Hello All

I completed the rebuild some time ago. It is now March of 2012. I completed the rebuild in September of 2010. The car now has about 9000 miles on the rebuilt engine. So far there hasn't been any problems.

Friday, August 6, 2010

Engine Block

Make sure the engine block is clean and free of all the old gasket material, old bearings, and old freeze plugs (to remove freeze plugs you can put a flat head screwdriver at the bottom and tap on it with a hammer enough to get it moving then once the top is pointing towards you grab it with pliers and pull it out...Do not punch it all the way into the block or it will block your coolant and it will over heat.)

The engine block can be machined at a local machine shop, they will also inspect the block to make sure it is rebuildable, but this process can be expensive. If you have the money to spend on a machine shop then stop reading and give them a call, if not I will tell you what to look for.

First, you will want to visually inspect the block and make sure there are no cracks, chips, nicks, or any deep scoring (if there is than the block has to be machined or replaced) (If you stopped running the engine before any serious damage occurred than you should be fine.)  Second, you will need a straight edge and a feeler gauge, place the straight edge across the middle of your deck (the flat gasket surface at the top of your cylinder bores), if there is any gap between the straight edge and the deck then you will need to measure it with the feeler gauge, if it exceeds .0039 inches than it will need to be corrected. You can get all the car manuals for this car from 3sx.com ( the downloads are free but you will need Adobe Reader...go to 3sx.com, click "tech" and they will be there).   Once everything is good and all the measurements are okay turn the engine upside down and look into the engine block and inspect for the same things. Look at the oil holes on the crankshaft support, make sure they are not plugged (if the old bearings are still in place, remove them). After the engine has been looked over and all is good then we will prepare for the cylinder honing.

Cylinder honing is necessary to remove all of the glazing on the inside of the cylinder bores, plus it will give you new rings a nice smooth surface for maximum compression. Put a thin layer of oil on the inside of the cylinders. Attach the hone to a good cordless or corded high speed drill. Place the hone inside the cylinders then squeeze the trigger. Make sure you keep a constant up and down motion, do not set in one place or you will be removing material unevenly. As I was doing this I counted to 25 seconds then I moved on to the next one. Be careful not to go up or down to far or the stones will fly out and cause damage to the block, gasket surface, or the stones themselves. Once you are done visually inspect and make sure there is no more carbon build-up or any other deep scoring. Remember that the honing process is to remove minute layers of carbon, if you take off too much of the cylinder surface than you will have to take it to a machine shop to be re-bored. Then clean the inside of the cylinders with some degreaser and that is it for that.

To put in new freeze plugs all you do is lightly put the freeze plugs in the hole enough so that they do not fall out and take a socket that is close in size and hammer them in. (Be careful to not put them in unevenly or they may leak and do nut punch them in too far or they may fall down inside the water jackets)

As for the block it is done for now...oh before I forget put some oil or reassembly lube on the inside of the cylinders so they do not rust or you will have to re-hone them) These blocks are cast-iron and they love to rust so you will want to store it in a bag to keep moisture away from them until you are ready to reassemble.

1 comment:

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