Engine rebuild pt3...

Replacement con rod cap bolts arrived Saturday morning - so I cleaned and oiled up all the bits and refitted pistons 1 and 4 with new bolts and torqued them up to
45 Ibs ft without any problems.

Fitting two of the cylinder head bolts into block as guilds, cleaned the surfaces and fitted the head gasket and head - tightening the nuts and bolts in the correct order.

After positioning the crank back to TDC on 1 and 4, I started fitting the timing chain and gear assembly. I will refit the original chain tensioner and check to see if it needs replacing.

3hrs

Engine rebuild pt1...

With a clean cloth and some degrease solution I gave the block a good wipe down, removed any over-paint from the flanges.

Using STP oil I coated the big end shells and dropped the crank in to place, next the thrust washers again giving everything a good coat of oil. On with end caps and hand tighten at this point.

Checking the end-float of the crank came in just over half way between of the recommended tolerance.

Next the pistons, checking the ring gaps where at 180 deg to each other, I used a ring clamp to compress them and trapped the first one in. Again covering the small end shells with oil and hand tighten them - after each piston was attached I used the crank pulley to help rotated the crank.

STP oil is very sticky stuff and crank is fairly stiff to rotate - it's also very cold today and trying to snow again!

4.5 hrs

Pistons ready...

20 minutes in the ultrasonic cleaner was enough to loosen the carbon from the piston heads. Using fine wire-wool to lift any stubborn bits.

As you can see the pistons are +020 oversized as the block is a recon unit due the thrust washers dropping out.

2 hrs

Engine breakdown... pt12

Removing the pistons next, I started by removing the remaining big end caps and shells, the condition of these shells are similar to the others already removed.

Cleaning the bores with a clean rag to minimise any damage to the piston rings I pushed the first piston up and out and placing into a numbered box containers I had set-up earlier.

Containing with the other three being careful not to let the rings catch on anything, the rings all look fine with plenty of spring in them and the bores look fine too. I will need to borrow some of my fathers measuring tools to check them properly.

One thing we did last time when we rebuilt the engine, we number the con rods and caps, also R for right hand side.

2hrs