Ah didn't see Mile's reply, beat me to it :)

Well, I am away again at the moment - so everything is on hold until I get back! Though I might try and get some of the things like gasket set, bolt set, and all of that ordered before I am due to come home, so that I will have even more things to try and cram in my garage, until the engine itself turns up.

i think the idea of bringing the engine crane home is the best one - then I get the best of both worlds - being able to work on it at home, but then heading to the workshop to actually install it.

I am sure that a hand to move things up there once the engine is ready will be MUCH appreciated... though my timeframe is getting pushed back a lot at the moment, as I possibly have another job at the end of October now (got to pay for all this stuff somehow, right?) which means that even if i get the engine built, I don't think I will have time to install it before I go to the USA - so realistically I'm looking at early January for doing the swap.

It also seems a bit silly to race to get it all done, get it in and running and then promptly leave it sitting about for 6 weeks whilst I'm away, I may aswell leave the old lump in there for that time and then start fresh in the New Year, when hopefully I'll be around a bit more to actually use it!

I guess I now have to wait until a) I get home and can start doing some more bits and b) a call from V8 Dev once the short engine is ready and I can pay another chunk of money to get it delivered...

How much would they charge to deliver? I could call in there and drop it in my boot and bring it up to yours if you want, I've been meaning to find an excuse to drop in and see them for ages to let them see how mine has settled in. Don't forget your engine crane has a broken wheel from the Disco shifting episode.......

I think the price included delivery to me - but I'll have to check that when they give me a call to say it's ready and for the rest of the money,,,
If delivery is going to be loads, then I'll drop you a message and see if we can work something out...

Engine crane is fixed - I bought 4x new rubber wheeled castors and fitted them awhile ago (thanks for the idea, Chris!) - rolls a lot better now too...

Marty! Sorry for my late reply. Sometimes daily life forces us to plan things different, the same with me. Thank you for keeping my old lump in mind, I'm now stripping the 60D (current driver) to be relinerd, I could borrow an enginehoist and try to have it into the garage this weekend so it looks a bit like a junkyard on my driveway.
One head is off, not one slipped liner. I hope the other one is different and explains the high coolantpressure and coolantloss.
I tried to remove the head with exhaustmanifold but I cannot reach the rearmost headbolt, flange of the manifold is in the way.
A shame I have overlooked your post where you explain your schedule, you were in Amsterdam that's only 10 miles from my place we could have grabbed a pint somewhere.
After that you be off for Cannes, not too bad at all, if you have time walk around the Martinez and have a peek in their garage...

Well, if you are about at all during the day tomorrow Ferryman, then I have a bit of free time now! My flight is in the evening. And I was expecting to have to go to work again in the morning to finish off my load out. However, we managed to get the truck in tonight, so got very thing derigged and loaded tonight... which means I now have until 4pm when I have to go to the airport, off.

So if you are about at all in the day, then I'm sure we could find coffee or something like that!

If not, then now I know you aren't far away, I'll let you know if I'm back here at some point!

Cannes... should be ok.. only there for 4 days, a day will be working solidly all day too, so might not have much down time there this time. Will see how I go though I guess!

Marty PM

Well, a bit of an update...

Been slowly spending a fair chunk of money and getting parts together for when the short engine arrives, and then I can hopefully get on with the rebuild.

Currently I have some second hand rocker gear on the way, as it's cheaper to get all that for the springs/washers/pedestals than to get all the bits individually. I have new rocker shafts, steel rockers, pushrods, tappets etc ready, along with thrust plate for the camshaft.

Heads are back as you've seen in other pictures - I have a valve spring compressor, so I can take the valve springs off, to swap them for new ones - and also renew the oil stem seals. Then the heads are pretty much ready to go. Will give the exhaust ports a bit of a clean I think aswell.

Have a replacement lower inlet manifold which I've pulled the fuel rail off and will be cleaning that up over the next couple of days to get it ready. It needs drilling and tapping for LPG ports, which I'll do aswell, so it's ready to go straight on.

Today been cleaning off the replacement upper inlet manifold, which also needs a couple of ports put in for LPG, but I need to check the sizing on them and get a couple of put in. Stripped the throttle body back aswell, cleaned all the parts on it and masked it and the inlet manifold ready for painting.

Decided to paint the top bits, and the rocker covers in a gloss black - so hopefully it will look nice when finished!

Going to call V8 Developments in the morning to see what the progress of the short engine is - though I've got a fair bit more work to do before I can actually assemble the whole thing anyway!

More pics to follow...

So you're doing a thorough job then, hardest part is degreasing the parts to be painted, will you have them powdercoated (rockercovers)? It will last longer at higher temperatures. As for the rockers you choose steel ones, any reason in particular?

Tony.

Yeah, a second front cover arrived today, as one of the pressure relief valve caps is stuck in the bore of the original one.. typically I found that after cleaning the rest of it! Luckily, the second one has had both valve caps come out, but it is absolutely filthy, so it going to need a really good clean.. thinking of soaking it in diesel, but need to a) get diesel and b) get a container that will fit the front cover in, and not get eroded by the diesel itself!

