Engine Refresh (Part 2)

Part 2 – Cleaning and Replacement Parts

With the engine disassembled down to the heads, this is as far as I want to go at the moment. The camshaft appears healthy enough and I don’t want the extra hassle of pulling the motor out completely to replace the camshaft if I don’t need to.

This page will cover what I did to clean the parts I reused, and what new parts I needed.

10.0 Cleaning and Preparing for Reassembley

Clean and recondition the heads? Nope, I just got a new/reconditioned set instead.

Old

New

Old

New

Engine General and other bits – WD-40, degreaser and lots of rags are your friends. So are a selection of wire brushes, plastic scrapers and scouring pads. Use water spray or compressed air to clean-up, remembering to protect open engine orifices from debris and water spray.

Rocker Covers – remove the inner splash plate and give it all a good bath in degreaser. I used a plastic tub filled with warm water, sprayed degreaser on the parts and used a wire brush to clean it up. Final wash was done with WD-40 to neutralise the degreaser, then left in the sun to dry.

On the RH cover, be sure to blow the gunk out of the breather pipe.

Injectors – clean the nozzles with WD-40 and replace the o-rings.

Tappets, Rocker Assembly and Push Rods – oil bath and scrouring pad.

Note: I should have replaced these the first time. Instead I cleaned them all and put it back together, got a bad tappet noise so ended up replacing it all a week later. Save yourself the hassle and replace them the first time.

My procedure to replace the Rocker Assembly, Push Rods and Tappets is covered in this page


Piston Heads and cylinder walls – use a rag dipped in WD-40 or degreaser to break up the carbon on the piston face. Gently scour or scrape the crap off the face. Be careful you do not break off the carbon lip at the top of the cylinder sleeve.

11.0 Replacement Parts

VRS Kit, pipes and hoses, and head bolts – approx AUD700 worth of parts here.

Head Bolts – 3 long and 7 short per head

O-rings, gaskets and seals in the VRS kit/

Old and new bits sorted, identified and ready for re-assembly.

Valley Gasket – Ray from CMW advised against using the black composite one from the VRS Kit, so I got the silver (Payen) one instead.

Similar deal with the Head Gaskets – Ray reckons the Elring composite gaskets are the ones to use.

Spark Plugs – the NKG PFR5G-11 is a replacement for the original Champion plug, but a set will cost around AUD200.

Engine Oil – I used Valvoline DuraBlend 10W-40.

Next Page – Putting It All Back Together

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