[Bigmant773]

For future reference, ECM was put in the mail Feb 8th and I just got it back today March 8th. Could have been a little faster if I had paid $30 for Tornado to send it first class, but I wasn’t in a rush.

Got it back today and it’s already back in! Note to those that do it, plug in the lever connectors from right to left, otherwise they won’t fit. As in if the lever is facing to the right, do the rightmost connector first. That nugget will hopefully save someone 10minutes if fiddling haha.

 

[Bigmant773]

Picked up heads, crank, pistons, rods and block today! Been on the road a bunch so no pictures, but more to come! Everything looks great, so can’t wait to post about it!

 

[V50_M66]

Picked up heads, crank, pistons, rods and block today! Been on the road a bunch so no pictures, but more to come! Everything looks great, so can’t wait to post about it!

Sweet!

 

[Bigmant773]

Small teaser! Block mounted to the engine stand. Tomorrow the real work begins. The block looks great and the liners look equally amazing. Can’t wait to get started!

 

[masantschi]

I hate rebuilding motors - but god I still love the sight of a new build up or preparing to. Heh Looks good man. I'm sure you're chomping at the bit now.

 

[Bigmant773]

Well, it’s been a heck of a three day run you guys!

Thursday started off GREAT… got home from work, put on garage clothes and got ready to put in the crank. Only to find out that the machine shop had given me two boxes of rod bearings and I was missing the main bearings. That stopped me dead in the water. A three hour drive down and three hours back and I had what I needed.

Friday morning I started where I had left off. I want to apologize in advance, but I started taking pictures, but quickly stopped. Long story short, Friday I was able to get the engine put together about 90% with all accessories.

Saturday morning I finished up putting on some accessories like the AC condenser bracket and alternator and it was ready to drop in. Learning lesson #1. Do NOT put the oil pan on before re-installing the engine. It makes it near impossible to connect the torque converter bolts.

Building the engine on Friday was relaxing by comparison to Saturday. Building the engine I was standing up just working around the engine while it was mounted on the engine stand. Saturday was awful to be honest. Dropping the engine in is easy, getting it mated to the transmission is an absolute pain. I have no advice to give other than wiggling and jiggling until you finally find a combination that works and mates the two surfaces together. Use a bolt or two if you have to help suck the two together (I know that is not a standard practice).

Saturday ended with the engine in with motor mounts installed. Sunday began with hooking up the rest of the accessories as if you were doing head gaskets. I’ve taken this stuff off for water pumps, timing covers, head gaskets etc so many times at this point it was relatively quick.

I am not snagged at the catalytic converter. To make a long story short, the cat is not created perfectly, and the exhaust manifold mating surfaces don’t match up well at all. We called it quits at 9pm without getting it bolted up, after struggling with it for 4 hours.

The best part, was we fired up the engine anyway just to make sure it runs. And man oh man, does it run!! It sounds like a race car haha. With only the exhaust manifolds, it awesomely loud. As much as I’d like to leave it that way, the wife would kill me. But it’s good to know it runs and that everything I’ve done to this point has been a success.

Hopefully tomorrow it’ll be all buttoned up. More to follow!

 

[Bigmant773]

A couple of extra pictures just for funsies. The above are because I’m a nerd! Cool to see how bearings get oil. You can see the hole where oil comes through the crank, and as it rotates it perfectly goes through the groove in the bearing, pretty cool stuff!

The crappy picture below is where I ended on Friday. It was late so this was the best I could do haha

 

[V50_M66]

Looking great! Some fantastic progress being made

 

[Bigmant773]

Looking great! Some fantastic progress being made

I must say, pretty satisfying to hear it run after putting it together haha. I’m confident in my abilities, but you never know if you got something wrong haha

 

[masantschi]

I must say, pretty satisfying to hear it run after putting it together haha. I’m confident in my abilities, but you never know if you got something wrong haha

Love that feeling - I think I always end up starting before it's completely buttoned back up, just because inquiring minds always want to know, when they can.

 

[V50_M66]

I must say, pretty satisfying to hear it run after putting it together haha. I’m confident in my abilities, but you never know if you got something wrong haha

First startup is always the most stressful yet rewarding time, that's for sure

 

[Bigmant773]

Does anyone have a tried and proven break in period? I’ve had the car idle for about 30 seconds - 1 min about 4 times now, but I’m reading that I need to keep it at 2000 rpm for about 30min.

