AH Engine – There shall come a short block!

So I took everything out today.

I redid the distributor drive pinion gear and made sure it was properly lubed and smoothly spinning. I swapped out the EMPI generic 009 for the Kuhltek electronic SVDA Distributor I had originally planned to put on this engine way back when it was still in the 74.

The connecting rods were torqued again to 25 ft/lbs. as I misread something the other day when I assembled the crank.

I lubed up the gears and got it all back together, the bearings in the dowel pins, the timing gears set, the distributor set to TDC and Cylinder 1 at TDC.

Now working with Permatex Aviation Form-A-Gasket No. 3 is actually rather unpleasant to work with. I coated the sealing surfaces of 1/2 of the case as well as the coating and installing the cam plug.

Now putting the other half of the case on was a bit more difficult that I assumed it would be. It didn’t seem to want to easily go on the #1 bearing so I took it up and redid it, getting sealant all over my hands.

I put the large thick washers on the crankcase 12mm bolts and slowly brought the case together.

I added the other washers and 8mm nuts and additional bolts and slowly brought the case together.

I then torqued the 12mm nuts to 25 ft/lbs and the others to 25 ft/lbs.

I have one slight problem with the bolt just above the crank pulley and I have absolutely no idea when or how it happened. The very first few threads have become destroyed and I cannot get a locking nut to properly go on. I’m still a few days away from needing to worry about this but it might be really hard to try and rethread this with the case assembled now.

I went back over photos and noticed it looks a bit odd in some of them. I don’t really know what caused this, given that I dissembled this last autumn and don’t recall any issues.

The next install was actually really rather odd given that I am so used to seeing this while looking up at it while laying on the ground on my back.

I cleaned up an oil screen and got that installed along with the gaskets and new sump plate that actually has a drain plug in it. I opted for the magnetic drain plug to help capture any debris that I may have missed, though that case was damn clean before I put the crank in!

I need to resolve the flywheel dowel issue before I can set the crank end play so I have to wait for those reamers to arrive tomorrow.

Tomorrow I’ll start cleaning up the pistons and cylinders.

I need to clean up the work space and then disassemble the cylinder heads to clean them, install the SCAT high rev single springs, and lap the valves.

I can’t seem to find either the single replacement case saver I bought nor can I find the original cylinder stud that removed the saver I never got was able to get off.

Both items have to be lost in the garage or, and this is unlikely, lost in my office.