W/E 19th April 2020

Atlas #1 engine is almost back together!

I’ve installed the cams and cam bearings from Atlas #3. The set in Atlas #1 are damaged through wear and my incompetent assembly back in the day 😦 I’ve got a new set of cam bearings on their way from OCT but I’ll decide how to deploy them once I’ve had a look through all 4 engines.

I had to grind one inlet shim (inboard alternator side) and now have a row of 8’s and 10’s 🙂 The cams seem to be moving okay.

The squeeky bum moment was torquing down the cylinder head. I’d been advised to use 28 Nm so pulled it down firstly to 15 then 20, then 24 and finally to 28. The small M6 was tightened to 8 pounds. The nuts on the outer side of the cams are silver whereas the inner nuts black. The silver nuts torqued down okay but the black ones seemed ‘softer’ somehow. Anyway they’re all done now 🙂

Setting the valve timing proved to be a bit easier than I’d anticipated because back in the mists of time I’d scratched the primary cover to show TDC. The Mk 3 engines don’t have a timing mark like the earlier engines – you have to use the ignition backplate for reference. Got to TDC and with a bit of help from Mrs A holding the inlet cam in place the chain was joined and job done!

The cam-chain tensioner was wound into the engine using the cam-chain and then the tensioner blade was pushed to meet the retaining bolt.

The dreaded seized steel allen bolts in alloy cases has reared its head once again with four bolts currently stuck fast in the primary case. I don’t currently need access so this doesn’t have to slow things up but I’ve started to apply WD40 in the hope I can free them up.

So next stop is a carb’ clean, paint the engine cases and then the engine can go back in the frame.

Nick 🙂