My new project, finally got my integrale.

[KevJTD]

The head is now just about complete.

I have resisted painting the engine for once for a couple of reasons.
It will be a car that gets used so making the engine bay pristine would put me off using it as much as I want to, still will be tidy but nothing like a show and shine job.
Also I do like the factory applied stencilling like on the side of the head...

Yesterday the block got loaded into the Brera boot and taken up to the unit. Bolting it all together in the shed then trying to manhandle it down the lawn and try to load that into the car wasn't something I fancied doing!


This Wednesday I hope to be able to get the engine stand setup and with a following wind probably reunite the head with the block.


The car then needs to be raised up on stands ready for the assembly to go back in, once I've attached the gearbox and transfer box to it all, and probably made a dolly to allow it to slide under as it all goes in from underneath.
Before that though I'll fit the new brake master cylinder (another £95 gone...) and run all the new brake pipes while I've still got access.

[alfadave]

Thank God you're back!

I thought you'd gone on the ale and done a runner.

Fully agree on not painting the block.....its a piece of quality engineering, not a show toy.

[KevJTD]

lol, no mate, still alive and kicking!

[Kegsti66]

Superb work there Kev. love it

[KevJTD]

Cheers guys, good to get back on with things after the break.

Cam covers I will again leave as is, patina it's called isn't it?
I quite like the wear around the Lancia badge, the less I make it too pristine the more likely it is to get some miles on it and be used as it needs to be

All cleaned up and ready for fitting, manifold has been stripped and cleaned inside and out. Fitted the injectors back in tonight with the fuel rail. Almost had a disaster with that though, hadn't noticed the ends of the injectors and seals had stayed in the manifold so although they'd been in the paraffin cleaning tank then transported to work and pressure washed I only noticed when I found a funny looking top hat spacer in the box they were transported in...found all the bits apart from one top hat. A frantic search then found it amongst some dead leaves under the pallet where I'd pressure washed them! Only a small piece less then 10mm across, can't still believe I found it!

[Sud 145]

Jammy git, that wouldn't be my luck I'd find it 6 months down the line.

[KevJTD]

Still can't believe I did actually find it mate, but glad I did

[alfadave]

Tell her indoors, the financial outlay is actually a good investment.
a quick look at Integrale selling prices confirms that.

[Johnboy]

Looks like the car gods where looking after you. Jammy or what

[KevJTD]

Well, so much for the Gods smiling on me...

Seems like two steps forward one step back..

Got the head bolted back on last Saturday, still had one valve that needed a 2 thou slimmer shim despite my measuring and adjusting but with the tool to get the shims out in situ without stripping that didn't really matter.


Then picked out the new water pump to see what else went where cover wise and realised I'd be sat with the wrong one for a month or more.... serves me right for not even noticing that the old pump pulley had 4 mounting bolts and the new one 3, was never gonna be the right one!

Went to fit the new rear crank seal in the alloy housing that bolts to the back of the block and promptly broke the housing, had actually been welded before very well but it cracked across the bottom with me tapping the seal in.

Rang Guy Croft at Lincoln to see if he had a used one he'd be willing to sell me, luckily he had. "Been hammering the new seal in have you?" he says. Seems I'm not the first to make the numpty mistake, guess that's what happened to my housing hence why it's been welded. Only safe way to fit them Guy says is to heat the housing up in boiling water for a while then fit the seal once the housing has swelled a little.
Took him up on his offer of fitting a new seal for me before sending it out

So really last Saturday afternoon was a washout.

[KevJTD]

Whilst on the 'phone to Guy I asked him if he uses sealant on the troublesome alloy upper sump to block join, exceptionally prone to leaking apparently.

His solution is one of those simple solutions you kick yourself for not thinking of it already.

The sump is held up by 18 small M6 threaded bolts, which with a bit of differing expansion rates and shaking they come loose and let the gasket leak, apparently. Obvious solution is to get rid of the bolts, threadlock some studs into the block then use nyloc nuts to hold the sump up in place.

