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Removal of K series head


ECR

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A local friend with an S2 Elise seems to have mistimed his engine by 90 degrees. He's not run it but has turned it over by hand a couple of times so the possibility of bent valves is there.

I've said I'll help him remove the head and inspect the valves but what "gotchas" are there in a K ? I know about clamping the liners, are the head bolts re useable and if not, does the bottom end need attacking in order to replace them ?

New head gasket of course, what else ?

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Bolts can be reusable - but if he goes down that route, get a bit of cardboard, mark it up with the bolt numbers are punch the bolts through the cardboard so that you can keep track of which is which.

 

The Haynes manual will give you all the relevant info on the bolt removal/replacement sequence etc.

 

 

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Before spending hours removing the head, would it not be worth timing it up correctly and doing a compression test? If you've got bent valves, this should show up in the results. I bent all my exhaust valves once from over-revving on the rollers and you could hear the mis-fire at idle. Oops.

 

And I would think that if your pal had only turned the engine over by hand, he'd feel the pistons clouting the valves and locking up before going further to do more damage.

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Will a leakdown test show up "slightly bent" valves or will they self centralise to a degree ?

If it were my car, I'd probably do as you say. I'm reluctant to advise a friend to do anything with a slight degree of doubt (which I'm sure you understand)

?

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If a valve/piston made contact when turning by hand, it should have been quite noticeable.

 

I would just re-time the engine properly, then try a leakdown - you can just use an airline into a plug fitting and listen to hear how bad it leaks (each cylinder at TDC on firing stroke). A slightly bent valve passing air will be more obvious this way than a visual inspection

 

Then try running it.

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