Ando81

Mine was an original ford gasket and well stuck, finally got it all nice and clean then someone suggested a good coat of hylomar. Brilliant I thought, till the bloody head bolt broke on final torque down so I had the pleasure of repeating the process all over again

Yeah the hardest part of doing the head gasket is getting the remains of the old gasket off.

I don’t want to sound like a smart arse but I think dex might have been suggesting that the motor should be turned over so that when pulling the rockers down that it’s not fighting valve spring tension. That’s just the way I understood what he was saying as previous conversation was that the motor shouldn’t be turned over too much without oil being properly primed up [emoji1303]

I’ve read on other forums that people do them to 34-35 nm. Just test your torque wrench is operating properly first though because I was doing mine up on my crossflow and the bastard didn’t click therefore I stripped the alloy thread out of the rocker pedestal

Have you changed the oil since buying it? I’d be interested to see what it does if you put fresh oil in it, say penrite hpr30 and see how it goes.

I was thinking the cam could be badly worn and giving slack in between the moving parts from lifters to rockers and on top of the valves. Also, if the car has been parked up for a long time without being started then the lifters can drain out their oil and not fully pressurise and take up slack between pushrod and valves.

That sucks mate but yeah props for admitting your error and not blaming everyone else possible. I can understand you being keen to give it a thrashing, I’d be exactly the same. I hope you have a positive outcome [emoji1303]

I got an aerosol can mate and it was awesome on the alloy head on my crossy [emoji1305]

Would it be worth a spray of Hylomar on the mating surfaces to assist with proper sealing? I’m told it’s great on head gaskets so surely it’s ok for use on manifolds too.

Please make sure you wash every last spec of sand and debris out of it. A mate of mine got his intake manifold powder coated on a commodore v8 and all was sweet till he gave it a couple of big revs and she sucked sand into the cylinders and shagged the whole block. Apparently there was a misunderstanding between the powder coaters and the mechanic that fitted the manifold and the mechanic didn’t know it was going to be blasted before powder coating. After a big blew with the mechanic I think my mate had to pay for labour for the repairs [emoji51]

Jack knows all about these, I believe the hydratrak is the same as a commodore centre and is a fluid filled setup that transfers power to the wheel with the most grip. Here's some info I posted from a commy forum. Hydratrak limited-slip differential uses a cartridge-type fluid coupling, which progressively and smoothly increases torque transfer to the wheel with traction. This is in direct response to the reactive speed difference between the wheel with traction and the opposing, faster rotating wheel -- the wheel that is slipping. Thus, the more one wheel slips, the more useful traction that is transferred to the opposing wheel. The standard holden/BW lsd is a plate-type (act just like little sprung clutch plates) that locks up fairly rapidly and sharply if one wheel spins faster than the other. They can be taken out and torqued up tighter if you want less slip before it starts turning the other wheel as well. The downside is that they lock up just as sharply at low speed, which the viscous type don't, so the rear drifts out more easily if you provoke it in a corner at low speed - but fun as long as you're ready for it!

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/291120357705 my dad and I bought one of these for light stuff and it's a great unit. I've welded up truck tailgate hinges in 10mm mild steel with it and they have held up fine for the last 3 years . We use it with gas and it has a lot of grunt for a small unit. The handpiece has a euro connector on it so it can be replaced easily if it gets damaged. A lot of cheaper small welders have a fixed handpiece and you almost have to destroy the welder to replace it.

How would you go if you drilled a new hole in the fork. Or possibly make up some spacers to space the slave cylinder away from the bell housing?

Yeah righto, sounds like he's pretty fussy then. That's what you want [emoji1303]

Sorry if this is a stupid question but what is ol m8's oil mod designed to do? I'm not knocking it, just haven't seen it before.

Ep? Tell us more please mate [emoji1303]

By the way, thanks for all the help. I really appreciate the positive replies [emoji1303]

Hi lads, just got my crossflow back from the machine shop where I had cam, new pistons & rings and bearings fitted. I went to put the rocker arms back on and before I even got to tension them down tight I found number 4&5 exhaust rocker bolts stripped

Ok, it was very strange to bend one when I wasn't thrashing it at all, I would understand more if I had been driving it hard but it was like a trip to the shop to pick up some milk and next minute it's rooted [emoji30]

So I think I found the reason why I had a bent pushrod on intake number 4. The pcv valve hose goes to the efi intake chamber close to number 4 intake tube and when I pulled it all apart the intake tube was oil soaked. I'm guessing that the motor must be sucking hard enough to draw oil vapour into the intake and maybe the piston was trying to compress the oil vapour and it put extra load on the pushrod. I have since cleaned it all out with petrol and it's been running sweet for about 150kms so far. Maybe the pcv valve is getting a bit sad.

these key-serts look like they sit flush if not slightly lower than the original bolt hole so fingers crossed they are all good [emoji1305]

these key-serts look like they sit flush if not slightly lower than the original bolt hole so fingers crossed they are all good [emoji1305]

Thanks for the help lads. Maybe I was given the wrong drill in the first place with the helicoil as I borrowed it off a mate. The rocker bolt wasn't cross threaded in the hole, just worn from jumping up and down I believe. I've since used a 10mm drill and a 7/16mm tap to cut a new thread. I think the fella called it a key-sert to screw into the new thread and it had 4 small tabs that had to be knocked down once the thread insert had been screwed in tight. All is good so far but it's a bit noisier in the rocker gear but I'm hoping with a bit of running around that it will settle down. I used a secondhand pushrod from another motor that measured the same length but I thought maybe it had slightly more wear on it compared to the old one I removed.

Thanks for the help lads. Maybe I was given the wrong drill in the first place with the helicoil as I borrowed it off a mate. The rocker bolt wasn't cross threaded in the hole, just worn from jumping up and down I believe. I've since used a 10mm drill and a 7/16mm tap to cut a new thread. I think the fella called it a thread sert to screw into the new thread and it had 4 small tabs that had to be knocked down once the thread insert had been screwed in tight. All is good so far but it's a bit noisier in the rocker gear but I'm hoping with a bit of running around that it will settle down. I used a secondhand pushrod from another motor that measured the same length but I thought maybe it had slightly more wear on it compared to the old one I removed.

so I found this wrong today. The stripped bolt had a straight pushrod and the bent one had a perfectly fine rocker. Anything I should check before I repair the thread for the rocker bolt?