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September 12th - Engine Strip Down On September 12th, the two Jeeps were swapped around in the garage to give better access to the engine on the M201. After being plagued by engine problems in 2014, it was time to strip it down and give it a good inspection and rework as needed. In my ownership, Jessie has driven over 12,000 miles, and I don't know how many miles before that as the speedo didn't work when I got it. The engine has a French rebuild plate on it from 1987, 27 years ago, and I don't think the engine had been touched since, other than the minor work I've done. The first job was to empty the coolant. After placing a bowl under the engine, and a funnel under the radiator, the radiator drain tap was opened. After a while, the hose from the engine to radiator was removed, allowing the remainder to drain. |
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The next step was to start removing other engine
components that would prevent the cylinder head from coming off or would get in
the way. All the head studs were slackened off, water hoses removed, oil filter
bracket, plug lead bracket, plugs and leads, coil and carburettor. After a
gentle tap with a hammer, the head became loose, but not free.
I was able to drive some 1/16 ply wedges into the join, slightly lifting the head. It raised slightly, but was more tight at the rear. Over several hours and increasing wedge thicknesses, the head slowly lifted away from the block, but was still gripped tight by corrosion on the rear head stud on the side of the carburettor. |
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| Below left, the head is seen about one inch clear of the block, but it is still held firm by the rear stud. After lots of struggling, tapping the head back down to the block, lots of WD40 sprayed on, and lifting the head back up with wedges, several times over, it finally got to a point where it was virtually free. From that point on, I rocked the head up and down at the front, while applying slight upward pressure at the rear with wooden levers, and eventually it came free. The rusty stud can be seen in the picture below. | |
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After the wood chips from the wedges had been vacuumed
up, the engine was given a quick look over. The top of the block and the
cylinder head looked fine at first glance, but will be inspected more carefully
after a clean up. The valves also didn't look too bad, but it was difficult to
tell with them still in place. The valves on cylinder number one were given a
bit more inspection since that was the one with particularly low pressure. The
cylinder bores were also given a quick look for scoring, and seemed to be ok.
By this point, my back was killing me. I'd been wrestling with the engine, bent over the fender, for several hours, so was about ready to called it a day at that point. Before I did pack up, I removed the intake/exhaust manifold, and tappet adjustment cover. |
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