Resurrecting Jalpa #359

Awesome, good idea to replace the bear8nva while you're this deep! Looks clean!

Alright, well.. I thought I was going to have to pay my machinist to take the bottom end apart, because the rings were stuck on one of the pistons, and it was at an angle where I couldn't get a socket on the rod bolt. However, with a bit of finesse (a bench grinder) and a 12mm wrench, I "made" a tool to fit and get it off. The last piston is out, the crankshaft is out, the engine is torn apart completely. Still waiting to hear back from my machinist, left a few messages, no response, which is unlike him.

 

Will contact him tomorrow and see if I can drop the block by.

 

A few interesting things.... the crankshaft weighs a hell of a lot more than the block. The block is aluminum, so that makes sense. The block is SO light, that I could in fact take the block off the engine stand with my bare hands, no hoist at all (I was extremely careful and lightly loosened the pinch bolt to see if I could "ghost lift" it first).

 

I have to say, for something from the 80s, I'm impressed. The construction is interesting since all of the cylinder sleeves and cylinders come right out, which makes repairs really super easy. The pistons were a piece of cake to get out and required a light tapping with a dowel. All bearings accounted for, everything labeled. Ready to go into the shop.

 

 

Taken apart, getting ready to come off the stand.

 

Off we go!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crank looks good...Do you have a photo of the rod bearings...

 

Paul

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alright, well.. I thought I was going to have to pay my machinist to take the bottom end apart, because the rings were stuck on one of the pistons, and it was at an angle where I couldn't get a socket on the rod bolt. However, with a bit of finesse (a bench grinder) and a 12mm wrench, I "made" a tool to fit and get it off. The last piston is out, the crankshaft is out, the engine is torn apart completely. Still waiting to hear back from my machinist, left a few messages, no response, which is unlike him.

 

Will contact him tomorrow and see if I can drop the block by.

 

A few interesting things.... the crankshaft weighs a hell of a lot more than the block. The block is aluminum, so that makes sense. The block is SO light, that I could in fact take the block off the engine stand with my bare hands, no hoist at all (I was extremely careful and lightly loosened the pinch bolt to see if I could "ghost lift" it first).

 

I have to say, for something from the 80s, I'm impressed. The construction is interesting since all of the cylinder sleeves and cylinders come right out, which makes repairs really super easy. The pistons were a piece of cake to get out and required a light tapping with a dowel. All bearings accounted for, everything labeled. Ready to go into the shop.

 

 

Taken apart, getting ready to come off the stand.

 

Off we go!

 

Crank looks good...Do you have a photo of the rod bearings...

 

Paul

 

I can certainly get some today for you, Paul. The bearings look good from what I can see. However, I'll probably install new bearings anyway just to be on the safe side.

Well, I had the meeting this morning with the welder and my machinist. He did not feel comfortable attempting to repair them with his equipment. He said there are places that can, but he doesn't have an oven that is capable of doing the work on them. We took the heads out of the back of my machinist's 4 runner and showed him. His reaction after a few minutes was, "Yeahhhhhhh. Nope."

 

There is apparently a few places in Portland, Oregon who are capable of doing these repairs. I appreciated his honesty, as he didn't want to risk messing them up. At the same time, frustration, as this is going to be a hiccup in the build. However, all good things in good time.

Ahh, that sucks. Good luck finding a machine shop.

Ahh, that sucks. Good luck finding a machine shop.

 

Yeah, I'm kinda bummed right now. But I'll figure it out.

Will be worth the peace of mind to find a place who says they can do it confidently though.

Will be worth the peace of mind to find a place who says they can do it confidently though.

 

Yes, precisely. I got off the phone about 30 minutes ago with a place in Portland. The guy has an inverter, told me he is NOT afraid of the heads, and is quite confident that he'll have zero issues with it. Apparently this inverter welder is a much higher amp welder, heat control is far easier, and he says the hottest they would get is around 200F. This makes me happy.

 

Going to send him pics of the heads tonight. The place came at a very high level of recommendation of a few other people who I know have expensive heads and have had work done there. His only hesitance was in giving me an estimate (which is fair) since he doesn't know how much welding will need to be done.

