leelbuk

Welcome back! What a transformation already. Has come out well after just a good clean, a set of weels and the front lip! Definitely need rid of my do-luck front and to go back to stock. Look forward to seeing how this project turns out!

As per title. Looking to ditch my do-luck front and go back to OEM. Will go aftermarket if I have to but thought it worth checking if anyone had an OEM one lying around. Cheers.

Dropped you a PM

Hi Paul, thanks for the response and to those that have sent me PM's. The only reference I've been able to find to a second hand stock head being sold on here was for £300 + shipping. Perhaps some others could chime in and advise how close this is to the mark?

Long shot but covering all angles in case I get lucky! Must be in good working order & condition please.

Expect that you'd rather sell as a set however if it comes to splitting and anyone wanted the intake cam I'd be willing to take the exhaust cam. I'm assuming the exhaust is the crower from looking at photo? glws

Thanks for the advice - sounds beyond DIY then for me as I haven't got a garage that would allow me to pull the engine or work on it whilst it's out. Don't suppose you can get at the strainer etc without pulling the engine? Even if I could it might be worth throwing in the DIY towel for now and let one of the experienced engine builders on here rather than risk doing it myself and something going wrong again. Still puzzled as to whether I did something wrong when I reassembled or whether there was another reason for oil not reaching the bearing. Is the most likely cause then that the oil feed through the cam was blocked?

Think the journals are fed via the cam itself from what I have read on the net so far. Agreed it's rather wishful thinking the head might be salvageable so am prepared to replace the head but worried that I'll fit it and end up with the same thing happening again if I don't figure out what went wrong this time round.

Well I suppose even I thought it was too good to be true that my DIY single build had been running without hitch for as long as this! Even so, I'm still feeling lucky this didn't happen at some silly RPM and cause more serious damage though I'm looking for advice on how serious the damage actually is as, truth is, I'm a tad unsure. Brief account of events: I go for a drive one pleasant afternoon with a friend having there been no previous problems, strange noises or behaviour from any part of the car, including engine. All went well except for hitting a slightly large pothole in the road (was doing only 20MPH, no damage though felt one hell of a thump!). All still fine after this so carry on driving, a few spirited runs here and there but nothing crazy as the roads I was on wouldn't allow for it (was up cheddar gorge for those who know it, twisty, windy and uphil). Was on my way back down hill, on engine braking most of the time in 3rd gear behind someone when I put the clutch down to change to 2nd and the car stalls - no weird noises, nothing preluding to this point, just the engine stalling. Thought it was a little odd and pulled over to the side of the road to restart the engine. Upon turn over I heard a metallic clunk to which both me and my friend turned to each other and had the "Ohh, that didn't sound good" look on our faces. Stepped out of the car, whipped open the bonnet and after checking around found this under the spark plug cover: Exhaust cam pulley sheared right off and the belt chewed up a little. Naturally I'm already thinking something has jammed the exhaust cam, either by something getting in the way (stuck valve, bucket, shim) or the cam has seized however I was too angry with myself, the car, the 5 hours it took to recover etc to be able to think straight so the car was put on my driveway and there it stayed for 6 months. The weather has since perked up and I've had long enough to work up the motivation to start taking things apart again - in doing so I quite quickly found the problem - No 1 bearing on exhaust cam looks to have been starved of oil and seized (my thought at least). Looks to have become quite hot and friction welded some of the aluminium head material onto the cam. Now the bit I need advice on: Although none of the other cam journals show any sign of oil starvation and all of the rest of the valve-train functions normally I'm pretty sure that the head is unsalvageable at this point unless someone corrects me? Would like confirmation that no kind of repair is possible. Does anyone have any theories as to the cause so I can try to prevent it happening again? Possibly too much FIPG when fitting the bearing cap? Blockage in oil feed though cam? If a general oil pressure issue I would expect to see signs of it on more than 1 journal? As the rest of the engine is still ok, can I simply stick a second hand head on, get a new exhaust cam and off I go? (assuming something else in the bottom end isn't the answer to question 2 as a possible cause!). Any prudent measures to take before reassembling again? How much should I expect to pay for a second hand head? Advice on where to look for one? As always, your advice is more than appreciated. I built the single as a DIY project so I could learn and I knew full well it could go wrong and would be expensive to fix - just want to make sure I learn from the mistakes!

Got there and there were a couple of us there but was desperate for the loo after queueing. After I came back no one was there and seemed to miss everyone every time. Weather was rubbish unfortunately and made the drive there and back hard work but meant the first drift practice session was interesting! Don't know if it was the weather or not but the event this year didn't seem anywhere near as good as what I remembered it being 6 years ago so has left me in doubt whether I'd go again. Hope to meet those I missed again at some point in future and hope all got home safely.

1. Branners - PAID 2. pranavghule - PAID 3. Dcarrter21 - PAID 4. foxysupra - PAID 5. leelbuk - PAID 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

Haven't been for 7 years but I remember it being really good so I think I'll go! Any word on the possible club stand? 1. JamieP (going on track) 2. fruity_south 3. Branners (poss) 4. Ricky49 5. Jimojameso 6. Dcarrter21 7. Dan_Turism0 8. sammytruck 9. Parry_10 10. Scotty71 - Track if available (novice) 11. Foxysupra 12. Richardstock1 (Going on track) 13. tkddav3 14. Psycho-supe 15. Dnk - Definitely going 1 entry ticket + club stand pass 16. ajlittler (poss) 17. neilthenut 18. leelbuk

Sorry, just seen this reply - I'm still willing to take half if these are still around - need to get off my backside and sort my missfire!

I managed to do this with the snap-on tool but if doing it again I'd definitely take up John's offer and use that tool as the risk of damaging the head is too high with the snap-on tool. I was paranoid throughout the entire job and covered nearly every inch of the tool with insulating tape to lower the risk, but only a little. Block every orifice in the head to stop bits falling in anywhere, keep a magnetic tool handy and make sure you have a lot of patience and rush nothing!