(Not*) Mediocre 242

[quillc]

Nice work!

 

[Quin]

glad to see a thread for this car finally. i was very surprised at ipd to walk over and see what was under the hood.

 

[John242Ti]

My buddy is in the automotive body program at a local university and has access to their paint bay. I really just need to go spend $100 or so at Sherwin-Williams and pick up some black single stage. Just haven't done it yet.

Get the sunroof panel done at the same time, unless you installed the spare panel that Luke had for the car when he owned it.

-J

 

[cosbySweater]

get the coffin hood back on there. this is turbobricks, not vwvortex

 

[amerbritcan]

I think the orange hood looks neat

 

[+Kardboard+]

+1 for orange hood. My 242 still has an orange hood.

 

[Redwood Chair]

Halloween's right around the corner...

 

[t8fanning]

Halloween's right around the corner...

I'll paint the hood when I get around to painting the hood. It's high up on my list of things to do (along with a True Trac), but I have more important things to worry about right now. Like getting the engine installed and running.

I didn't have much time to work on it this weekend, but the engine is just about ready to go in. I am waiting for a -10 oil return conversion from Yoshifab, and need to put my oil pan on. I also need to finish touching up engine bay paint and then the engine can finally go in.

Which brings me to my question. Should I install my oil pan gaskets dry or with some type of sealant? I'm thinking dry and properly torquing, but I'm not sure how that will seal with the crank scraper. They are single piece aftermarket gaskets and the block, scraper, and oil pan surfaces are clean and free of gasket remnants.

 

[Stiggy Pop]

Oil return... engine is on a stand just tap that bish for 3/4 NPT.

I did my oil pan gasket dry, no leaks.

 

[toms_elleck]

Subaru oil pans go on with no gasket, just a solid bead of grey RTV (torque to full amount immediately, no waiting 2 hours nonsense like the black RTV). Doing a few of those and having no leaks has made me a believer. I won't do another oil pan gasket without some grey RTV involved.

BUT, I wouldn't use RTV with the gasket. If using a gasket, I like to use that nasty brown aviation gasket glue stuff, applied to both sides of the gasket and the sealing surfaces.
http://www.jegs.com/i/Permatex/775/...0&cadevice=c&gclid=CL3mgfHo888CFYFYfgodpgMMwg

 

[Redwood Chair]

Or white lithium grease on a paper gasket that keeps oil in...

 

[toms_elleck]

Or white lithium grease on a paper gasket that keeps oil in...

I've only tried that on the oil sump gasket on aircooled VW engines, and it didn't work for me. Might have been due to the expansion/contraction of the magnesium vs. steel, I don't know.

But the aviation glue always seems to work well. It's incredibly sticky and messy if you're not disciplined with applying it. But it has just enough give to let the parts move a bit, but it is not dissolved or thinned out by the hot oil. Good stuff!

 

[t8fanning]

I ended up using an aftermarket one piece gasket between the block and the crank scraper and an OEM 3 piece gasket between the crank scraper and oil pan. Both installed dry.

I also made some progress tonight:

The engine and trans are in. I need to put all the accessories on, make a new alternator power wire and I'm still waiting on my oil return fitting. I also need to get a longer power steering belt. But I'm getting close. Hopefully I can get the majority of it done by the end of the week.

 

[Stiggy Pop]

The engine and trans are in. I need to put all the accessories on, make a new alternator power wire and I'm still waiting on my oil return fitting. I also need to get a longer power steering belt. But I'm getting close. Hopefully I can get the majority of it done by the end of the week.

noiiice. Do you drive the car all year round?

I used.. hmm I think it was #4 welding cable for the alternator>starter run.

 

[t8fanning]

noiiice. Do you drive the car all year round?

I used.. hmm I think it was #4 welding cable for the alternator>starter run.

Yep. It's my daily driver. I put my set of studded snow tires to use.

I have some 4 AWG wire with some terminals I was planning on using.

 

[Duder]

Progress looks good on this.

The topic of oil pan gaskets installed dry vs. with sealant is a fascinating one. I think a lot of the variation in success of different methods comes from:

-Engine block material vs. pan material. Iron block / steel pan CTEs will be much closer than iron block / aluminum pan.
-Thermal gradient across the length of the engine. Combined with material CTE differences the expansion & contraction of the pan vs. the block affects clamp load and sealing
-Gasket material and deflection when clamped
-Clamp load variation from fastener to fastener, especially when dealing with old gummed up threads and previously yielded screws - same torque indicated on a wrench, but big variations in thread friction hence bolt stretch and clamp load

I've read theories that too much sealant on the wrong block / pan combination will fail to seal because growth of the pan is enough to break the bond between the sealant and the gasket, letting the gasket slide vs the sealing surface and create leaks. Without the sealant, the gasket deforms enough to maintain sealing.

I'm no expert on pan gaskets but have thought about all of the above on myriad different engines I've worked on over the past few years and it's always fun to ponder.

That being said I smeared a light coating of Permatex Ultra Gray on both sealing surfaces of my B230FT pan gasket. Hasn't run yet so I'm not sure this was the right move.

 

[t8fanning]

That being said I smeared a light coating of Permatex Ultra Gray on both sealing surfaces of my B230FT pan gasket. Hasn't run yet so I'm not sure this was the right move.

For what it's worth, Jim Grubbs motorsports in Valencia built this engine and they used a thick smear of what looked to be Permatex Ultra Black on and around the seam of both surfaces. It looked like they smoothed a bead with their finger. Based on the amount of time it took to clean off, I'm confident it never would have leaked. I wonder if they did it only because of the scraper, if they do it for all engines, or just iron to steel interfaces.

When you run your B230FT, I'd be interested to hear how the gasket holds up.

 

[Stiggy Pop]

Getchu an e-fan

 

[t8fanning]

Getchu an e-fan

I've thought about it, but I like the simplicity an reliability of a clutch fan. For those reasons, and because I'm out of outputs on my microsquirt, I haven't worried about an e-fan yet. However, that might change after I break in this engine.

 

[t8fanning]

I made a little bit of progress tonight. I put the driveshaft in, bolted the motor and transmission in, put the front end back together, plumbed a few coolant lines and modified some wiring to work with the new Volvo coolant temperature sensor and new ID1000s.

The intake and exhaust manifolds aren't on yet, just test fit.

I like USCAR connectors much more than EV1 connectors.

However, when I was cutting off the old EV1 connectors, I forgot I had just removed the tape covering the intake ports. I clipped the old connector and heard a tinkle as the two connectors fell. I didn't see where they both fell, but it sounded like one fell into an intake port. Of course the valve was open, so I think I have a crimped connector sitting on a piston.

Looks like I'm stopping by Harbor Freight tomorrow and picking up the cheapest borescope I can find. If it is indeed in the cylinder, I'll probably try to vacuum it out. Any other ideas how to get it out without taking the head off? I'd really like to not waste a cometic gasket and keep the head on.