Love it when you can find an old boy like that with a lathe in his shed… dying breed now..
Definitely worth doing then if going stand-alone ecu. My engine is now going in the 5 so will be getting an Ecumaster. Will probably go the Garret route too, as I’ll make a manifold. Already have a Flange.Small update.
In the process of building the new engine up im putting the parts in place to run 197/250 vvt and full sequential injection. To do this, i need a trigger wheel on the inlet cam for cam position, and the 172 inlet cam does not have one.
First port of call was to remove a cam trigger wheel from an old 197 inlet cam. Heated it up, did not really need to heat but it flew off with puller no dramas.
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Tried to refit to a spare 172 inlet cam with bit of heat/knock into place. Did not go well as i realised i was never going to get it over a small ridge where the trigger needs to sit that the 197 cam does not have. I damaged the trigger wheel slightly in the process so binned that idea. It could have been welded on but not ideal. Lessons learned on this one!!
Next step was to fit a catcams trigger wheel. I had this in stock but got stuck fitting it, as it would not go over the ridge on the cam as described above and would need to be machined off so it can locate in the correct position (41mm from the end of the cam if anybody needs to know in the future).
Took the cam round to a retired machinist i know who has a lathe in his garage. He had the cam in, clocked and ridge machined off in ten mins, for the price of a drink.
This has allowed the trigger wheel to go fully home in the correct position. Its a nice tight fit, so just needs a small amount of studlock and nip up the grubscrew and its going nowhere. Im.going to set the orientation as close to oem position as poss but as im planning on using a standalone ecu, it wont matter too much can fine tune it via the software.
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Should have all the relevant parts to finish off assembly now.
Thanks for reading!!
It is indeed assembly lube on the cam journals. Cant have enough on the high load parts on a new engine! Sticky horrible shit but keeps it right.For a moment there I thought youd put Loctite on the cam carriers too, but its assembly lube thats the same colour as the loctite isnt it!
Vapour blasted ally give it a liberal coating of WD40, then rub it in with some rag, it'll stop it going off for much longer.
Dont use any silicone based sealants on the cam cover mate, its got to be anaerobic - 518 or equivalent.@Brigsy I was planning to use Dirko HT sealant for my cam cover, which is silicone based. But you've got me thinking about that 518. Is it better than the silicone based products?
The nipple is indeed part of the PCV breather system and i do understand that it promotes some kind of scavenging. Downside is it recirculates oil vapour into the inlet tract off throttle/idle which is not good for performance.Nice build!
The nipple you chopped and blocked is not actually a emissions thing, it's a performance thing. That nipple connects to a vacuum check valve, it's there to keep a vacuum on the crankcase, to aid ring seal. That is all very theoretical tho...VERY theoretical. THat's why the hole is so small...
VHT crackle black is the best one I’ve used.Link me up to that wrinkle paint matey?
Used that on the lotus. Its fantastic.VHT crackle black