Yesterday I tore the block down. The front case, oil pump, water pipe, timing cover, and oil cooler went through the parts washer... and then when I got home, I pulled the pistons, crank, bearings, oil squirters and cleaned up a bunch of parts. After knocking the balance shaft bearings out, flipping them 180° and re-installing them, I started cleaning up the outside of the block. Scraped all the lead off from the old head gasket, taped off the head surface and started wire brushing the block.

I threw some pics of the progress up here for your perouzal. Yes, the crank weighs a metric ton, and those factory rods are huge. Sleeve who? Why? Good lord I love cast iron blocks.

The bearings arent phucked, but I'm going to replace 'em anyway. The crosshatches are worn off the leading and trailing edges of the block, and the oil ring is worn out a little more than I'd like, so I guess it's getting new rings, too. I think I'm going to knock the freeze plugs out and drop the block and the whole rotating assembly off at the machine shop to get hot tanked just for the hell of it.

 

Damn, definately alot of work is being put into this. Good job and keep us updated. :thumbup:

 

Great progress man. Keep it up with the pictures. They are so much more entertaining than just descriptions.

 

looks like it is coming along great

 

Keep up the great work. I can't wait to see the finished product! Awesome build.

 

Okay, the title of this thread states "with video". So it only seems appropriate to include the video footage of what's been going on lately. It's more exhaustive than just the pics, so you get to see exactly what's going on in between. The only downside is that it's 27MB. Time to give your internet connection a workout if you want to see it.

More progress has been made. The oil system parts have been cleaned and reconditioned. The block has been honed and I cleaned all the loose rust off the outside. Honda ppl don't know much about that because they have aluminum blocks. Us DSMers are "cursed" with big, heavy cast iron parts. Darn.

http://homepage.mac.com/jafro/iMovieTheater68.html

Once again, it's an mp4, and once again, you probably need quicktime to view it. If you don't like quicktime, tough. You can brood over what you didn't see while everyone's going "cool videos man!" I can't spend all my time converting movies to every format to make everyone happy. I wish I could, but, it is what it is.

I'm off to a jorb interview. Cross your fingers for me, this one's a good one.

 

You always that damn good music in your movies. What were you doing b/t the honing??? Is that a Ridge Reamer? Im kinda surprised that you didn't paint the block. Are u keeping the trans stock or are u gonna rebuild it??

 

It was easy to see it in the master vid before exporting it for web use. It's just a Snap-On pen light so I could inspect it a little better to see if I got the desired results. Lighting up the cross-hatches sorta thing. I need to get rings, main and rod bearings after all. The old ones aren't worn out, but they are worn.

I won't be painting the block until I get it back from the hot acid bath. I'm going to drop the rods and block off to get cleaned later this week, and get everything mic'd and bore-gauged to make sure it's kosher. Probably get some new freeze plugs while I'm at it, too.

I'm not powder coating this time around because of the $ thing, and because it would be a month before I get to continue with assembly. I'm probably going to paint it white when I get it back (to keep it with the whole egg theme). I thought about you when that idea crossed my mind (you know why). How did that last paint job hold up? Pretty okay?

 

It held up great, it was PITA to keep clean, but it held on.

 

Yay! The block, crank, pistons and rods were dropped off at the machine shop today to get mic'd, bore gauged, hot tanked, and cleaned up. I asked Stuart to order a set of ARP Mains, rod bolts, and head studs, as well as main bearings, rod bearings and rings. I told him I wanted it back sooner than later because I have the time to put it together right now. Since I did all the hard stuff already and they don't need to assemble anything, it should happen fast... like whenever parts arrive.

I was toying with the idea of changing the pistons out with some stock '95-'99 pistons because the compression ratio on those is 8.5:1 instead of 7.8:1... but the yield from that is only 6hp per bar of boost, so 1.5bar=15hp. Big whoopty-do. Probably cost me $200 for such a small gain. What do you think? Waste of money?

I've had a great day! Happy Halloween from Mr. and Mrs. pumpkin.


and from my cat...