So my Beat is currently off the road due to a water-pump failure and since it needs some new piston rings I wanted to do that at the same time. I'm not in any hurry to get it fixed as I have another car and keeping them both on the road is quite expensive, plus, I've always seen the Beat as something of a toy, albeit a satifyingly practical one. What I was wondering is if, instead of spending all those £100's on labour costs, I might invest in some good tools and do the job myself. I'm not expecting this to save me any money or be hassle-free, but tinkering is something I enjoy in short bursts. I'll certainly still send the engine off to a proper rebuilder but the rest doesn't seem like it should be too complicated and it gives me the flexibility to do similar work in the future. I just want to know if I'm biting off more than I can chew here; I don't want to end up with a car that's worse that it was when I started. EDIT: I have the workshop manuals, although they are in Japanese.
Depends on your mechanical ability and patience! Personally I'd but the workshop manuals in English and have a look - price up the tools required and then see if it's still daunting. I bought a Spitfire to learn how they work and its a lot easier but more frustrating in places than I was expecting
I'd get english-language manuals and have a proper look and a plan, and make a call based upon your skill level and confidence. I'm quite lucky in that my father has a complete workshop with all the bits (and a car lift soon to be added), so I've got access to all of the bits, so I do all the bits to my car myself. Plus, if I come unstuck, I can just call him or my brother and we can usually solve most problems Back OT though, a decent set of tools is never a bad investment, but only if you have the confidence and skill to use them. Plan your attack on both jobs first though!
Can only echo the above really,. May be worth looking to see if the beats engine is shared with anything sold in the UK you may get lucky with some engine stripdown guides or a haynes manual. Ive stripped down a number of cars in the past on my drive and would certainly advise if your doing the rings to get an engine hoist once on the floor or ideally a rack its far easier to work with plus you can dry crank more easily to check everything's back in. Also what engine code is it? I have some old Autodata CDs i know a beat wont be in there but i can search by engine code
I think if you know which way round to hold a spanner and which way is tighten and which is loosen, then you should be able to do most of the mechanical stuff. Most of the time I only use my haynes for torque values, as haynes job descriptions are about as much use a a chocolate teapot (refitting is reverse of removal my arse, ). Replacing the water pump should be an easy one, but you'll probably want the engine sorting first so the new pump doesn't get damaged while the rings issue is being sorted. Just be aware, once you start doing stuff yourself, you'll take some bits off to do a job, and then think, "Why don't I just do this too while I've got this off, oh and that could be done now too", and you can see where I'm going with this,
Engine is the E07A whih is pretty uncommon. I don't think it appears in any UK domestic car. I can rip the the torque values off the Jap workshop manual, can't hurt to teach myself a bit of Japanese. I will probably need an engine hist or something similar since it's a mid-engined car with not much space.
Usaully if you have the tools and area to work in or can rent a workshop space ( Charges range from £100 + in most areas for a day) Then you could have a go but its far easier just to get it done by proffesionals in most cases.
The short answer is 'Yes'. Perhaps not directly in terms of money; certainly in terms of acquiring tools, knowledge and pride.
you can do the rings with out pulling the engine out, don't even need to the pull the head off. Just drop the sump and rotate the crank once they're unbolted. You 100% sure it's got burnt rings, and it isn't the oil control rings just junked up? Running a decent pre oil change fluid might be worth a go before serious surgery. Water pump is a days worth of effort. Where you based again?
Damn site easier with the engine out, or even just the head off, especially if your lying underneath, and I'd imagine it's not very easy to use a ring compressor from underneath. +1 on the checking if it is rings though. Could also be valve guides or stem seals. There's a method of checking by doing a compression test and then putting a drop of oil down the bore and doing another comp test, and then I can't remember whether it's if the value changes/goes down or up which determines what the problem is, . Should be easy to find a guide on the web though.
drop of oil creates a temporary seal, giving a higher pressure, which should peak then drop as it's forced past the problem. Best thing with a compression test, is being that the piston is at TDC or 180 degree's out when tested, it can dismiss or prove valve guides dependant on the result since the valves are closed. 99% of the time, it's bad oil control rings which get gunked up due to age and poor servicing. Some oil treatment and a oil change usually fixes compression problems and it's a dam sight cheaper.
A compression test will only tell you which cylinder is loosing pressure, not where. I would have thought a leak down test would be more useful that way you can see if its rings, valve seals or gasket leak. Valve stems reminds me, if you do the rings you may as well do the stem seals. Saves an annoying job in the future.
Being a diddy engine I would get the tools to drop it out and do it all myself. Must be some decent support forums for it, in english!
Yeah, I'm a member of the OC and there's a reasonable amount of material on it. Someone has very kindly even offered to find all the part numbers for an engine rebuild. I'm not certain that it is the piston rings, but the car has only done 50,000 km (allegedly) and it is a very common problem for this engine. The other option (if it is indeed the rings) is to fit oversize pistons but I may need to get those specially fabricated. I'm fairly sure I will need to drop the engine to access the water pump anyway.
Yeah, comp test each cylinder and use the process of elimination. If you know what you're doing a comp test kit can give you leak down results with a little know how, but considering the OP has nether kit to hand.. engine swap time! Nice turbo bike engine, somewhere in the region of 1300cc
Girl who runs the UK Kei Kar club shoved an H22 into hers IIRC. A turbo hayabusa engine would just be overkill (although there was a company around talking about shoving a V8 Hayabusa bi-turbo engine into a Suzuki Cappuccino).
To quote Team America "I like your balls!". Seriously, this is a man after my own mind. Do it! DOOOO IIIIIT!
