Danny's TR7 Blog

The rebuild started with me ordering the following parts, 1 set of standard piston rings, bigend bearing shells standard, main bearing shells standard, thrust washer bearings standard and a complete set of top and bottom end gaskets.

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I also bought two new tools a Glazebuster cylinder hone and piston ring compressors

All pistons were removed, one by one and cleaned then marked with a magic marker to ensure it went back in the correct bore, also the bearing caps were kept with the correct piston. I noticed each con rod and bearing cap is actually etched with the correct number.
Once the pistons were removed each cylinder in turn was deglazed with my new Glazebuster tool, I made sure the bottoms of the cylinders were blocked with rags see photo
New crank main bearings and thrust washers were first fitted, I ensured everything was kept clean and was well oiled before fitting.
New gaskets were fitted and the engine reasembeled. Prior to fitting the head the bolts and studs were cleaned with emery cloth and then given a good smear with copper-slip. The head was torqued down following the Haynes workshop manual.
Prior to fitting the engine the sub frame was degreased derusted and painted. Seeing the whole strut assembly had also been removed I fitted new gators to the struts.

Refitting the engine was basically the reverse of the removal.
Everything, or so I thought, was connected up but the engine would not start, it would not even turn over. This after a while was traced to the multi plug above the gearbox at the rear of the engine I had forgotten to connect this. The plug contains the wires for the reversing light switch and a loop wire, which I think must go to the inhibitor switch on automatic models. Once the plug was connected again, I had no more problems and she started and ran well.