E.  Starting Fresh With The Engine

Post date: Jul 20, 2015 6:8:14 PM

The block was stripped of its cam bearings, freeze plugs and oil gallery plugs for a good cleaning.  Here you need to make very sure that you brush out every cavity in the block - if not whatever lerks may come back to haunt you!  After a few cleaning and drying sequences I blow out the block one last time and then use a water displacing oil to keep the bores from being flash rusted.  The next step is to hone the bores.  Here its a matter of breaking the glaze and putting a cross-hatch in the bore - if you look on YouTube you can find any number of videos on how to do this.

Once honed it is time to put in the freeze plugs, oil gallery plugs and cam bearings.  Again, there are plenty of sources on how to do this, so I won't go into it here.  I will warn you, MAKE SURE THAT YOUR OIL GALLERY PLUGS ARE IN TIGHT AND SEALED.  I made the rookie error of not getting the one on the back of the block above the oil filter boss tight and paid and doubled my work because of that - more on that later...

Now the engine is ready for assembly.  I chose a Lunati cam and lifters for this build as I was looking for a good off-idle performance and streetability.  At .050" the duration is 207/213 degrees, lift is .495"/.515" with a 112 degree lobe separation.  My ego wanted something bigger - MUCH BIGGER, but I've done this enough to know over-camming a motor is about the worst thing you can do.  New Lunati hydraulic lifters were also installed.  Use plenty of assembly lube here some is good, more is better and too much is just enough.

Rings were fit to the bores - this is tedious, but necessary and then the bearings installed in the rods.  The crank was put in and Plasti-gauged for proper bearing tolerance.  The thrust bearing gap was also checked and "set."  Then the pistons put in and rod bearings Plasi-gauged to check for bearing journal clearance.  Once the roller timing chain was installed and set the rotating assemble was torqued.