Engine Ancillaries
If you’re a regular reader, then you’ll have seen last month’s part one of this guide to tidying your engine ancillaries. If you missed it, consult our back issues page…
Many people just slap their engine together before throwing it in their Bus, but you could be setting yourself up for issues further down the road, so to speak. Here’s part two, showing you how to minimise future issues when building up your engine.
01 Tap / die threads
Whether you’ve sent off tinware to be powder coated or not, you’ll have likely given everything a lick of paint and maybe clogged up some of the threads on your tinware or engine case with paint. Even if you haven’t, 40+ years of life will have given rust and dirt a chance to clog the threads for you. Before trying to bolt everything back together, it’s a great idea to use a set of taps and dies to chase all of the threads, so you don’t round or strip threads when re-assembling everything. All of the tinware threads are M6 and a few things like the manifold/exhaust and thermostat studs are M8 – a die nut is most useful here. Go slowly and back the tap or die up regularly to clear any swarf out.
02 Re-torque heads
Whilst all of the tinware is off, you’d be wise to re-torque your cylinder heads. To do this, consult a manual for the loosening and tightening sequences – you’ll need to undo the heads first, following the correct sequence, before re-torquing them. If you over-tighten any of the nuts, you’ll need to start again. A reliable torque wrench is essential here.
03 Pushrod tubes
How many times have you discovered
