Re: crankshaft pulley removed

["Ross Watson" <Ross.Watson@domain.elided>]

>Any suggestions/lessons learned before I start changing the timing chains,
and
>all 5 gears?
>
>Thanks,
>Frank Magnusson
>Wichita, KS.

Well... I'm no expert, but from past experience...

You'll need to be careful when you remove the timing chain cover. I had to
gently lever mine off (it being held by the heads and the small dowels
sticking out from the block - one on each side). Once the cover is off,
you'll need to be wary of a noticible gravitational effect.

"Gravity holes" are the effect whereby a "hole" generates a gravitational
field. The smaller and deeper the hole, the greater the field. Black holes
are an example of this. The Stag engine generates gravitational fields in
many places, such as under the inlet manifold, but one of the worst is the
hole where the sump sticks out from the block when the timing chain cover is
removed. If a free falling object gets anywhere vaguely near this hole, the
gravity field will suck it straight in.

I recently re-adjusted my chain tensioners and took *great* care to always
fill that hole with an old shirt, and even then, the one time I forgot, I
dropped a bolt. This is where another well known effect also comes into
play. The gravity field generated by the hole can, in severe cases, actually
distort space time. This is noticable when a falling object enters the
field, time can be observed to slow down. You can casually watch the falling
object as it is sucked towards the hole.

Gravity holes differ from black holes in another area. Where a black hole is
commonly understood to distort space such that light cannot escape, a
gravity hole lets light escape but prevents any non-falling object from
entering. This means that you can often see an object in a gravity hole, but
can never reach it. Strange but true. If for example, you put a straight
piece of wire into a gravity hole, because space is distorted, you can never
reach the object at the bottom of the hole. Of course, if the wire becomes
free falling, it goes straight in.

When this happened to me, I was very lucky in that the bolt hit the sump,
bounced up... and fell outwards.

I have, in the past, helped someone else who wasn't so lucky. By lifting the
engine slightly (gearbox bellhousing permitting), lowering the sump, poking
wire through the drain hole, and muggins here sticking his arm between the
sump and the block (something that scares me now, but I was young and
foolish at the time), we managed to get a nut out of the sump. Of course,
you could just leave anything that falls into the sump where it is - and if
that happens, believe me, leaving it there will become an annoyingly
attractive option.

Still other than that, it's all relatively simple.

Ross Watson