Cheers C63Mike, sorry to hear you ran into some difficulties with the rebuild yourself but great to hear you now have a sorted engine, I’ve found Murder63 contact details, and know of AJS, will give them a call!Murder63 on instagram or AJS performance in Hitchin. I ended up having to get AJS to basically do a full top half engine rebuild after trying to do it myself. I’m putting it down to the engine timing had been messed with and I should have probably checked for TDC on the pistons to make sure the crankshaft matched but hey ho you live and learn.
But I now have pretty much a reconditioned m156 with a full pulley rebuild using the 63 motorsport adjuster back plates, skeleton front plates with the titanium bolt package, all gaskets changed, new valves, machined pistons etc etc so she will last a while
Cool yeah no worries mate, let us know how you get on.
In hindsight I would say to myself have someone on the phone who knows what they are talking about as soon as you get to the part where your valve covers and your solenoid covers are off because if you lock the camshafts in place correctly it’s pretty straightforward and as badgx says I’d spend the extra few quid and just get two sets of timing tools so absolutely nothing moves either side and it just makes it easier. If you mess your timing up and send it to a garage you’re looking at a few K for them to potentially fix your mistake especially if you damage piston heads or valves etc so what’s another 40 quid.
Cheers fellaThe orientation of the aviators ie locked or unlock position doesn't matter but what is important is to ensure the correct plates are used ie for intakes use only intake plates and the plates for exhaust, use only for exhaust only.
Once the car starts, the aviators will self adjust with oil pressure accordingly etc
Please take care with timing. I purchased two m156 tools and locked both banks, although it's an overkill, you can do with 1 tool only
Got the cam covers and timing covers off (eventually) and now about ready to start removing the cam adjusters. However, on the bottom rear bolt on the driver's side, we hit a problem:
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. As it stands there's no way to get any other sort of tool on as access is too tight. If I could have got directly onto it I'd have tried a Dremel on the top to cut a groove on it and got a screwdriver on but it's too tight.
We sprayed proper penetrant fluid (e.g. Plusgas) multiple times throughout the day. The head snapped off first thing in the morning, we decided to leave it but keep spraying it and carry on with the rest of the job and come back to it later. Then it bent as per the photo, then got some heat on it later and it snapped. There are three choices now; weld a nut on, drill it out in-situ or lift or entirely remove the engine. I'm not seeing any other options at this stage unfortunately
ETA - it'll come out one way or another - it's personal now
