myself all confused with my motor mounts with a dimension I don't know how I measured. I remeasured everything and have decided I want to shorten what I made by 1/8" and call them done, I'll get that fixed later today hopefully. The bolts I'd ordered are a bit short but the longer size was the longest mcmaster has in fine thread so I had to reorder everything in course thread which I don't like and cost me another $60 which I like even less but they will be here tomorrow.

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A buddy was busting my chops about them being not up to my normal standards so now they are 1/8" shorter and shiny

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Some alloys look great right out of the machine. Others look like the tool is shredding the surface rather than cleanly cutting.

 

Yeah, this was just a chunk of aluminum pipe I found laying in the stock pile and the OD was fine so origianally I didn't touch it and just turned the ends but this time I hit iw with 240grit and then some scotchbite so its shiny for a month or 2.

 

Seals changed and headers painted

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In sort of in but I lost momentum...tomorrow's a new day.

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Hope this is the last time I see that image Mark. Really hoping that "I got you babe" on my clock radio doesn't wake me up tomorrow

 

Funny you shoiuld say that. I remember thinking as I was wrapping the headers that I should test fit them because there's not a lot of clearance.....so yeah Sunday I pulled the engine back out after not being able to install the collector pipe

Sitting on the floor I was able to install the pipe...wft?

Engine back in the car and this double wtf

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So I decided to do what I do and force it into place

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Its my belief that once the headers heat up they will stress relax and this problem will go away.....at least that is what I'm telling my self and either way the pipe is on.

The motor mounts look good to me

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and there is a solid 1/4 to maybe 3/8 clearance flywheel cover to frame so I'll call that project a win.

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Can absolutely confirm tight fitting headers are no longer tight fitting after the are heat cycled a few times.

 

Everything took longer than I hoped but it runs again



A lot of smoke off the freshly wrapped and painted headers but other than that no white smoke. I pulled plugs 1-3 and they all look the same...pig rich for whatever reason, I'll look though the log tonight and tomorrow have a look at the rest of the plugs. The floor is still dry for the moment so fingers crossed both the leaking head gaskets and oil leak are fixed.

 

Looking at the log I see an engine temp of -20C....which probably means I forgot to plug in the coolant temp sensor so the ECU was adding 60% more fuel. I don't see anything else wrong so far. Tomorrow its going to be pretty cold out son next run maybe not until Tuesday and I will continue through the log and make sure anything that looks wrong is sorted.

 

Sounds good!

 

No engine fire!!!!

 

Here's the main tuning log...it looks like rpm was a low of 1400, high 5200, oil pressure 75-115, fuel rich as expected,
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The cylinder data looks good...the 2 NBO2 sensors all about the same, nothing much on the misfire defector at the top, cylinder MAP compensation appears to be doing its thing correctly
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TB sync is terrible....a bit off bank to bank which isn't a surprise after having everything apart but the banks themselves look decent.
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Overall It looks pretty good in the ECU....hopefully the plugs are telling a similar story.
And the floor's still dry :!:

 

Right..... and I got in a bit of trouble for not pushing it outside or even turning it around. I was pretty tired by 6pm and figured it wasn't a repair of a known setup not a true "1st run"....but yeah, it should have been outside