Hack Weld Solder Sculpt: Block Party

The machine shop can't check or clean the block with the pistons or crank in - so today I removed the last of the rotating assembly.

I did a bit of Tetris in the garage to start off- all the stuff we ordered is now just laying around in the way. I used a bit of the bar area in the house to store boxes and parts (temporarily! temporarily!) so we have a bit of room to work. It's tight but we'll make it work.

Minimalism is about reducing the thing to its essence

Inspected and marked all of the connecting rod caps before disassembly.

Plowing ahead out of my comfort zone, I finished the disassembly of the Ford 289 by removing the pistons and crank this morning. The kid was asleep, and I felt slightly guilty about finishing this myself, but damn, there is totally no underestimating how crack-o-noon late a teenager can and will sleep in on a weekend morning! So sorry to the kid, I'll make sure he's conscious and caffeinated for the reassembly I guess.

The connecting rods were stamped, but before I started, I dyed and numbered them again to be sure. I've assisted on a few motor rebuilds in the past, but since this is my first solo no-training-wheels run, I'm being pretty slow and deliberate. No hurry. I saw the neighbor glance across the driveway and into the garage bay, spying the engine internals arranged on a work table. I got a 'oh wow cool' look, which made me smile. What'd be even cooler is if I manage to put this thing back together and it runs. We'll see!

Bearings have some scoring, pistons look good

So I got all the pistons out. One of the books I'm working out of says that after I loosen the caps I need to tap on the pistons with a dead blow hammer and wooden dowel to get them out. Wooden dowel? Didn't really have one handy- I searched the house high and low, and ended up, er, appropriating a wooden rod my wife uses to hold the front door open, and used that. What do ya know, the ol' wooden dowel technique really works well! She shouldn't miss that thing until spring or thereabouts, so we're golden.

To do: I need to order new connecting rod bearings and rings. I will also need a piston ring pliers.

Engine uber-experts, inspect away - bearings a little look burnt to me.

Next, I got the bearing caps off and the crankshaft out. I like that we've gone to the lengths we have at this point, because after the crank came out I did see some galling and scoring on some of the bearings, including the main thrust bearing. So if we had merely installed the new heads, valvetrain, and intake, there's no telling how long this engine would have run before encountering problems.

To do: I need to order main bearings, rear main seal, connecting rod bearings, camshaft bearings, main bearing cap hardware, and harmonic balancer.

How many man points you get for ordering up a magnaflux job?

So there it is, the essence, the bare block. I will send it, the timing cover, oil pan, and crankshaft to the machine shop. First thing I'll have them do is ensure the block is worth rebuilding by checking it for cracks or other game-ending imperfections. Second thing I'll ask them to do is to check the crank journals to make sure they're ok. They look ok to me, but I see what looks like it might be slight scoring, but what do I know? Machinist will let me know what's up. If everything is ok, I'll have them hot tank the block, pan, and timing cover and return it to us clean and ready to paint

Next, welding. Lots and lots of welding.

In the next installment, I will show you why it's stupid to buy a welding cart after you buy a welder. As in, we're going to make a welding cart! And we're going to make a wall rack to store rims and tires, and whatever other fab thoughts invade our brains because WELDER MUAHAHAHA. If you missed the announcement, yeah Christmas came early and my family who loves me bought me a wirefeed MIG welder. So we can patch the floors, fabricate brackets, and indoctrinate the kid Xavier into the "joins metal with fire" club, secret handshake and all!