I’m a little overly worried because the oil lamp is on and I am probably being overly worried and I’m concerned that the engine will seize if there’s no oil. That of course doesn’t make sense given that I rebuilt everything myself and I know the oil level is good. So there HAS to be oil flowing, it just hasn’t made the light go out yet.

Unless someone thinks otherwise….

 

[V50_M66]

Does anyone have a tried and proven break in period? I’ve had the car idle for about 30 seconds - 1 min about 4 times now, but I’m reading that I need to keep it at 2000 rpm for about 30min.

I’m a little overly worried because the oil lamp is on and I am probably being overly worried and I’m concerned that the engine will seize if there’s no oil. That of course doesn’t make sense given that I rebuilt everything myself and I know the oil level is good. So there HAS to be oil flowing, it just hasn’t made the light go out yet.

Unless someone thinks otherwise….

First question (sounds silly, but with big jobs you can miss some things without noticing) - did you hook the oil sender back up? Is it working? (ground out the wire to it on bare metal - if the light goes out with the key on, the wiring is good). May be helpful to get a pressure tester in there to make sure it's actually building pressure. That light comes on at like 3 psi. Cold idle should always be at 50 psi. So something is not right, whether it be an actual problem or a busted sensor.

Holding revs is what I've read as a proper break in procedure too, especially important for a new cam and rotating assembly bearings. This will also help bleed the cooling system more effectively and get the oil pump spinning faster - if it makes pressure at 2k but not idle, that's an oil pump issue most likely, or a bad sensor - may just want to replace that sender for the hell of it - they are cheap, and it would be my first diagnostic step (along with checking the actual pressure with an external gauge).

My truck has long had whack ass oil pressure issues, even with all new componentry. Even with a new front cover, oil pump, and every oiling related part you can replace, it would slowly lose oil pressure at idle, dropping slowly from proper pressure to zero (I have a mechanical gauge to measure pressure inside the truck). Did this a number of times, and then just stopped doing it one day. Nothing changed with the truck, but it hasn't done it in almost a year.

Gotta love the ol' Rover V8. Good luck!

 

[Bigmant773]

First question (sounds silly, but with big jobs you can miss some things without noticing) - did you hook the oil sender back up? Is it working? (ground out the wire to it on bare metal - if the light goes out with the key on, the wiring is good). May be helpful to get a pressure tester in there to make sure it's actually building pressure. That light comes on at like 3 psi. Cold idle should always be at 50 psi. So something is not right, whether it be an actual problem or a busted sensor.

Holding revs is what I've read as a proper break in procedure too, especially important for a new cam and rotating assembly bearings. This will also help bleed the cooling system more effectively and get the oil pump spinning faster - if it makes pressure at 2k but not idle, that's an oil pump issue most likely, or a bad sensor - may just want to replace that sender for the hell of it - they are cheap, and it would be my first diagnostic step (along with checking the actual pressure with an external gauge).

My truck has long had whack ass oil pressure issues, even with all new componentry. Even with a new front cover, oil pump, and every oiling related part you can replace, it would slowly lose oil pressure at idle, dropping slowly from proper pressure to zero (I have a mechanical gauge to measure pressure inside the truck). Did this a number of times, and then just stopped doing it one day. Nothing changed with the truck, but it hasn't done it in almost a year.

Gotta love the ol' Rover V8. Good luck!

Thank you for the sanity check! Oil pressure sensor was the first thing I checked, although I only checked to make sure it was connected properly which it was. I haven’t tried grounding it out.

A lot of what I have read is that you need to break everything in, especially the cam, at anything EXCEPT idle. And it’s 30min at a time, let it cool completely, and then do that 4 more times all at 2000rpm. So I think getting the oil pump spinning faster may get it primed faster. It’s definitely not lacking in oil, given that the dipstick level has gone down, so oil is definitely moving around, I think I just need to get the break in period going.

 

[masantschi]

What did you prime the pump with when you installed the Oil Pump/Timing Cover?

 

[Bigmant773]

What did you prime the pump with when you installed the Oil Pump/Timing Cover?

Just a bunch of assembly lube that I packed in there.

 

[masantschi]

Just a bunch of assembly lube that I packed in there.

