Block Party

It took a bit longer than expected but I got the block back from the machinist yesterday. I drove to Koneistamo Aaltonen in Mäntsälä and we went through the work that had been done. They had bored and honed the cylinders, cleaned the block, replaced the cam bearings, checked the head surfaces for straightness and checked the crank line for straightness. In addition to the work with the block, they inspected the connecting rods and replaced the pistons.

I also brought my new Comp Cams XE250H camshaft with me so they could check that it fit correctly. The cam was installed in the block but rotating it was harder than expected. The cam was inspected and found to be a few hundredths twisted. They straightened it and got it turning properly.

After getting all the parts to the garage, I checked the basic stuff. The block itself looked fine and just needed some paint.

The piston rings that I had bought were molybdenum faced and the cylinders had been honed appropriately. With moly rings the honing stone must be much finer as they do not need the coarse walls to hold the oil. Everything was good in that front.

Then I made sure that all the cam bearings had been installed correctly. Their surface was nice and you could see their oil hole through the main bearing channel.

Next came the pistons. I measured their weight and visually inspected all of them. I did notice that the wrist pin clips had not been installed. I'll have to make sure they are needed and then squeeze them in.

My crank had already been machined earlier. All the bearing surfaces seemed perfect. I'll just have to measure the clearances later.

After these basic checks I can start planning the actual assembly.

Resurfaced Flywheel

I asked about my flywheel condition from FMOC (Finnish Mustang Owners Club) forum and found a fellow hobbyist who said that he had the necessary tools to resurface it. I drove there the same evening and he was not kidding. Drills, lathe, mill etc. There are not many machining jobs that could not be handled in his basement.

We started with the bellhousing. I had used some hours (and two cans of Brakleen) to clean it earlier so handling it would not be so disgusting. Drilling two holes to it did not take long and it was ready to accept the adapter plate. I think I'll paint it before installing it back to the car.

Then it was time to attach the flywheel to the lathe. He used a dial gauge to make sure it would rotate straight and put the machine to work. It took a few hours and finally we had taken 1,7 mm (0.067 inches) off the surface to get all the hardened parts out. I checked the 1966 Mustang shop manual and it says: "If it is necessary to remove more than 0.045 inch of stock from the original thickness, replace the fly wheel."

I read some discussions in the web and found that the durability should not be a problem (especially with a stock motor) but the clutch could be. Or more closely, the clutch fork might not have enough range to disengage the clutch any more. I have to do some investigation if adding some washers to the fork pivot could fix this issue or should I just get a new flywheel. At least the old one looks quite good now.