Putting the engine back............

After successfully marrying the gearbox to the engine it was just the simple matter of returning our dynamic duo to the car.

Engine and gearbox ready to be installed

Again part of the challenge was to wait for a nice day. This duly arrived and everything was hooked back onto the engine crane for the tricky journey down the drive and into the engine bay.......

With the engine and gearbox now bolted together we now had a very heavy item. This was within the lifting capabilities of the engine crane, but as soon as you started to move the whole assembly on it's supermarket trolley-like wheels, it swung like a pendulum and required a rope to steady the whole thing. Moving it down the drive was difficult within the space available and a wheel overran onto a flower bed and stuck fast.

Lowering the engine down and then moving the crane eventually had things back on track and after a lot of tricky maneuvering we had the engine and gearbox pointing the right way to drop into position.

Engine and gearbox is required to slope downwards at an angle of some 45 degree to lower the whole assembly into the engine bay.  We rested the engine sump on the front panel and then tilted everything downwards with the weight still taken by the engine crane  whilst Andrew guided the gearbox with a rope towards the prop shaft.  We had taken the precaution to have bits of old carpet to protect the engine bay but still manged a few scratches and naturally kept our hands well clear. 

Gearbox support bolted up and prop-shaft in place. Vauxhall Viva.

 
It was decided to unbolt the prop shaft and feed it onto the gearbox splines after first bolting up the gearbox support to the car and resting the engine securely onto it's (new) bearers and after a lot of  "down a bit " and occasionally  "up a bit"  we could transfer the weight from the engine crane and our rebuilt 1256cc unit was now sat safe and secure on the cross-member in the engine bay ......phew!

Mission Complete - engine back in Vauxhall Viva 'ANA'.

Over the next week or so we started to re-connect the wiring which had been left like a bird's nest in the corner occasionally referring to a series of photographs previously taken to help ensure everything went back correctly. Alternator and various bits were put back and we were actually in a serious position to finish the job !!

One of the jobs required before first start-up was to join the exhaust manifold back onto the exhaust down-pipe. This proved difficult after putting the heat-proof sealing ring into position I started to tighten the four bolts. These are 40-year-old bolts and have been exposed to damp and high temperatures and were corroded.
Brass nuts are used in an attempt to minimize stripping the captive bolts but on this occasion one of the nuts refused to tighten down - I has a real problem as I realized the threads on the bolt had literally disintegrated with rust. 

Incredibly I managed to source an identical set of bolts and brass nuts on Ebay. They are imperial 3/8" UNC and are threaded all the way along with a 'blank' area that fits into the holes on the manifold. We took off the manifold and drilled out the old bolt and cut a new UNC thread into the hole. This was a major hurdle but  nothing worthwhile is easy- as they say.

Exhaust manifold bolt renewal

New UNC thread cut for new bolts.   Vauxhall Viva

Before attempting to start our engine there was a still a few jobs to be done. I had noticed the flexible filler pipe to the petrol tank had started to rot. I managed to source a new fuel-proof (ordinary rubber will not do) pipe of the same diameter.

Decomposing - 40 year old  Viva fuel tank flexible filler hose.

Removing the tank for inspection it was decided to throw away the old contents of dirty petrol and thoroughly clean the inside of the tank. This was done with a couple of gallons of warm water and a spoonful of washing powder and the whole thing shaken until all the rust bits were drained onto the drive.

It was then rinsed with gallons of clean water about ten or twelve times until no rusty bits of residue appeared and the wire mesh filter inside looked nice and clean.

After leaving the tank to dry naturally for a few days I attached an old hair dryer and forced hot air through for about half an hour until I was confident everything was thoroughly dry. A word of warning do NOT do this if there are ANY petrol vapour left in the tank!!!!!!!!!!! 

Viva fuel tank cleaned both inside and out with new fuel-proof filler hose fitted.

Tank and pipe replaced we were moving inexorably to the day when we would see if our engine rebuilding skills had born fruit 
or a lemon that rattled into self-destruction.

Four gallons of petrol mixed with lead additive were poured into the tank and the battery was connected. I had watched an episode of 'Classic Car rescue' on T.V the night before and after spending several thousand pounds on a professional engine rebuild - they could not start it!!!!  I was full of trepidation to say the least..........

Oil light on........ check.  Ignition light on.......check.

Key was turned, engine turned over - so far so good.

Engine was turned again - nothing. Not too worried as fuel had to fill the empty fuel line.

Engine turned again, this time with a slight tremble - a positive sign of wanting the start.

A third attempt and the engine started to 'spin' with more speed - a sure sign of positive ignition attempt.

A 'thumbs-up' worthy of an old biplane pilot shouting 'contact' and everything erupted into a healthy roar and settled into a steady fast idle as the oil light went out - signifying good oil pressure.

"Huston - we have lift off !!!!!!!" 

Even Huston has had it's heart stopping moments - and we had ours - a frantic 'cut' type wave from Andrew was accompanied with smoke from the engine bay. This turned out to be exhaust paste residue from the exhaust manifold/down pipe joint around the two sealing rings. After a few more starts this gradually disappeared.

.........and it actually starts!  Rebuilt engine back in place.

Our rebuilt engine seems to be smooth with no rattles,vibration or knocks,and good oil pressure. Let us hope it stays that way................. 

Ready to Rock n' roll - rebuilt Viva 1256 engine.

My last job was to put the Vauxhall British Standard and model specification code plates back..............pop-riveted on as they were originally.  

Why is nothing easy....??

With the engine bay finished in gleaming new paint, it was time to put the engine back.

