S1 Holden 186 smoke issues

well finally I feel like I'm again making some kinda progress. I took off the clutch and press plate realigned the two and reassembled which took way too long. Then got it as close to the engine as I could and then torqued the bolts evenly which eventually pulled the two halves together, thank god for that one. also ran around and redid the front and rear shafts as well as the gearbox mounts not all tightened but some bolted up.

couldn't resist the urge to fire her up, which she does rotate but no start. I have a feeling that removal of the distributor has upset the timing so will need to check if I'm getting any spark at the spark plug ends and progress from there I guess. completely buggered and filthy as so time for a quick shower and some coffee. had a early start this morning just hate getting under the car.

Sorry no pics today but am excited, over the last week in amongst the rain i have been doing some little work around the S1 and fitted the front pass door, p/s guard in place needs more bolts though, radiator is in (needs coolant), loosely fitted the front and rear shafts for the diffs, amongst other bits all kinda done and today thought i should try and start her up...

concerned about the removal of the distributor I pulled this out, removed the radiator and got TDC ensured that spark plug 1 was at its highest point, removed the distributor cap to align the rotor and kept trying to match with No1 spark plug then realised its the cable needs aligning not the spark plug so sorted, some fuel spray in the carby and it lives and fired up, impressed and no smoke wow...

do only thing now is that the battery is a little flat so gave it a quick charge for 15mins and fired up again but has no coolant - so next will be to charge the battery properly, buy some coolant and fill her up, then restart and let her warm up, rotate the distributor for the sweet spot etc.

clutch shaft is still not connected yet but will get onto that next as well as securing the bolts/nuts for the shafts and gearbox. then the remaining floor can be installed, bonnet will be last to go on. then back to bleeding the brakes again. kinda feels like I'm getting close to the end. cheers

1. so the engine hoist is packed up and ready to move out of the way, probably sell it as I have no further use for it.

2. battery is on charge so will leave for few hours to charge her up, did notice the cable did get quite warm yesterday so don't want to leave it on overnight in case ... should suffice to get me to start her up again

3. went to local SCA and bought some green coolant, filled her up 5L plus some more. no leaks yay. is cranking but the battery is flat so now the wait n see. final pic of her in this condition sitting idle dying to go out of the garage for a drive but we must be patient as i have no brakes [bigsad]

Joe , I would think about selling the engine crane , If you ever need to pull the gear box out again it will make it a lot easier . Once folded up they don't take up much room & are good for moving other heavy items around to save your back.

You own a Land Rover - keep the hoist. [emoji56][emoji106]

1. couldn't resist so through on the bonnet to complete the look of the front end of the series one, looking good (imho)

2. another shot of the front end. I did fire the old girl up and played around with the distributor and carby adjustments to get her to ideal nicely, almost there. runs well enough no excessive smoke like before but i did run into a small problem, me.

After running for 5mins or less didn't think the temp on the radiator would be that hot and curious to see the level of coolant and most probably needed a top up from empty - well you can guess what happened next, burnt index finger my stupidity. I did think it could explode if hot and it did. I guess it don't take long to warm up the engine.

anyway what's next - lots of bolts to tighten up, floor needs to go back in, clutch shaft needs fitting, then the brakes and I could have a mobile working vehicle, can't wait...

1. so my clutch was working fine before removing the holden 186 and then refitted the 202. I did have a mark on some tape but one of my tapes blew off so could not replicate the existing fitting so here it is without the shaft

2. here is the shaft connected, i have tried a number of variations but all give no clutch, again seems like there just is not enough movement on the pedal shaft to rotate enough to engage/disengage the clutch

3. so had another look at the adjusting shaft and its set at maximum length to get the most out of the pedal depress and subsequent max shaft rotation

4. another view, but am yet to figure this out.

confident that it worked well with the 186, the 202 should make no difference, the clutch and pressure plate all reinstalled as was previously so thinking it has to do with the shaft and or pedal adjustment.

positive is the car now starts well, topped up with coolant, tidied up some wiring from the guard that was removed, all lights working yay

This site will conclude as of today as future updates no longer belong to the holden powered section and will pick up from my old series one section titled 'tiny bit excited' should you wish to follow my journey.

interesting two old blokes bought my old 186 short motor and told me (not sure how accurate) that they had been in search of a holden 6 but insisted it had to be a std bore not oversized when questioned why, they said once reconditioned the oversize have heating problems which i find hard to believe given so many engines are rebored when reconditioned. Is there any truth to this. they were keen to measure the bore width which they did to confirm it was a std block not even trusting the piston stamp of 'std'. they did note the pistons on this engine had previously been changed - not sure how they knew that one.

anyhow good outcome, cleared up more room. thanks for watching.

Good thread,
following with interest.
You will probably find that your 202 will run a bit warmer than the 186 did, as they are basically the same engine block and share the same bore diameter, however the 202 has a quarter inch longer stroke, so in effect a bigger bang generating more heat.

As for the oversize/re-bored engines running hotter, i doubt it makes much difference until they are taken out a fair way, like sixty or eighty thou and by then cylinder walls are starting to get thinner.

Happy motoring.

Cheers, Mick.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by shamirj

This site will conclude as of today as future updates no longer belong to the holden powered section and will pick up from my old series one section titled 'tiny bit excited' should you wish to follow my journey.

interesting two old blokes bought my old 186 short motor and told me (not sure how accurate) that they had been in search of a holden 6 but insisted it had to be a std bore not oversized when questioned why, they said once reconditioned the oversize have heating problems which i find hard to believe given so many engines are rebored when reconditioned. Is there any truth to this. they were keen to measure the bore width which they did to confirm it was a std block not even trusting the piston stamp of 'std'. they did note the pistons on this engine had previously been changed - not sure how they knew that one.

anyhow good outcome, cleared up more room. thanks for watching.

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