Am I Wasting My Time Or Will I Get Lucky?

[Atari Boy 11]

I am about to put a rebuilt 1.9 8v engine in my 205.

 

I have a rebuilt the head and the bottom end that was rebuilt 1500 miles ago.

 

I have two potential issues; firstly I forgot to get the head skimmed whilst being rebuilt, don’t get me wrong it doesn’t look warped or pitted. Also, whilst getting the head on the bottom end, one of the liners moved a little (not very much). The engine is now built up and I plan to put in the car this weekend.

 

I know no one can give me a guarantee and I have nothing to lose by putting it in the car and seeing what would happen but I would LOVE some reassurance that I MIGHT be lucky.

 

Positive reassurance would make me very happy.

 

Thanks (I hope)

 

Jonny

[James_m 0]

Probably not what you was planning to hear, but id put some water in it asap and see if it leaks into sump. The liner seals only seal once which i found out to my cost when building my Mi16.....

Would be a nightmare to get it all in the car, then put some coolant in and find it leaking straight into the sump.....

[Atari Boy 11]

Surprise surprise but I am still hopeful.

My on site experts, Nat and Ryan think that I ‘might’ be lucky.

I like the idea of checking before we put it in the bay though.

Time will tell – I am bricking it.

[matty_gti 20]

Did you replace the o-rings on the liners in the rebuild?, If the o - rings are new i wouldnt see it causing a problem???.

 

Matt

[daveyboyblack 1]

If it was me then i'd check it all whilst you've still got the engine out of the car. James' suggestionis a good place to start.

 

I wouldn't worry too much about the head, although it's probably one of the things I would normally do out of course when rebuilding (although my experience is pretty limited!)

 

Dave

[Atari Boy 11]

I didn’t rebuild it, someone for the previous owner did, but surly one would have to replace to O rings to rebuild a bottom end?

You have cheer me me up thank you.

[ashley peddle 3]

hey fella

 

They were new o' rings when the bottom end went together

 

as for the head - it was already skimmed to 11:1 so its probably a good thing you didnt skim it anymore, lol

 

good luck dude!

[ALEX 98 1 Cars]

I have a theory some engine builders probably disagree with.

Mainly because I havn't got access to a skimming machine without paying for it.

 

If it's your car chances are you know why the head gasket has failed.

I did my fist head gasket change on my 205 and there was nothing left of it other than 4 metal rings sat on top of the liners. The whole gasket had corroded away.

Now when there's something wrong with the car I turn it off to stop any further damage to the engine.

I replaced the head gasket without having it skimmed with no problems. There was no reason to assume it had warped as it had not overheated (It was bubbling in the header tank, which people assume is the engine over heating. but that's actually escaping exhaust gasses not boiling water).

Now my girlfriends car head gasket went, and I asked her how long did you drive with no coolant in it.

I might as well said "How many shoes did you buy when you went shopping"?

Atleast I would have got an answer! LOL.

I replaced the gasket anyway thinking I should get it checked. only for it to fail straight away.

The head was like a banana when I got it checked and even with a Huge skimm it still failed.

Dont know why compression too high or a crack somewhere. Besides it was cheap enough to replace the whole engine for a 1.1 106.

 

So in short Most heads only warp if they've been heated up excessively. If you KNOW (not told) it hasn't then you should be OK.

But you can roughly check it yourself using a flat blade and feeler gages for free, so you'd be stupid not to do that at least next time!

[ashley peddle 3]

hey fella

 

They were new o' rings when the bottom end went together

 

as for the head - it was already skimmed to 11:1 so its probably a good thing you didnt skim it anymore, lol

 

good luck dude!

 

infact ignore that - im getting the engines mixed up, lol! The head is off my old 90k-ish engine if i remeber rightly... the engine was working fine when i took it out, what state was the gasket in when you took the head/block apart?