360 story and engine rebuild

ChrisQP09

Member
Messages
2,994
Not me 40 years on the tools and still love it.
Rather spend my day doing that than updating software on current rubbish.

Haha, I'll soon be embarking on DIY with the QP and actually looking forward to it. Mainly general service stuff but should be rewarding.
 

makeshiftUK

Member
Messages
1,089
What a fascinating read, thanks for sharing.

My first ever track day just over a decade ago was in a 360 around Silverstone - and whilst I’ve driven things since which are much faster, driving that 360 remains as my fondest memory of a track experience to date.

If money was no object, I think top of my car shopping list would be a 360 CS!
 

Bebs

Member
Messages
3,266
Did Voicey say anything about why the keyway between the oil pump stages broke?
We dont honestly know... it’s got to be metal fatigue... after all, the engine has done 100,000 without a major fail.. just as well I suppose that we had to take it apart because of incompetence! ... we’d never have known about the oil pump cog failure otherwise.
 
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Oneball

Member
Messages
11,072
We dont honestly know... it’s got to be metal fatigue... after all, the engine has done 100,000 without a major fail.. just as well I suppose that we had to take it apart because of imcompetence! ... we’d never have known about the oil pump cog failure otherwise.

I wonder whether it was installed a bit forcefully in the factory and been ready to let go for 100k. Super lucky it didn’t do anything nasty.
 

Bebs

Member
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3,266
I wonder whether it was installed a bit forcefully in the factory and been ready to let go for 100k. Super lucky it didn’t do anything nasty.
That’s how I look at it.. both Ed and Aldous @ AV reckon it was a lucky escape.
 

Bebs

Member
Messages
3,266
I just received further updates from AV Engineering.
Upon disassembly of the engine parts they encountered a problem when attempting to remove the worn bearings from the the front cover of the bottom half of the block, see photos below:
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The bearings were corroded so hard into that cover that it actually cracked on removal despite AV trying to heat it up in order to remove it:

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Furthermore, one of the oil pipes also cracked on removal due to corrosion:
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These are serious issues as the cracked cover can only be purchased as part of buying a new sump which comes in at a ridiculous cost of thousands and the little cracked pipe replacement itself is £350 + VAT!

However, once again, the team at AV Engineering have stepped up to the plate and come up with a cost effective solution. They have managed to source both items from a scrapped 360 engine for the princely sum of £250!
Obviously I am extremely grateful to them for taking the time to source these things and more importantly at such a low cost. Hats off to these guys - not a lot of people would have gone to the trouble they are doing for me, very impressive indeed.
 

Bebs

Member
Messages
3,266
A second issue raised its ugly head when Ed at AV took the inlet manifold apart for a thorough inspection and clean up.
The 8 inlets each have a butterfly opening/plate which are held down by 2 screws..
As you can see from the attached photos one of the plates appear to have a screw missing!

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They found the screw wedged in at the corner of the inlet manifold!

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Phew.. another lucky escape! Engines have been known to self destruct with screw like that dropping in..

A second screw was found to be loose also:

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That's it for today - my scored crank is starting to look like a blessing in disguise!!
Thank you to the AV team for all their hard work so far - without them I clearly would have been in a lot of trouble sooner or later..
 

philw696

Member
Messages
25,114
Wow that's a Lucky Escape for sure.
What a story this is becoming and all part of the history of you car.
Thanks for sharing :)