Thread: Plugger and The Camel

Homestar,

Thanks heaps for the input, very appreciated.

I have head that the 36 ADM 2-barrel Weber off the XE/XF Falcons work brilliantly on the Holden sixes. In your opinion do you think that these Webers would suffer the same malady as the Holley on slopes seeing as they are a different configuration??

They are readily available, cheap, and I can get a Lynx adapter plate for the Weber to fit the Cain manifold off the shelf.

Thoughts?

Cheers,
Tricky

On Saturday the lack of parts for the front diff assembly dictated that today would be another 'engine' day. That was fine, as long as we keep moving forward with the project. It was time for some disassembly proper. I noticed the exhaust ports were overly oily so we decided to rip the head off and take a look. If nothing was found, then we would just replace the head gasket (cheap insurance) as it came with the kit that arrived through the week - along with new rings and the new timing gears.


So, it was head off, sump off and disassemble down to its basic components.


After marking all the rod caps it was out with the pistons. The big end bearings looked absolutely mint so we decided to reuse these and made sure that we kept everything in order. What we did notice however was the lack of oil changes had caused all of the oil control rings to gunk up in their lands. This most likely was the cause of the oily ports. It must have been burning a fair amount of oil as I am not sure the oil rings did a great deal. We had one broken compression ring in number four, and a decent score in number 6. Number one was slightly ovulated. So, I am really glad we decided to open it up and at the very least re-ring!!


And the bump stick (had to get new gears on it anyway). The cam journals and bearings again looked pristine so these would be reused again too.


First job was to remove the lip on the cylinders. It wasn't a huge lip and pretty consistent with the amount of miles (46,000) the PO said the motor had done - between 0.5 and 1mm on all cylinders. So it was out with the ridge reamer and cut away the lips:


To be continued....

I sent Plugger off to the parts washer to scrub all of the pistons. There was a bit of carbon build-up on the crowns and the ring lands needed cleaning of all the old accumulated oil and gunk. The broken ring came in handy for this. It took the poor lad over an hour to get it done as I had to send him back twice! Its a learning process I guess. The pistons were all standard bore size so the new rings being standard size should just slip in nicely with a bit of a hone. Of concern was the score in cylinder number six. Actually there were three scores but the other two were so slight that I knew they would hone out. The major score was deep enough to be doubtful. In any case, it would mean that it would pump a bit of oil and be down slightly on compression. As long as we got most of it out I could live with that.


I gave all the cylinders a decent hone. The score in number six is still just visible but nowhere near as bad as it first was. Other than a re-bore, new pistons and rings this was as far as we were willing to go. I seriously doubt the score will affect performance any, and other than slightly increased oil usage you probably would not notice:


We gapped the rings, set them in their lands and installed the slugs back in their bores. These are cast rings and very springy with good sidewall pressure. They should bed in nicely during the run-in period.


Cam reinstalled with new cam gears. No stripping of fibrous gears now!!


And timing cover back on with new crank snout seal and new water pump installed (also cheap insurance):


To be continued....

Continued....

After installing all the reciprocating bits it was time to turn my attention to the head. While I was installing the pistons and ring etc I got the head, turned it upside down and leveled it on the welding table with some blocks of wood. I then proceeded to fill all the domes with kerosene to give it a leak test. Yep, you guessed it - number four leaked like a sieve. This was the cylinder with the broken ring and it was the most oily. The oil had accumulated over time behind the valve head and built up enough to not allow the valve to fully seat properly. The exhaust was the worst (of course) but the inlet showed signs of slight wetness too. All of the other cylinders seemed OK although number six showed signs of dampness as well. This meant stripping the head down and relapping the valves! If there is damage to the valves or valve seats this is at best a short term solution but all the valves cleaned up really well with the wire wheel on the bench grinder. No nicks, gouges or any other damage I could see. Same with the seats, they cleaned up really well. I relapped all the valves, installed new valve stem seals and rebuilt the head. Another leak test and all good (no pics sorry, just decided to get on with it...)

However, as I was putting the rocker bridges disaster struck!! The bolt on number one cylinder inlet bridge snapped off. I new it was dodgy as it would just not torque up! Damnit!!


OK, no probemo!! It was out with the centre punch, a 5mm drill bit and an easy-out. 2 mins later and the offending piece of hardware was removed and no thread got damaged in the making of this article!!


While this was going on I sent Plugger off to clean all the sludge and gunk from the sump and get that all nice and sparkly!


Head reassembled and all back together. Bosch HEI electronic ignition back in. Leads marked and installed with the new plugs as well:


Cain 2-barrel manifold installed, long branch extractors, pulleys, sump and all other bits installed save for the valve cover (Being painted) and the ancillaries.


Well that was it for Saturday and it was beer o'clock. Plugger decided he had had enough cleaning for one day and retired in front of the tele for a bit to watch some AFL re-runs. Next week I will take the alternator in to be tested to see if that is OK. The starter was new and turned the engine over fine when it was run so that should be OK I hope (it looks brand spankers!!).

Through the week I will pull the bellhousing adapter, clutch and pressure plate of the old 186 and see what they look like. Also through the week I will try and source a 36 ADM carby from an XE Falcon. Further research on the interweb suggests that this carby is an awesome match for the Holden sixes and while not plug-n-play, will adapt up OK with a commercially available plate (Lynx make one to fit the 2-barrel manifold). All-in-all a successful days work and this module is almost complete.

Cheers and thanks,
Tricky

Nice informative and well illustrated thread Sticky.
Given that you are handy with a welder, when you are refitting the engine back in the old girl give some consideration to manufacturing some new engine mounts that will allow the motor to drop down and the centre of the crank line up with the hole in the front cross member. This way the gearbox will be sitting where it was originally intended to sit. Most Holden conversions in Land Rovers tilted the front of the motor up to conform with how a Holden motor originally sat in a Holden vehicle, which was to straighten the driveline out and reduce/minimise universal joint wear.
The only downfall will be that carby will tilt forward a bit, but that can easily be overcome with a spacer.


Cheers, Mick.

This is a tool I made up a while back to align a motor with the front chassis hole. It bolts onto the harmonic balancer. I had a jack under the front of the engine. The wooden wheel is then slid along the shaft into the chassis hole. Once in place I just "tweaked" the engine mounts to maintain that alignment.


Cheers, Mick.

Hi Mick,

Thanks for the info. TBH I cant really remember how the Holden six sat in the engine bay of the Camel. But I shall take your considerations under advisement and see how far out the crank centreline is to the front crossmember portal.

I take it that a few mm's either way is no big deal...??

Cheers and thanks,
Tricky

I was reading back through your thread and I see that you are looking for torque so Plugger can tow a camper behind it. Probably a bit late as you have the donk back together, but either a Crow towing cam or a cam from an EFI 3.3 would improve on the low to mid range power. Also compare the flywheels you have as the 186 may be heavier. The blue 3.3 (202) used a 2kg lighter flywheel than a 186 as they have a 6kg heavier crankshaft, however I am not sure if the red 202 used the lighter flywheel as well.
Cheers, Mick.