here's what the inside looks like with the intake manifold and carb off and the new pushrods installed (with the lifter fixed) 

Back to Life

so the last time i posted here was a while ago and i showed you my retarded pushrods.

in the process of replacing the pushrods i found that one of them wouldn't seat correctly. more accurately, it would kind of want to disappear into the hole in the engine....SOOOOO that meant i had to open up the top of the engine. here's the list of shit off the top of my head i had to take off: valve covers, PCV valve, and accessories belt bracket were already off, had to continue with the alternator bracket, fuel line, temp. sending wire, vacuum hose, radiator hose (included draining radiator), throttle linkage...i think that's all.

popped all that off (notating each), took off the distributor cap with all the plug wires, yanked out the rotor, and unbolted the intake manifold...FINALLY. not that this is really hard work...but kind of tedious and i was really afraid i'd forget something vital...like the fuel hose or something...and explode my garage :) no such luck.

sooooo, finally got it all off and peered inside. turns out one of my lifters had dismantled itself in the process of fuckin' everything else up in my engine. minor...it wasn't broken. a lifter is a spring-loaded metal cylinder that is pushed up and down by the spinning lobes of the camshaft underneath it to push the pushrods which seesaw the rocker arms and open and close the exhaust or intake valves at the right time (to let gas out or into the combustion chamber). whatever jostled it...the c-clip that holds the spring loaded mechanism inside the lifter had popped out flying a few pieces out of it into that space in the engine. the spring mechanism is there to push oil up the pushrods (which are hollow) to on every push to oil the valvetrain. i took apart a working lifter to see how it went together, put 'em both back together and installed everything (pic in next post of everything in place).

then came the arduous task of cleaning everything. that intake manifold had been there for a LONG time...and the gaskets were all hard and crumbly so there were pieces of it everywhere. leaned it off with a scraper, engine degreaser, and a few cut fingers...shoulda' just used a wire wheel or something on a drill, but i was trying to be gentle...the intake manifold is actually aluminum (soft). got everything cleaned up, placed the new gaskets and sealant, and plopped the intake back on, torqued everything up and put everything back on (reverseing the order of my notes) as carefully as possibly...triple checking everything at the end. almost forgot to refill my radiator...haha.

fiiiiiinally started her back up and she took a while....but caught...REALLY rough. still ahead was adjusting the valves...which has to be done with the engine running and the valve covers off....holy shit. i sprayed oil all over my fuckin' garage and sprayed it all over my engine...probably had a quart of oil on the floor by the time i was done...ugh. on BOTH sides i had tightened one too tight initially, so the oil literally SPRAYED about 4 ft. out of my car...what a mess. finally got them all adjusted correctly, cleaned up what i could (i was in a rush to be somewhere), and got the valve covers back on. *whew*

she was still running really rough, though. in the weeks after i was still only home on the weekends (kona during the week) and i'd tune her better and better every time...starting with timing which was way off 'cause i had to pull the rotor and fucked up reinstalling it...then the idle...and it was still rough as hell and i thought she was just getting old. FINALLY, what i did last week was tune the idle mixture correctly using a vacuum gauge...and it turns out i was flooding the carb (too much gas)...after that adjustment she purred like a kitten (with an idle speed reset as well). she's tuned very...economically right now. i'm gonna try and richen the mixture and advance the timing a little more at some point to make 'er roar a bit more ;) but yeah...i'm pretty sure she's got QUITE a lot more juice in 'er. i'm psyched. and proud :)

'till the next thing i break *rolls eyes*, adios.