MG ZR: Cams & Maps

[lolsteve]

#shouldofboughtagti6?????

#onparwithathrottlebodied1.8withbrokenheadgasket
#willdestroy6'swhenactuallycompressing

Was waiting for someone to mention that

Tbh though steve has the right engine just the wrong car should be a vvc metro

Fair play for fixing it this way dude! I would of just swapped the engine myself as im a lazy fitter

Swapping engine would have been more expensive/dont know the quality of new engine. Since there's nothing wrong with bottom end makes sense to make sure top is running right or at least as right as i can be bothered to do

[Eeyore]

Yeh dont take it to where I had my head skimmed....

[puglove]

#Dreamer??? lol

[lolsteve]

Yeh dont take it to where I had my head skimmed....

Where you take it?

[rocker8742]

#shouldofboughtagti6?????

#nopointhasthesameproblem

[puglove]

#shouldofboughtagti6?????

#nopointhasthesameproblem

Yeah but thats down to the dim wit maintaing it steves K series was always going to fail ................... Many many MANY times in its life

[Midnightclub]

Just remember Jamie, your low mileage healthy 2.0 '6 pulled marginally more than a HGF'd 1.8 MG engine

[puglove]

Nah dyno was wrong.

[Midnightclub]

Odd, rest of the figures seemed accurate.

[zx_volcane]

Good progress, just need to get it all back together now

[lolsteve]

Head is in the shop for skimming, before leaving though I just checked they could do it with valves in the guy behind the counter checked and said some of the exhaust valves may need to come out so left a bag of new stem seals for any he takes out.
After a walk in the forrest with mum and the puppy which resulted in me finding a rope swing over a river and getting somewhat wet feet come home to clean up the carrier and check vvc timing

Carrier is much cleaner now but just need to read some guides on making sure the vvc timing is right, although from what I can remember it does seem pretty on the mark

Forgive the photo quality but the htc doesn't seem to like low light

[Poodle]

£50 skim and they didn't bother to clean it, tight bastards. SMW?

[lolsteve]

SMW?

I haven't got the head back yet so it might be cleaned I don't know yet. Guy said it's been skimmed but not to death so that's good i guess

Spent the afternoon cleaning up the cam carriers, reading about the vvc timing and then checking the timing using this guide
http://www.davebence.co.uk/mods_10.htm
timing seems fine so reassembled the piston assembly and just waiting on the head + rover sealant

Also thinking about porting the exhaust ports as not sure if you can see in the photos above but there's a thick black ring around the exhaust ports which says to me there's some space for porting?

[Dum-Dum]

Its largely pointless porting the ports unless your going to port the manifolds too. Also what are the standard ports like, enlarging them could drop gas velocity and loose you power especially mid range.

[devils_fuel]

Ha ha my original comment was pointless lol

Good job you've done it properly mate, it's the best way forward.

You may get some ponies back as I bet that HG had been seaping for a while, time the vvc up properly and you may be back on to as new bhp figures

[Piggy]

Yeah catchup DF. He getting it skimmed!!

Just try and decoke those ports matey

[lolsteve]

Standard ports look pretty small with a huge black ring where there's difference between the port and gasket. The new manifold should be larger as well since it doesn't have horrific internal welds like the standard rover one did

I think it's been leaking for some time since there was no shim which acts to protect the head and has a "heat activated bonding agent" which no doubt helps fill some gaps. So with a non leaking head it's time to beat some 6's
VVC seems timed up alright as I've never done it before I can only hope i did it right and don't find its jammed or whatever when it's back on the car

decoke with an italian tune up thats not burning coolant/oil?

[Poodle]

Mr muscle again mate. There needs to be a difference between the port and mani bore size, helps scavenge and prevents back-flow.

[lolsteve]

Fair enough don't really understands the mechanics of the port/manifold bore sizes just looked it was another rover thing where they didn't do the job properly
£1 oven cleaner any good?

[cully]

wire brush in a drill

http://www.toolstation.com/shop/Decarb+W...Set/p53351

[Ruan]

Essentially - unless you really know what you're doing with cylinder heads, getting friendly with the dremel usually ends in making either no difference or making it worse.

I've read and read about it, still I wouldn't take a dremel to my own NA Petrol cylinder head, you're likely to do more harm than good!

[Danny2009]

I've heard if you poar some Sand down inlet it will port it out lovely

Serious note I'm with Ruan unless you know what your doing I wouldn't touch it

[lolsteve]

Fair enough, I'll leave it be.
Head is back from the shop, valves needed to be removed apparently so in total it's cost me £95 for a skim and new stem seals (which I supplied) bit f*ked off as I would have removed the valves myself if I knew it would be an extra 45 quid thought it would be about £20

[Dum-Dum]

Essentially - unless you really know what you're doing with cylinder heads, getting friendly with the dremel usually ends in making either no difference or making it worse.

I've read and read about it, still I wouldn't take a dremel to my own NA Petrol cylinder head, you're likely to do more harm than good!

TBH these days I probably wouldn't trust anyone doing it by hand. CNC head porting is the way forward every time as the results are entirely repeatable and with computer modelling you can see exactly what the flow will be like under any given circumstances.

[Paul Baldwin]

Essentially - unless you really know what you're doing with cylinder heads, getting friendly with the dremel usually ends in making either no difference or making it worse.

I've read and read about it, still I wouldn't take a dremel to my own NA Petrol cylinder head, you're likely to do more harm than good!

TBH these days I probably wouldn't trust anyone doing it by hand. CNC head porting is the way forward every time as the results are entirely repeatable and with computer modelling you can see exactly what the flow will be like under any given circumstances.

That's the pioneering spirit that got this country where it used to be summed up right there lol. :p

[lolsteve]

Quick question before I put the head all back together tomorrow. Been looking at the guides some more and it talks about refurbishing the tappets by hitting them against a block of wood to get the pistons out for a clean etc but at the end of the guides it talks about rubbing the top surface against sandpaper to rough up the contact face.
What good will this do? Just thinking about it now since I have some time before needing to put this together so would be better to do now rather than later

[jammapic]

Were the tappets rattling before? If not - I wouldn't bother. Can potentially give yourself another unwanted bill.

If they WERE rattling however, worth getting them apart and getting all the gunky jelly oil out of them, clean them up and pop them back in.

I wouldn't rough them up either, otherwise you'll have to (in an ideal world) do another cam bed in procedure. Just make sure you put the right tappet back in to the right hole!

JP

[lolsteve]

They had the normal k series tappet sound, I suppose some lifter cleaner could be put in afterwards if do feel they're a bit noisy
12/16 tappets I know where put back correctly, the last 4 may have got slightly muddled up or might be in the right order. Doesn't help with the markings come off

Next question in regards to the carbon on the piston crown. Went back out this morning to check the engine is still in one piece etc and noticed some of the carbon deposits have gone soft, tried to wipe up some of the moisture and ended up pushing some of the carbon into the corners . Is this something that will just get burnt off and sucked out the exhaust or will it scratch apart the liners and get stuck in the piston ring Wish I hadn't touched it now

[Poodle]

Be fine if its gone soft mate.

[Matt-Rallye]

Will just burn up and exit through valve jobs going well steve fair play dude