FE3 HLA cleaning procedure for more lift and power :-)

[fredio54]

EDIT : ** PLEASE NOTE THAT OVERFILLING THEM AS I DID IS A BAD IDEA. SEVERAL PEOPLE HAVE SUFFERED "NOT STARTING" BECAUSE OF THIS NOW, SO I'VE PUT THIS HERE FOR FUTURE CLEANERS. READ THE WHOLE THREAD TO THE END FIRST. **

When i got my FE3 i was curious about what lurked inside these HLAs, so hammer in hand i went off to our local self help parts yard, and promptly set about abbusing a KL v6 till i extracted a HLA. i thought that because it is made from very hard steel it might shatter when i hit it hard with the hammer, i thought wrong, but after about 10 hits i noticed something rolling away : it had come apart.

with hardly a scratch from all the abuse either!

they consist of 3 pistonic parts two visible, and one inside the smaller visible one, one small circlip to keep the small pistons in, two springs one to push the two smaller pistons apart, and a tiny one to hold the final part, a small steel ball against its seat. the manual says if squishy bin it. i say if squishy dissassemble it clean it and fill it with oil.

HERES HOW :

wrap the side of one with rag or cardboard,grip it on its sides with a pair of multi grips or vise grips, and bring the bottom of it down onto some hardish wood with some force, you are doing it right if it leaves circular marks in the wood. between one and 5 blows the guts of it will spill out, and you will see what i mean. clean with oven spray, or pure lifter cleaner, or whatever else you like, and reassemble carefully full of good oil.

the reason they go squishy is that carbon sludge partially blocks the little valve, and holds it open thus allowing the oil to come and go. the design of the valve is to let oil in ONLY thus feeling hard to touch. with these working, youll pick up 3-4mm of lift from 9.? and eliminate noise from them.

the cleaning takes a long time, but should be worth it. these things are US$15 each here in NZ. thats a lot of cash to replace them all.

mine are all perfect now, and full of series 2000 amsoil. i beleive that the reason the gum up so badly is that the end of the valve is hot and in direct contact with the small piston, NO (or very little) oil flow happens here, and the oil if mineral just burns up. once clean, synthetic is the way to go.(synthetic is always the way to go unless its leaking or burning it)

any comments welcome.

Fred.

[fredio54]

Heres a very rough diagram of a FE3 HLA

Thanks to FE3T for hosting the image. see fourth post for it :-)

things to note :

1. the red area has such a tight clearance that with no oil at all i.e. washed clean with gas, it holds an air-tight seal!! (the ball holds this seal too)

2. the green region is where the VERY small spring resides, and also where the oil flows through past the small (gray) ball.

this is also the problematic dirty area. although in mine the whole area above that (below when in engine) was full of black carbon S**t.

3. blue is oil. (obviously)

4. note the circlip around the middle sized piston.

hope this helps clarify my description.

Fred

Such a shame to see this replaced :

Last edited by fredio54 : 9-7-04 at 11:50.

EDIT :

Pics have gone from where ever they were, so here they are again :

[AusMX6]

lets get that pic up - someone able to host it?

[FE3T]

Send it my way and ill host it.
(kind of curious too

[FE3T]

Sorry about the delay. just came home from work.

Ps thanx for the explanation of how too allow attachments Fred.

[fredio54]

I should also add that you can test to see if yours are ok by removing the cam cover(no need to have them out), and pushing down on the tops of the ones with CLOSED valves under them with a rag wrapped screwdriver. they need cleaning if you can easily(firmly?) push them down even a little. this should also show itself as ticking sounds.

All of this info is applicable to the K series v6s aswell

from what i've seen, you could be loosing upto 1/3 or more of your lift, and at a guess 1/3 of your power aswell.

Fred.

[anarchyx34]

Interestingly enough. I just started to disassemble my FE3 yesterday, and I noticed that every single one of my HLA's were squishy except for 2. When I squeeze them oil comes out of the side hole. I cant imagine they're all bad though.

[fredio54]

Trust me, THEY ARE ALL BAD. pull one apart, and then you will see what i mean.

were the two non-squishy ones on the intake side?

Fred.

PS just had a look at your site, i reckon youve got feap, fe3n cams.
do you? if so its probly out of a persona.

[anarchyx34]

Originally Posted by fredio54

Trust me, THEY ARE ALL BAD. pull one apart, and then you will see what i mean.

were the two non-squishy ones on the intake side?

Fred.

PS just had a look at your site, i reckon youve got feap, fe3n cams.
do you? if so its probly out of a persona.

Yep you're right on the cams. What's a persona?

[anarchyx34]

ALso, I wonder if soaking them in ATF for a while would dissolve all the crap?

I also looked up on kiausaparts.com. The lifters are $13 each, which isnt too terrible if you had to replace them all.

[fredio54]

there is no way in hell soaking them is going to help!!

they take a lot of cleaning. look at your hourly rate, clean one, and then decide to clean more or buy all. make sure you keep em in order too, and get an ordered set with any cams you buy. and use moly grease.

pull ONE apart and see. if they are 13 bucks then it wont matter if you wreck it right!?

have a look on english.auto.vl.ru/catalog/ there you will find all the jap spec cars with FE3s. 140ps is i think what yours (and mine) make. by switching just the ap cam, youll find 5 - 8 ps. if you get both 5a cams youll find 10ps.

turboed though i doubt it'll matter much.

if you pull the pan off, id like to see the inside. my persona motor didnt have a pan when i pulled it, but it did have main bearing braces which dont fit inside my ally pan from my other FE3.(without grinding that is :-) )

i wouldnt use any of the 5 oil plugs on the head for the turbo if i were you, but i would pull them out and clean in there. dirt dirt dirt.

use the feed above the oil filter. if you can get an oil cooler and threaded tube (m20 x 1.5) i would use that too especialy turbed.

Fred.

[anarchyx34]

Ok, so if soaking wont work. How do you go about cleaning them then?

[SixSick6]

You're forgetting the most important part, damaging the silicone seal that goes around the outside diameter when a simple twisting motion will free the HLA from the rocker arm.

If you look at the HLA itself, it'll have a groove similar to how a cap fits on a soda bottle as shown in my HLA thread:



You can clearly see that they twist out rather than get smacked by a piece of wood

You can also clearly see the difference between a new silicone seal and one that has completely flattened and won't hold pressure.

Rather than polish a turd, the best option is to buy them new.

[anarchyx34]

I think I'm realizing that's the safest bet, especially since they're a twathair to change after the fact. Oh well, what's another $200

[SixSick6]

They're only $9.00 each on importperformanceparts.net, thats $118