More Problems

[fiasco]

Just home after a long day of Eastering. I'll try to get those pics posted tomorrow.

Thanks for the comment on the sig - I think my car finally has a name that is going to stick. I'm going to try to get a license plate that says FIASCO.

-- se

[manoa matt]

Nice to have friends like Alvon, the aeronautics engineer. Now you know why they call him "Ace"

[mdrburchette]

Glad to hear you got your problem solve, Steve! Sure is nice to have Fiat buddies, isn't it?

[fiat218]

DAMN lol i read this whole column,
i wanna move to cali , no fiat helpers in north dakota lol

but i have u all here so it awesome

[mdrburchette]

Jim, Alvon has been known to travel. In fact, he helped work on my Spider in my shop in North Carolina.

[mbouse]

yabbit, tell the whole story denise.... you hornswaggled him at gun point in Detroit for that trip...

[mdrburchette]

Awe Jeez, Mike. You always gotta run that trap, don't ya? Alvon might need a little persuadin' but I didn't find that too hard.

[ventura ace]

OK, Denise winked at me, and I fell for it. It won't work for you, Mike, or Jim, or any of the rest of you guys!

Seriously, when I travel, I enjoy finding opportunities to meet and spend time with Fiat folks, and what better way to spend time than tinkering with the cars?! For that trip, I combined some company business with a little personal vacation time to take in FFO in Detroit, and the Burchettes were gracious enough to let me ride with them down to NC to spend a few days with our just-married daughter and husband. I had a great visit with the Burchette family, including a little work time on her prize winning spider, before moving on down the road to my daughter's.

Actually, come to think of it, on that same trip Lee Putman came to my rescue when my travel plans fell through in Chicago. I stayed at his place overnight, and we did a little bit of tweeking on his car, then he gave me a ride from there to Detroit, meeting up with the Mike Bouse caravan somewhere along the way. Good memories from that one!

By the same token, you guys are more than welcome to stop over in Ventura, Califonia on any of your travels. Always glad to see ya!

A

[ga.spyder]

Steve,I am sure you realize how lucky you are to have friend like Alvon. Ace....you are the man!!!
Craig

[Tappy]

Tappy,
It's better to put the oil pan on last, but that's not always possible or practical if the engine is in the car.

If putting the seal housing on while the oil pan remains in place, be sure to dab a generous amount of sealant in the corner where the oil pan and engine block join.

In our case yesterday, we were able to pull the seal housing off with the seal still in place, gently and carefully prying from the top and the side edges and using a thin scraper to seperate the seal housing from the oil pan gasket. We did so on purpose, because we wanted to look at how the seal was installed in the housing, to see if it had been an improper installation. As it turns out, the seal had been properly installed in the housing, fully pressed in until it bottomed out in the housing, and the spring energizer was still in place.

Since the oil pan gasket did not seem to be pushing too much against the seal housing, we decided to to put the new seal in the housing before mounting the housing onto the engine. We used a thin strip of cardboard (lubricated well) to help the seal slide over the end of the camshaft, by putting the cardboard guide shim around the camshaft, and sliding the seal over the cardboard. For our first attempt, we tried a carboard guide that went 360° around the camshaft, but it bound up and would not go. For the second try, we cut a smaller strip of cardboard to guide the seal over the bottom 90°-12o° of the camshaft, since the main binding would be there, due to the oil pan gasket pushing everything upwards. It slipped on very nicely.

Probably the better approach is per Mark's suggestion. Put the seal housing on first (without the seal). Put the screws from the oil pan to the seal housing in next and snug them up somewhat to bring the seal housing down firmly on the oilpan gasket, while checking to see that the holes line up with the threaded holes in the block. Install the screws from the housing to the block. Snug the oil pan screws first, to try to center the seal housing, then tighten the screws attaching the seal housing to the block, then finish by tightening the oil pan screws. Then carefully install the crankshaft seal, using a thin cardbaord shim as described above to guide the rubber lip seal into place over the end of the camshaft. Remove the carboard shim. Done.

A

thx alvon i missed this for some reason , thx for the writeup

[ventura ace]

Tappy,
Unless you have a reason to suspect that the seal plate is leaking, you should probably not disturb it. If you see that the seal is the obvious source of leak, you might be best off to retrieve the old seal and press in the new one, leaving the plate where it is. The only reason we took the plate off is that we weren't sure that the seal was pressed all the way in, and wanted to research it more to be sure. We probably could have found our answer by taking measurements before and after pulling the seal out, leaving the seal plate in place.

A

[Tappy]

so you're saying i dont need to remove the plate to get 18 in place , dont i need to replace 20 as wel ? Since i have new oil return ring i take a closer look tomorrow :

[ventura ace]

Yes, #18 can be removed and replaced without bothering the rest of the items. If that is obviously torn up, and the only suspected leak, then it's best to replace it only. If a leak is suspected with #17 or #20, it would be a good time to rework them, also, but if you know those items are not leaking, it's best to leave them alone.

A