Coolant!

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John H
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Re: Coolant!

Post by John H »

Quick update.... fully filled with around 13.5lts of Evans coolant..... borrowed exhaust installed (thanks to a very generous member) and oil priming tool sourced! So I need to check the fans operate but after that no excuse but to fire her up for the very first time :D . I am not sure I am looking forward to glowing manifolds during the cam break in though!
Built St Piran Hawk289FIA in Scotland!
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Roger King
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Re: Coolant!

Post by Roger King »

John H wrote:I am not sure I am looking forward to glowing manifolds during the cam break in though!
S'gonna happen. Have the dizzy lightly nipped up with a half-inch spanner at the ready, and a timing light connected up too so you can dial the dizzy in once she fires. Give it about 32°BTDC at 2-2500rpm, it shouldn't pink as it won't be under load. Don't go over 36° unless you know that your pistons are not hypereutectic cast alloy (but I wouldn't anyway).
Don't remove the rad cap whilst it's running unless you are absolutely certain you have no air locks in the system (in other words, don't remove the rad cap!). Watch the temp gauge and if it gets really silly and the manifolds are glowing bright orange shut off and investigate. Get as much air flowing around the motor as you can and, obviously, leave the bonnet open. Change the oil filter after the break-in, and I'd do the oil as well although the filter is more important.

Good luck! It'll be noisy...
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Roger King
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Re: Coolant!

Post by Roger King »

Roger King wrote:I promise you that the parabolica at Estoril is a far tougher test than any J turn!!
I should probably explain this. Turn 13 at Estoril is a long, constant radius right-hander of getting on for 180° which is followed by a long straight, getting on for 1km long. Accelerating around this curve has the effect of shifting all the oil in the sump over to the left rear corner, even with spring-loaded diamond baffles and a block pickup. The SBF has notoriously poor oil-drain back, and if you have a high-volume oil pump fitted a prolonged period of high revs, say 6-6500rpm for around 30-35sec, has the effect of pumping all the oil up to the head area and starving the bearings, with rod bearing no.3 taking the first hit as its supply is weakest from the pump. 5 or 6 laps of this and hey presto, knocked out rod bearing. Please don't ask me how I know this to be true, but at least I'm in good company as Barrie Williams once told me he'd blown up a couple of 289 engines doing exactly that in exactly the same place.*

*that clanging noise was the sound of a name dropping, in case you hadn't guessed.
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clive
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Re: Coolant!

Post by clive »

John, you might consider using an infra red thermometer to keep an eye on the radiator temperature. If you don't have on you can get them from Mapping or you can borrow mine.
Cheers, Clive.

(If I'm not here I'm in my workshop or on the golf course!)
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John H
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Re: Coolant!

Post by John H »

Just a quick update - my FIA is alive! I did the cam run in today. Took an age getting the distributer back in after the oil priming. Took about 30 mins of trial and error to get it aligned , but got there in the end. Priming also nearly did my electric drill - it was smoking! I did check that oil had reached all the valves. I have to say there was more smoke than I expected, not least of all the plastic cover to the starter motor connection melted away! She ran for 30 mins total before I could not control the heat anymore and shut her down. It was done in 3 goes, first after 10 minutes and getting hot I had a major leak from the top of the rad. Then shut her down because I thought the plastic melting was going to catch alight. So not perfect but my first time doing that. Roger you will be pleased to know the manifolds did glow red towards the end. Since cooling she developed a couple of other coolant leaks interestingly enough. All quite exciting really! Oil and filter change tomorrow. Thanks for the help.
Built St Piran Hawk289FIA in Scotland!
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Roger King
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Re: Coolant!

Post by Roger King »

Excellent! That all sounds pretty much par for the course. Evans finds leaks very well, but then I reckon any neat coolant would.
Probably not the time of year to get on and enjoy it just yet, though.
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amulheirn
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Re: Coolant!

Post by amulheirn »

Nice work John! Did you take a video?

I took one of mine - was also surprised by the amount of smoke initially - probably due to liberal coatings of Graphogen in various places. Here's a video after it had been running for a while: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MS2JjKjOVM
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Roger King
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Re: Coolant!

Post by Roger King »

There will be loads of smoke - cam lube, assembly lube, ARP fastener molylube, manifold paint, oil on exhaust, just loads of smoke-producing stuff everywhere on first fire-up. Flames, now - shouldn't be too many of those. Best switch off if there are.
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