Day 61 - ENGINE ASSEMBLY!!!!

Well, the day I've been waiting for a few weeks now has finally arrived.  I was able to get quite a bit done on the engine today, am happy with the project so far.  Had a few set backs and was forced to a stopping point, but overall not bad!

As with most of this engine project, it seems like most of my time is consumed with cleaning.  This day was no different.  All the internal parts that I cleaned, sent to machining, and balancing had to be cleaned one more time in fresh solvent.  It is amazing how much more oil and grit came off the parts.  After that, I compressed air dried them, and then did one more final wipe down "the white glove" treatment with some brake cleaner.

All laid out with somewhere to go!

I started with the crankshaft, measuring the tolerance between it and the rods.  I checked for side and oil clearances which were all in spec.  I then installed the connecting rods and used some lock-tite to prevent the nuts from coming undone.  It was a tedious process because in actuality I had to make sure the rods were going on the right way, on the right journal, and at the right time.  It took 4 hours from the end of cleaning to this picture!

I then put the cam bearings in (bottom row of 3 small semi circles in this picture) and the lifters (the 4 full circles in between the cam bearings).  They all fit like a dream and glad it worked out.  I also installed the #2 split main bearing (the one large semi circle in the middle of the picture).  This is the right case half and it is ready to be mated to the left.  The left is where most of the action happens though!

Here is the left half on the engine stand.  It has identical cam bearings and lifters, but you can see the main bearing surfaces actually have a little dowel pin that sticks up to prevent the bearing from spinning.

In the picture below if you look on the bottom left and bottom right of the engine case you can see the two circular plugs with a flat screw driver head.  These are the oil pressure regulator and oil bypass valves.  One of them proved to be a real pain and wasn't moving up and down smoothly in it's bore.  It actually got stuck!  I used a starter bushing puller I used 10 years ago on the transmission and still had (thanks Dad for the packrat skills!) to fish it out.  I then cleaned up the bore and it moved freely after some effort on my part.  I put the piston in, a spring, and then closed it up with the flat head plug.

Basically at this point I was ready to put the crank inside the case, but while setting the end play on the distrubutor drive gear I found that I had too much end play.  My clearance was .065" and it needs to be closer to .020".  Not a big deal, but I didn't have the proper shims to make it happen.  Going to pick those up tomorrow and should be able to press on.

I put the two case halves together and covered them to keep dust out.

I put the crank and cam inside to avoid excess dust.  I also thought about surface rust but humidity may be higher in the house, so probably a moot point.

I'm going to pick up a used manifold tomorrow that I can use on my car.  It will need some cleaning and painting but should be good to go.  I also am going to get those distributor drive gear shims and also need some shims for my crank shaft to set its end play.  I need .004" more to make it juuuuusttttt right.  After all that is done, I will double triple check some things, and then put the two case halves together!

I did some more research and it looks like I will be able to use that "new" pulley I was talking about in the last post.  See below.