Resurrecting Jalpa #359

Great news!!

Great news!!

 

He was able to source some valves for me, price was good. HOWEVER, Manley Valves ended up being what sounds like better quality, and also less expensive. I think I'll go that route.

Definitely go that route.

 

When it comes to valvetrain, I rarely like OEM equipment.

Definitely go that route.

 

When it comes to valvetrain, I rarely like OEM equipment.

 

Well, with the horror stories I've heard of the sodium filled valves breaking off.... yeahhhhhh. I'd rather go SS.

Machinist was happy he doesn't have to machine the spacers to do this. He happily mentioned that he has managed to source valves, valve guides and various other bits for the motor. All for pretty decent prices. I was able to source some as well but I'm going to trust his judgement on quality. He did some more cleaning on them, they look fantastic.

just came across this site, which i had not seen before. they sell stuff on ebay, but I never visited the site.

 

some clutch parts at decent prices, and this, for 16 hun you can get a complete harness.....which i think you need.

 

http://www.whiteracingproducts.com/index.p...ducts_id=214865

just came across this site, which i had not seen before. they sell stuff on ebay, but I never visited the site.

 

some clutch parts at decent prices, and this, for 16 hun you can get a complete harness.....which i think you need.

 

http://www.whiteracingproducts.com/index.p...ducts_id=214865

 

I already have a harness.

Certainly not finished, not even close. BUT here is some pics of the wiring harness progress. Need to finish soldering new ends on and then do some heat shrink on the ends. Aside from that... using 1100F resistant loom on the new harness. No particular reason aside from heat protection, and the engine bay does get hot.

 

Steps taken...

 

- Resistance test from wire to wire before

- Crimp new end connectors and solder

- Resistance test wire to wire after to verify connections

- Put new loom on

- Finish heat shrinking the ends

- Smile in confidence knowing it'll be reliable for a very very long time

 

Here's some before and after. You can see the factory loom is cracking, splitting, nasty, hard as a rock. Time for some new goodies! What's better, the original loom was HUGE and VERY STIFF, so it was hard as shit to route and move it around the crevasses where the wires all bundle together. This stuff expands for you to get the wire through it, then you just stretch it down and it gets thinner. So it's far more compact. Makes routing wayyyyyyyy easier.

Great job! I would hate doing all that wiring.

well when it comes to wiring you are nothing if not meticulous!

looks great, when do you plan on having it on the road?

Great job! I would hate doing all that wiring.

 

I greatly enjoy wiring, odd as it sounds. It's something that when done, is a noticeable improvement, and to me is a good way to give yourself some confidence going down the road knowing that there is no hidden "gems" in the wiring, lets you improve on things you want done in different ways. All in all when it's said and done I can drive down the road knowing that wiring will not be a problem. That is worth the time spent.

 

I did this to my 911 when I bought it. Did a full engine out maintenance on it and rewired the entire engine bay when I bought it. Ripped out the old wiring when I did the stereo and installed new wiring for the entire stereo. It's just "one of those things" I think is worth doing, always.

well when it comes to wiring you are nothing if not meticulous!

looks great, when do you plan on having it on the road?

 

I am at the mercy of my machinist. I'm not rushing the engine build. I want to drive it this summer, but I don't know. Sometimes the machinist is very speedy depending on his load with other projects, sometimes he has slow weeks. I'm in no rush (ok who am I kidding, I want the car running yesterday) but I'm being as patient as I can be, knowing that it's worth the time spending it to do it right.

I greatly enjoy wiring, odd as it sounds. It's something that when done, is a noticeable improvement, and to me is a good way to give yourself some confidence going down the road knowing that there is no hidden "gems" in the wiring, lets you improve on things you want done in different ways. All in all when it's said and done I can drive down the road knowing that wiring will not be a problem. That is worth the time spent.

 

I did this to my 911 when I bought it. Did a full engine out maintenance on it and rewired the entire engine bay when I bought it. Ripped out the old wiring when I did the stereo and installed new wiring for the entire stereo. It's just "one of those things" I think is worth doing, always.

Oh, I totally understand the "why" aspect. It's the "doing" aspect that kills me. This is the perfect time to do it and will pay off down the road when you have ZERO electrical issues.

 

I purchased as much "pre wired" harness as possible on the LS1 swap in my 911. Just did the minimal amount of my own wiring.

 

 

 

Just realized this post makes me look incredibly lazy.

Oh, I totally understand the "why" aspect. It's the "doing" aspect that kills me. This is the perfect time to do it and will pay off down the road when you have ZERO electrical issues.

 

I purchased as much "pre wired" harness as possible on the LS1 swap in my 911. Just did the minimal amount of my own wiring.

 

 

 

Just realized this post makes me look incredibly lazy.

 

nah it's all good, I get it. I can't blame you especially when there is a lot of support for something like that and it's easy to find something. I loved the swap by the way, really cool stuff!

Been a while since I've posted an update. Life has been busy. New job, busy with other projects, etc etc.

 

Machinist called me friday. Heads are completely disassembled, we are ready to do repairs and order parts and get the heads refinished. I have a meeting with him later this week and will go inspect and see what I'm getting myself into. Will take pics. Super excited.

It happens. Beats rushing. Same thing with the mustang...got to where I need to remove and weld in new pieces and my buddy who said he would help hasnt made any attempt to come help get started so at this point me and my dad are looking to take a welding weekend course..so it's gonna be a while before there is more progress haha. That's great about the heads!

It happens. Beats rushing. Same thing with the mustang...got to where I need to remove and weld in new pieces and my buddy who said he would help hasnt made any attempt to come help get started so at this point me and my dad are looking to take a welding weekend course..so it's gonna be a while before there is more progress haha. That's great about the heads!

