Welcome back and go slow, work will be there when it is warmer and you have fully healed. Good to see you up and about!
Drove 30 miles yesterday to pick up a bunch of parts at the powdercoaters, then got the head out of the Evaporust bath and cleaned it all up, ready to take to the cyl head shop for hardened seats, new guides and a good 3 angle valve job, but first I'm going to do just a bit of port work......
Yesterday I drove out to the machine shop and had them load the block, crank and pistons into the blue Mini and brought them home. Today I re-arranged the shop enough that I could roll my hydraulic table over to the door, lined it up with the load floor on the Mini and slid the block right out onto the table - easy peasy! I decided that even tho the block was really clean (see pics) the water jacket was still fairly coated with rust, so I divined a way to put Evaporust into just the water jacket. I had all the freeze plugs in, and found the plug for the block drain, then I put an old water pump on and covered the hose end, then put a short piece of tubing on the bypass so I could use a funnel to pour the Evaporust into the block. It worked a treat.....I'll leave it for at least a few days while it's somewhat warmish and just let it work, then I can remove the block drain plug and let it out....flushing will be interesting, but If I can get some help to carry it out to the driveway I can just use the hose and rinse it out. Crank and rods checked out perfectly, so I have std mains and rod bearings on the way, they micro polished the crank and it looks fantastic. Then it should be ready to build. First, a good coat of etch prime, then paint. He wants this one the same color as the last one - Resida green..... and he wants me to paint everything, transmission, torque converter housing, drop gear housing etc. so I'll run out to the paint store and see if I can score another batch. In the meantime I'm going to do a little port work on the head.....
Today I did a little port work, to match the ports to the intake and exhaust manifolds for a little better flow. I'll also unshroud the valves a bit but I'm not going to get crazy with it.
Took the cylinder head to the "head" shop - I remember when that term had an entirely different connotation!
Didn't want people to think I was ignoring this build, I should get the block put together this weekend.....
I believe you have brushed paint before on engine blocks and sprayed paint ...... which do think is better ??
Depends on the paint, spraying is clearly easier and faster, dries quicker. The POR I did on a block came out terrific, looked almost like porcelain and felt as hard too, but it was prone to run if I wasn't careful with it. However, the POR has also held up really well, I built that engine 4 years ago and it still looks super shiny. This is supposed to be high gloss paint but I was disappointed with the shine so I clear coated over it - now it looks like I wanted it to.....of course, that was just the first coat in that pic.
I spent today getting the block ready to put together - cleaning everything thoroughly, running a tap into every threaded hole and cleaning them out, installing the oil gallery plugs, cleaning the bores, scotchbrite the cam bores and bearing bores to make sure there was no debris or scum on them. Next up - install the cam bearings......oops, seems I forgot to order cam bearings. Damn, how did I miss those? Ok, well - still a lot to do. Install the pistons on the rods, clean the big end bores with scotchbrite pads and install the rod bearings - yes I have those! Then it was time to check the ring gaps before installing the rings on the pistons - hmmm, they're supposed to be 7-12 thou and I'm getting some in the 4, 5 and 6 range. Guess I'll have to give them a little filing adjustment. Once done they can go on the pistons. I suppose I could go ahead and put the crank and pistons in, but it's a little easier to see the holes that have to line up between the cam bearing and the block with everything out of the way. Parts are on order from Moss, should be here by Wed I guess. Plenty more parts to clean up yet.....
Missing cam bearings, it's always something. Gives you some time to catch your breath. How's the new knee doing?
Meh, things still hurt....I'm still going to PT long after I thought I would be done. I'm only good for a couple of hours on my feet a day, then I'm done, so things are not happening quickly in the shop.....and I'm so backed up! But, it's just going to have to wait.....
Work can wait my friend. Your health comes first. From what I hear it does take time. You'll get there.
Today I went ahead and installed the pistons and rods and the crankshaft, I did the cam bearings yesterday....those were a bit of a PITA. Turns out there was a nick on the block that damaged the front bearing as I drew it in, once in place I knew something was wrong because the cam wouldn't go in. So I pulled the bearing shell out - saw that it was damaged beyond use (fortunately the front shell is the same as a 1275 and I always have a set of those on hand) and inspected the hole - found the nick - so I took a file and cleaned it up, then a light bit of 1200 to make sure there were no file marks and tried again with the bearing. This time it rotated on me so I had to pull it back out again - but it wasn't damaged, so I carefully lined it up and drew it in again. This time it was perfect - there are bore holes in the shells that have to line up with the holes in the block. You can fudge a little bit, but not a lot. Once that was done I cleaned all the bearing surfaces in the rods and mains with scotch brite pads and solvent, then dried it all out and cleaned the shells too. A nice coating of assembly lube and it all went together normally. I'm stopped on this one now till the transmission gets back from California....loyal readers will remember that I had to send the cam out to have it reground because of the unique drive used on the oil pump, which runs off the back of the camshaft. I heard from the guy who rebuilt the trans a week ago and he said it was done and ready to come to me, but I haven't heard a peep since or seen anything of a truck. I messaged him today so we'll see if he just forgot to send it or if he's waiting on the cam to be reground. Oh and my friend Clancy called today and wanted to know if I could build him a race engine by this time next month! I explained waiting for parts and machine shop time etc, so we'll see what he decides to do - if we're gonna go he needs to get me the block asap and we need to get parts ordered like yesterday! I also have a guy bringing his car down from Cuba, Mo sometime next week for I have no idea what. When it rains......and boy howdy is it raining! Literally and figuratively both!
The race engine for Clancy got shelved, and I still haven't seen or heard anything from the guy in Cuba, Mo - which is Ok by me - I have enough to do! The transmichigan sat at the warehouse here in KC for 10 days, so I called and asked what the heck was going on with my shipment - it was here the next day! sheesh, wonder why I have to raise hell to get my stuff sent out the last mile? Now that the Sprite race engine is finished, I got started on this 998 rebuild again. The transmission arrived from California yesterday, so today I uncrated it and got it up on the hydraulic assembly table - I just can't say enough how much I like and appreciate this new toy/tool. Not only is it far easier to work off of, but it really saves my back, and being able to adjust the working height is just makes it that much better over working on my fixed height workbench! First thing I had to do was disassemble the crate, once I had it open I found I could just slide the gearbox off the pallet and right onto the work table - easy peasy, no engine hoist required. I'll use the engine crane to lift the block onto the transmichigan later of course. The tranny looks brandy new, and because Nick did such a great job on it I talked the owner into leaving it silver instead of painting it green to match the block like he originally wanted. Which now means I need to clean up and paint the drop gear housing and clutch cover to match! I've got probably at least a full days worth of clean up yet on all the other parts and fasteners, brackets and such. I'll drop the block on it tomorrow and get started on the assembly - I still need to paint the cylinder head green to match the block tho. Maybe I can get that knocked out today - it's warm and sunny and there's a very slight breeze - perfect for paintwork!