The big rebuild begins

[Wh1teLeopard]

My most wonderful bestest friend ever ever has aggreed to start work on my Beat tomorrow (thursday)...

so yesterday i spent the afternoon removing the rear section of the roof to allow for easier access whilst working...

I will keep you updated with progress, and hopefully may have a picture guide by the end of it...

here's 2 pictures so far

[Wh1teLeopard]

and the other:

[Jennifer]

Whats being done? Yellow is lovely

[Wh1teLeopard]

Among many things the head gasket's gone, dreading opening up pandora's box to see what else is wrong with it hee hee!!!

*fingers crossed it's just the head gasket*

[Wh1teLeopard]

The head's finally off now, and my god was the head gasket in a terrible state... among other things :oops:

Firstly poor phil had to spend ages trying to get out the bolts that the exhaust people had bodged into there:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v661/Wh1teLeopard/PICT0001.jpg

Then remove everything from on top of the engine, from the air intake to the fuel rail:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v661/Wh1teLeopard/PICT0003.jpg

And here's a lovely shot of the air inlets:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v661/Wh1teLeopard/PICT0004.jpg
Note that lovely dark looking fluid gathered at the bottom is actually oil!!!

And then finally after 7hours work we got to the head:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v661/Wh1teLeopard/PICT0006.jpg

[JGGIB]

would it not be quicker to take the engine out?

[Wh1teLeopard]

Haven't got the facilities to take it out and work on it... had to do it the long way

[Beatproducts]

Those pictures look familliar hope it is going well, and your man does not have too much skin missing on those old hands of His!!! Mine is back together in the engine zone but missing many body parts which require repairing before a re-spray!!!

Good news for all of us is that my lump has done 100,000 km's and the bores look good is it the same for yours??

Phil (a different one!!)

[Wh1teLeopard]

You'll have to excuse my lack of knowledge of engines (though I am learning fast hee hee) what do you mean by bores?


Phil (our phil ;) ) said that the valves needed refacing and resetting(?) (think he said resetting) but apart from that everything was fine and dandy :D

Do you have any pictures of your little beat? Would love to see it

[MajorTom]

Originally posted by Wh1teLeopard
You'll have to excuse my lack of knowledge of engines (though I am learning fast hee hee) what do you mean by bores?


Phil (our phil ;) ) said that the valves needed refacing and resetting(?) (think he said resetting) but apart from that everything was fine and dandy :D

Do you have any pictures of your little beat? Would love to see it

Hi,

I think He meant that the cylinder walls were in good shape, that's a "bore" normally.

and "your" Phil meant reSEATING the valves as there's nothing to reset there as far as I know... hope I wasn't rude just wanted to get it straight as I'm really interested how your rebuild will turn out so keep posting more pics and info :)

Tom

[Wh1teLeopard]

Originally posted by MajorTom


Hi,

I think He meant that the cylinder walls were in good shape, that's a "bore" normally.

and "your" Phil meant reSEATING the valves as there's nothing to reset there as far as I know... hope I wasn't rude just wanted to get it straight as I'm really interested how your rebuild will turn out so keep posting more pics and info :)

Tom

Well that clears that up, many thanks.

I thought resetting was wrong, but couldn't think of anything similar that would sound right...

The cylinder walls look ok, no cracks. Phil was a bit tired by the time he finally got the head off, think he'll have a proper look at them when he comes back to rebuild it... least I hope he comes back hee hee

[Beatproducts]

Driven in to the garage for winter (just fits around all the junk) not much to picture has she is missing bumpers and bonnet plus some filler work and welding, the pictures would be horror ones!!

It just has nit been over loved for a few years, except for the mechnicals which seem good!!!

Phil

[obiwanwasabe]

Hiya
I think your Phil may have meant reseating the valves, this is a good move as when all is put back together you will have better compression as long as the bores and rings are in good order.
Don't let him put the head back on without "skimming" (refacing) it. otherwise you will be doing it all again in a month.
Other things worth doing whilst he has it apart is to clean up that throttle housing with a good brand Carb cleaner so that the inside is spotless and check that none of the throttle valves are sticking, and when putting it back together put in a new thermostat, and temperature sensor, this will be needed if you have overheated at all as it is easy to "cook" thermostats and this can cause them to stick. finally give the inside of the radiator a good clean you can do this by reverse flowing possibly with a hose pipe.

Nick

[obiwanwasabe]

Oh yeah and change the cambelt whilst you are down there. I have a policy of if I disturb the cambelt I am half way to changing it so I may as well do it.

nick

[Wh1teLeopard]

All good advice and appreciate, but we're way ahead of you ;)

Head's been skimmed, valves reseated, all new seals everywhere, all the others things you've recommended too...

Phil's a highly experienced Peugeot engineer who put a mi16 engine out of a 206 into a 405 just because peugeot said it couldn't be done! hee hee! I think he's loving the challenge of the beat engine!

[MajorTom]

Keep us posted/updated :) Pictures are welcome too :)
Tom

[ps-motorsport]

nice to know the engine is finally getting work on, generally not bad condition, i am sure your friend phil will surely know what to do. look forward to see it back on the road running better than before !!

hopeully by spring my beat will arrive.

regards
Peter

[obiwanwasabe]

Hiya,
Good to see your man is on the ball, in my job I see so many people come unstuck because someone, or thier mechanic, has tried to cut corners. the main overheating problems I see roadside are caused by coolant fan switches failing! Folk don't find out it aint working till they get stuck in traffic and cook their engine

Good luck with the rebuild.