 

Yeah the heads do have pitting and he said they are "rough" - but honestly, it seems like he's confident he can fix them. Likely far cheaper than buying other used heads of questionable condition (or even new heads). I'll check them out and keep you all posted. One step at a time.

Yeah, definitely have them repaired. It's going to be the best option to have a quality part on your car.

Yeah, definitely have them repaired. It's going to be the best option to have a quality part on your car.

 

Yeah my logic on that is the following:

 

- Buying new heads are out of this world expensive. I can have the current heads repaired for a fraction of the cost, as well as modified/flow tested.

- Buying used heads would be questionable, and likely also may need some repairs.

 

I'm far better off repairing the heads I have (especially at the price I was quoted) and updating it to 21st century materials.

Yeah my logic on that is the following:

 

- Buying new heads are out of this world expensive. I can have the current heads repaired for a fraction of the cost, as well as modified/flow tested.

- Buying used heads would be questionable, and likely also may need some repairs.

 

I'm far better off repairing the heads I have (especially at the price I was quoted) and updating it to 21st century materials.

 

I would bet you are correct about the condition of a used set of replacement heads. On my rebuild, the heads were in really bad shape. I ended up accruing a bunch of extra cost because of all the man hours required in repairing them. They were so pitted the pits needed to be fill welded in order to get the surface prepared for planing. I guess there was a lot of filling needed.

I would bet you are correct about the condition of a used set of replacement heads. On my rebuild, the heads were in really bad shape. I ended up accruing a bunch of extra cost because of all the man hours required in repairing them. They were so pitted the pits needed to be fill welded in order to get the surface prepared for planing. I guess there was a lot of filling needed.

 

That's my biggest vice of searching for used heads, because from the pics I've seen, it's common. Since the heads are an open element design instead of a closed head, it makes sense, especially with the way the head gaskets fail.

Alright, I have a few minutes to update. The last month has been insane. SO I finally met with my machinist today. There's 2 buckets he couldn't get out, and is going to have to cut to get them out (which is fine). The rest of them are disassembled and apart.

 

- Cams look awesome the wear looks very good and according to my machinist they are in excellent shape. We thought something was funky with the sides of the lobes but after a little research he figured out it's just the way the factory ground them as it doesn't look like wear, it's just a strange texture from the grind. Either way, cams are awesome.

- Springs look great

- The valves are fine (except one which broke, and I suspected one or two might). Doesn't matter, they're getting replaced with updated materials anyway.

- The material where the cams sit is awesome and in excellent shape

- The buckets are in fantastic shape (except the two that won't come out, whatever)

 

The pitting where the head gasket failed and sat for a long time is pretty bad. I knew that it was pretty gnarly and that it's a common issue for the Jalpas, but they'll need some good welding to fix them. Media blasting happens this next week, then it's time to get them welded up with some new material and then they'll come back for parts, and then flow work.

 

Some notable and interesting things my machinist pointed out to me:

 

- The area where the seats are at is an abrupt edge. There is no added material for the seats and that disrupts the flow quite a lot.

- The area for the intake port has a near 90 degree angle instead of a nice flowing edge, also disrupts flow

- Where the guides sit has an oblong shape and sits at an angle, instead of an even bulbous fashion, and if enough material is there, can be improved, since this also disrupts flow.

 

He is going to map out a plan on what he wants to do for flow work, but said it should be no issue once we're ready to finish the heads up to do some flow work and get them flowing much better.

 

 

Here you can clearly see that this head gasket failed a while ago, and sat there some time like that. Some deep pitting.

 

These two buckets can suck it.

I love this thread, it's great when you insert photos with your description, keep up the good work, I can't wait to see this car on the road, you should be very proud of yourself!

I love this thread, it's great when you insert photos with your description, keep up the good work, I can't wait to see this car on the road, you should be very proud of yourself!

 

Thank you for the kind words, Fortis. It's really an incredible feeling to make it this far and making so much progress. Life is really busy right now, but I'm still making time for the Lambo. I'm very happy to have a machinist who is as motivated on the engine rebuild as I am about the car. It makes a world of difference. You should see how excited he gets every time he talks about doing the flow work and hearing it finished haha.

 

Thanks again

Well, today I decided to take the bottom half apart. So it was time to dig into the bottom end. The bottom half of the block was actually fairly simple to disassemble, once you actually got to it. The issue is that the small bolts holding on the oil tubes were pretty well at a weird angle. You could't get a shallow socket on them, so I ended up shaving down a wrench on the back half (can't see it in the below pics) to get one of them out, and then using a small mallet to tap on the wrench to loosen it up.

 

 

 

Finally, with the pan off, and oil tubes out of the way, the bottom half can be seen. Which is held in by 19mm nuts and 13mm nuts.

 

The bottom end is incredibly clean.

 

Markings from the builder.

 

More markings

 

Bottom half is now separated, and the crankshaft, rods, bearings and pistons, along with the liners can be accessed. I am not sure if it's normal, but the liners themselves wanted to easily come out with a few of the pistons, but not all.

 

Crankshaft is in fantastic shape. I don't see any odd wear. Part of me is like "well I could probably reuse those bearings" but I think since I'm THIS far, I may as well just get new bearings and not worry about it for a long long time.

 

More crankshaft

 

More markings, and the 2 rods for 2 of the cylinders

 

Another angle.

 

One of the pistons, rods and bearings.

 

They aren't very big, no banana for scale, so I used my hand.

 

One of the cylinder liners.

 

One of the cylinder liners taken out

 

I am done for the day, I'm pretty beat.