Part 2 The Work Begins

As I had no real undercover space to work on the car, I needed to try & get the car mobile so that I could shift it around my yard or under cover.

29/9/10     I started on the engine, degreased & cleaned the engine bay, removed radiator hoses & flushed radiator & engine, removed & attempted to charge battery, drained oil, removed oil filter (which had the date 7/86 written on it), removed spark plugs & ignition leads, removed fuel pump. The fuel pump was one of the original glass bowl types & was just full of a white powder. I attempted to turn the motor by hand & it only revolves about half a turn.Removed starter motor, & tappet cover. Still no difference. Checked & tightened front suspension bolts. 

30/9/10     I tried again to free the engine – no result. Inspected both front wheels & brakes – sprayed RP7 everywhere. RH wheel seems very tight, LHF brake hose is not connected & corroded & will possibly need replacement. Lowered dashboard to allow access to wiring & removed crash pad. Also unscrewed ash tray & heater controls to allow access to heater/fan area. Sprayed RP7 around dash area.

1/10/10     Again I tried to free the engine & after releasing fan belt & trying a few other things, there was no difference. Next the rocker cover was removed & I noticed that 2 valve springs were compressed permanently so maybe several valves are stuck. Nothing to do but remove the cylinder head! Removed the carbie & intake manifold & in the process the centre bolt snapped. (The one under the water intake hole). Great!! It always happens even when you take it carefully. Hopefully, I can get the remainder out OK & no other bolts snap, which is a thing I dread when dismantling these old engines. Thankfully the exhaust manifold came off pretty easily so then it was time for the cylinder head. That also came off without any dramas & it is obvious that it has not been removed for a very long time judging by the gasket & associated corrosion & gunk. I tried to turn over the engine & guess what? It turned over a complete cycle really easily so the valves must have been hitting the top of the pistons. That was a major relief as I was not looking forward to a total engine rebuild. I spent the rest of the morning cleaning & scraping the old gasket material off the face of the block. AY(the owner) came over this afternoon to see what progress had eventuated.