- Got my engine block back from the machine shop last week. Had it bored and honed for some 87 mm pistons. Will start assembling it as soon as a couple more partts come in.
- Engine bored and honed
February 25, 2021 Start the bottom end rebuild
- Finally got parts in. Been waiting for a piston cooling jet. One of the original ones had a stress crack and broke when I was getting ready to start on the bottom end. Parts came in yesterday, and I got the jets installed. Main bearings and crank next....
- Broken jet. New one on the left.
- Oil jet installed.
- Torque to 17 ft lbs first pass, then 22.
March 17, 2021 Bad news...
- Had a big surprise when I installed the crank in my engine. I was hoping for .0015 in. clearance, but when I plastigaged it, it was way off. I bought this crank from a drift shop, and they had a couple of them. One was stock and in very good condition, and one had been to the machine shaop and had been turned. I thought that I had decided at the time that I wanted to stay with the stock crank size....... So, I bought a set of standard main bearings for my rebuild kit.
Anyways after obviously wasting my money for the wrong size bearings I quit being lazy and mic'ed all the journals. The mains had been turned .010 in. (.25 mm) and rod journals had been turned .020 (.5 mm). I got some +.25mm bearings in for the mains today and they gaged out at .0015 in. after I torqued down the the cap bolts.
I would have noticed this had I unwrapped the crank before ordering bearings, but I didn't. lol
March 23, 2021
- Started gapping rings on Saturday, but got interested in fitting the intercooler/radiator so still have a couple sets of rings to finish.
The rings came as "file to fit" for the normally aspirated engine, so fitting them to the turbo engine takes quite a bit of grinding to get the gap correct. I just have one of those old school hand grinders, so it takes about 30 minutes per ring set. One of those jobs that you just need to take your time on though.
- Checking ring gap
- Old school grinder
April 5, 2021
- Back at the bottom end rebuild. I guess I put this off an ample amount of time. I really don't enjoy working with an oily slick ring compressor. If I ever do another engine, I am going to get one of those pliar type compressors instead of the old wind up style. That said, I have all the pistons back in their appropriate holes, torqued and ready to move on.
I put the pistons in "wet", because that is how I have always done it. Messy and smokes a bit when you do that first start up, but it has always worked okay for me in the past. Timing chain, tensioners and front cover / oil pump coming up next.
-Guy
- Wet install
- Pistons all in
April 18, 2021 Done with the bottom end...
So, finished up the bottom end. Went pretty smoothly, Standard missing parts.... found them, nasty stuff cleaned up, etc. Need to get the head ready to install next.
-Guy
- New timing chain and guides
- Fresh oil seal for rear
- New front cover/oil pump
- Oil pan installed
