Manky's Pop.

[poprodder]

any progress andy?

[Manky Monkey]

Yeah, I had a great day out at the Hotrod SuperNationals.
Pop-wise, not so much. My first week back at work after 3 weeks off & I've been absolutely knackered every afternoon, (they're experimenting with different start times so I've had to re-set my alarm clock every 2 days, which has really thrown me out). Mr Loon's not been feeling too well either, so I've taken most of the week off.
I took a pile of parts to the powder coaters on Monday though. Just odds & ends from the engine bay that were missed last time round. They should be ready in a few days.
Still waiting to hear from Phil the upholsterer about the interior roof lining, but he wasn't at all well when I last saw him, 3 weeks ago. No hurry for it, so I'm leaving him alone till I have to go over his way to collect the coating.
I've been collecting bits together & think I've got everything I need now to tidy up the engine bay & put the new engine in.
This afternoon Mr Olds called at the 'shop & took a look at the speedo wiring. I'm adding a couple of extra warning lights to it, (handbrake, fog & high beam), to keep the rest of the dash clutter free. So I've bought a couple of multi pin connectors & we worked out which wire goes where. Hopefully he can come back to solder them for me. In the mean time I'm modifying the unused fuel gauge section at the bottom of the speedo to take 2 of the lights.
We're due bad weather over the weekend & I'm working outside, (pouring down here now), so depending on that, I'll hopefully make some progress on tidying the engine bay in the next couple of days. My long weekend off next week, (Sat, Sun & Mon), so that might be the time to get the new engine in.

[poprodder]

sounds like your making progress.

[Manky Monkey]

Not so's you'd notice.
Torrential rain & high winds here this morning -the tail end of Hurricane Bertha according to the radio. Hoping it'll blow over & clear later or t'ai'nt nuthin' gonna get done today.

[triker_Chewie]

is it ever summer in your country?

[Olds]

is it ever summer in your country?

Yes of course. This year it was the 30th of July 

[triker_Chewie]

 

[Manky Monkey]

I overslept that day & woke up in the Autumn.

The rain eventually stopped around lunchtime & gave way to howling winds instead, with a bout of thunder & lightning thrown in for good measure. That's positively tropical by British standards.

So I made a start on swapping the timing cover & water pump casings on the new engine. The one on the left is from the new motor, (I think it's a 1990s Landrover Discovery, but not sure). The one on the right's from the old 1979 SD1 engine. You can see the pump housing at the top of the casing's different. I need to fit the SD1 water pump cos the pulley appears to be permanently attached to the shaft & the new pump hasn't got a pulley. The old pump won't fit on the new timing chain cover though cos the bolt holes are different -which is why I need to swap these casings too.
I've fitted a new crankshaft oil seal & taken the oil pump off & packed it with Vaseline as advised -I wasn't sure how much I needed, so bought 2 jars from the local supermarket. Got an odd look from the cashier. I was tempted to walk away with a pronounced limp or something.
Bizarrely, although I've taken 2 sets of casings off, I didn't have a full set of bolts to fit one back on. At least one bolt has to be long enough to pass through the alternator mount, which is at the powder coaters at the moment, so I'll wait till I get all the bits back before proper fitting & try & buy new bolts from the local supplier once I know how many of each size I need. Should the timing cover & water pump gaskets be fitted dry or with sealant?

[Manky Monkey]

Old casings on new engine.
Although it's a good clean engine, the casings have been painted silver, rather than left in bare aluminium. I'm tempted to scrub them clean, but they might not be so pretty underneath, so the silver paint will stay. The timing chain's brand new as the seller had told me, so hopefully the rest of the motor's as good.

[Manky Monkey]

I also fitted new warning lights to the rebuilt speedo, ready for Mr Olds to solder the connections at his leisure, (I don't own a soldering iron & I'm hopeless at wiring).
At the bottom of the speedo is a slot for the fuel gauge to fit in, but neither of the Pop's 2 fuel tanks has a sender unit, so the gauge didn't work. I've pulled the gauge apart & modified it as a mount for the red warning lights for the handbrake & fog light. I added a dab of black paint between the 2 lenses to try & stop one light illuminating the other.

[Manky Monkey]

There's also a new blue high beam warning light at the top of the speedo, to replace the original green indicator one, (the indicator warning light's on the switch on the steering column). I've got a couple of 4 pin connector blocks for the warning lights to make future removal of the dashboard easier.
When Speedy Cables rebuilt the gauge I asked them to wind the mileometer on to 4 1/2 thousand, which is roughly what we covered in the Pop last year. So now it shows the true mileage of the vehicle. You can see I've managed just 5 miles in it so far this year, when I set out for the MOT a few weeks ago & had to turn back cos the engine blew.
I was admiring a standard Ford Pop at a show recently & saw the original speedo read up to 85mph -the same as my one. Hopefully mine will get there a little quicker.

[Olds]

Should the timing cover & water pump gaskets be fitted dry or with sealant?

As far as I'm aware if the mating surfaces are good, then these gaskets should only need a light coating of grease. Preferably high melting point.

[Manky Monkey]

Yup, all surfaces are clean Dave. The timing cover gasket's fine as it's only been bolted up & the engine not run, so I'll re-use it. The water pump one's different but I've got a new one.
The collection of hot air balloons/car covers inflated by the winds outside Loony's workshop. The Pop's out of shot on the far right. Any guesses on what vehicles are under them?

[Archie]

Splitty
Rover body
Beetle
Moggy

[Manky Monkey]

You win but you cheated -you've seen under the covers!