Correct. It’s my favourite tool in the garage. I wouldn’t be without a lift now.

Could well be blow-by. We will find out as I go deeper in the engine.

Yes, it looks like Yamabond. It’s layered on the left hand timing cover as well.

The piston cylinder to base joins could be leaking but with so much oil on top it’s difficult to tell. The cylinder head join wasn’t leaking.

RMS is dry, clutch plate is new but there are signs of someone slipping the clutch in the past

For the DIY garage I think these are better than a 2 post lift. They can be used in a typical New Zealand domestic garage height, don’t restrict parking due to posts and there’s not one single task I can’t do with one e.g. I have dropped the engine/gearbox on my own with this lift. The only thing I would do if I had the chance would be to recess the lift into the garage floor.

Ten tappets out, and two have minor pitting. One camshaft out and it looks perfect. The camshaft still to come out has a very pitted lobe. Not sure why.

Second camshaft out of the engine. It’s so frustrating to have just one lobe pitted as badly as this is. So close to perfect. The good news is that the cylinder honing is still clear and the head looks good.

I can’t believe how smoothly this is going. With a concerted push I’ve progressed to splitting the case.

The studs are on the other side of the case. We’re undecided whether we will replace them or not. I’m hoping we will as I’ve never done that part of a rebuild.

As for speed, the figures I have seen indicate that an engine rebuild is 60 hours labour when the engine needs to be removed and refitted in the car. So it’s between 42 and 45 hours of labour to dismantle, clean and reassemble an engine.

My first rebuild was slow because I wasn’t sure how things came apart and was constantly off to the tool shop looking for items e.g. 10mm sockets with a thin wall to take the chain retainer cover off. This time I knew what the sequence was, I had the tools and the various bolts, nuts and connectors didn’t put up a fight. It also helped that the engine owner had removed the exhaust system and headers as that can be time consuming, requiring heat to remove nuts.

Given that the time component of a rebuild is fairly constant, I’m going to document the parts cost with this rebuild so that there is a data point for others to view. I have a degree of sympathy for mechanics where someone goes in and says I won’t pay any more than $X because that’s what is reasonable based on what it cost Y. No two rebuilds are exactly the same and there are ways to save money e.g. don’t replace rod bolts, bearings, chain guides and chains, which are crazy in the long term but you could get away with it if just flicking the car after the build.