Did a compression test on my stroked Olds 215, not good. #4 cylinder at 50 lbs.

[Gswest236]

I did see the imprint telling me how they fit together. But wasn't positive about which one was inside and outside. Found the pic, confirmed I had them correct. Haven't torqued them down yet.
Thanks!

[mgb260]

Spacer between the distributor drive gear and cam gear.

[mgb260]

Picture on iron 350

[Gswest236]

I'm guessing some locktite on the cam bolt.

[Gswest236]

Now's a good time to look over the other timing parts including this new timing cover that is different than what I took off. I understand they are interchangeable between several motors. So there a couple extra holes but the gasket seems to fit and after drilling out the holes for the locating pins to 5/16" it fits on the block. while comparing the new vs old cover I noticed the last mechanic failed to open the gasket at one of the oil pump feed ports. I'll post a shot of it next.

[Gswest236]

I'm quite sure that blocked off oil journal has something to do with the motor only lasting 10,000 miles. And it's easy to see the new cover certainly has bigger oil passages. I guess I have to set up the oil pump before installing the cover.

[Gswest236]

Not sure how serious this blocked journal is. The engine made it quite a while and oil pressure was 40lbs-ish.

[mgb260]

Scott, I just Torque the cam bolt to 45ftlb. Put your timing cover gasket on the block and see if that port is even there, I think it is not used. Our aftermarket timing cover interfered with the front intake clamp by the distributor hold down.

[Gswest236]

You're absolutely correct, there's no corresponding port on the block. I have to remember this cover works on 5 or 6 different motors, so there's bolt holes and flanges that don't line up. But it will work. Did you guys have to grind off some material to get it to work?

[mgb260]

Just what I said above.

[Gswest236]

I was asking how you dealt with the interferance issue Jim.
I'm Getting the various parts together for the oil pump install. I noticed that for the D+D filter adaptor to work, there's some mods needed to the part where the oil filter screws into. The one pic shows the old oil filter flange which has been drilled out. The next pic is the adaptor part installed partially onto the Filter port. I need to reach out to D+D for the adaptor gasket and maybe a quick install tip. Took a while to find the filter adaptor itself, then realized it's still in the engine bay connected to the oil pressure gauge supply line.

[mgb260]

Scott, After the heads are on, set the intake gasket on, then the timing cover. There was a boss sticking up by the distributor hold down where the front clamp is, causing interference. We cut it down until it cleared. We did away with the swivel adapter and went with a short V6 filter.
Here is a nice short one:

https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=6128244&cc=1015715&pt=5340&jsn=812

[Gswest236]

Thanks Jim, I'm getting one of those filters. My oil pressure gauge gets its feed from the adaptor, where did he get his oil pressure gauge feed? And were you guys able to grind or cut the timing cover  in place or did it have come back off? Currently I'm waiting on a few parts and had to get a smaller torque wrench and some anti seize to move forward with the oil pump.

[mgb260]

Scott, Jon's metric cover is tapped for a sender I think. Just trial fit the cover on the pins and see where the interference is. Mark with a felt pen and cut off with angle grinder.

[mgb260]

Similar to Curtis's on the bottom of this page but he used an electric sending unit:

https://www.britishv8.org/MG/CurtisJacobson.htm

[mgb260]

Block oil sender location, like in later iron block:

[Gswest236]

Thanks, I'll get the short filter and deal with the oil pressure line at that point.

[Gswest236]

Today I started the oil pump setup. First I used a straight edge and feeler gauges. With the thinnest  gasket I got between 0025 and 003". Trying the plasti-gauge I couldn't get a good crush. I have 2 sets of oil pump gears and tried both to see if it was the gears. It wasn't, they both were the same. So, at this point I'm going to run it. I guess sometimes it's too tight, but in my case it's in spec with the thinnest gasket. Am I missing something or is this the norm. With everything torqued to spec the gears rotate with no obstructions or resistance, and there is a space between the gears and thrust plate. Previous builder had the high volume oil pump in with the booster plate. But the driven gear was damaged at the end where you might spin it to build oil pressure before start up. The gears may have been too tight, but they ran it apparently. I'm doing the stock oil pump with booster plate. Now have to pack it with petroleum jelly and re-install.

[mgb260]

Scott, The gears should stick out a little. Straight edge across the gears. Space between the straight edge and housing outside of gears plus .001 would be gasket thickness.

[Gswest236]

They don't stick out, they're sitting down in this case about 002. Both sets of new pump gears. So it's not the gears.

[BlownMGB-V8]

Sounds like the pocket in the timing cover is worn a little bit. Not that hard to correct, you just need to take a little off the mating face so that you can use the gaskets to set the end play. You might get by with .003" of end play, I know guys have built them that way but what I do know is that the tighter you get that end clearance the better your oil pressure will be so a little time and effort here will really pay off in the long run.

Ideally your end clearance at final assembly will be .0005" and that will increase as the engine warms up. As a practical matter you almost never have a perfectly perpendicular face so the contact pattern on the bottom is less than a full circle. In effect this means your average end clearance is greater than measured. We do the best we can. I set mine up so there is very slight drag initially. That's the tightest practical limit and I get 35 psi at idle and 60 psi at 2K with 0w20 Mobil 1. I encourage you to not take short cuts here.

You can dress down the flange a couple of ways. You can take it to the machine shop and let them do it or you can use a sheet of emery on a pane of glass and take careful measurements with a depth gage or dial calipers. Measure often and keep it flat and square.

Jim

[mgb260]

Brand new aftermarket timing cover, the quality varies. I've seen it the other way where you use the thickest gasket and it still rubs. Ours was perfect out of the box. I would sand the housing down with a piece of glass and emery paper.

[Gswest236]

OK, looks like I'll be working on this a bit more. One of the Instructions was to place a straight edge on the pump gears and measure the clearance between the straight edge and the gasket surface. What would be the ideal clearance here if I'm sanding the surface down. As it sits now the gears sit below the gasket surface.

[mgb260]

The thickness of the gasket and plus .001 is what I used.

[Gswest236]

OK,  .006 then. Thanks!