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[grifter]

And also this for the NS:

Back one full of oil, at least up to plug level, and the rest have some too. The boot came off the back plug as well.

[grifter]

Tonight's job was to clean the throttle body up and attach the plastic breather thingy on it. Wasn't too bad inside, just a wipe down with some thinners, check the pipes and internals were clean and rebuild. Relating to my previous post on the rusty coil pack from N/S. I noticed the bolts for rocker and coil pack on that side were rusty, at the back especially.

I also cast my mind back to when I got the car and remember that on some occasions there would be a little kick when on throttle, so rare that you would hardly suspect anything. So maybe the coil pack was starting to get affected by this oil ingress and rustiness.

If it's been left maybe another couple of thousand miles and things would have started to go pete tong.

Also noticed power steering leak up near bottle. Guess I need to tighten the jubilee



Couple of tips now.....a wee trick for soaking oil from the plug holes is to get a bit of kitchen roll, then roll it up like a big joint
(just leave out the tobacco and gange) so that it has a hole in the middle where you can put this over the plug, push it into the hole, over the plug and squash the top bit down. Leave overnight and then remove to find most if not all of the oil has soaked into the paper.

Cheech and chong would be proud:


Squashed into plug holes:


Next tip is for easier access to engine. If you have all the air trunking and stuff removed and you are working around the top and at the back of the engine, to get easier access you can actually stand one foot in the front of engine on top of the anti-roll bar, sit your erse on the front panel, and put the other foot on the bumper (over a cloth if you are sensitive about your bumper paint). I found this really helpful for accessing the rocker cover area and cleaning it as well as the breather pipes at the back. If you do this make sure to unclip the crank sensor plug otherwise you risk standing on it as you put your foot in there and breaking the plug off the connection.

Picture of my foot - note I am not affilated with the Nike brand and am not endorsing then in anyway!

[VXL V6]

Looking where your foot is, I'd say that's the oil pressure switch and connector, not the crank sensor. 

[grifter]

Looking where your foot is, I'd say that's the oil pressure switch and connector, not the crank sensor. 

Thanks for correction

[grifter]

Finally starting to build this thing back up now that I've got TB on and am happy with the positioning and tension. The timing and adjustment went not too bad apart from having to readjust the tension back a bit after doing some adjustment on the top idler to pull bank 1 & 2 into line. After that we were good to go. I've also cleaned out the bottom of the engine above the sump, which was caked in crusty oil gunk. Plugs are back in and Left side cam cover is back on with new securing screws seals included.







Here you can see how much extra tension I ended up with after adjusting the top idler, this is now back on the outer notch where it should be for a new belt.


Torqued to 8Nm


Cambelt as it is now. Wasn't too chuffed there was no timing or direction marks on the belt but hey ho got there in the end

[VXL V6]

Nice clean sump lip 

[grifter]

Nice clean sump lip 

Thanks...have taken a few more pics including a closer one of the sump, which I will post below.

[grifter]

Not far away now. Tonight's job was to torque down the inlet manifold bridge, put timing cover and pulleys on, put the injector plugs back in, put aux belt on, coil packs in and tidy up the wiring and tubes at the back of engine. Initially when I was putting timing cover on, I tried rotating engine and it was scuffing at the top left. Took it back off a bit and jiggled it about, tried rotating it and then it was fine. Tightened back up, turned engine and jobs a good un.

Spent a bit of time tidying the wiring/vac/water pipes up, they weren't too bad, for a start there is a what looks like a water valve at the back, this was sitting off the big clip that holds it in place. Routed wires and vac/oil pipes so they weren't chaffing and were secure as they could be. When I put aux belt on I felt as if it was ever so slightly on the tight side, the tensioner was right back and the belt had to be pushed over the pump, not with great force just light pressure.










Final steps:

put plenum on
Put filler cap on
Put wiring trays on
Put air trunking in
Put water hoses on
Fix power steering leak at bottle
Oh and eh fill with water and oil before trying to start....and check rad drain is shut first!

Getting all excited now 

[grifter]

What a ball ache it is putting on that plenum and all wiring and tubes! I did spend the time though to make sure everything was routed as securely and in the proper places. There is a wiring securing fastener to the right of the clamp on the air con pipe just at front of engine. I can't see what it is that goes through here, there isn't any wiring or anything that goes near it, unless it is that part of the loom that is reaching across the right hand cam area. It would be a bit of a stretch to get it round that, I'm not sure but will check tomorrow. Also cleaned and tightened up the slight weep at the power steering bottle. The pipe clamp was quite loose.

So I've got to a point where the only thing left is put on inlet manifold pipes, radiator hose, change oil filter, fill with oil/water and give it a whirl.

