Team MightyBoy

You have the head for it now, J, so why don't you fit it up & see how well it makes ol' Kiki go

= time + money

where time = minimal
and money = 0

$32 for a head gasket & a tube of sealant, 4 hours to have it changed & running again. What's wrong with you slacko?

If it ain't broke, don't fix it - and it ain't broke right now so I've got better things to do than swap heads un-necessarily...

ive seen your head .....it needs changing

Yes, Josh's head may need changing, but we're talking about Kiki here.

I'm assuming the evil scurge of chemiweld has still held up ok in your coolant leaking problem (or did you actually spend the time & money to fix it properly without telling us )

The Chemiweld's holding up fine at this stage...

Right now I'm just trying to put a few pennies away for a rainy weekend at Col's when we can throw that poor ol' sod of an engine away.

But there's little I can do in the meantime. The budget is very, very tight around here.

I ended up checking the timing against an F5A I had sitting in the garage, and it turns out the cam was in the right position after all.

I got it all back in the ute yesterday and it fired first kick - no worries there, but thats where my joy ended.

The sump gasket I replaced is leaking like a sieve, and the bottom tank of the radiator has sprung a leak. In addition I had a new set of bearings pressed into my front hubs, and new rotors fitted - now the passenger side wheel is sitting about 1-2cm outside the front guard and I can't work out why. I swear I must have pissed on a fairy at some stage in my life, its just one problem after another.

So, looks like its back out with the engine and off with the gasket again - after I go sulk in the corner for a while.

Awww...

Come on people, this really is time for a group hug!

you can replace the sump gsk in the car

Okay, finished sulking last night.

Replaced the Hatch radiator with an MB unit for the time being - hopefully it has no leaks.

Turns out that the sump gasket appears to be okay, its the bloody crank seal on the pulley end that is leaking. Sorry, when I say leaking I mean purging about half a litre of oil in a couple of minutes!
Now I replaced this seal when I had the engine out, but apparently I must have done something wrong. The old seal was leaking, and when I removed it there didn't appear to be anything wrong with it, but I replaced it anyway. Even after cleaning out the housing, the new seal appeared to slide in far too easily, so I whacked a bit of silicone sealant around the outside in an attempt to improve the seal - would this have caused my current out of control leak?

uh.....yes all seals must be a firm fit or they will leak

Duh!

My question was; would using silicone sealant on the outer rim of the seal be wrong and cause it to leak? The seal I was given was apparently the right one, I mean it did fit on the shaft and into the placeholder - it just slipped on a bit too easily.
Oh well, I'll go and buy another seal today and try again.

Another thing I noticed is that where the seal fits on the oil pump housing, there is a small hole/vent on the outer rim in the alloy. Anyone know what is that for?

I'll answer my own question here...

Took the old seal off, and the silicone based sealant I had used in an effort to help the bond had the opposite of that effect - I may as well have used vasoline. What had happened was that the seal gripped the crank, and was spinning in the housing owing to it being slippery, which basically pulled oil past, given that the outside edge of the seal had a somewhat lumpy edge.

Note to all other would be mechanics - don't use silicone on oil seals!

Anyway, I've just fitted a new seal and am putting the motor back together. Still not out of the woods just yet, but there appears to be a small light at the end of the tunnel!