Spring/Summer 04 Archives

Spring/Summer 2004 Archives

4-4-04 - Spent some time cleaning the transmission tunnel and the underside of the body. I used greased lightning in a bucket and a stiff bristle brush. Also repaired any damaged wiring and rewrapped portions of the wiring harness.

Starter motor wiring. Very brittle. New ends were spliced in.	Job number on the passenger side firewall.	Exhaust donuts with sleeve.
Sealing solder sleeves were used to fix wires. To use these sleeves all that is needed is a heat gun or even a match.		A nice clean tunnel after hours of scrubbing.

4/xx/04 - The used 8" balancer needed a repair sleeve over the oil seal surface and the new water pump (carQuest) needed a reducer installed.

Repair sleeve over existing surface. W/O this sleeve, the groove in the original surface would have caused a leak.	Harmonic balancer install tool. This is much better than whacking the balancer face with a mallet.
Water pump needed a reducer for the bypass fitting. It would not screw all the way into the pump.	The reducer was ground flat and eventually painted.

4-14-04 - Got the bare block back from the machine shop. It was wiped thoroughly with lacquer thinner, primed with a self-etching primer, and then painted Chevy orange.

Bare block with freeze plugs installed.	Date Code I 216 which translates to October 21st 1966	Casting number 3892657
This is the back side of the block. Threaded hex plugs were installed in place of the small interference fit plugs. Left and right freeze plugs are for coolant and the center is a cam plug.		Painted bare block
The builder found a small crack in the block that started at this bolt hole and extended to the coolant passage hole. It was fixed using a time-sert insert. Should be good as new.

4-16-04 - Gapped and installed the rings.

Ring end gap can be ,measured with the rings in the cylinder bores.	Sets of gapped rings. These rings were gapped for forged pistons.	Two combustion rings and an an oil control ring. Ring spreader in background.
Each ring can be properly seated for measurement by pushing it in with a piston	Each ring was filed to achieve proper end gap.	SCAT rods with 12-point ARP bolts. Notice the material removed from the bottom of the piston due to balancing.

4-17-04 - Install crank, check main clearances, install pistons.

Uncrushed plastigauge on rear main journal. Notice the seal is slightly offset.	Bare block with cam bearings installed.
Crushed plastigauge. The oil clearance is just about .003".	Rings are compressed to the piston diameter with a piston ring compressor. Each piston is then tapped into the block.

4/24-26/04 - Assemble Short Block

6,7, and 8 Pistons installed. Notice all the material added to the rightmost crank counterweight.	Installing the oil pump pickup. Borrowed the tool from Autozone	Cam and Crank gear ready for cover
Tons of Moly lube on the camshaft lobes. The purple dab indicates the lash for a solid lifter cam	Top Dead Center (TDC) - balancer mark lines up with 0 on the timing tab and #1 the distance between piston crown and deck is minimized.

5-7-05 - Small parts refinishing

W/P Pulley and fan stripped with steel wool and paint stripper

Primed with rust-oleum professional enamel

5-8-04 - Add Oil Pan and Water Pump

Moroso windage tray was added per SHP specs. This baffle will reduce oil turbulence at high engine RPM	Assembled Short Block. Notice the size of the 6quart (5 in pan and 1 in filter) oil pan. This pan has the trap door.
This area is where many leaks occur. The oil pan lip seal has to mate with the oil pan gasket. A dab of RTV is good insurance at these points.	Another shot of the finished short block. The damper is 8" in diameter but is not the correct finned balancer.

5-27-04 - Cylinder head combustion chamber volume measurements. I purchased a set of "rebuilt" heads from EBAY. They looked pretty good with quality valves, mild porting, hardened exhaust seats, and screw in studs. Ignoring shipping damage, everything looked good except the valve seats. The seat margins were very small and needed to be reground.

This burette was used to fill the combustion chamber. It was accurate down to .1 cubic centimeter and was very easy to use. This unit was self-leveling. When the glass tube was empty, a quick squeeze of the bottle filled the tube with a fresh 10 cc.	DON'T ship cylinder heads in packing peanuts! Mine came in peanuts and I had a bent valve and a cracked valve guide.
I made these plexiglass covers for $1. Water is dripped into the hole until all air is replaced by water. Smeared grease prevents leaks.	Mildly ported intake ports.
Valve bowls have been mildly ported. The seats need some work	Mildly ported exhaust ports

6-11-04 - Cylinder heads came back from the builder. They look great.

These seats sure look pretty. All valves were hand lapped. The grey area is where the valve sits on the seat.

This is what a valve guide is supposed to look like. Cast iron spiral cut guides were used.

Detail of two seats. The hardened seat can be seen and the area around the seat has been deformed to ensure the seat does not fall out.

6-12-04 Cylinder Head Assembly. New springs, retainers, and umbrella seals.

Borrowed a valve spring compressor from Autozone. Each valve spring must be compressed to insert retainers

Installed valve on right. Valve and umbrella seal on the left.

6-12-04 - Install Cylinder Heads and Lifters. Two different head gaskets were used to compensate for the .010 piston/deck clearance between left and right hand cylinder banks.

.039 Fel-Pro composition head gasket.	All cylinder head bolts were coated with PTFE paste	Short block with cylinder heads installed
.029 Chevrolet composition head gasket	Lifters installed in bores

6-19-04 Intake Installation. RTV was used instead of the front and rear cork seals. I used ultra copper from Permatex because it dries about the same color as Chevy orange.

A small bead of RTV around each water jacket on both cylinder heads.	Fel-pro premium intake gaskets. Notice the restricted exhaust cross-over. This should prevent any fuel percolation issues.
Another bead of RTV around each water jacket and a 1/4" bead along the rear of the block.	1/4" RTV bead at the front of the block. It is very important to cover the corners.

6-24-04 Installed pilot bushing

Bushing Puller. Another rental from Autozone, this is basically a slide hammer with different attachments.	Back of the crank w/o a bushing installed
Pilot bushing installed	New pilot bushing - the rounded internal edge faces out.

6-29-04 Clutch and Transmission Seal. I used a LUK RepSet which included new clutch disk and pressure plate as well as throw out bearing, pilot bushing, spline lube, and centering tool.

This is the tail end of a Muncie minus the seal.	Seal installed.	Resurfaced clutch installed.
Clutch disk installed on a scuffed flywheel with the centering tool	Pressure plate	Pressure plate and clutch disk installed.
Release fork and throw-out bearing installed	Release fork and throw-out bearing installed from the inside.