[grifter]

Tonight was the big night. I had my teeth gritted when starting it, but was confident as I had taken so much care (hammers and swearing) to rebuild the thing.

So before I done that it was change the oil filter, put the bellows on, reroute one of the cables along the cable tray, fill with oil and water, then connect battery and go for it.

On first flick of the key I heard a phut phut like it started but only firing on one or two pots, thinking ok there is no fuel pressure etc. need to give it time to build. Restarted and clatter clatter it went up to about 2k rpm, usual dry top end when all the oil has drained out, spent what seemed like eternity increasingly gritting my teeth as it went clatter clatter from top end. Then after about 5 secs (what seemed like an hour) it started quietening down.

Then I noticed the idle surge a bit, only by say 500 rpm once or twice then as it started warming up the engine really settled down and was very nice and smooth, except of course i couldn't enjoy it because of the farty blown exhaust.

So something that I noticed after 5 or so mins the cooling fans came on, reckoned just air locks, trapped heat, and as I was topping up with coolant/water I had to go through that cycle of fill it, let it drain, let it spew up a bit, let it settle, fill up, you get the idea. Then the big fan on the front left of the rad came on, the engine started cooling and the water level went back down. Long and short of it, I got a full bottle of Anti-Freeze in with about the same again for water. Says 9.5 litres in the book. Will let it cool off over the next day or so and re-check the level is at KALT!

Once happy with the engine I decided to get under the back, change the fuel filter and pull off the old exhaust bandage to clean and repair the exhaust. Turns out I've no exhaust repair paste, I thought I had, and was going to put this on then one of those aluminium tape repair thingys. I really should be getting a new centre section as the pipe join has seen better days, however I can fashion a repair for now until I get funds to buy new exhaust bits.

So that and a repair to the front light casing securing bit, whichi s cracked, plus an all round MOT check is all that is left now. Thought I'd never see the day! Here's some vids and pics of tonights efforts.

Here is two videos, one of it running, and one of the hole I now have in the exhaust after removing the repair bandage. It sounds better now with that off!

http://vid132.photobucket.com/albums/q11/Pichost28/Cars/Omega/Videos/omega-running-video_zpsabt2ca8l.mp4

http://vid132.photobucket.com/albums/q11/Pichost28/Cars/Omega/Videos/omega-exhaust-blowing-video_zpsu4migfzp.mp4

And 4 pics of fuel filter and exhaust rot, the first pic of exhaust is actually above the pipe, near driveshaft, the bottom of the pipe is fine. I thought what a strange place to rust, usually the rust at the bottom.

[Doctor Gollum]

Coolant needs bleeding with the heater temps both set to HI and the blower set to minimum. Initially with cap off then once fans kick in, cap on and recheck when stone cold

[grifter]

Now trying to source headlight drivers side due to broken clips (arrggh VX you and your stupid plastic clips, cavalier all over again!) and ran out of gun gum to patch up the exhaust. Have 2 bandages on it, and one tin of gun gum. Still parping from top. One more bandage and a shovels full of gun gum should do it. Hopefully it stays together long enough to get an MOT!

[grifter]

Whilst under the rear of the motor yesterday I started looking at the doughnut bushes and the edges of them look frayed, i.e. the rubber moulding seems to be peeling off the edges. I don't know if this lends itself to potential sign of worn bushes upstream. I considered mileage, which is not very high but thinking more about the age, then the bushes are likely to be perished where it matters?

I promise I'm not looking for things to replace for the sake of it but wondering about MOT. I am going to put it in for MOT as if I get away with it for now that is fine. If it should fail then I'd likely replace with poly bushes anyway. As I don't have much experience of the "driving feel" of Omegas, closest is senator, I did think the back end was a bit twitchy perhaps. I don't know, maybe it'll help me do doughnuts (excuse the pun)!

Something else I noticed when doing timing belt was the air con pulley had slight play in it. Nothing I'm going to concern myself with just now but noted for future.

[grifter]

All MOT'd now, only advisory was N/S roll bar link rod rubber cover was a bit on it's way out (not the official wording of the advisory). He said when the steering was turned you could see the bush neck open up. So all in all it's running very well so a job well done and time to enjoy the fruits of my labour (copious swearing and keeps saying whoever designed that needs shot).

Only thing left to do is replace the O/S headlamp (whenever Parcelforce decide to drop it off at my local PO), I got away with the light being insecure as the MOT tester tie wrapped it up to get it through, he was a good guy I must say!

[biggriffin]

Now tryingbodge up   up the exhaust. Have 2 bandages on it, and one tin of gun gum. Still parping from top. One more bandage and a shovels full of gun gum should do it. Hopefully it stays together long enough to get an mot.

Complete new is £100 delivered.