Forums Forums Enthusiast Forums A - Z Autowirral Farting about with K-Series head

In the late summer, decided to do some work on the car.
It was overheating now and then, and had a definite water leak from under the car. Was hoping it was a loose pipe, but there was coolant running down the side of the engine! Discovered later that rubber seal on the water pump had failed. I thought I'd have this done in a day and roughly 50 quid, but it's taken longer than that due to my sh*tty luck and lack time available! Apologies for crappy pics, I only have a lo-qual mobile phone camera!



Tricky bolt positions in tricky to access engine bay = swear box has good night:



'Crappy' head gasket:



I 'bent a valve' taking the crank pulley off - I forgot to take the cam locking tool out and it took about 10 teeth off the belt and the piston whacked them when it finally budged! F**K!

Valvez:



Bent valves - 1/4 moon shape pattern:





Bought new Payen head gasket and head bolts and new valves etc:



In the garage with telly and heater on ahhhh - head half stripped:



Collets = horrible:



Valve replaced with new oil seal in place, good way of getting collet back on is grease on end of valve, and just pop it on:



I dropped one on the floor which is dark - I found it, god knows how.



4 hours later, and all are replaced! Used Loctite 574 flange sealant on the cam carrier:



Head has been on, and took off today again to replace with one that works. I forgot to properly put the oil cam seal in , and it was pissing the lot out of the side.

Class thread
Wish I had the time and the space to have tried that sorta thing with the Alfa.

One thing to say about the K Series, good engines, but they dont half look industrial. Thought they could have designed them to look a bit better

Lovin it mate, K'er ftw!

Got new half an engine, was typical scrapyard special with everything still on, but half cut off with the angle grinder (even the wiring):



Put it on, bolted everything up, tried to loosen the idle pulley but it was stuck fast. Managed to lightly strip it due to lack of space:





So, out it came AGAIN!



Managed to TOTALLY strip the crappy torq nut - why do manufacturers use these? They are SHIT:





By now, I could care less about being 'careful', so when the drill failed:



I whipped out the angle grinder:



More for the reason that the friction turns it red hot and frees the little begger:



Stretch bolts possibly stretched beyond required stretchiness:



Torquing up thanks to Mr Gilly:



Back together again - too dark to do belt, so will finish tommorow!



Fingers crossed!

nice one bud
now thats my luck with the pulley!

I'm getting no spark, and then the starter motor disintegrated. I hate this fooking car.

how old is it bud? might be able to help yer

It's 98 I think?

ahh doh ive got an OBD2 diagnostic kit, but it only works on '02 or later cars, no spark you say? i could have a look for yer if you like, PM me if you like!

I actually think I've not plugged something in, it was too dark and chucking it down and I packed up before I could be arsed having a proper look!

When you get a spark, it probably still wont start due to low compression

Yer, im sorry for taking the piss haha! Everyone knows I love the ald K really.

God knows why there was no spark, but it has it now. Put a new starter on, but it still wouldn't turn over. Check the wiring, argh, the eye connector had cracked! Put new connector on and it took about 1 minute to start properly, but got going in the end! Hurrah!

Thanks for the thread mate, love reading these, its more fun watching than doing.

It certainly is - I wouldn't mind doing in the summer, but it's horrible in the winter. I've now got another whole car that I have to strip before the start of January! Argh.

Great work.
I like the sound and power delivery of a k-series but the HGF is a big put off.

Did it hold up ?