Cobra Life...... Ups and Downs!!

Well where do i start this little update? so much to say and so much has changed i have learnt allot and nearly lost allot. Since getting legal and having a little fun in the piss poor weather through the back end of the winter i was seriously looking forward to my first little north east Cobra meet. The plan for the day was to drive up to Ian's in Gosforth then off over to Whitley Bay to meet a new face on the local scene John, who has a Pilgrim Sumo. Then a drive over to Johns unit where he keeps the car and then over towards James in Bishop Auckland via the Tyne tunnel..... yes massive excitement for though the tunnel in these monsters, and this didn't disappoint.
So the day started well and i had a great drive over to Ians house (via a petrol station) where after a little bit of banter and general Cobra excitement we were soon on our way off to the coast to pick up John. It is one of the best things about living where i live, i can travel 30 minuets in one direction and be dipping my toes in the clear water of Tynemouth and Whitley Bay. And yet 30 minuets in the other direction sees me in the depths of the stunning rural countryside of Northumberland.
John was soon strapped into his shotgun seat in Ians Pilgrim and we were heading for the tunnel, by this point the nerves of listening to every single noise from my car and the fear that something was about to go wrong were fading and i was seriously starting to have fun, i was very grateful Ian had a spare of gloves as it was flippin cold and i'm not as hardy as i thought i was.

The blast through the tunnel was epic, the noise from the cars was superb and i didn't see anyone without a bloody big smile on their face as we blasted through at a eye watering top speed of 40 Mph. The speed limit is in place for safety (naturally). Some people have been saying that its to generate revenue and stop anyone in a flipping loud Cobra having any fun..... i could neither agree or disagree. 

After the excitement of the tunnel we were soon at Johns unit and were we all soon looking over his Cobra. It had been off the road for a few years now and was in the process of a mild restoration to restore to its former glory. After a few hours and a couple of cups of coffee we were on our way towards James in Bishop Auckland.
  James has an early Dax kit which is undergoing a full restoration and re spray and he is another flash sod with a bloody great garage complete with inspection pit and space!!! i'm starting to think i was at the back of the que when God was handing out garages...ha ha.
  So after another few hours and more coffee, this time with cake and biscuits (John take note!! he he)  we were starting to make our way home. Ian was taking John back towards Whitley Bay (via the tunnel again) and i decided to head back home up through Tow Law (a very rural and isolated little town) with some stunning views across the countryside, in fact i feel this is my new favorite road as it has bends and twists for fun along with great stretches of clear straight for some powerful overtaking maneuvers. And its a great place to set off car alarms as you drive through with the reverb and deep burble from the giant side pipes on the car (i think i have found a new game to play!!) Heading home just out of Tow Law it was at this point fate was against me and the start of the deep dark depression began.

I was not more than a few miles from home when a rattle suddenly appeared from no where. After a quick shift into neutral and whilst costing along and blipping the throttle to see if it was picking up with the revs it was to late, i had to select a drive gear again in order to get to a safe place off the road and although costing along at about 60 mph i went strait into 5th gear and started to indicate left. The rattle by this point i had established was picking up with the revs and as soon as i selected 5th gear and start to pick up the drive again their was a "PING!!" and the rattle stopped.
  I had a gut feeling what the problem was as a couple of week prior i had gone for a short drive up to work and back, and the return journey i had a rocker pinch bolt work its way back slightly and allow the tappet to become rather loud. This is not uncommon for an engine which hasn't seen a serious operating temprature for a good few years and not forgetting this had only just been rebuilt prior to me taking delivery, so a potential of an air bubble in the hydraulic lifter was high. Either way when this had happened i had done some digging about on the internet and had been checking how to set the "valve lash" this is simply a half turn of the pinch bolt as soon as you feel it start to grip/resist the push rod as you rotate it through your finger. The important factor is weather your lifter is primed with oil or slack when you set this pre load.... something i was unaware of completely. Because my lifter was primed with oil when the tappet had worked its way loose i must have set the pre load to high "excessive pre load"which is dangerous to the engine as it can hang a valve open to long and allow the piston to smash into it and basically destroy itself.
  Anyway i was now about to pull over and check things over, i had oil pressure and although the engine sounded rough it was running (all be it on 7 cylinders) after some quick though and a gut feeling it was the push rod i decided to get back home slowly and watching all the gauges like a hawk for any signs of oil pressure loss or overheat. I was back in the safety of my own garage within 5-10 minuets and i was to depressed to even look at anything, such a great day out (only 240 miles since IVA pass) and my first real trip out in the car and this had happened.

