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Vladimir Ivanovich Kirillov
Prolific User
Username: soviet

Post Number: 107
Registered: 2-2013
Posted on Saturday, 07 February, 2015 - 10:34 am:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

The Camargue's engine had been sitting for a few weeks in its special room with its cylinder heads off looking like a porcupine on acid with its many different length cylinder head studs laughing at me and causing my wallet to tremble as I sourced information world wide on the merits of repairing it or using it as boat anchor. I had spent the last 5 days sobering up and ordered the Mad Scot to bring from the cattle station a puller to remove the crankshaft pulley. You know the little mongrel with 5 threaded holes in it and two pins sticking out. His madness turned up with 5 boxes of pullers with which he announced with complete certainty that the large German puller would defineately remove the pulley. And indeed this puller is built for satanic savagery. Yes but you see the Panzer puller is that huge it would not fit behind the pulley because of the nasty timing cover with its inbuilt foot that holds the two holes for the front engine mount. And then I spotted it, another puller in the Scot's armory that was two legged to wrap around the outside of the pulley. Set up with a common half inch socket on the end of the crank I set to it. Realising the pulley was on there quite tight I used a medium sized shifting spanner to hold the puller from turning with the crank, and beefed the sucker up with a pipe just under a metre long. And then I set to only to find the rachet on the end of the puller screw was not powerful enough so I replaced it with a breaker bar just under a metre long. Steadying the engine with one hand and yanking on the breaker bar, things just got tighter and tighter. I decided to put on some safety glasses in case something like the socket flew apart sending scrapnel in the direction of my face. More yanking and I am right at the point where I know after many years of injuries that danger was lurking, but I was determined to take this porcupine apart. A few more yanks then BANG off the mongrel flew through the air taking the large puller with it and landing about 7 feet away. Feeling relieved and enlightened I rolled a cigarette before pulling the timing case off. Noticing the timing gear had marks on it I reached for the Hunt House documents to discover that the timing gear has a different number from the one in the document called "Engine Assembly". So there you have it jet setters and Canary Island visitors, this engine is not the original one. And it raises a question: could a Camargue that has just over 100,000 miles on the odometer, with a near perfect interior and panel and paint have croaked not one but two engines in just over 100,000 miles or has the clock turned over twice.
I don't think I will ever get to the bottom of this car's mystery. I have requested the Mad Scot to bring to me vernier calipers so I can measure the length of each cylinder head stud to work out whether the crazy decking of the block on A side has sent this engine block the way of the Dodo.