I am now stuck on removing the oil dip stick tube.
Aaand it's off.
For reference this is how I did it - for those with a Mk1 with a red-locking ring (the Mk2 is allegedly push fit):
- Over the last week, between downpours, I sprayed it with penetrating oil. I don't know if that helped, but maybe.
- Today: first got some molegrips on the base and tube (using some cut rubber piping on the grips to avoid damage) and twisted it, trying to break any rust. No idea if this helped either.
- The got a couple of large flat bladed screwdrivers on it - twisting until the red-locking ring was broken then twisting again to force the pipe upwards about 5mm. It then pulled out easily.
i.e. basically carefully applied brute force.
There was a lot of rusty sludge to clean up and the pipe needs some gentle sanding for a good seal.
The front plate of the KV6 is now off and today's other work was removing the intake. I wasn't going to remove that, but the truth is that it's really easy to remove and vastly improves access to the rear bank's left-hand belt.
Another unpleasant surprise was found under the engine's front plate: a coolant leak out of the water pump. Never mind: got my new one from DMGRS to fit!
I'm saving up the details and photos for a big how-to post after I'm finished, so I'll leave you with one image that I've never seen posted before: a visual explanation of why there is a special process for checking the oil-level on the KV6.
You can see an explanation here - from some guys who were involved in the KV6's development (rip 1995diesel):
Dipstick on KV6
The problem with checking the oil on a KV6 is the max level is insdie the dipstick tube, not in the sump, as the sump is so shallow.
This is a picture of the dipstick fully inserted into the tube:
UPDATE:
End of the weekend and the current state is that I've got the old belt off, and put the new tensioner pulley, idler pulley and water pump back on. I'm reusing the old tensioner, which has been primed and pinned ready. The front cam pulleys have been removed, cleaned and reinstalled with new finger-tight bolts and awaiting the belt fitting (the KV6 has pulleys that float a few degrees at the front during fitting). I also changed a plastic cam sprocket backing plate, as a rusty screw meant I broke the old one! Surprisingly cheap from RimmerBros, too.
The water pump was not a perfect fit. I had to file out one bolt hole to get it to line up with the engine.
The cheap timing kit also needed some filing down to fit, and I had to disassemble the front locking tools as they were assembled back to front!!
My worry is that the engine may not have been in time correctly. With the crank in 'Safe', I could use the tools to lock the rear bank in time but not the front, being a degree out. I have a theory that the front cam may have jumped a tooth - I don't know if it would have run so well in that state though.
After some major work a couple of years ago, the engine was down on power and felt like it was pinking under full throttle - I put that down to a couple of sensors that failed afterwards. I wonder if the timing was knocked out instead? It wasn't majorly sick, just fel old..!
I also found that the tensioner pulley was sticking, though of course it could only stick in positions that give tighter belts.
UPDATE 24/06/2020:
A sneaky Wednesday update. I stole some time this evening and the new front belt is now fitted and tensioned. Setting up the tensioner is not clear but between a mix of 1955diesel's comments and the INA/Schaffler-Aftermarket instruction PDF I got it perfect - able to remove and reinsert the tensioner's locking pin under natural belt tension 👍 I will write up what I did and the pitfalls to avoid.
Tomorrow, I will torque up the camshaft bolts and rotate the engine. After two turns, the camshaft locking tools should fit back in if it's timed up right...
UPDATE 28/06/2020:
Front cam pulleys torqued up - I rotated the engine one cycled (two crank turns) and the front bank wasn't in time! Rotated several more times, and it came into time every single turn with the locking tools fitting perfectly each time. Phew. I guess the belt needed to settle and the tensioner to set appropriately.
I've got the front bank's pulleys off and they are currently sat on the workbench with the new belt, fitting tool and spreader fitted, and then I was rained off again..
UPDATE 05/07/2020:
One month into the job (!!!) and the engine is finally back together. Reassembly was nice and easy overall, just the usual KV6 issue of working out how which tool and what contortions to reach each fitting. I got rained off (yet again) before filling with oil and coolant.
It's been a month, but total hours is probably around 12. I have limited free time, then it's doubly worse getting rained off when I get some time to do any work!