So after a few days of sulking and the frustration that the good weather was on its way and i was without my car was enough to nearly see me swinging from the joists by a length of rope. I had in this time spoken with Wendi and Jon at AK and i was at first a little pissed off with the whole situation. My engine was purchased through a company no longer trading so my warranty was worth shit, however the guy who physically built my engine (Jez from Custom Power and Paint) for the company i purchased through is a very well respected and good V8 engine builder. Jon advised me to contact him and take his advice regarding the issue but either way it would be time to start pulling parts to bits. I had removed removed the valve cover already and it was obvious that i was missing a push rod from the inlet port on cylinder number 1. At this point i was not sure what exactly the problem was, just an idea and diagnostic from my own understanding that the engine had basically eaten a push rod, which cant be good news as i had no idea where the rod had gone.
 i had been trying to contact Jez it had been a good few days and still no return call, just an answer machine so i contacted Jon again at AK who said he was on holiday for a few weeks and it was best that i pulled the distributer and inlet manifold myself to get a better look myself. After a couple of days i went to the garage and started the painful strip down of everything on the top. Off with the carb and all the throttle cables etc... then off with the distributor and removal of the inlet manifold. This was all new ground for me on this engine as previously my experience of any V8 strip down was of the old Rover V8 from a SD1... the basics are very similar mind.
   So when the inlet was off i was confronted with a very knackerd push rod on the inlet valve with the top third of it laying in the valley of the block. So here we have the "Ping" noise and the sudden stop of the rattle when it first happened. Next on the list was to check for valve damage, and damage to the lobes on the cam. The lifter itself had jumped right up in the block but not fully out of its bore and apart from that it all looked normal. So now what about valve damage? In order to check this i would have to run a pressure test on the effected cylinder and compare it to a couple of others to see if a large variance was present, In order for me to achieve this i had to order a pressure testing gauge and some other bits in preparation to the rebuild.

After a few days parts and tools started to arrive and i had also had a return call from Jez. This was really reassuring as he certainly knows his onions when it comes to SBC V8 blocks, and not once was he surprised annoyed with my probably stupid terminology and crude descriptions. Remember Jez had no legal obligation to help me and could have quite easily told me to naff off, but luckily he is just as everyone had said he is, a genuine guy who was happy to help. He agreed to send me some new gaskets for the inlet and some new poly lock rocker bolts and a new set of push rods and true to his word after the Easter break i was in a position to start checking the pressure and if ok starting the rebuild.
The pressure result was such a relief as it showed a health 160psi and a cylinder on the offside bank showed an equally healthy 155 psi. These were cold crank readings with a low on juice battery, but both within tolerance so i slept well that night confident that valve damage was not going to be an issue. A few days later when life allowed time, i was back in the garage starting the rebuild process with the aid of loads of advice from Jez and loads of videos on Youtube form Summit racing, the basic strip down and hand rotation of the engine is fairly easy and logical when you look at the physicality's of it. I had lots of bolts and washers soaking in white spirits for a few days and i took the time to clean all the inlet manifold and head surfaces with spirits also, whilst the valley of the block was covered and the ports shoved full with clean rag. This is to stop any dirt ingress that could cause any damage when start up happens again. The oil was also drained from the sump and the filter replaced for safety, after all a push rod snapping in half could have left a small shard of metal that could damage the engine. The push rod did have a fairly clean break when matched up together but i wasn't taking any risk for the sake of new oil and filter. When the engine was in this stripped down state and the spark plugs removed Jez advised to rotate the engine by hand a 1/4 turn every 3-4 hours. This is to bleed down all the pressure from the lifters and drain the oil from them, and thus when setting the preload it will be to the correct tolerance... and not to high/low.

 So after a good few days of a slow and steady rebuild with lots of cleaning of parts and allowing time for the high temprature silicon to cure on the gaskets and valley seals, i was getting ready to start the engine again. One other part to this learning curve was setting the timing for the initial start and the total advance timing when the engine was up to operating temp. Jez advised an initial timing set to about 15 degrees advance and a total advance to 36 degrees. I purchased an advance dial in timing light which makes setting the timing child's play. You just set the number of degrees advance required with the rotary dial on the gun and then align the TDC mark on the balancer to the pointer... really easy stuff and very effective. Again i watched a fair few videos on youtube first to give me the confidence first, but after having set my timing to fire on the exhaust stroke of the piston rather than the compression it fired up straight away!!! YAY!!! I had been turning the engine over a bit first to build up the oil pressure and then i connected the live to the HEI distributor, then broom broom time again. As you can see in the last image also that when i went to the extent of sorting all this out i was buggered if i was putting on those nasty looking valve covers and air cleaner. So a week prior i had remembered the pin for my credit card and did the job properly with these Edelbrock Elite valve covers and air cleaner, so much nicer and suit the style of the car and color scheme better. Tommy was a happy boy again.

So now back up and running i have clocked up another 100 miles last weekend just taking it easy and having some nice driving through the country side in the sun...... yep sun!! we do get it occasionally. Granted that has since disappeared and been replaced with snow on the 28th of April however it wont last long and im looking forward to some more fun in the Cobra.

Weekend coming sees the Stoneleigh Kit car Show, i still don't know if i'm going this year as i have no garage to keep the car in over night and the weather forecast look dire all weekend. I might jump on a train and have a quite skulk about, but we shall see.

Next update wont be long, with some fine tuning to my Cobra in the fashion of heat protection.