Motor mods and the Easter Pressie

Hello one and all.

I thought it was time for an up date on my project.

I took mine car off and I had no idea how to go about going about this, but that's never stopped me! That's the best thing about this, just having a go and learning heaps along the way.

The parts left Rimmers in the UK on Tuesday afternoon and arrived in Auckland early on Thursday. Now I'm waiting for the NZ deliver people to do their thing - could be another week!

Motor is all stripped and cleaned down waiting for parts. I've modded the oil pump as per the K-engine page. Here's a pic of the pump's mod'd back plate. You can see where I've 'flowed' the oil pathways.

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I can't remember - can any one tell me - have I got the pump's gears around the right way?

Now I'm busy working on the head. - port matched the exhaust ports and cleaned out the runners to the valves, just a little. Removed the step that is beneath the valve seats by nibbling at the lower edge of each seat. I'll carry on and polish up the exhaust side as best I can. Here's a pic of the exhaust ports, one gasket matched and the other original.

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A view through the inlet port and out the valve throat. Compare that to the next pic where it' not been done yet.

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Inlet - not doing much to that side again just cleared up the runners - removing casting lines and smoothing the step below the valve seats. When I'm done I'll give the area a rough sand to leave it near original. Interesting the ports don't match - the plastic inlet set-up is slightly smaller than the head's runners - I feel that each pulse in is a bit like a shot at the respective cylinder. I'll try to find out more about that difference and see if it should be matched too. I also removed all the plastic 'flash' left from the moulding process in the plastic inlet section.

I've also 'unshrouded' the valves in the combustion chamber by shaving about a millimetre of the sides of each cylinder as well as removing the lip that's formed by each seat's slight recession into the head. And then I've also opened up the water gallery entrances to make them even - exhaust side is larger than the inlet side but all inlet side are the same and ditto for the exhaust side. Finish off with a serious clean out of the swarf - sanding debris and than a skim to true it up and raise comp ratio back to near what it was - it will be lower due to the enshrouding ...

This pic shows the valve seat recessed into the head. You can also see the water gallery openings too.

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Oil thermostat #2 is due in from the US any day now- #2 as I ordered the wrong kit and the thread didn't match the oil filter - bugger! Hope to sell that one on TradeMe. Saw a very nice modern oil cooler on there too - I've been in contact with its seller and he has several more about $35 for a cooler - Setrab - a VG swedish brand & well respected in motor sport circles.

Exhaust manifold - Nodge68 PM'd me some good info about these and I've contacted a fabricator in the Nth Is - waiting to hear back. I'll tinker with the set on it, just a clean up of any welding splatter... The weld where the manifold meets the port plate forms a venturi - sadly two of mine are not properly formed - just a little mig welding needed to correct this and some careful grinding will sort that out.

This cutting and grinding work has been done with my trusty Dremel - it's slow being so small and you can't remove a lot by accident which is very good. I've also had the advice from a race engine rebuilder here in Cromwell - he works at the new Highlands Park race circuit. Check it out on Google / YouTube

I've so many questions to ask people. I try to search LZ but often get side tracked! So often the searches don't find what I'm wanting to Know.

My really big worry is that I'll get it all together and overcome any motor gremlins [ electrical nightmares we read about on LZ] only to find that the bloody VCU/IRD are stuffed!! You will hear my anguished screams from there!!!

A question then - spark plugs - which ones / type 'normal' or iridium? Brand - NGK, Bosch, Champion, AC Delco [didn't know they still existed!]...

More to follow -

HTR

Looking good. Don't waste your time trying to polish the ports to a mirror finish, it's worth zero HP. A clean ground finish is good for power and time
With large exhaust ports like your new ones, your factory manifold is going to give you a large step the wrong way. Your best bet will be give the manifold a tapered lead in. This will give a reasonable result until you can get a nice long primary manifold made up.
It's amazing how different the non VVC head is by comparison to the VVC head.
The VVC combustion chamber is full of valve!!

Nice post, keep up the good work.Ihope it gives good results.

Nodge68 said:

Looking good. Don't waste your time trying to polish the ports to a mirror finish, it's worth zero HP. A clean ground finish is good for power and time
With large exhaust ports like your new ones, your factory manifold is going to give you a large step the wrong way. Your best bet will be give the manifold a tapered lead in. This will give a reasonable result until you can get a nice long primary manifold made up.
It's amazing how different the non VVC head is by comparison to the VVC head.
The VVC combustion chamber is full of valve!!

Click to expand...

"Your best bet will be give the manifold a tapered lead in." Can you expand on that a bit more as I'm unsure what you mean. I still have a good unmodified head as a back-up.

Tapered- do you mean remove that venturi-like lip, smooth it off in other words?

htr said:

"Your best bet will be give the manifold a tapered lead in." Can you expand on that a bit more as I'm unsure what you mean. I still have a good unmodified head as a back-up.

Tapered- do you mean remove that venturi-like lip, smooth it off in other words?

Click to expand...

What you don't want is a lip into the exhaust. This will give a flow reversion right where you don't want one. The exhaust manifold gasket face needs to be at least the same size as the exhaust port. As the standard manifold is nowhere near the size of your port, you will need to match your manifold at the gasket face by grinding a tapered section into the manifold flange. The venturi-like lip is simply a product of the weld used in manufacturing. You can remove what you can to open the manifold. Be cautious though as the tubing is very thin.

Right, I get that! So weld the manifold pipes up around the outside - they're not welded at manufacture and remove that internal weld lip. You know that was my original plan!

Thank you!

The factory manifold is poor at best. It's made as cheaply as possible. It's not been designed for maximum torque, unless you can get the engine to spin a 12,000+ Rpm!!
Are you mandated to have a catalytic converter in NZ? If not then will see better results from the final manifold with the cat removed.

Yes Cat converters are required, even though we have no emission testing regime!

Question: My pics are to big, how do you make them smaller?

htr said:

Yes Cat converters are required, even though we have no emission testing regime!

Question: My pics are to big, how do you make them smaller?

Click to expand...

So if the cat function isn't tested, you could knock out the matrix.

I'm hopeless with posing pictures but you might have to take the pictures at a lower resolution. I can't post my pictures full size, only thumbnails

Gutting the cat will obviously make the exhaust gases move more freely. If I do that won't it bring up the MiL light? Is that where I'd fit a MiL adapter arrangement - a simple array of resistors?

htr said:

Gutting the cat will obviously make the exhaust gases move more freely. If I do that won't it bring up the MiL light? Is that where I'd fit a MiL adapter arrangement - a simple array of resistors?

Click to expand...

If your Freelander is a pre-2001 model then it won't put the MIL on. There is only 1 O2 sensor. This is in the manifold. There shouldn't be a sensor after the cat on the early models.
If there was an additional O2 sensor you can make up a circuit to stop the Mil

Correct oil thermostat adaptor plate arrived from the US today. Expecting a big box of goodies from Rimmer's tomorrow - maybe?