ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Ronald]

Well, we've spent silly money having the engine rebuilt with everything that could be replaced has been, first up the dynamo wasn't charging, which mayt have been my fault for connecting it wrong..... i've just driven MT for the first time properly since the new engine went in, and now there is both oil and water dripping from the front camshaft drive housing...... NOT HAPPY!!!.......................

[Ian Grace]

Oh jeez Ronald! That is not a good healthy sign!

Do I take it you have water and oil coming down from the vertical drive drain gallery?

My initial thought is that you shouldn't have water up there, and if you have, I'd suspect the core plug under the cam on the top of the head. Is there any emulsion in the sump indicating water getting into the oil?

And if you have liquids draining from this gallery that seems to indicate that you don't have the oil seal mod in the housing?

Have you had the cam cover off?

I'll await more news over the weekend.

The good news is that it doesn't sound like block issues, so should not be difficult/expensive to sort.

[Ronald]

Ian, the issue is being caused by a less than good seal between the housing and the actual head, there are only four small studs that hold the housing to the head, and two of these were recently distrubed when i removed the oil drain pipe in order to sort the dynamo, the water is creeping down one of the studs of the oil return pipe, those studs go right through into the water jacket..... we did have an oil seal mod done, but the oil seems to be dripping off one of the studs, not from the shaft........so what i think i may have to do, is remove the dynamo and drain pipe and also the housing itself, (ideally with head in situ) i would then remove the stud that goes into the water gallery...... and use some sort of compound to seal the thread........ clean all surfaces and re-assemble........ again, with some sort of compound to seal the housing to head surface..... any idea what though...???

On the plus side, it drove ok to the mot, i have fiddled with the mixture and it seems to be running ok....... oh, and the mot wasn't an issue........ apart from slight play in one wheel bearing.....

[Ian Grace]

That's a relief! It helps with those front oil pipes if you replace the studs with bolt - it makes the pipes much easier to remove and refit.

[Ronald]

I may have just figured it out.......... the leak has only occured since i did the dynamo, if i run the engine, and look at the housing under the front of the headm i can clearly see it moving slightly, even though all nuts are tight, this leads me to think that the dynamo or yokes are very slightly off centre....... so, what i think i will do is remove the dynamo, sort the issue, and then make sure i refit it 180 degrees from where it is now........... not really what i wanted though when i had the engine done, but there you go......

one question, as i didn't build the engine i'm not sure if i can remove the bottom housing off the head without removing the camshaft and the top housing...... i hope i don;t have to do that, or i might take the car to the engine man to do it...???

[Ian Grace]

Aha!

Here's a paragrah from an early Tech Topics that might help:

"Now comes another vital check. You need to satisfy yourself that the dynamo is running perfectly true with the
vertical drive; if not, you will undoubtedly run into trouble with your drive coupling. To do this, you will need to
prepare a mandrel which slips into the vertical drive hole in the cylinder head, and which will enable you to check
if the mandrel centre is accurately lined up with the dimple on the center of the dynamo armature. If not, then
adjustment will require a certain amount of fun and games with the crank case nosepiece. This item is shimmed
for fore/aft alignment and pegged for lateral alignment. Fore/aft alignment is simply a matter of shimming with
the requisite thickness of brass shims. Lateral alignment is a little trickier, and may in extreme cases involve redrilling
and re-pegging the nosepiece to the block. However, by judicious use of gasket paper on one side or the
other, the dynamo can be angled a few thou at the base, which will in all probability provide the requisite lateral
displacement at the vertical drive. (One more tip – make sure that both vertical drive forks have their attachment
bolts spring or tab-washered to ensure that they remain tightly in place."

If your block/nosepiece/head/dynamo combination is original, you shouldn't have this problem, but this assumes also that you refit the dynamo the same way round - with the terminals on the driver's side.

As for removing the drain gallery in situ, I don't think there is a problem, but without a head in front of me I couldn't swear to it.

[Ronald]

Thanks Ian, the thing that my head keeps coming back to is that this issue only arose when i put the dynamo back in...... the body of the dynamo is clearly in the right way, but due to the yoke on the top, it is possible to fit the core of the dynamo in two positions, 180degrees apart.... i suspect this is the reason for the problem..... the last thing i want to do is use the car like this, as i know that the oil seal in that housing is of aircraft spec, and very small..... so it won;t take much abuse, if it's not knackered already..LOL!!

I think i'll have to call the engine man and get his take on it, and then see what happens when i attack it with spanners....