Almost spring-like this morning following the weekend of snow, and a tolerable temperature in the garage. The plan for this week is to
1. get the engine ready for painting;
2. get the frame including the SA ready for painting; and,
3. finish off the wiring harness.
Re 1 above I had to prevent all the crap getting inside the engine so first task was to make up some blanking plates for the inlet and exhaust manifolds and the starter motor. I then re fitted the alternator and clutch cases and sealed every orifice with masking tape – this took a couple of hours – I then spent a further 2 hours cleaning the motor with a nylon brush in a hand drill. I did not want to put it in the blast cabinet and sand blast it because the grit gets absolutely everywhere and seems to be capable of passing through masking tape. The other reason is that I was not confident of being able to lift it on my own high enough to get it into the cabinet. Probably just as well.
The nylon brushes (ex Screwfix) work well, they are aggressive enough to remove the crud/old paint without damaging the aluminium, They have the advantage that they do not shed their fibres as a wire brush would and do not leave carborundum dust as a small drum sander would. Their disadvantage is that the diameter of the brush is too large to get into the nooks and crannies of the castings although they do work quite well between the fins on the barrel/head.
In the 2 hours I managed to do about a quarter of the engine (probably the easiest to get at bits), so there is still at least another 6 hours with the nylon brush then probably a further 2 or 3 hours with a Dremel and a smaller tool to get to those important little places.
I intend to paint the engine first then strip it and repair any damage to the paint before putting it back in the frame. I will use etch primer from rattle cans then a topcoat, colour as yet not 100% decided upon (but not satin (or even gloss) black).
Picture of 2 hours-worth of progress
I was a little disappointed to find that my welded-up alternator case may have been distorted in the welding process as the faces on the peninsular bit above the rear sprocket do not quite mate by about c 0.5mm. After I had it welded I tried it on a glass plate and it looked OK so maybe I have some detritus preventing the dowel from engaging fully. I will need to check this tomorrow.
If there is no obstruction on the dowel then I think I might put it in the oven (bare without the alternator windings) for a couple of hours at c150 degrees C and then bolt it up hot and see if it pulls back square otherwise I will get some hallite and cut a thick-ish gasket with a ball peen hammer and a dome headed nut on a stud.
Re 2 above, this involves me a) tidying up all the lugs that I cut off with an angle grinder so that there is no evidence that they existed at all; b) taking off 2 or 3 other extraneous brackets (see below); c) filling any pin holes/ corrugations from my less than perfect MiG welding (coil brackets and rear sub frame cross brace) with braze and filing smooth; and d) brazing on the remaining 10 new brackets I need to keep the loom out of sight and to hold my CF air scoops.
I cannot remember what this C bracket is for and therefore whether or not I need it. (holding main fuse?????) Help please!
I will then put the frame in the sand blast cabinet and strip all the paint off.
I may not get to 3 above this week which is annoying because I will need the bench space soon for stripping the engine. I only have 4 x 2 pole amp male connectors to make up and to wire to and from the Hall effect ignition trigger and Ignitech box and coils and to wrap the loom in non- adhesive PVC tape. This should not be more than 4/5 hours work.