Nick

[Wh1teLeopard]

:eek:

I'm so amazed! I came to the conclusion about a week ago the Head had gone before i'd bought the car... but the affect it has had on my beat has amazed me totally...

If i hadn't seen phil take apart my engine and put my engine back in I would not have believed him that it was the same car at all.

It's all back together now and from the moment it started I could tell it sounded so different!!!The engine note is a lot lower, and on tick-over it just sits there and growls and pops!

Before when I was driving it would just seem happy to do whatever speed I was doing, now it feels like it's begging to go faster. It accelerates so much faster, the throttle is a million times more responsive and it started on the first turn everytime

So, so, so pleased with it

Now this is what i think Phil said he did:
Had the head skimmed, the rocker cover was spotless, the air filter box thingy was also spotless and you could actually seen down the gap for the breather, the valves have been reseated and bored out to match the manifold, new valve stem seals all new seals on the head when he completely rebuilt the head new bolts and a lot of much needed TLC!!!

Here's some pictures for you (click the link to open them):

Here's the shiney head and rocker cover :
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v661/Wh1teLeopard/PICT0010.jpg

All the shiney new valves (think he said they were from a Honda Accord :confused: ):
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v661/Wh1teLeopard/PICT0011.jpg

Now on the left is Phil, and on the right is Oli my boyfriend who helped out too (he's in his racing overalls from the raceway where we work at weekends):
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v661/Wh1teLeopard/PICT0012.jpg

[Wh1teLeopard]

And in this DARK picture you can see the extent of the damage to the head gasket:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v661/Wh1teLeopard/PICT0013.jpg

If you look closely you can see where this side has worn away exposing the metal!

If you look to the LEFT of this DARK picture you can see where there is no longer a seal between the two cylinders or the water jacket:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v661/Wh1teLeopard/PICT0014.jpg

And on this picture you can see the crummy-ness of that broken seal:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v661/Wh1teLeopard/PICT0015.jpg

[Wh1teLeopard]

Originally posted by obiwanwasabe
Hiya,
Good to see your man is on the ball, in my job I see so many people come unstuck because someone, or thier mechanic, has tried to cut corners. the main overheating problems I see roadside are caused by coolant fan switches failing! Folk don't find out it aint working till they get stuck in traffic and cook their engine

Good luck with the rebuild.

Nick

Yea, I can see how that would be annoying! Phil stuck around until he was absolutely sure everything was a-ok. He waited for it to warm up, used a cool strobe light thingy to make sure the timing was perfect (it was 18, and should have been 20, so he adjusted it and now it's perfect :D ) waited for the fan to come on and was almost as happy as me that the job was finally over hee hee!

[MajorTom]

Wow,

that's great ! It looks nice and as You said it could feel totally different ! :)

Great Job, I'm a bit jaleous now :)

Tom

[Paul w]

Would he do another one? if so, what sort of cost?

(not for me, for the next person to blow one up!)

Looks like a top job he's done....

PW

[MajorTom]

I was wondering the same whether he (Paul) would rebuild someone elses engine :) He's used to it now anyway :)

Tom

[adrianp]

I was thinking the same thing...

He might even work out why mine won't rev properly whilst he's at it...

Ady.

[MajorTom]

That'd be great to have a Beat engine mechanic I guess on the 3rd, 4th approach He'd become the ultimate E07 specialist in the UK :)

Tom

[adrianp]

Well, we already have Steve M who can take them apart in his sleep and I think Phil from Beat Products knows a fair bit but another Beat specialist wouldn't hurt...

[Wh1teLeopard]

Here you go, this is what Phil did from the man him self :D


Looking back, it wasnt too bad a job, the main problem was lack of access.

when the head was removed, the gasket was pretty well shot between cylinders 1&2. I stripped the head to discover the valve seats were pitted. 5 thou was skimmed off the head to bring it back to true flat. Valve seats were re-cut and tri angled for better flow. Out with the dremmel, the inlet and exhaust ports were matched to the gaskets. the port shape is excelent as standard, so just a bit of port shaping, but nothing major. The bare head casting was then chemically cleaned to remove all carbon deposits (quite heavily coked up). Head was built back up, new valve stem oil seals fitted and valve clearences reset. Bolted all back together and she fired up second time (first time i had the dissy one tooth out!!). ran it up and she idled like a dream. so hopefully it shouldnt overheat on motorways any more!!

[Steve_M]

Originally posted by adrianp
Well, we already have Steve M who can take them apart in his sleep and I think Phil from Beat Products knows a fair bit but another Beat specialist wouldn't hurt...

I think its 3 full engine rebuilds and 2 heads off for me :D

[Wh1teLeopard]

Also without you I wouldn't have the new parts to fit... so thanks to you too :D

[Paul w]

So many heads off, we should call him Steve 'Guillotine' Manser?


PW

[Beatproducts]

Sounds like a good job by Phil, not this Phil :), I also let loose on my ports with the old polishing bit fitted to the drill. It seems to make a little difference, I also have re-built the old s****d dizzy which I bought of Paul W, strip down and install new bearing, by the way Paul the bearing was well stuffed too, looked like a just in time replacement!!!

Drove the beat into the garage for the winter will finish it off in the spring cannot wait to try it out next year!!!!

Phil