Now the hard part, try finding some M6 double thread studs! Everybody will sell you M8 ones like on exhaust manifolds but I tried everyone I could think of locally but nothing. Ade kindly found me 4 from some TB's but I needed 18. Had to bite the bullet and order a batch from Wurth direct on Monday which would have been with me next day, but of course there was none in the country so I've had to wait for them to come from Germany! FFS, it's only M6 studs??

[KevJTD]

This afternoon I at last got all the tappets set correctly, all now bang on the money or 1 thou out. As the shims only come in 2 thou thicknesses then I can't get much better without machining a sim down!


With the replacement rear crank seal housing arrived from Guy then that could go on along with the front housing which is the oil pump.

To make sure the edges matched up with the block faces the sump was used to make sure there was no step as there was a mm or so of rotation around the crank so would be possible to leave a step up or down where the housings met the block.

With the housings on the oil pick-up pipe went back on so now just waiting for the suds so the bottom end can be sealed up.

[KevJTD]

Finally then I could get the water pump on, balance shaft seals and then the timing and balance shaft belts.

Last job to finish off the night and checking where the covers bolt up. Went to fit the engine stabiliser bracket which bolts to the head and water pump......stud pulled out of the head!

It sits in between the cam pulleys so needs to be in right, can't have it being in a weak thread which could pull out and drop into the belts!

So I'll either have to up it from M10 thread or just drill and helicoil it.


Hope this car ends up being worth all the arse kicking it's giving me!

[junior]

Sure its worth while, its all practice and the next Integrale you do will be so easy !

[Kegsti66]

Hope this car ends up being worth all the arse kicking it's giving me!

You know it will be Kev. It will be fantastic, it already looks fantastic and it isn't finished
Those belts look a headache to sort out.
Love it.

[KevJTD]

Yes, sure I'll forgive it once it's done

Studs for the sump conversion arrived from Germany today, great service from Wurth as I only called the rep on Monday afternoon.
I've a plan for solving the pulled threads from the head, so although I'll be at work on Saturday until 5PM it seems an hours ride from work up to the unit to fit the block studs with the thread lock solution so it has good time to do its work plus hopefully solve the pulled threads should see me spend an hour or so up there after all.

With a bit of luck that'll mean on arrival on Wednesday I should be close to having the engine complete..

[rsfruitbat]

Hope it all works out Kev

Rsfruitbat

[KevJTD]

Hope so mate...

Formed a plan which should work..

The offending stud was an M10 which goes into the head near the exhaust cam pulley which pulled the threads in the alloy.

I've chopped the head off an M12 bolt, cut it to length and made a new M12 x 1.5 thread which just leaves me to hopefully cut an M12 thread into the hole in the head, which should in theory just about happen without too much fuss. I'll threadlock it in for good measure.
Spacer drilled out with a 12.5mm drill along with the mounting bracket.

I'll be going up tomorrow evening to try it, as long as we're not snowed in!

[KevJTD]

Had a couple of hours up at the unit tonight to tackle the stripped bolt hole in the head.
Glad to say it tapped out OK after cleaning it out and masking off, stud I made fits nicely and more importantly tightly, now threadlocked into place. Handy being able to do it whilst still on the engine stand, much easier with the engine upside down and in front of you!

Got a couple of other little jobs sorted too so a good visit. The sump studs that I got though don't look like they'll do the job! Think I'll just go back to the original option of making some up to suit.



Looks like I've finally got to the bottom of the "to do" list for the engine....

[junior]

Glad you got there. Keep it going.

just working on my daughters Skoda Fabia and it feels odd to be messing with a modern car. Do you get this ?

[KevJTD]

Glad you got there. Keep it going.

just working on my daughters Skoda Fabia and it feels odd to be messing with a modern car. Do you get this ?

Yes, modern stuff just isn't the same mate. All electronics and witchcraft.