 

Either way, agreed. I would rather spend the money on someone who backs their work, knows what they are doing, and has the right tools, than someone who wants to say, "Yeah I mean, I could probably do it but no guarantee." Given the cost of new heads, someone's "no guarantee" could be a $12k mistake. If push come to shove and I have to do that, so be it, but I would rather try and repair what I've got.

After being on the phone with about 10 separate machine shops, from recommendations, referrals and you name it, I have finally found a place that has the knowledge and expertise to take on the heads. They're in Portland. I've had 3 separate conversations over the phone, swapped a lot of pictures and will be heading that way in the next several weeks to drop off the heads after he has a chance to talk with my machinist. The guy is a full machine shop, and definitely knows exotics and performance builds, but I really want to keep the machine work itself in one place since that makes more sense.

 

I will be having him do the welding work, and then have them come back for machine work at the place I've been working with. Makes more sense to me that way. Otherwise I risk getting into the middle man scenario where one shop does work their way, another does it their way, and then there is confusion and potential mistakes in the build.

 

Either way his equipment and shop are impressive. I feel very good about this decision. Most everywhere I've talked to referred me back to this shop anyway, and few people were able to go, "Yes, I am comfortable doing that." when push came to shove. Confidence in their ability is huge to me, and this place fits the bill.

Glad to see that you found a solution.

Glad to see that you found a solution.

 

I was honestly pretty concerned no one would take it on. I think the price scares most people.

 

Most conversations went like this:

 

Me: "Hi my name is Derek. I was told you repair aluminum cylinder heads and I need some welding repairs done."

 

Shop: "Oh yeah man, we can do that, piece of cake. What car is it for?"

 

Me: "It's a Lamborghini Jalpa. Aluminum heads."

 

Shop: "Oh. That sounds kind of complicated. What are they like?"

 

Me: "Integral cam towers and overall they look pretty basic minus that, but there's pitting due to failed cylinder head gaskets and some of it is rather deep. It needs to be welded professionally and I need to be guaranteed that they will not warp due to the integral cam towers."

 

Shop: "Hm, did you consider buying new ones?"

 

Me: "I could, but it makes more sense for purposes of matching original parts, and for the cost of welding, to just have them welded."

 

Shop: "How much are new heads?"

 

Me: "About $12,000 plus or minus a grand or so for both of them."

 

Shop: "NOPE. Sorry you'll need to find someone else."

 

Basically I think the shocker was the cost of it, and most of them not feeling confident about how much it cost if they messed something up. This shop has zero issues with it, is confident in it, says it is no big deal. Basically the way it was explained to me is that the new inverter welder can weld at a much lower heat, and higher amperage, so the chances of warping anything (especially of properly heat treated) is next to nothing. Other welders are a higher heat, and other heating methods for preheat may not be super accurate. So I am quite relieved he can say, "WE HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY! WE CAN MAKE IT BETTER, FASTER, STRONGER!"

 

But when you drop how much the heads are worth, at least you weed out very quickly who is confident in their skills vs who isn't.

making me want to go through my engine. i dont have any issues with it and just did an 80 mile canyon run at 85mph with no issues but still.. the sodium valves and potentially pitted heads are always nagging at me.

double post

making me want to go through my engine. i dont have any issues with it and just did an 80 mile canyon run at 85mph with no issues but still.. the sodium valves and potentially pitted heads are always nagging at me.

 

I was told by machinist, and am uncertain as to how much truth there is in it (I'm still looking into it) but he claims that the standard green coolant (even if it claims silicate free) is terrible for these types of aluminum heads. Based on the pitting I saw in the places where the head gasket failed, I suppose the evidence is clear. Though part of me goes, "Well, would it look that way with OTHER types of coolant as well?" but he recommended that when the engine is finished, to ensure I use the asian car/aluminum safe coolant (I think he said it's orange or red).

 

I still want to research and validate just exactly how much truth there is to it, but if indeed that is the case, then once the gaskets fail, I can see how it could become a problem. My head gaskets looked horrific when they came off. Worth noting, however, that moisture caused the pitting in the combustion chamber areas, but the damage to the gasket areas is all due to gasket failure. Judging by those gaskets, that engine had terrible gaskets for quite some time.

Also, am rebuilding the steering column. Pics to come soon. New bearings came in just the other day. Will try to get some interior progress shots and steering column shots soon.

