This is probably the most boring and least relevant post of the entire build process as I doubt anyone else will have to do the same thing. But what the Hell, I have nothing else to write about!
Throughout the car build, the engine has something that I have largely ignored. An aluminium lump that first worked, then didn’t and eventually was fixed by MAC#1 prior to SVA.
Sure, I know where the water goes in and where the sparks connect etc but inside the actual engine has remained a mystery to me.
This has been 100% my choice as I have felt that I was taking on enough building the rest of the car, and didn’t (and still don’t) feel confident to disturb the inner workings of the actual engine.
But on the other hand, the puddle of oil on the garage floor demanded some attention and I can’t go running to MAC#1 every time the engine needs a tweak so it was time to get stuck in.
The oil leak appeared to be at the bottom of this black part of the engine. This is the part that MAC#1 had to fix so it makes sense that if there is a leak, it may have been caused by the removal and refit of this cover. But before I could find out what the problem was, I needed to know what the part was called.
Luckily, ‘the black cover bit near the passengers footwell’ was an adequate enough description for fellow MAC#1 owner Big Rich to tell me that the black bits more technical name is the alternator cover. A quick flick through the Haynes manual (and an confirmation call to MAC#1) and I decided that the most likely culprit was the gasket on the cases. So I ordered one from my local motorbike shop.
This little piece of effectively cardboard cost £9!
Mark at MAC#1 advised me that all I needed to do was to take off the old cover. Use a stanley knife blade to clean all the old gasket off the casing, then fit the new gasket and bolt it back together. Easy!
Nine M8 bolts hold the casing on so once they are undone, you can remove the alternator cover, but, the alternator coils are mounted in to the casing so the cover is held to the engine with a strong magnetic force. So strong in fact that I had to use a screwdriver blade to prize it off.
You can just about see the old gasket around the outside of the alternator cover. There was a section mission which was probably the cause of the leak.
Problem was once the bulk of the gasket was removed, lots of it remained stuck to the edge.
It took a good thirty of work with a blade to scrape all this off.
I also had to refit the cog that connects the starter to the main crank shaft as it came out when the cover was removed.
If you have read some of the previous posts, you may recall that this is the offending cog that prevented the engine from working for all those months.
It just pops back in to position prior to refitting the gasket and cover.
So with all the hard work done, all I needed to do was place the gasket on the engine and then fit the alternator cover back into place.
To do this, I tried to use a little copper slip to ‘glue’ the gasket in place and then fit the alternator cover.
This proved to be a total pig!
I could put the gasket in place but every time I tried to replace the cover, the magnetism pulled the alternator cover in to the wrong position or the gasket would slip just at the wrong moment. I tried for a good 45 minutes in vain so decided to take a break and get some expert advice from MAC#1.
Revitalised with a cup of coffee and some good advice, I took the following measures.
- Went to the local garage and got some instant gasket (sort of silicone goo) to glue the gasket to the engine.
- Transferred a positioning dowel from the alternator cover to the engine side (as this would help guide it in).
The it was time to use some brute finger strength to try and slowly position the cover without disturbing the gasket.
And with this new approach, it worked first time!
Just goes to show the benefit of the experience that MAC#1 has supported me with throughout the build.
With all the bolts nicely tightened and the oil level checked, I ran the engine for around 20 minutes at various rev ranges with no more oil leaks.
So I took my first peak inside the Honda engine and it all worked out ok so next time, I will approach it with a bit more confidence.
Just need to fix the leaky brake ‘T’ piece and then the car will be road ready (if not road legal yet).
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