Powdercoating... I have considered it, but not sure how much it will cost, (I'm up to about £3500 so far on parts/engine and keep finding other things that I need to purchase along the way!) I'm tempted to just give them a blast with some spray paint and be done with it... the thing gets covered in dust and mud all the time anyway, but hoping that the paint will make it a bit easier to clean as the porous finish of the casting traps dirt like mad! If I can find someone who will powdercoat parts at a reasonable price, then I would consider it - especially as you say, on the rocker covers..

Rockers... I've heard bad things about aftermarket alloy rockers, and premature wear. I figured that steel ones are more likely to last a bit longer. I bought them from V8 tuner, as with the ARP studs, so figure they are worth the investment.

I've heard from V8 Developments today and the engine is ready - he's going to give me a call a bit later in the day to get my credit card details for the balance, and then it will be shipped out. So fingers crossed that in a couple of days it will be here and I can slowly get on with starting to build it. Think the first thing on the list (after taking pictures of course!!) will be to get the cam installed, as I've seen that it's easier to do this whilst standing the block on end.. Then I'll get it craned up and bolted onto the engine stand and see what else I can get done before I have to go away...

Nobody's yet noticed that the throttle body has a new heater plate on it... not that i'm planning on taking it to Siberia, but figured I may aswell start as I mean to go on and have it work at least for a couple of weeks before it gets bypassed...

Now you've mentioned it, wow, what a shiny new heaterplate that is! I get that you have the crank installed and balanced by V8 Dev, otherwise you wouldn't need to crane it on the stand (even a pensionado like me can lift a bare block). I feel yealous about the Piper cam, it crossed my mind but out of the budget since, as you say, the list gets longer and longer. And the benefit is 20% max, when having the heads from them too. Thats a lot yes, but I have to draw a line somewhere so it is a standard cam and new thrustplate. My heads are fine (were 4 months ago when I had them done and pressed, now only a light skim) so I will do with them. Expect my block back this week.

About the frontcover soaking in diesel, why not get a camping dishwash bowl, it will fit in there.

I know it's always an embarrassment buying diesel in case anyone you know sees you, it'll do your street cred no good at all. However, I've found that it's also very good for lighting bonfires so you could use that as an excuse with firework night next week.

I know it's always an embarrassment buying diesel in case anyone you know sees you

I enjoy my periodic trips to the local supplier with my Jerry cans for 50 litres of "Red". Feels kind of naughty and cool at the same time, especially as I'm probably the only customer they have that actually uses it legitimately. Bit like visiting a Speakeasy in the days of Prohibition.
Best of all, there's no toxic leftovers to get rid of.
Once it's been used in the parts washer I put it through a filter and then it gets burned in the tractor and heater

Well, I haven't had the indignity of having to go and buy diesel so far...

Sloth recommended me to some 'No Nonsense' degreaser, from Screwfix... £5.99 for 5L of the stuff, so decidd to give it a whirl.

The good news is that unlike the first cover where one of the caps for the oil pressure relief and bypass valves had decided to seize in (reason for getting the second one), both of them came out nice and easily on this one - so no stress this time! However, it arrived and was absolutely ripe... I hate to think what the oil leaks were on the engine it came off, but it was completely sludged up on both the inside an out. A 'before' picture of what the inside looked like:

I bought a big plastic tub yesterday aswell, to be able to used as a cleaning place, which is big enough to fit the whole of the front cover or a rocker cover in and submerge it if necessary. I figured I'd see how good this stuff was (I bought 10L of it as I figured something that cheap would need a fair bit!) and just poured probably 100ml or so into the front cover and started to give it a bit of a scrub with an old toothbrush. I also chucked in the oil pressure relief valve caps, springs, and pistons into the mix to give them a scrub.

A 'during' picture

I managed to get the oil pump gear cover cleaned and the relief valve parts done, and will get a picture today of how they came out. I've also started cleaning the outside of the front cover aswell, as it was even worse than the inside... it's starting to get there, but needs another dose of cleaner and elbow grease to get it to my standards!

But as a first look of the inside after a bit of a scrub and then a rinse in fresh water:

Needless to say that for the amount of effort I actually put into scrubbing and the amount of degreaser fluid I actually used, I am totally amazed. I will have to get a couple of pictures of the other pieces I cleaned, as they came up sparkling too. I think I've found my new favorite cleaning solution... It says on the bottle to dissolve 5 capfuls in 5L of water, or for more stubborn jobs to use it neat and then rinse off.

So with that all taking shape, hopefully I'll be able to to get this part all clean today, and then mask it off for painting aswell.

Speaking of painting, I got impatient and wanted to get something painted, so even though the conditions probably weren't the best, I decided to give the throttle body the first coat, and then brought it into the house overnight to be in the warm, dry climate. I think it came up alright!