Did a service on a 2018 Hyundai Ionic Hybrid on Saturday, well not much more than an oil change, that thing is loaded with stuff I wouldn't want to go near in 10 years time! Or now actually!!

[KevJTD]

Actually had a nice Sunday away from working today, even took the Mrs out for Sunday dinner
Nice ride out, picked up our Sarah from RAF Cadets where she'd been (unsuccessfully) shooting at targets, even the weather was great.


Washed the car as looked like it'd been on Skeggy beach with the road salt on it.

Nice day.


Had a lightbulb moment on the sump studs.
Issue was that the central section was far too long so whichever way you put the stud in it would be an issue, one way would put limited thread into the block and the other way limited thread for the nut, with the deep central unthreaded section either would need a spacer.
Simple solution is to cut the threads further along on the shorter thread end!

Did all 18 this afternoon

[KevJTD]

Whilst I was down the shed cutting those studs with the radio on I thought I may as well stay down there, get my little heater going and finally put the rear calipers back together.

I'd stripped them a while ago and new seal kits were waiting to be fitted.
The metal parts had been cleaned and painted a few weeks back so everything was ready to go.

Apart from my memory of how it all went!
Luckily I had the workshop manual plus I always take pictures nowadays whilst taking stuff apart..


The piston is pretty much like any other caliper, save for the threaded hole in the back for the handbrake mechanism.

The mechanism for pushing it is this, now cleaned up with a new O ring and the spring washer discs all cleaned up. These discs are shaped towards each other acting as very strong springs.

The coarse thread meets the back of the piston, the springs though need compressing to get everything back together.


The rod that converts the handbrake cables pull into pushing on the rod has a groove in it so when it turns it pushes down on the piston rod.

To fill in the gap there's a little piece that needs fitting in the slots.

[KevJTD]

It took quite a few attempts to find the method for getting everything back in place, tried to compress the spring discs with some large pipe grips but there just isn't the room, or enough hands!

Eventually I tipped the little suitcase shaped spacer so that it acted like a ramp when pushing the lever arm in, that pushed the piston rod down and allowed it all to slide into place. There's also another conventional rotational spring that sits amongst it all but that can be hooked in later.

Lever fully in and circlip to hold it all in place.

All in place, just awaiting a big dollop of rubber grease!

[KevJTD]

Last job then to refit the front half of the caliper which slides on, just a small spring loaded plunger to stop it sliding apart but in all honesty it goes together so tightly it would struggle to fall apart on its' own.

Both ready for refitting, handbrake mechanisms all working smoothly so with new cables it should work well.....new flexi hoses are up at the unit so with the new bleed nipples it's saved me a good few quid on the refurb rather than the expensive new ones.

Quite a good weekend really seeing as I wasn't going to be doing anything to the car!

[Kegsti66]

Champion mate !!

You need that Gamma.

[KevJTD]

Champion mate !!

You need that Gamma.

The beauty of having a terrible memory (my Mrs assures me I've early onset dementia, she could be right) is that I forget stuff, like that Gamma......thanks for reminding me of it mate

[justsuds]

Kev, - why are you working for somebody else ?? - your quality of work, ingenunity, range of talent, and productivity you really should be working for yoursef, - good people to work on older quirky cars are very hard to find, I'm sure you would be inundated !
Cheers, John.

[Johnboy]

Kev, - why are you working for somebody else ?? - your quality of work, ingenunity, range of talent, and productivity you really should be working for yoursef, - good people to work on older quirky cars are very hard to find, I'm sure you would be inundated !
Cheers, John.

Totally agree.just do it kev

[junior]

Kev, - why are you working for somebody else ?? - your quality of work, ingenunity, range of talent, and productivity you really should be working for yoursef, - good people to work on older quirky cars are very hard to find, I'm sure you would be inundated !
Cheers, John.

You can tell John is a Alfa man when he calls a quality Lancia a quirky old car. Hurtfull that is, but atleast as you say you will forget the slur very soon.