Planning on de-coking my sj..

[Jay18]

I'm planning on taking the head off my zuk and stripping and cleaning it, reseating the valves etc, all new oil seals aswel, anyone got any recommendations?

Best ways to do things and what tools I'll need to buy..

[suzukisteve]

taking the head of an sj is a fairly easy task mate. a half decent set of sockets and spanners will get you most of the way but if you intend on lapping in the valves yourself you will need a couple of specialist tools.

To remove the valves you will need a valve spring compressor whick will enable you to remove the collets (annoying little feckers). valve grinding stick (for lapping valves in lol) and feeler guages are good for setting up your tappets once done.

as for de-coking id say possibly a good degreaser like jizer (pronounced ji-ser ) or somet like that.

a full head set wont cost much from a motor factor. bga, rinez are good makes as well as a few others I cant remember the name of.

it may well be worth doin the cambelt while your at it if its not been done recently. I would personally recommend gates as they are the muts nuts.

hopefully thats of some help bud

[Jay18]

Cheers mate I've got a full engine gasket set, new clutch, 5 speed box, going to get a water pump and cam belt kit, want to do as much as I can to it to get it spot on so I can use it to drive down to Northampton which is 130 miles drive, I've just ordered a recon alternator as the one on the zuk is charging at 15v lol, need new starter as it just clicks at times but doesn't turn over..

[Anton]

Be super careful with the head once it's off - clean off the old gasket material *REALLY* carefully. I've damaged a head without even realising it - they're really really soft.

Other than that, these engines are brilliant to work on - mine was full of crap (and I do mean FULL - every oilway was filled with gunge) and yet ran ok - I cleaned everything to a really nice shine, ground the valve seats, new valve stem seals, new oil, new oil filter, new sparks - new everything, basically - but found that I'd damaged the head when I put it back on, so I ended up swapping in another engine.

I would strip that down and do the same thing, but I have a feeling it won't be worth it as I'd like to swap in something more gutsy someday soon. Which will probably be an M15a.

That engine will be stripped down to it's barest parts and rebuilt from the ground up long before being swapped in. *IF* it happens!

[kiwizook]

as the above guys said. while you are doing the head, cambelt, sump gaskets etc, it is worth inspecting the bores, piston rings and big end bearings as well, as this is the time to do it if they need any attention. if you go this far, I recomend buying/building/borowing an engine stand which can rotate the whole engine to make everything much easier to work on. it's really not that much work to do all this

[Jay18]

Well I'm thinking of taking her off the road for a week or so and doing all of this so I may just do that, I'll have to see if m motor factors can get the bearings etc aswel and have the whole engine rebuilt..

Thanks for the advice, best start buying bits now then lol..

Also them proper gasket scrapers are plastic aren't they? So they should be okay with cleaning it off the head right?

[dan_2k_uk]

You could probably even damage the head with a hard plastic if you weren't careful. Just use plenty of caution.

[Jay18]

Okay will keep in mind to be very carefull doing the head then, going to be fun getting the exhaust manifold bolts undone lol..

[dazerede]

Ye I'm planning on rebuilding my other 1.0 engine I have get new seals water pump etc

Ye the exshaust bolts are bas**rds to undo

[Jay18]

I ordered a alternator from eBay yesterday and it came today, so tomorrow should be fitting it and having the zuk charging at a good voltage again, I've got about 4 weeks left of work before the agency lay me off then I'll have a week to get the zuk sorted then get some more work from the agency..