I’m usually pretty good at analogies. I am thinking maybe my current situation is like flying to Italy and finding out you have to fly home to San Francisco, turn off the oven and then fly back to Italy to get on with your vacation.
Okay, what did I do that is so bad? A total rookie move so it’s a good thing I’m a rookie. I put the number three connecting rod in backward. The Engine ran with a not terminal sounding but noteworthy knock. “The engine ran???” the attentive reader will ask.
It goes something like this…
I’m not sure why but it is somehow immediately apparent that this engine runs. This was right before the steps back announced in the title began.
The above referenced attentive reader will remember my camera was in Europe. I did a lot of undocumented work on the car tracing wires, setting ignition timing, adjusting Webers etc and last Saturday afternoon I got to that point where I said to myself: “Everything else is done… I might as well start it up.” I hooked up a battery, filled it with fluids and amazingly it started right up. Of course it had a knock I ignored for the first few tries but once I dialed everything in and it would run without much drama -special thanks to Jere Brown for suggesting I plug the drain hole in the intake manifold, the throttle is now perfectly responsive. Anyhow, I got to the point where it was time to drive it and I still had the persistent knock. It was as I said before not too alarming a sound so I started trying to figure out what it was as it ran. No evidence of valves hitting spark plugs, no evidence of pistons hitting head, no change if I remove the fan belt, no change if I push in the clutch pedal. A screwdriver to the ear listen indicated it was right in the middle of the engine. I developed a few theories that required oil pan removal so I set to and pulled the pan. Good thing this is not a 105 car and it dropped right out the bottom. I left Tuesday night with the pan pulled.
That’s what an engine with the oil pan removed while still in the car looks like. Notice the windage tray still looks rusty. Surprisingly easy to remove, I guess new screws and nuts had something to do with that. I pulled the pan and left it to drain overnight. No benefit to having oil drip in your eye.
So I got to my shop on Wednesday ready for the worst and got under the car to remove the oil pick up and windage tray. A quick look with a drop light revealed a problem that I put right in the middle of my ‘ugh, I have to do that’ list. The number three connecting rod was in backward.
I know what the cautious reader is thinking: Oh my goodness, the piston/liner/connecting rod/crank and possibly the fuel filler door seal are all ruined! Well, Andrew’s Giulietta Berlina survived a good many years of hard labor with ALL the connecting rods in backward and even ran decently enough that he was reluctant to disturb the seemingly solid bottom end when his oil pan was off. He is reusing the crank, connecting rods and head so I think I will be okay after maybe two minutes total of sustained running. Of course I still need to pull the offending piston and inspect it, but I will be surprised if it doesn’t function fine when reinstalled correctly. Good luck to me.
I suppose you could get a tiny bit deeper into an engine and still have it firmly bolted into place, but not much. Note how nice the bores look. Paper towel is in number four to absorb some coolant.
Tomorrow, new head gasket in hand, I will take care of the problem and start taking steps forward again. Hopefully no more rookie moves will follow. Stay tuned. Oh, and criticism welcomed, so long it is accompanied by constructive suggestions.
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Yikes, good luck with that… just for the record, how do you tell? I’ve never done a rebuild before, but this will probably be relevant at some point in my old-car future.
The connecting part of the rods are slightly biased to one side of the big and small ends when you hold them up. If you swing by the shop in the next 20 hours you can see them.
Doh, I was in Boston!
Hi what could be the reasons for stuttering when 2 stage opens?