Category: Project – 2020 Murbella

Engine – Day 13 Getting the final crank install items done today has proven a painful nightmare. I have tried 5 times to get the timing gear hot enough to go over the woodruff get and I have 5 times. The first time I tried using propane to heat the gear up (in my vise)…

Engine – Day 13 I ran and got the nuts and washers this morning and am matching the sump pickup order. I didn’t think the washers were needed with the nylock nuts but I put them on anyway. The sump side was a bit trickier, and I did indeed find it best to have the…

Engine – Day 12 So I had written about seeing the different oil strainer setup in a JBugs video and that gave me the idea to built into the new engine a bit of future-proofing against something that has always driven my crazy with my other original engines. On the AJ (1979), AH (1974) and…

Engine – Day 12 So I pulled out the rebuilt rods the other day and discovered this so-called “balanced” set of rods was way off with 6g difference between the heaviest and the lightest. Since they were rebuilt originals, it looks like they had already have some material removed, so getting the heaviest down to…

Engine – Day 11 So you may recall I ended up deciding to try a new set of forged rods I picked up when I was sourcing parts for the new build instead of the stock or reconditioned stock rods I’ve used in the past new build or rebuilds. Now I admit I didn’t pay…

I decided to make a minor addition to Murbella’s new short block that I saw in an engine building video from JBugs of all places. So in the short block they build, they use a non-stock oil pick-up filter and slightly lower oil sump plate. I see no reason for this change, but the stud…

Engine – Day 10 Unfortunately, I need to built my cranks veristically which I am not a fan of. I really need to figure a way to weld a gland nut to a flange so I can mount it horizontally to my workbench to built and torque that way. Now my goal today was to…

Engine – Day 10 So the bearings needed to be checked to confirm placement of the oil gallery of the bearing against the oil supply hole in the saddle. There is enough disparity between the bearings available today as well as the machining of the oil gallery holes in the case that can constrict oil…

Engine – Day 9 Distributor Gear Endplay The distributor pinion gear which I’d previously installed needed to have its end play checked against the case. This is a pretty simple task to do and I’ve never had or seen an engine where this is a problem but apparently it can be so. I’d imagine with…

Engine – Day 9 So today I was back to work determining what direction I would finally end up going with the end play situation. Given all of the input I’ve received from people I trust, as well as other random comments on similar situations I’ve read, I decided to move forward and go with…