Hi,

I'm new to this forum, rebuilding the motor from a 95 Fd3S twin turbo japanese inport

Has anyone had good results re-using plates with pitting as show in the photograph of my centre plate.



Rebuild due to low compression (72 psi) on rear rotor and (87 psi) on the front rotor.

Rotors carboned up, apex seals below minimum height and side oil seals worn to .040" land.



The other photo shows the water side of the outer seal groove on the front plate which is up to 0.005" low next to the two water ways spark plug side, I believe the maximum is 0.0078" would you do anything to this plate or just re-use it.



The motor is standard build and will be going back into an unmodified auto tourer for sunday use only.



Thanks

Well i have reused plates with similar pitting in the water grooves, but you need to fill the pits in with Liquid metal first. Its a PITA but if you make a spreader that fits nice in the groove you can just put a blob in one position and run it round (make sure the spreader has sharp corners, the aim is to make it look standard shape without the pits Obviously). Make sure you clean the excess up well and run some flatting paper round once properly dry (you should be left with Liquid metal only in the pits)

I guess we are talking about J B Weld or Liquid Steel Epoxy, should I be using that on the outside of the inner seal on the centre plate or is this going to be ok left alone. At work we use Belzona for building back corrosion/erosion damage may be i should try that??

I'd fill all the pits in (inner and outer grooves) and i used Some thing very similar to JB weld myself.



TBH i've never come across Belzona so i can't really comment, but as i say i've used Liquid metal and as long as every thing is clean when you do your thing it will stay put well.

I have similar pittings in the grooves of my side plates. Will hylomar in the grooves be enough to seal the engine correctly?

I was told Hylomar isn't man enough, you really need to fill the pits in before assembly.

I've had good luck using Hylomar to help seal the water jacket groove in pitted irons, but I add graphite powder as a filler to make a viscous goop. Makes a stable unmovable fill in the pits. Graphite powder is small particles, wets easily, inert, high thermal conductivity and withstands high temperatures. You can apply using a small nose hypodermic, similar to applying vasoline, etc. Don't use too much as any squeeze-out can get into the water jacket passages and/or the engine internal chambers, which isn't good. Make sure you use the origional Hylomar recipe. You can google "Hylomar" to see the various breeds of Hylomar avaliable. Makes difficult clean-up when the next tear down happens, but ...

Belzona is good ****, but I have not been able to get it in the states

Re: Water Seal groove pitting
 

what do you mean by water seal groove piting? do you mean the base of the water seal groove is geting little pits on it?

Re: Water Seal groove pitting
 

Thats exactly what we are talking about