Rob Walker

Has anyone any experience of using the" Perfect Bore liners"?

May as well whilst your removing the bearings

The proper way it to use a bearing press. If you do not have access then a steel drift and a small 1/2lb hammer and tap the bearing from the housing.

I have fitted two sets of Fluke half doors that were removable with the SLR cage. Kevin Howel has the caterham half doors on his R500 along with the SLR cage. So yes its possible. Rob

You are predictable and boring Brent

Dave, A diplomatic answer, so your not a fan of the Vandervell bearings in the K application? I chatted with Dave Walker on this subject some months ago he was amazed that anyone was still using this old hat technology. He told me that these shells were first designed for use in the Vanwall F1 racing car in 50`s and designed to get the car to the end of the race if some surface bearing wear had taken place. I don`t know how much truth there is in the last statement but its a nice story. I find them very difficult to work with from an assembly point of view, as you say a dummy build on the bench is about the only way to check them, you cannot mic the surface without damage, you cannot touch the surface without damage splitting new big end caps on steel rods that are dowelled is always a difficult nervracking job. Assembly needs to be carried out in near surgical conditions. Rob Edited by - Rob Walker on 31 Oct 2006 09:58:23

Rossy Bee, Sadly it happens all the time. I have my caps lock wired now. Rob

Dave, How do you check that the big end running clearances are correct when using Vandervell Shells and have you had any sucess using plastigauge in this area? Rob

Stu, One of the engine builders explained that the Rover bearings are not that accurately manufactured so they fit the medium shells. I personally do not agree with this theory and always try to size the correct bearing, with the exception of the Big Ends when using Vandervell, I simply mic the crank pin and check that it not oversized. I have tried using plastigauge as recomended in the Haynes book of lies but this is usless in the mains as the distortion defrorms the stuff before you can pull it in line with the head bolts and its not much use on the big ends either as its difficult to hold the rod straight when pull the big end caps on and off. Then the stuff sticks to the surface of the bearings and you can easily damage the surface trying to wash the stuff off.

I understood that the main bearing tunnel was line bored and reamed whilst under head bolt torque by the manufacturer ? I aways assumed this to be so as the whole lot only goes out of line when the torque is removed and the slight differences in sizes due to the machining process?

Dave, It may surprise you that two of the UK `s well known engine builders simply fit the Blue Blue medium grade main bearing shells and carry out the simple torque to turn the crank test. It is a bit difficult to do anything with vandervell VP2 big end bearings as the surface is so easily damaged and they are not size graded. Rob

Dave, Good tip I had never thought of checking the crank with the torque plate on. This would certainly highlight any problems with the crank , block and bearings without the influence of the valve gear etc. Rob

Peter, Sorry I can only answer part of your posting. How acn you check that your crank does not bind inthe block? Its is straightforward to measure the crank OD journal faces with a micrometer, next you select the correct bearings as per the lettering on the block and crank. Asemble the engine and its should be possible to rotate the engine with 33lb ft torque applied at the crank pulley bolt. obviously there could be other reasons why the engine may be harder to turn than the prescribed 33lb ft but it does indicate that further investigation is required. Rob

Peter, Even with the use of a torque plate and the block heated to operating temperature it still difficult to replicate the exact forces that are placed on the liners by the actual head, as the head warps when correctly torqued down. In order to understand the problems lets look at the head gasket and there are a few different types of these, basically there are two restrictor plates one at each end of the gasket .050" thick and the fire rings are .070" thick as the head is pulled down to its full torque the fire rings compress until the restrictor plates contact the block and head gasket faces. So to put it crudely the head is bent over the protruding liners. If you now check the cam ladder face it will have distorted .001-.002" this is why it is better to shim the cams with the head in place. I digress, This distortion is not confined to the head we know this because one cannot easly turn the crank without some head bolt tension. This is because the journals have been line reamed in manufacture whilst the block was under the compressive loading of the head bolts. What I am trying to say is that the whole lot distorts when the head bolts are torqued up and the torque plate does not replicated the head exactly. As the loading applied to liners when they are machined in situ is not exactly the same it is reasonable to assume that they will be a different shape when the head is fitted. Rob

Malcom, The number I gave you is correct you could try his work number at Baritas Coffee 0117 9227111 Rob

Gareth. Not sure ring George martin on 07990 505147 Rob

Nic please call George Martin on 07990 505147 for details Cheerio Rob

Oily, Your post suggests that the stock crank that has had Tungsten plugs added to its counterweights is superior to the bespoke steel cranks that are fitted to the R500 engines. Is it your recomendation that we all throw away our expensive steel cranks and replace with a stock crank with HMI? and be confident that it is safe to hold engine revs at near 9000 rpm and full power with this crank? Refering back to my problem with piston / gudeon pin retention with circlips. The problem was confined to one circlip on one piston on cylinder 3, I traced the fault a very badly bored ( Quarry Engineering) liner that was not bored parallel and the bore did not run at 90 degree to the centre line of the crank. I accept that any unwanted vibration may have contributed to the failure. Rob Edited by - Rob Walker on 30 Oct 2006 10:09:23

One four point harness ( new never fitted) only date stamped valid until the end of 2006. Selling £50 plus postage. Rob

Limited slip diff for fitment to an engish axle, I believe the diff is a Sailsbury plate type . Selling £400 ono plus postage. Rob

VVC head complete with valves springs and followers. Un molested ,No skimming/refacing has been done. Selling £300 Plus postage. Rob

Complete VHPD induction, swan neck manifold,TB`s, fuelrail and injectors,IACV, MEMS ecu. Selling for £250. plus postage. Rob

Martin, I was told that Steve (lucky) Butts engine had blown up. May be 9200 was too much for it?? Rob.

Peter, Better liners- ones with better location within the block, no undercuts about 20mm from the top and better material, Perfect bore possibly ? Another area that should be of major concern and requires attention is the location and balance of the clutch cover. See earlier posts . The R500 flywheel has the Rover metric dowels and clutch centres. The caterham suppied AP clutch cover owes its origin from the Ford Escort Mexico 1974 and has 1/8" dowel holes and imperial fixing centers. The result is that this cover only fits onto the flywheel by distoring when pulled over the dowels and is only held on point contact. In use it moves around and its very difficult to balance in fact a lottery. Titan with the authority from Caterham attempted to re-dowel my flywheel and two others supplied by Caterham. The result was very amateurish they managed to bend the three flywheels pressing in the dowels. I ended up as usual sorting the problem myself by running a bit of weld into the clutch cover holes and redrilling the holes. The crank- its common knowledge that the R500 crank is of lightweight design and is grossly undercounterweighted. However this was the design in order to provide very low inertia and produce and engine with high dynamics. This allows rapid changes in revs and quick gear shifts. If you start fitting a fully counterweighted crank and reduce secondary vibration for sure the engine will vibrate less and may last longer but will it still retain its startling dynamics. DKE maked me a fully counterweighted crank for my K some years back its was around 15Kg a real heavy old hector more suited to a truck. IMHO the level of tune of the R500 is quite enough and pushing the boundary`s further is very much deminishing returns as Dave Jackson and others have found out. Interesting though. Rob

Regin, Cosworth pistons, higher CR and are semi slipper design giving lower friction and lower overall mass. Rob