Bearings came for the steering wheel column. Found NOS bearings on ebay. Turns out they are a standard NGK bearing 16004. The issue I'm running into is that there is some corrosion on the turn signal stalk, so I'm trying to clean that off. The switches in the dash all look good and I'm cleaning those up while I'm at it. Believe it or not, most of them pop apart with a simple tiny pick and something small like an eye glasses screwdriver. The innards are just dirty.

 

The coating on the steering column is flaking off. I'm not sure if it's actually factory, or if someone painted it at some point in time. Does anyone have a picture of their steering column and the color? is it bare metal? Is it black? Is it powdercoated? Is it painted? I'm toying with the idea of getting the outside of mine powdercoated. I'd like to know what the finish is like on other Jalpas.

 

The dash is completely disassembled so I can clean everything up. It had to come out to get to the front portion of the wiring harness, so I figured, "Eh, while I'm down there I may as well." Pretty sure I have the cleanest Jalpa dash around at the moment.

 

The only "dirty" part is the factory glue on the back from the leather work (can sort of see that in the picture)

 

The rest of the disassembled dash, also cleaned next to it.

 

Time to detail the heater vents, re-assemble, and I'll have a new looking dash. Nothing like italian leather, it's gorgeous.

 

Sometime this week I will likely be making a road trip to Portland to get the heads dropped off for final repairs and then hopefully I can FINALLY get the rest of this engine built. As things get detailed and refinished, the car is finally starting to feel more and more like progress. I suppose restoring a car like this is certainly not an overnight adventure. Hard to be patient sometimes, but seeing progress feels good, and makes it feel like a successful venture.

 

Also, I got the headlights up so I can remove them (only way I can see to get to the wiring harness up there). Probably the first time the lights have seen the light of day in ages.

 

 

That's awesome. Seems like a lot done!

You guys may or may not get a kick out of this. So I've been measuring all my fasteners and making a list of fasteners to order. I looked at the list and was like, "Well, I can do this, but I bet I'm going to be waiting a hell of a long time for that shit to get here. I don't feel like waiting that long. I wonder if there's a way to make them better the way they are?"

 

I got an idea to toss them into my media tumbler using a mixture of walnut and some metallic powders (you don't want to breathe the shit, definitely need a mask) but after a few days of tumbling... I saw someone had posted a tutorial on a forum about using a similar method for refinishing/polishing some random parts. My dad and grandpa both used to rockhound so I looked up the powders used for them and ordered them. I figured, "well, at the worst case it doesn't work and I order fasteners and just wait... oh well." I gotta say... wow. The reverse lockout was dirty and not at all clean with some spotting and clear wear on it. The fasteners for the heater unit were messy as hell. The vent fasteners were looking old and crusty. Some stuff was rusty and nasty. I did one run on them for a couple of days, and when I opened it up I was blown away.

 

 

Reverse lockout... looking like new

g

 

Random snap ring off the steering column. Didn't need it but I was curious anyway. It was just dirty.

 

Fastener off the heater area

 

And yes, the hood latch. Dirty and little bits of rust here and there, now clean after 1 day of tumbling. I give them 72 hours tops and they come out looking like new. I'm really not a concours type, but part of me thinks, "Well, it would be cool to keep stuff as original as possible if I can, and if I can clean it up and keep it original, well hell, why not?"

 

So basically... as I take stuff apart to work on it, I toss the fasteners in the tumbler. When that part of the project is done, take the fasteners out, toss them back on the car looking like new and go, "Hell yeah."

That's awesome!

Love the media tumbler idea! Keep us fed with pics!

Great idea.

Heading to portland today for the head work. If anyone in PDX is up for a cigar or a beer, let me know. PM me.

Heads dropped off. Extremely impressed with the shop. Clean work, awesome equipment, and when he finally saw the heads in person he actually wasn't really too concerned. He's apparently seen far worse, and fixed far worse. His verbatim words were, "The pictures made it look far worse, so I'm still waiting for you to scare me. Nah, those are fine, I can patch them up."

 

He's on vacation for a week, then is going to work on them and help me figure out a plan of action. Either way, I saw a haggard looking head from a marine application engine he was working on, it was missing a CHUNK out of it, and he was repairing it. Then I saw a head he had repaired, along with the performance build work he has in his shop. I drove home with confidence. Can't wait to see the heads cleaned up and decked.

That's great to hear.