The last post was really long, but had a lot to catch up on. Still not in real time as the following happened in September '14.
Got the engine back in and everything hooked up. Time to fire the engine and break the cam in, which means starting the engine for the first time and immediately running it up to 2000 RPM for 20-30 minutes. I think I have all the air out of the cooling system. . . Let's just say it was a very tense half hour.
But as the the video shows below, I made it through it, and more importantly, so did the car.
Engine shortly after cam shaft break in.
Thanks to Randal, my friend and 351 Cleveland guru. And also thanks to Chuck, who is always there to lend a hand when needed. He shot this next video.
Nice shot panning from the engine to the car and back.
More to come, including the first drive.
Sunday, February 22, 2015
Saturday, February 21, 2015
I did say at the beginning that I'm better in the garage than on this blog. I think I've proven that because a lot of work happened on the car but nothing on this blog. Anyway. . .
I left off all those months ago with the engine removed. Next step was to ream the ridge. Over time, the cylinder wall wears but the top ring does not travel all the way to the top of the cylinder. It leaves a ridge of a couple of millimeters tall. The ridge ream removes this ridge which makes it much easier to remove the pistons and re-install. Below is a picture of the ridge reamer tool. It basically has three blades that telescope out to fit the cylinder wall. Then you turn it with a ratchet. Then telescope the cutting blades out a little more and repeat until The ridge is mostly gone. There is going to be more wear in the cylinder wall on the thrust side so it may be difficult to complete eliminate the ridge. The cylinder wall is worn badly this may not be an option. Mine was not so bad to it turned out fine.
Next step was to hone out the cylinder walls using a ball hone with some WD40. The goal hear was to deglaze the cylinder wall and put some cross-hatch on the wall to help the new rings seat in. Just run the drill while doing a quick up and down motion.
Here is my new cam. Basically went as big as I could go without having to use an adjustable valve train. In the back ground is one of my original heads. I won't be using these because I am still concerned about a crack, plus they are open chamber heads and so compression ratio is compromised. With the new cam, the closed chamber heads will be pretty wicked.
Unfortunately, I did a lot of work without pictures. Next steps were to completely and thoroughly clean the cylinder walls until there were no signs of debris from the honing process. Reinstalled the crank with new bearings checking my main bearing clearances as I went. All were within spec. Then the pistons, again checking rod bearing clearances, and again, all were in spec. Cam shaft, new double roller timing chain, oil pump, etc. not necessarily in that order. I also took extra care to degree the cam shaft in. The timing chain set had several different placements to allow for 2 degree increments of timing. Made sure the cam was spot on before closing the engine up. Sorry but now pictures.
Fast forward and the engine is together and in. There are a few things to point out here. I was not fond of the aluminum valve covers. I wanted something more original so I was able to get a set of stamped steel valve covers. All I did was clean them up. I did touch up a couple of spots where paint was totally gone but I did that sparingly. I really wanted the patina of the original paint since I did not paint the engine.
Also, I did swap over to a Holley carb and intake. Main reason was the Holly carb was a known good unit off of a good running engine. I had concerns about the stock Autolite for the cam break-in period of whether or not it would be able to maintain a good idle and did not want to take a chance on damaging the cam. The cylinder heads I did paint because they were just in the bare cast iron. They do stick out a little bit compare to the valve covers and block, but over time it should wear in nicely.
Lots of details that had to be worked out. One such detail was the fuel line. Originally, the fuel inlet was at the front left of the carb. The Holly fuel inlet is on the right. The front positioning put it very close to the distributor and I didn't particularly like it point right at the passenger compartment. So I reversed the fitting and then bent up a new fuel line to go all the way around the back and to meet up with the carb inlet. Made a couple of aluminium brackets to keep everything in place. Not pictured here but can be seen above is an added in line fuel filter.
Again, lots of details left out but in the end, the engine is together an in. Next is to fire it up and break the cam in, the scariest 20-30 minutes in the life of an engine.
I left off all those months ago with the engine removed. Next step was to ream the ridge. Over time, the cylinder wall wears but the top ring does not travel all the way to the top of the cylinder. It leaves a ridge of a couple of millimeters tall. The ridge ream removes this ridge which makes it much easier to remove the pistons and re-install. Below is a picture of the ridge reamer tool. It basically has three blades that telescope out to fit the cylinder wall. Then you turn it with a ratchet. Then telescope the cutting blades out a little more and repeat until The ridge is mostly gone. There is going to be more wear in the cylinder wall on the thrust side so it may be difficult to complete eliminate the ridge. The cylinder wall is worn badly this may not be an option. Mine was not so bad to it turned out fine.
Next step was to hone out the cylinder walls using a ball hone with some WD40. The goal hear was to deglaze the cylinder wall and put some cross-hatch on the wall to help the new rings seat in. Just run the drill while doing a quick up and down motion.
Here is my new cam. Basically went as big as I could go without having to use an adjustable valve train. In the back ground is one of my original heads. I won't be using these because I am still concerned about a crack, plus they are open chamber heads and so compression ratio is compromised. With the new cam, the closed chamber heads will be pretty wicked.
Unfortunately, I did a lot of work without pictures. Next steps were to completely and thoroughly clean the cylinder walls until there were no signs of debris from the honing process. Reinstalled the crank with new bearings checking my main bearing clearances as I went. All were within spec. Then the pistons, again checking rod bearing clearances, and again, all were in spec. Cam shaft, new double roller timing chain, oil pump, etc. not necessarily in that order. I also took extra care to degree the cam shaft in. The timing chain set had several different placements to allow for 2 degree increments of timing. Made sure the cam was spot on before closing the engine up. Sorry but now pictures.
Fast forward and the engine is together and in. There are a few things to point out here. I was not fond of the aluminum valve covers. I wanted something more original so I was able to get a set of stamped steel valve covers. All I did was clean them up. I did touch up a couple of spots where paint was totally gone but I did that sparingly. I really wanted the patina of the original paint since I did not paint the engine.
Also, I did swap over to a Holley carb and intake. Main reason was the Holly carb was a known good unit off of a good running engine. I had concerns about the stock Autolite for the cam break-in period of whether or not it would be able to maintain a good idle and did not want to take a chance on damaging the cam. The cylinder heads I did paint because they were just in the bare cast iron. They do stick out a little bit compare to the valve covers and block, but over time it should wear in nicely.
Lots of details that had to be worked out. One such detail was the fuel line. Originally, the fuel inlet was at the front left of the carb. The Holly fuel inlet is on the right. The front positioning put it very close to the distributor and I didn't particularly like it point right at the passenger compartment. So I reversed the fitting and then bent up a new fuel line to go all the way around the back and to meet up with the carb inlet. Made a couple of aluminium brackets to keep everything in place. Not pictured here but can be seen above is an added in line fuel filter.
Again, lots of details left out but in the end, the engine is together an in. Next is to fire it up and break the cam in, the scariest 20-30 minutes in the life of an engine.
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