Category: Gerabox and Engine Rebuild

Went to collect my inlet manifold from the machine shop today only to find I have a very expensive piece of scrap metal. Once it had been skimmed a crack between the water and air channel was noticed (see photo below). I can’t blame the guy for not seeing it before he started machining as I never noticed the crack either. Although this is not good news I’m happy I’ve found the problem now and not after I had been running my newly rebuilt engine. This also explains why cylinder no. 5 had all the rust damage and needed a liner fitting. I had originally assumed that water had got in from the car standing around for so long.

After several calls I found a company called Newark Engines that had an early v6 inlet manifold with the oval ports that they were willing to sell to me for £37 including postage. When this turned up it was in near perfect condition, and they had even taken the trouble to clean it up in a blasting cabinet so it was ready to fit.

Finally I’ve had the time to rebuilding the engine. This has been a relatively simple task and I did not encounter any major problems during the rebuild. The picture below shows the engine ready to be painted. You can see more pictures of the rebuild in the Gallery section of the web site.

I’ve done very little else to the car due to the engine still being at the machine shop and I’ve also been busy with my new house. The engine will be back from the machine shop in about 3 weeks time so it will be ready to reassemble when I return to the UK next time. In the meantime all I have done is spray the new radiator brackets in primer to stop them rusting.

I took the block to the machine shop to be measured today. The outcome was that number 5 bore is too badly corroded to even be able to fit 60 thou oversized pistons. However it’s not all bad news, the other 5 bores are in good condition. My 20 thou pistons can be re-used with a new set of rings and the machine shop has said it is possible to fit a liner in number 5 bore. I’ve decided this will be the best option as even if I source a second hand engine there is no guarantee what condition it will be in so I could still be faced with a scrap block or the cost of a rebuild this anyway.

Today was spent cleaning and disassembling the cylinder block. On removing the pistons it was discovered number 5 bore was in very bad condition due to water damage. Although the block may be scrap I decided to finish cleaning the block so I can take it to the machine shop to have the bores measured.