Ring a Ding Ding

Got some tools, and a new set of .030"-over 289 rings

We come from the land of the ice and snow
 
Its been a while since we've updated, and not because I don't love you all, but rather because it turned out to be more or less the way January usually happens in Illinois, which for the uninitiated, is only suitable for dogsledding, cryo-experiments, keeping vodka at proper drinking temperature, and little else. Garage has no heat, so Xavier and I stayed toasty, inside, sipping hot chocolate. Thought I was on top of things, since I did find and buy a 90,000 BTU furnace for the garage, but quickly found that trying to find an HVAC person to do an install at non-emergency rates in January puts you on a wait list that ends in May or something. Oh well, if anyone wants to hook me up with a good quality HVAC installer, there's a Mustang ride in your future! 

Speed junkie, piston head. And on I go

Xavier cleaning a piston

We've been looking at the best way to go on the rebuild, and we decided that we should re-use the old pistons, but no matter what, new rings should be used. After we got them in, I took a look at the pistons and realized that I hadn't internalized how much carbon buildup we had on the pistons. Not sure how the valvetrain problems or carb problems contributed, but the immediate task at hand was clear: clean off those puppies so it all goes back together like new.

So dirty! Needs some scrubby dubby

To start, we were using mild solvents like WD40, toothbrushes, and plastic scrapers to power off the carbon. That was slow going however, so we looked for a way that allowed us to be lazier and play more Playstation gain some efficiency in our process.  We ended up filling a disposable aluminum pan with degreaser, placing the pistons in face-down and gave them some soak time to let the solvent work. We ended up getting comfortable with brass bristle brushes as well, which cleaned off the gunk pretty well. We made a discovery in the process:

Uh oh #1

Sweet little baby, I don't know where you've been
 

"Dad, why is the top of this piston stamped with '040'?"
Every bit of documentation I got on this car shows the engine, when rebuilt last, was bored .030" over. And I pretty much took this at face value. The Sealed Power ring kit I ordered was specified off that number. Why do the pistons say 040? Well, because the pistons are .040" oversize, not .030". Because, either the original understanding was wrong, or the engine was bored an extra 10 thousandths sometime after the rebuild documented in 1989. This is all very interesting Chuck, what does it mean? Means I bought the wrong rings, that's what. Not a huge deal, solved it with a credit card, but pushes back our progress another week while we wait for the new set. C'est la vie! At least we didn't install the wrong set and drop them in, so there's that. Next time, we mic the bore to be sure.

Uh oh #2

Body and soul, I'm a freak
 

Evaporate already!

Obviously it got a lot warmer this week, since you see me and the kid hitting it in the garage. In fact, it went from 15-20 degrees Farenheit to almost 60. I was working when I noted some condensation on the window when it occured to me to check the new block. If you didn't guess, the cold block was dripping with condensation. I freaked out a bit. I had oiled the cylinder walls and the deck, but there were bare metal parts which were exposed. Armed with shop towels, hair dryers, 10-30, and assembly lube, we carefully warmed everything and re-oiled everything. Really missing that furnace man. Wait? Chuck has a hair dryer? What for? Ha ha. Very funny. It's for my beard, of course.

More Pictures:

Douse em!

Scraping off the crap

 

His hands move fast!

Mugging for the camera!

Bottom's Up! Main Bearings and Eggnog and 2016

So it's been a couple weeks, and I've managed to stay busy, as I'm sure we all did.  Had some eggnog and sweets, and prime rib, hopefully not packing on too many extra pounds, but hey! I managed to keep going forward on the hot rod project, if only on a light-duty schedule. Hope every one of you had a relaxing holiday- Best wishes for health and prosperity for all of us in 2016!

 

Part 1. Our machinist delivers

"Sing Blue Silver"

Me and Kirk, our machinist from G&G, the day he returned our 289

Right before Christmas I got the block and crank back from our machinist at G&G. Kirk got everything squared away. The galling we saw on the bearings did end up affecting the crank, but Kirk ground it 20 thousandths and polished it to a mirror finish. He honed all the cylinder bores. Once he heard I was putting aluminum heads on, he trued the cylinder deck surfaces up so they're perfectly flat and square.  He also installed new cam bearings and supplied all the crank and connecting rod bearings to go with his handiwork.

 

Part 2. Yuletide, gear head style

 "This is the dawning of the rest of our lives - on holiday" 

Not a 289, but rather a Ford OHC 427

Christmas was upon me and the garage work slowed down, partially because of the holidays, and partially because I realized I didn't remember to purchase a new rear main oil seal. This meant I couldn't put the new crank back in the block just yet. I did manage to install the Clevite 77 main bearings.

My thoughts shifted to what the Magi might present to the kid, given the automotive themes this year. I came up with this:

1. The kid needs his own welding helmet. For one, my head is bigger, For two, I don't know how I can teach anyone to weld if one of us can't look at our work, while we work on it.  
2. Working on the car is ok, but the kid needs some ownership. 



Ready to weld? Mmmm hmm.

3. Everyone needs an ornament that represents the events of the year 

Bought Xavier a welding helmet, a high-volume oil pump, a MSD ignition, and a ford engine ornament. (Also got him a Surface Pro 4, which was so cool I immediately wanted to keep it for myself. So neat, heh!) 

Part 3. Shop music situation

"Feels just like it should"

I even have an i-Thing! It's the new mix tape.

I set up a new stereo for the shop. All we listened to out there until now was a radio that would only tune in NPR. Now I like NPR, but as thought-provoking and entertaining as it is, it just does not seem to establish the appropriate creative, er, ambiance. The apropos and hilarious "Car Talk" of the Tappet brothers aside, the hot rod really needs to be forged amidst music, you know? Think of it his way- What's the difference between the generic ham you'd buy at any grocery store and prosciutto? Both are ham in the loosest definition of ham, but ham is just "ham" flavored and prosciutto is so tasty it makes my eyes roll into the back of my head, and costs 35 bucks a pound. Sure, the prosciutto is dry aged, but more importantly, in the best the pigs feed on a steady diet of parmesan whey and acorns. Ergo, when making something, the environment and inputs affect the quality of the final product. That's why this project needs to be bathed in the baddest-ass available rock, funk, techno, hip hop, metal, jazz, urban, punk, grunge, industrial, and yes, even classical. I spent a few hours on new year's day hand-picking 300 tunes so smokin' hot that I seriously have a hard time containing myself while working, since each one kicks so much ass that I usually sing at the top of my lungs, if not shaking my ass just a little bit when nobody's watching. My neighbors probably think- well actually I'm not sure what they'd think- possibly the same thing anyone who's ever caught me doing that at a stoplight thinks.

Part 4. New year / cam and crank are installed

"The pleasure is to play, makes no difference what you say"

Crank, bearing caps, cam, and cam thrust plate installed

Finally got that rear main oil seal and installed the cam, cam thrust plate, main bearings, and crank- rocking out the entire time, of course. 

Heard Lemmy from Motörhead passed on to the the awesome machine in the hereafter this last week. I promise, for Lemmy's sake, that we'll get the heads on this motor soon and let 'er rip. For now, if you missed it, hit the link and rock out. 

 

 Additional Photos

Unloading the freshly reworked block

Crank, giftwrapped!

Our 289 cid Ford block, as delivered by the machine shop (looks good, doesn't it?)

Underside of the block

Getting ready to install main bearings in the bearing caps

"Clevite 77" matching the new R 0.020" M 0.020" crank journal profile

Our 289 crank, ground and polished

Edelbrock cam and lifters