This was knocking on the door of autumn last year (2013) and the British weather was preparing itself for the largest rainfall levels since records began.  Together with high winds this was not good weather to be fighting the cold steel of an engine block as the car was exposed to the elements, trying to locate the splines of the in-situ gearbox.

We did try, oh yes, we tried - we tried for a week of nice days. We got maximum points for trying, but to no avail.  During the occasional nice day of September I literally wrestled with the re-built engine.  We had centred the clutch plate with a home-made mandrel and managed to mesh the splines but try as we might the engine would not locate the last 10mm onto the steel pegs on the gearbox housing.

I wish we had tried this a month earlier, but we were returning from the River Severn on our narrowboat 'San Serriffe' in glorious weather. Check out our narrowboat travels with this link:

click on link..........
Narrowboat 'San Serriffe' blog. River Severn to Gloucester.  

Sunshine of summer was rapidly disappearing as the great deluge of the 2013 winter started. I know when to give up - so the engine was left on blocks in the engine bay until  
a time when it was not both freezing and raining.

This was not until late March 2014 and a few weeks ago we decided to have another go.
With the problem of meshing the gearbox splines not resolved a different approach was decided.  Engine was taken back out of 'ANA' and put carefully on blocks on the garage floor.  Gearbox support bolts were taken off and after supporting the prop shaft I manged to remove the gearbox.

Everything checked and dead centre, but still had problems.  

We now had both the engine and gearbox in the relevant warmth of the garage and could hopefully resolve why we could not mate one with the other.  Supporting the gearbox bell-housing with the engine crane we tried again ,with the same result of the gearbox housing not locating on the engine dowels.  We checked the clutch plate alignment, etc with our 'mandrel' several times, but the engine and gearbox remained stubbornly apart. 

I began to worry we had some strange mis-match because the block was reconditioned and originally came from a Chevette. 

" O.K , let,s start at basics, remove the clutch cover and clutch plate and see if there are any problems locating the shaft without them" I suggested.

This was completed and the gearbox slid onto the dowels like butter, so there was no mis-match. I tried the clutch plate separately over the splines again with no problems.
Clutch cover was returned together with clutch plate and using our alignment tool everything we checked everything once again.  Pushing the shaft onto the block produced the same result - 'clunk' as everything jammed before the bell housing would get onto the block dowels.

This was a real head scratcher....... 

"Why is nothing easy ?" I muttered.......
"Any ideas ?" I asked in desperation of Andrew....

Andrew DID have an idea. He loosened the bolts of the clutch cover allowing the clutch plate to 'float' slightly allowing the shaft and plate to centre.

Andrew solves the problem with a bit of lateral thinking...........

" If this works, how are you going to tighten the bolts again with bell-housing on? I cautioned.
" With a socket extension through the starter-motor hole whilst you turn the engine over so that each bolt comes around to where I can get the socket into place" he replied with a display of what I thought was misplaced confidence.

Everything was centred again but with the clutch plate able to move slightly so that perhaps the splines could mesh a little easier. I was both amazed and relieved when the shaft mated and the gearbox went straight onto the dowels with no problem - job done!!

Each bolt on the clutch cover was then tightened as I turned the engine so the correct alignment could be achieved to get the socket extension through the starter motor hole in the gearbox housing.

Bell housing supported as we mate it to the engine block

Cleaned up and awaiting a dry day to put everything back in the car.

So engine and gearbox sit mated together on the garage floor like the good pals they should be, waiting for a nice warm dry day to put them back into the Viva..........

Colour me 'Yellow Gold'......

With the engine removed from the car I decided that this was the time to re-spray the engine bay.  'ANA' was re-sprayed during the late 1990s in the original 'Yellow Gold' colour but the boot interior and engine area was never done. 

I decided to invest in a compressor and spray-gun despite having no experience in the dark art of car finishing.......lack of experience never stopped me before.......I am a firm believer that you only become 'experienced' by actually doing it ( especially after making a few mistakes).

Interior of the boot floor had some fabrication with new metal in the past and I was a little worried about the bottom of the spare wheel well that showed some corrosion. As mostly the case with a Vauxhall Viva, corrosion on the surface is always just the tip of the iceberg and on close inspection the whole wheel-well needed cutting out and replacing with new.

 A Viva wheel-well is not surprisingly wheel shaped, with a radius and a concave curvature in the opposite direction. I find the best method of fabrication is to try and copy the original as close as possible. Original radius was copied and then tack welded into position allowing me to 'tin-bash' the concave curvature with a round mallet. After continuous welding the finished job I filled any surface indentations with a flexible filler and applied a white primer. I then prepared the whole of the boot area for re-finishing as the forty-year-old paint was showing it's age and re-sprayed it with the original 2YW code 'Yellow Gold' colour in cellulose. 

 

Boot area re-finished in the original 'Yellow Gold'

 

Carpets and trim replaced on completion

Next job whilst the sun was shining towards the end of the fantastic summer of 2013 was to spray the engine-bay whilst the re-built engine sat in the garage.  Everything was moved out of the way , such as master cylinder, brake pipes, etc, ready for the old paint to be prepared with wet and dry paper and a lot of elbow grease.

 

Ready for the refurbished suspension,brakes and rebuilt engine.

Everything was now ready for the refurbished cross-member, brakes, steering and suspension to be bolted back into the car so that the engine could be replaced before winter. Summer was disappearing fast and without a running engine I could not get 'ANA' into the protection of the garage.  Pushing it solo by hand up the steeply inclined drive was not an option.