joffa
Rover Rookie
Posts: 82 
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Post by joffa on Oct 31, 2020 4:05:40 GMT
Decided to divert a few weeks/months away from the Rover rebuild as came across an interesting project that turned out to be great fun. I was looking around for an engine test stand as have ambitions of getting one ready for when the Rover P5b engine is finished and I always wanted a stand I could run an engine on before dropping it back into the car. As it happened I stumbled across an engine test stand that had an old 1969 Holden 161 red motor (cubic inches (2,639 cc)) attached to it that was used in a mechanics teaching college and had been sitting in someones shed for 10, 15, 20 odd years?? It was a bit of a mystery actually but it had been sitting a long time and was in unknown condition and the seller wouldn't seperate the engine from the stand so I had to by the lot. My fascination for getting engines going again and making something useful out of it kicked in and so began a steep learning curve in all things red motor. Pictures tell most of the story from arrival to the running piece of shed art that it is now.
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joffa
Rover Rookie
Posts: 82
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Post by joffa on Oct 31, 2020 4:10:58 GMT
Started off removing water pump and thermostat housing plus radiator and hoses then cleaned the block out for hours to get the rubbish out of it. Back flushed the block through the drain valve with high pressure water and some detergents and finally got it to stop running rust. Took the sump, rocker cover, thermostat housing, fan, exhaust and inlet manifold off and had them bead blasted before painting in Holden red. After priming and paint did a few coats of clear high temp gloss which looked good. The sump and oil pickup were full of gunk so had that cleaned and blasted as well. |
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joffa
Rover Rookie
Posts: 82
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Post by joffa on Oct 31, 2020 4:17:01 GMT
As I didn't know if the internals were any good I wanted to get it to a point that I could start it to see what was going on inside. Took off a main cap and the journals looked good and were ground to 10 thou under which was good. Cam and all the rest looked OK as well. Interestingly the rear main oil seal is a rope style like the early 3.5's so got a bit of practice replacing just the lower half as I didn't want to drop the crank
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joffa
Rover Rookie
Posts: 82
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Post by joffa on Oct 31, 2020 4:27:33 GMT
From there it was fit new water pump (a whopping $35), new thermostat cover and seals all round - sump set was $15 from local auto store! Had to buy a recond carby though as some student back in the day had broken off the mixture adjustment screw in the body and the accelerator pump was knackered. There is a good very old school carby reconditioner close by where I had my HIF6's rebuilt and he an exchange unit on the shelf. One thing working on these old Holden engines that I will miss is that you can get anything you need locally. Fuel pump is a mechanical unit running off a lobe on the cam like the old Triumph 6's (actually a lot very similar to the MK1 and Mk2 2000's and 2500's) and luckily the rubber diaphragm was still intact. Dizzy got pulled apart cleaned, polished and points reset with some good plugs fitted that I had lying around in an old SD1 engine.
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joffa
Rover Rookie
Posts: 82
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Post by joffa on Oct 31, 2020 4:52:14 GMT
In the end it all came together well although was a bit nervous on first start. I did manage to find a new aluminum radiator cheap that was perfect for the stand and after wiring up battery and plumbing in fuel tank gave it a kick and to my surprise it fired and started first go. Blew a bit of smoke and tappets were noisy as hell but everything seemed to be working. They are hydraulic tappets with adjusters on the rockers which was new for me but now they are adjusted they are quite as. Now that it is finished I don't know what to do with it but I have to admit it is fun to roll it out of the shed from time to time and start it up and tinker adjusting carby mixtures and timing just for fun - the neighbours love it! I suppose I should separate the Holden engine off the stand and get it ready for the Rover V8 but got to get the V8 together first. Will try and upload a video so you can have a listen as they are a great sounding engine. Never driven a car with the 161 in it (it was originally from a 1969 HK Holden I believe) but I have driven the ever reliable Holden 202 red motor which was a great engine. That had been transplanted into a Triumph Mk2 years ago as someone had decided the Holden was a better option than the original 2.5 litre - have to say, after working on this one I have warmed to them and the huge array of after market performance parts that are still available make them a pretty good option for a vintage car.
The finished product
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