When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Hey roadtalontsi - I was going back through your pictures at the beginning of this thread and wanted to ask; what did you use for assembly lube on your cams? Is that lithium grease? I have always used the sticky red assembly lube for putting my engines together and have had good luck with that stuff, but wondering if you have a particular reason for using something else. Thanks in advance man.
Made a little more progress tonight, not as much as I would have liked to, the wife had my putting up Halloween decorations half the night. Any who, got the intake cam in on the driver side in and ready for the phaser. Slow and steady wins the race in this case...
Nice! Did you notice any unusual wear on the cams when you had them out? And your lifters - did you use new OE or the M159 buckets?
No unusual wear at all, nothing on the cam or the caps and the Weistec cap bolts are very nice. I was not opening this beast up without replacing the noisy buckets, so what you see in the pic are indeed the updated m159 buckets. Hoping to get phaser on that cam tomorrow and get the other cam and phaser in tomorrow so I can finally button that side up and move on to the other side. Stay tuned!
i just used some engine assembly lube. I'll post a picture of what it is exactly when i get a chance. We've always used it and never had issues. Im sure you'll be fine with any sort of assembly lube. I dont have any magic secret sauce or input on that.
i just used some engine assembly lube. I'll post a picture of what it is exactly when i get a chance. We've always used it and never had issues. Im sure you'll be fine with any sort of assembly lube. I dont have any magic secret sauce or input on that.
Here's how far I got today; got everything back together on the driver's side, what a brilliant design this valve train is. Any other overhead cam design I've ever worked on, you have to take the timing cover off and get the drive chain off in order to get the cams out, this design is truly ingenious. Any who, the cam tools are great and make things super easy and everything went back together fairly easily once I figured out how they worked. Tomorrow, the other side is on the agenda!
Perfect example of the flat edge in the back of the cams, the top holder over top front and the phaser plater over the front. These tools set the timing perfectly with the engine at 40degrees. It is a genius design. You could put this engine back together so easily because of this. Amazing that bolt is all that holds the phaser connected to the cam.
looking good. I dont bother with the rear lock plate in the back, i've had a few cams have a piece chip off where that bar goes while torqueing/loosening. just an fyi.
Heres the super secret sauce lube.
and for anyone that is wondering that is the fine lanchester balance shaft assembly for the new 274 - 4cylinder turbo engine found in the new 205 c300. Yea for overly complicated parts on a boring 4 banger.
I thought it might be that stuff, I've never used it but curious as to how well it works. I've always used the blood red looking permatex assembly lube; that stuff seems to stay better than anything else and it's not that graphite moly crap that I feel like does more harm than good. Absolutely no scientific evidence to substantiate my claim, just a gut feeling that that stuff is meant more for the old flat tappet stuff that has to mate the cam lobe to the lifter, etc. and would gall the surfaces of newer components. Again, just thinking out loud, but that lubripate looks like it's slicker and would stay put better than the stuff I have.
Got the other side torn apart tonight, everything looked good, except I did notice a few of the buckets were worn heavily in a few places, evidence that it wasn't going to be long before they ruined this engine. Switch yours out now if you haven't already!
Although I have no experience with the MLS on the M156, I do have experience with MLS gaskets on high horsepower V-8's and yes they can be reused numerous times unless they have been damaged.
Although I have no experience with the MLS on the M156, I do have experience with MLS gaskets on high horsepower V-8's and yes they can be reused numerous times unless they have been damaged.
Thanks for the input! Better late than never! Before I went ahead with what I'm doing, I actually did a ton of research, both looking at what the manufacturer recommendations were as well as looking at what others had done in other forums. The guys in the LS corvette racer forum were very helpful. While my particular situation is sort of unique in that this is a street car that I may occasionally take to the track with no plans in the foreseeable future to remove or rebuild this engine, there were several guys who had done exactly what I'm doing with their weekend race car and never had a problem. Several guys had actually rebuilt the entire engine and reused their MLS head gaskets and all they did was spray some copper gasket maker on both sides of the gasket and ran the car for another season, having experienced no issues with the engine whatsoever. So, while I have yet to determine if what I'm doing is wise or not, I'm committed to doing a thorough job trying and let everyone know what results I have; good or bad. We'll see what happens and go from there!
Well, here it is, the before and after, before and after shots from inside the last cylinder I believe was leaking. The first set of photos is the before and after about 10 minutes under pressure and it's clearly leaking coolant. The second set is the before and after that same 10 minute period after I installed the studs. I'm going to let it sit overnight with pressure on it and see what it looks like in the morning, so everybody collectively cross your fingers and toes that the picture I take tomorrow morning looks just like those last set of pics and not full of coolant!
Well, here is that same cylinder this morning and while I don't see this cylinder full of coolant, the system did lose pressure and the expansion tank that was about a quarter full when I went to bed was empty, so coolant is going somewhere. Guess I'll take the plugs out of the driver side tonight and see if something got missed over there, but as of right now, unless there's coolant slowly making it into all the little passageways within the engine, I'm still losing coolant somewhere. Not the result I was looking for this morning.
Might have just been air in the system from when you filled the coolant back up. Top it off again and check.
That's what I'm hoping for and I will be topping off and rechecking tonight when I get home.
How much pressure are you giving the cooling system? I think the real test will be under load while the engine is running.
The cap pressure is 22lbs, that's what I'm pressurizing it to. Obviously, everything is going to behave a little differently once it's warm and running, but simulating the pressure on the system should yield the same results whether the engine is cold or warm. Whatever the case may be, if I don't find anything full of coolant on the other side, I'm gonna button everything back up and start praying.
Thanks for the replies Marc63, I really appreciate the help.
So, I topped the sumb***h off three times last night and coolant is STILL going somewhere. At this point I've put almost a full gallon more than what came out of it, I know because I captured, filtered and reused what came out. I do have about a half gallon in the fluid extractor that came out of each of the bolt holes in the block, but not near what I've put back into it at this point. I know it's not going into any of the cylinders and I'm pretty sure it's not going into the crankcase; the oil looks clean on the dipstick and the level is normal but I guess I won't know that for sure until I drain the oil. Any suggestions fellas???
Your data doesn't make sense unless you had a major airlock.
If you're confident there's no coolant entering the cylinders, button the ***** back up, crank her over and bleed the cooling system.
Trust me Jason, I'm just as cornfuzzled as you are, it don't make no sense, but it's going somewhere. I'm definitely confident nothing is getting into the cylinders, I have scoped every cylinder over the last three days with up to 22 lbs of pressure on the system and all but the one that was leaking are bone dry. The one that was leaking is wet from when I pressurized it the first time, but I have time lapse video that shows there's no more coolant entering that cylinder after the stud install. I'm going to drain the oil tonight and unless it comes out looking like a chocolate milkshake, I'm going to pray to Walter P. Chrysler and put everything back together and turn the key.
Did you silicone all the bolt threads and nut/washers???
I did indeed. Made sure the shoulder surface for each bolt was nice n clean and used a liberal amount of permatex, just like the directions say. I have also checked inside the valve cover on the driver side(since I still have the passenger side open) and everything is clear on the driver's side.
Well where the hell is it going? Drain the oil it would be separated.
That's what I'm saying! I'm draining the oil tonight. If I find nothing but dino juice, I'll gingerly be putting everything back together and taking the plunge.
10-30-2015, 01:15 PM
