Enders swap, Update 11/29/19 Options

[enderswift]

I'm ready

This post has been edited by enderswift: Nov 29, 2019 - 6:58 PM

[enderswift]

Hey 6gc,

I've made some good progress today Nothing major, but every little bit gets me THAT much closer to slamming into a median at 17 psi. The majority of the work was in head disassembly, which I'm thankful to have finally finished. I had a tough time sourcing a proper valve spring compressor, and actually spent the last two weeks researching all the different styles. I tried buying one at specialty stores, modifying one from work, and borrowing some kits from friends. Unfortunately every time I found a compressor or adapter it was always just short of what I needed. I considered buying online but the shipping would have taken too long and this saturday would have been wasted. So, I made my own. Its a very crude, very primitive chunk of steel. I'm almost embarrassed to show it since my welding skills are still pretty inadequate, But hey it did the job beautifully and allowed me to move forward. Its basically a 17 mm socket with a portion of the wall cut out, and some handles welded on one end. I would compress the retainers while my brother removed the keepers with one of those awesome extendable magnets. Although my custom tools worked, I will be using this in the future http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFTaeu4GIPo.


Dont judge me haha

With the head apart I was able to move towards cleaning everything in preparation for tolerancing. As with the valve spring compressor, I also spent a lot of time looking for the perfect degreaser to use. Its important to make a good selection because aluminum is a finicky material. You can easily lose a few thousandths of an inch if you let a machined surface oxidize. Therefore I avoided all of the common degreasers and asked around for recommendations. One of my sae buddies pointed me in the direction of simplegreen extreme motorsports. http://www.simplegreen.com/products_extreme_motor.php This stuff is safe on aluminum and is amazing at dissolving engine crud. Observe:

BEFORE:



AFTER:


Still have a ways to go but quite an improvement if you ask me. Basically I sprayed the head with the simple green and went to town with a tooth brush to work the stuff into the dirt. Thankfully my brother was a willing assistant otherwise I'd still be brushing haha. Anyway, after the toothbrush session I hit the aluminum with a pressure washer. This process was repeated a number of times and the head just kept turning out better and better. Unfortunately I cant reach all of tight spaces so I plan to buy a few gallons of the simple green and simply soak it until next Saturday haha. The pressure washer should be able to take care of the rest by then

During this whole process I made sure to keep things organized and put my cardboard template to use


The cardboard has a fixed orientation printed on it so its easy to keep track of the seemingly endless amount of tiny parts that compose the valvetrain. All I have to do is match a zip lock bag to the cardboard and I know exactly where those parts belong.

Anyway, thats it for this week. Next week I'm going to continue cleaning and plan to start measuring stuff. Stay tuned

This post has been edited by enderswift: Sep 10, 2014 - 7:22 AM