Cobra 427 Build

[KugaWestie]

Whilst the sump was off I gave it a quick clean up followed by two coats of VHT primer, 2coats of VHT Silver and Two coats of VHT clear gloss so it matches the engine when it is back on. It's now in the utility room "curing" 

[Gary Taylor]

It's now in the utility room "curing" 

 

your a a brave man ..... looks good though 

[KugaWestie]

44 minutes ago, Gary Taylor - Scotland AO said:

It's now in the utility room "curing" 

 

your a a brave man ..... looks good though 

Its not perfect but it will do

[Gary Taylor]

19 hours ago, KugaWestie said:

Its not perfect but it will do

Very modest sir, I really admire your attention to detail and believe me it’s all looking really good 

[Alan Cutler (Adge) - Dorset AO]

"Looking really good" + 1

[KugaWestie]

2 hours ago, Gary Taylor - Scotland AO said:

Very modest sir, I really admire your attention to detail and believe me it’s all looking really good 

Too kind!

[KugaWestie]

I temporarily stuck the sump back on this evening just to keep any airborne muck out whilst waiting for a new gasket to arrive

 

Another 5 minute job was to clean off the dust from the steering rack and refix it to the mounting bar. Track rod ends are not connected as I will need to do a string line set up

[WINGNUT]

Looking lovely, takes me back to building a pilgrim with my dad when I was a lad. We built the SEV kit which was based on a cortina and could be put on the road for under 3k. Dad decided to do it for a laugh (his words not mine) see if it can be done he said. And he did it for just over as he fitted the halibrand replica wheels instead of budget steel ones instead.

Sorry to babble, looking beautiful and some great fabrication and ideas being done. 

[corsechris]

Bit late now.....but I wouldn’t use a gasket on that, it’ll leak! Rover stopped using gaskets and went to adhesive with the later engines. About the same time they went to a composite valley gasket and did away with the outer row of head bolts. When I was building my fake snake, I used to spend lots of my spare time at the local TVR dealer and they wised me up to that so I always glued them on with lambda friendly silicone gasket. Never had a leak. Probably a reflection of changing the Alfa V6 engine’s I’ve messed with over the years followed a similar route with sumps. Early ones used cork, then composite gaskets, which invariably leaked, later variants moved to anaerobic adhesive seals, which never leaked.

 

One caveat though, if you do decide to use glue, make sure there is adequate clearance for the oil pickup etc with a zero gap between sump and block.

[KugaWestie]

10 minutes ago, corsechris said:

Bit late now.....but I wouldn’t use a gasket on that, it’ll leak! Rover stopped using gaskets and went to adhesive with the later engines. About the same time they went to a composite valley gasket and did away with the outer row of head bolts. When I was building my fake snake, I used to spend lots of my spare time at the local TVR dealer and they wised me up to that so I always glued them on with lambda friendly silicone gasket. Never had a leak. Probably a reflection of changing the Alfa V6 engine’s I’ve messed with over the years followed a similar route with sumps. Early ones used cork, then composite gaskets, which invariably leaked, later variants moved to anaerobic adhesive seals, which never leaked.

 

One caveat though, if you do decide to use glue, make sure there is adequate clearance for the oil pickup etc with a zero gap between sump and block.

Interesting, thanks Chris.

When I took the sump off whoever rebuilt the engine had used blue hylomar sealant both sides of a cork gasket. I intended to use this https://www.halfords.com/workshop-tools/garage-equipment/head-gasket-exhaust-repairs/loctite-5990-premium-silicone-copper-gasket-maker-sealant both sides of a new cork gasket.

I have previously used that Loctite Copper sealant on several MX5 engine sumps and water pumps when I had the Westy and never had a failure/leak with it.

Now I have to decide whether to follow my original plan of sandwiching the cork gasket with sealant both sides or just not using the cork gasket 

[AdamR]

Given that you already have the part on the way, I'd probably go gasket plus two smears of RTV, as Chris said that will help you get the right pickup clearance and the cork will take up any variation in flatness of either part. I did this on my XE engine and it worked great.

May need threadlock on the sump bolts cos you can't get them that tight with the cork gasket.

[KugaWestie]

33 minutes ago, AdamR said:

Given that you already have the part on the way, I'd probably go gasket plus two smears of RTV, as Chris said that will help you get the right pickup clearance and the cork will take up any variation in flatness of either part. I did this on my XE engine and it worked great.

May need threadlock on the sump bolts cos you can't get them that tight with the cork gasket.

Thanks Adam

I think that's a good plan.

I had already decided to threadlock the bolts.

Just need Mr Postman to deliver now!

[B.RAD]

1 hour ago, KugaWestie said:

used blue hylomar sealant both sides of a cork gasket.

This is what I did on my crossflow engine and worked a treat to stop the chassis self-lubrication antics

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

1 hour ago, KugaWestie said:

Thanks Adam

I think that's a good plan.

I had already decided to threadlock the bolts.

Just need Mr Postman to deliver now!

Know that feeling well!

[KugaWestie]

An early knock off from work for Xmas today, and when I arrived home Posty had delivered, so I cracked on.

Sealant applied to the sump, then the cork gasket laid on followed by a run of sealant on top of the gasket.

 

I put the sump on and then spent what seemed like an age wiggling around with the gearbox until I finally managed to mate it.

 

Then I put the front cover plate on the bottom of the gearbox followed by the clutch slave cylinder.

That left me with the next logical step of dropping the engine and box back into the chassis