Magna TF Head gasket kit and timing belt replacement - engine in place.

Personal reference photos. Some operations may be out of order. Attempting to leave engine installed. One engine mount (of the three) will need to be removed as it keeps the timing belt captive.

I destroyed the allen key socket of two of the 10mm head bolts in the rear head of the Magna V-motor. Twice the work...maximum pain. There's no way I'm getting these out. They're long settled in, 190nM tension by spec (That's ~200kg at a 1 meter leverage on a torque point...that's HUGE) and it broke me trying to remove the other ones with relatively short breaker bars on a regular 10mm toy allen key. They need premium tool engagement which I didn't have on the two that failed... I should have simply cut the ends off the key I had, and put it into a regular 10mm socket with a 3/8 or 1/2 drive and proper breaker bar.

I need to grind the heads of these head-bolts off. Free handing will result in a random accident. I can't mount the head in a mill because it's still attached to the car!! I've used the other head which I was able to remove as an easy-access template to make a drilling jig.

I can bolt this jig down with the valve rocker arm securing bolts, and drop a milling bit into the hole. A regular hand drill attached will do the work.

A second hole is placed for the other head bolt position that I wrecked. Flipping the jig over allowed me to reuse the mounting holes. Hopefully I can grind my way through these high tensile bolts.

I modified a 20mm 4tooth endmill so I could use it in a regular ~12.5mm drill chuck.

Add mustard to all lubrication points...

Getting there.

Both bolt heads ground off. Engine head pulled off. Bolt shanks still bolted to the block. With no tension on them I was able to wind them out with my fingers.

Magna TF V6 3L head removal without pulling the engine out...contrary to instructions in the workshop manual... Gizmology FTW.

Spot the culprit buring oil. (exhaust manifold)

Spot the nasty oil leaking exhaust.

Manifold tipped up to see the bottom. Blargh look at that char buildup protruding out of the exhaust port at the top!! Likewise you can see the dark gritty dead oil around the head/block ports that were leaking into the combustion chamber. New head gasket gonna make things all betterer...

Terrible shot, but you can see the ground through the bay here where the timing belt would normally be...notice an engine mount removed... Secondary mission accomplished, remove timing belt without removing the engine from the car as the workshop manual instructions would have had you do. Pro gaming.

Table Saw Motor upgrade

My table saw is pretty cheap. The motor is a gear reduced universal motor. Literally sounds like a gunshot when spinning up, is incredibly noisy, and vibrates like mad.

I'm not 100% happy with precision on the Radial Arm Saw but the motor is awesome, so I'm going to transplant that into the old table saw. I've already used the Radial Legs as a stand for the Drop Saw, and I plan on using the Radial-Lift for a Router-lift in future.

The awesome motor is a single phase induction motor with multiple coils. It's running the wrong direction. Dad and I had a shot at reversing it, but got unlucky with the design. I'm going to have to use the table saw from the other direction.

I whipped up a custom mounting plate at work. I used a surface gauge for the first time because verniers simply wouldn't do the job. (Not to be confused with a dial-indicator setup) Some drink-can and plastic take-out-container shims were used to align various elements. I milled out some additional space for the larger motor to fit more closely to the table surface, hogged out huge chunks from the side of the case to accommodate the larger motor (keep in mind it's a height adjustable miter saw), and made a new custom fence which is superior to the original. Overall really happy with the build. Misc pics below.

Bench Sander

So anyway, I did that thing that every guy does when he owns a belt sander, but not a bench sander...

Works pretty well.

Some Pixel

Pixel tree ramp

Pix' constantly gets stuck in the fork of the left tree and cries to be rescued. She loooooooves being in the trees so I'd rather put up structure to encourage it than deny it. Giant pallet beam and some rope to the rescue. These beams have a shredded rubber layer for grip to the floor of shipping containers which makes a nice outdoor climbing surface.