Engine Assembly: Paint And Core Plugs

Time to give the block a small facelift. Before paint I noticed that there was some loose rust and dirt still on the block so I cleaned it with a wire brush. This naturally created a lot of dust that found its way everywhere and would have to be cleaned later. I did not install the core plugs before paint so cleaning would be easier.

Next I masked all the gasket surfaces with some tape and started brushing. I was rewarded with a pretty nice looking block but some metal was still showing through. After letting the paint to dry for 24 hours, I applied another layer and let it dry again. Then I removed the tapes and cleaned the edges.

After paint I poured some water through the coolant passages to get the dirt out. Then I could install the core plugs. I applied some Hylomar sealant to both surfaces and let it dry for few minutes. By placing a suitable sized socket on the plug, it was easy to hammer them in. I will add some pain on the plugs later.

Engine Assembly: Main Bearing Clearance

My crank was just machined but I still wanted to check all the bearing clearances just in case. I do not own micrometers or bore gauges so I had to settle for Plastigage. I've read that it is not that accurate but should be enough in my case as the machinist should have measured everything.

Before installing the bearings, I cleaned them and their bores. Then I cleaned the crank journals and finally pushed the bearings in place. After carefully setting the crankshaft to the block, I installed and torqued all but number one cap. For some reason Tom Monroes book says that before doing the measurements, all other caps must be installed. They should not touch the crank and so should not make any difference but I followed the instructions anyway.

I had a strip of green Plastigage that measures clearances from 0.001 to 0.003 inches. I cut a piece of it and carefully set in on the first journal.

Then I installed the main cap, tapped it in its groove and torqued the lubricated bolts to 65 ft-lbs. After removing the cap again, I checked how much the Plastigage had deformed with the supplied scale.

Bearing 1 clearance

Result was about 0.002 inches. Finally I cleaned the bearing surfaces and installed the cap again. Then it was time to repeat all the steps four more times.

Bearing 2 clearance

Bearing 3 clearance

Bearing 4 clearance

Bearing 5 clearance

Every bearing had maybe a bit under 0.002 inches of clearance. The acceptable range is 0.0005 to 0.0024 inches so I should be fine.

Engine Assembly: Piston Ring Gaps

After the first few visual checks it was time to get serious. The Sealed Power piston rings that I had bought were pre gapped but I was following "How to Rebuild Small-Block Ford Engines" book by Tom Monroe and it instructed to check everything. So I got busy.

I pushed each ring in its respective cylinder and then squared it with one of the old pistons. I removed the top ring from it and then just pushed the new ring in with it.

Then it was time to check the gap with feeler gauges. After going through every ring, they all seemed to have 0,40 mm (0.0157 inch) gap. I did some reading and it was maybe a little tight. Also, I found more modern suggestions that the bottom ring gap should be a bit larger so any pressure that goes through the top ring is not trapped between the rings.

I clamped a fine toothed file to my table and went through the rings once more. I filed a tiny amount at a time and measured again many times until all top rings had 0,45 mm (0.0177 inch) gaps and bottom rings 0,50 mm (0.0197 inch). Finally I removed the sharp edges from the filed end with 600 grit sandpaper.

I will install the rings to the pistons later when it's time to put them in the cylinders.

Engine Assembly: Parts And Price

While waiting for the machinists, I've been collecting the parts that would become my new engine. I think I should now have almost everything covered. Here's most of them.

Let's see what I've got.

Block

Block	Original, bored 0.030 oversized	450 € (block and piston work)
Core plugs	Dorman	10 €
Fuel pump	Carter M6588	40 €
Oil pump	Ford Racing M-6600-M50	49 €
Oil pump shaft	Melling SP224-61118	13 €
Oil pressure sender	Standard PS60	28 €
Oil filter	Motorcraft FL-1A	8 €

Rotating Assembly

Crankshaft	Original, machined 0.010 undersized	300 € (machining)
Timing set	Sealed Power KT3-358S	34 €
Main bearings	Clevite MS-590 P-10	51 €
Rod bearings	Clevite CL-634 P-10	46 €
Pistons	Sealed Power H273CP .030	165 €
Piston rings	Sealed Power E-215K 30	58 €

Valve train

Camshaft	Comp Cams XE250H - 31-230-3	50 € (used)
Cam bearings	Clevite	?
Lifters	Comp Cams 832-16	89 €
Push rods	Sealed Power RP-3165	45 €

Misc

Gasgets	Fel-Pro	?
Head gasgets	Fel-Pro 1011-2	-
Assembly lube	Red Line	15 €
Assembly lube	Comp Cams 104	10 €
Gasget sealant	Hylomar	10 €

The list is still missing some stuff like the parts that I will need for the heads and I've forgotten to write down some prices. I will be updating this post as the build continues.

Piston Weights

As I had to install new pistons, I was a bit worried that it would ruin the balance of the moving parts. So, before taking the old pistons to the machinist, I weighted them. After getting them back, I did a comparison. These weights contain the piston, pin, rings and connecting rods.

Piston	1:	2:	3:	4:	5:	6:	7:	8:
Old	1374 g	1370 g	1379 g	1376 g	1377 g	1370 g	1374 g	1373 g
New	1377 g	1375 g	1381 g	1378 g	1378 g	1372 g	1378 g	1375 g
Difference	3 g	5 g	2 g	2 g	1 g	2 g	4 g	2 g

Wow, only a few gram difference in each piston. I think I'll call a professional and ask if that makes any difference. Most likely not as, according what I've read, they didn't even balance the moving parts in the factory and my engine would not see high RPMs.

And just in case someone is interested, I also weighted just the new Sealed Power hypereutectic pistons and pins. They were between 750 and 753 grams. And for the new piston rings:

1st pressure ring	2nd pressure ring	Oil ring
17 g	20 g	22 g

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.

Block to the machinist

Now that we have gotten christmas and new year out of the way, it’s time to get back to business. I finally took the block and pistons to the machinist yesterday. They will check the block for cracks and make sure the decks are straight. And of course overbore the cylinders if everything is OK. I’ll be reusing the connecting rods so they will check them too and swap them to the new pistons. Work should begin next week so I still have a few days for other stuff.

Eating and drinking too much is not the only thing I’ve been doing during last weeks. I have spent many nights cleaning and scrubbing and sanding and painting the smaller parts of the engine and the engine bay. I still need to paint the heads and the block itself but most of the other pieces are done.

Some of the painted engine parts

Cleaning the engine bay has been a real pain in the ass to do. Not that surprisingly, it had gathered a lot of oil and dirt during the last decades so getting everything clean takes a lot of elbow grease. I still have some more preparing to do before paint so I’ll post more later.