If you've primed the pump and the light is still on, I've seen the sensor hole get clogged with lube more than once on a rebuild.

 

[Bigmant773]

Well good news… it runs!!!! I decided to drain the oil since I had a synthetic blend in it. I used normal dinosaur oil with a Lucas oil zinc engine break in additive to help the new cam and lifters. I decided to follow Atlantic British’s break in procedure as well. Here it is:

So after 30min at 1800-2000rpm the oil light was still on but everything is running smooth. So I decided to take it on its maiden voyage!

The engine is SMOOTH. Like much more than before. I drove her about 40 miles and got it up to 70mph without ever going above 3500rpm. I will definitely say there is more power. It is certainly not a rocket ship, but compared to what I had before, it just has so much more pull to get up to speed. And then when you’re at 70mph, a little extra throttle and it speeds up with ease.

I actually think the transmission will be happier, because believe it or not it shifts smoother since there is less power needed to get up to speed. That was one of the areas I was worried about and wondered if I should have rebuilt that too (I’ve done the auto trans on my truck a few months ago) but it looks like it will last many more miles.

So as of right now, the oil light is still on and I now have the 3 amigos which I didn’t have before. 3 amigos is because of a rear right sensor and a brake relay, so I will sort that out. The oil sensor I have a new one, but of course, it’s hard to get to haha. I will have to remove an oil cooler line to get a wrench on it, so I will wait until I need to change the oil in another 50ish miles.

V50 nailed it I think. At 3psi the light comes on. And the engine should be at 50psi at idle. From when I filled up the engine with oil, the dip stick has the oil level decreasing after running which means there is oil moving through the engine for sure. And it runs smooth and strong while driving which wouldn’t be the case at 3psi. So it must be the sensor which I will switch out tomorrow most likely.

More to follow!

 

[V50_M66]

Well good news… it runs!!!! I decided to drain the oil since I had a synthetic blend in it. I used normal dinosaur oil with a Lucas oil zinc engine break in additive to help the new cam and lifters. I decided to follow Atlantic British’s break in procedure as well. Here it is:

View attachment 95373
So after 30min at 1800-2000rpm the oil light was still on but everything is running smooth. So I decided to take it on its maiden voyage!

The engine is SMOOTH. Like much more than before. I drove her about 40 miles and got it up to 70mph without ever going above 3500rpm. I will definitely say there is more power. It is certainly not a rocket ship, but compared to what I had before, it just has so much more pull to get up to speed. And then when you’re at 70mph, a little extra throttle and it speeds up with ease.

I actually think the transmission will be happier, because believe it or not it shifts smoother since there is less power needed to get up to speed. That was one of the areas I was worried about and wondered if I should have rebuilt that too (I’ve done the auto trans on my truck a few months ago) but it looks like it will last many more miles.

So as of right now, the oil light is still on and I now have the 3 amigos which I didn’t have before. 3 amigos is because of a rear right sensor and a brake relay, so I will sort that out. The oil sensor I have a new one, but of course, it’s hard to get to haha. I will have to remove an oil cooler line to get a wrench on it, so I will wait until I need to change the oil in another 50ish miles.

V50 nailed it I think. At 3psi the light comes on. And the engine should be at 50psi at idle. From when I filled up the engine with oil, the dip stick has the oil level decreasing after running which means there is oil moving through the engine for sure. And it runs smooth and strong while driving which wouldn’t be the case at 3psi. So it must be the sensor which I will switch out tomorrow most likely.

More to follow!

Nice! Great to hear. Yeah most likely the switch is bad or gummed up in that case. If I'm remembering correctly from my oil pressure/ticking saga, should be roughly 50 psi cold idle, over 10 (preferably >15) hot idle, and over 40 psi hot 2k rpm.

 

[Bigmant773]

Good news! A new oil sensor cleared the oil light! No more stressing about low oil pressure haha. I used one that from Import Direct which I got at Oreilleys. Not an expensive part by any means, and once you remove an oil cooler line it’s easy to get a wrench on.

I drove the car about 100miles and changed the oil again, so now I will drive it about 500 before changing the oil and filter again as part of the break in procedure.

I even gave the ol girl a good power washing of the undercarriage today to get rid of the grime and grease on the transmission from the leaking coolant and oil before the rebuild. The clean transmission now somewhat matches the pristine engine haha.