And as another aside, I pulled the fuel rail and injectors out of the other lower inlet manifold I have, and then re-sat the fuel rail and the upper inlet manifold back on, so I could get an ides on whether there would be space under there to fit the rails of LPG injectors when I go to do the rebuild... I figured part of my issues and general non-perfect running on gas is probably because the hose lengths are a bit longer than what is ideal, given the bunch of bananas that restrict access. I was thinking of cutting out the metal between the bananas as Morat has, but looking at it like this, I think that the injector rails should just fit under there, and then be able to have some nice short hoses, straight to the inlet manifold.

This one doesn't yet have the holes drilled and tapped for the LPG hoses, so once it's all cleaned up a bit more, I will have to look through my bits and pieces and see if I have enough of the nozzles to fit, otherwise I'll get some ordered. I also need to drill/tap the upper inlet manifold for the pressure ports to the vaporiser and the sensor, so will have to get the correct size nozzles for them aswell.

I know you all bang on about LPG but if you was to go to a specialist, what is the cost of having it professionally fitted?

£1200-1500 but a specialist would have time constraints so wouldn't go to the effort that a DIY'er would. Someone doing it themselves might take weeks or even months to do it and get everything not just fitted, working and tidy but would spend the time making it look as if it came out of the factory looking that way. A pro installer would take 3 days maximum and fit the injectors on top and run the hoses either through or around the bunch of bananas. Looking at that gap under the upper manifold, as long as there's nothing else run under there taking up space, you'd easily fit the injectors under there so the hose lengths would be kept shorter (giving better throttle response) and you wouldn't run into problems with the injectors potentially being hard up against the underside of the bonnet. Looking at that gap and knowing that a competent pro installer would remove at least the upper manifold, I'm surprised none have chosen to fit the injectors under there.

The reason we all bang on about LPG is because you get all the benefits of running a petrol engine but with running costs lower than a diesel. To do the 1520 miles to Latvia cost me under £200 in fuel. I'm running at around 15p a mile in the UK but in Europe where LPG is even cheaper (I filled up in Belgium at 31.2 Euro cents a litre, 17.31 Euros for enough fuel to take me around 210 miles). It's V8 power, smoothness and luxury but without the running costs.

You can pay from a grand upwards, so many different systems, it's a shop around conversion to get the best price for what you want

Marty your under-banana's install of the injectors was just what I had in mind when I did my LPG install, see my LPG install thread with the photo's. But I was not sure about the state of the LPG equipment to work, if at all and placing the injectors underneath means a double loom of wiring tucked away there too which makes troubleshooting a lot more difficult. Therefore I have put them on top, once up and running with the 'new' block I will put them there too.

One point of attention when drilling the nozzles into the inletmanifold is the access to the manifoldbolts. I have 4 bolts I cannot reach with a socket because of the nozzle next to it but need a ringspanner. When I turn them loose I can do a bit, lift the manifold a bit and unscrew the rest of the bolt. Can't reach them with the torquewrench either. Just a point, you want the nozzles as close to the petrolinjectors don't you.

BTW, it's a nice paintjob you did!

That would be a problem if using secondhand kit but if using new, or just moving injectors that had been working fine before, then it shouldn't be a problem tucking them away. It might make for more problems sometime in the future if they start to get worn, but then you could extend the hoses and temporarily place them where you can get to them. Not sure if the Thor and GEMS lower manifolds are the same, but if you are careful it is possible to place the nozzles so you can still get to the manifold bolts. Or you can on a GEMS anyway as I drilled my manifold while it was off but have decided against fitting a multipoint as the singlepoint on mine works so well.

Looking under the manifold, as it is sitting in that picture, the only things missing are the engine wiring loom to the petrol injectors, and the petrol injectors themselves.

My plan is to whip the LPG injectors out of my one and install them in there before even fitting the new engine, so they are all there and pretty much plumbed in. (partly to make sure they fit!)

On a lot of the newer LPG installations, you have the LPG loom that runs to the petrol injectors, and there a couple of extra plugs/sockets in there, so the petrol loom feeds into the LPG loom, and then the LPG loom then has a new connector for the petrol injector. My setup when it was installed has all the LPG injector pickup wires and feeds back from the LPG ECU to the petrol injectors all soldered into the main engine harness, so there is just a single connector that still goes to each petrol injector, and then there is the second loom(s) to the LPG injectors.

I think that it should all fit under there, but I will make sure I do a test-fit to make sure there is clearance for the wiring, injector rail, and hosework, to make sure that there won't be any kinks in the LPG feed hoses. At the moment, my injectors are mounted at the back of the engine bay, so the feeds all run out the back of the manifold (been like that since it was installed in 2008) but the throttle response is a bit slow, and I put that down to the length of the hoses. Besides, if I can make it a nice and neat install, with just the extra gas feed hoses running around the back, (and coolant lines to the vapouriser) then it will be nicer, neater, and hopefully better response... especially as it will have a high-torque cam in there aswell...

It's not that much of a pain to get the upper manifold off if needed to get to the injectors... but since they are all pretty much new, they should be good for awhile!

Got the first coat of paint on the front of the upper manifold this morning, and a second coat on the throttle body... will probably give a first coat to the bananas a bit later, as i'm still cleaning the front cover!