Khan's Motoring Chronicles - PICTURES & VIDEO FROM THE TRACK

[DRIVEN]

Re: Khan's Motoring Chronicles

I've been running a 400 with a deck crack between a head bolt hole and the edge of a cylinder for several years. No issues so far. Don't lose any sleep over it. Might be a good idea to keep an eye out for a good deal on a spare block -- just in case. If your luck is anything like mine, just having a spare will insure that you never have a problem with the one you're running. No spare will guarantee catastrophic failure. Just seems to be the way the universe works.

 

[khan0165]

Re: Khan's Motoring Chronicles

thanks for the comments and reassurance. This was supposed to be a quick refresh on a budget, but it's already costed alot and is getting late. I'm trying to cut costs and finish quickly.
... but I'm also not cutting corners and trying to do it right.

I think the fracture will keep me up at night, but it won't stop me from beating on it like I did before

 

[khan0165]

Re: Khan's Motoring Chronicles

so I took the top end apart and sent the short block to the machinist. While I was waiting for the short block, I kept myself busy with re-freshening other components in the car. I cleaned the engine bay and refurbished the engine wiring harness a little.

Then I decided I wanted a new look for my engine. My intake was pitting and getting dull with oxide, so I painted it. Along with the water pump and few other parts.

I decided this would be a good time to replace my old steering box, and I also got myself a Jeep steering shaft. And I took out all the front bracing and painted that as well.

I also got myself a mini starter...

 

[khan0165]

Re: Khan's Motoring Chronicles

I also took an evening to lap the valves and CC'd my heads
I used a pet feeder and cut a 4x4 bit of plexiglass with a couple holes in it

also CC'd the intake ports as well

here's some close shots of the heads

I measured 57cc chambers and roughly 164cc ports
... lol, imagine how restrictive they were before all that porting!

 

[khan0165]

Re: Khan's Motoring Chronicles

there was one week where I spent a few evenings and the weekend working on my headers.

here's how they started

I got some quotes for sand blasting... $150 was the cheapest :shock: so onto plan B
I spent a few evenings with a wire wheel on my drill and buffed out all the rust I could get to

then I found this product called RustBlast from KBS, that I had seen G-Body_Vet use on his fenders and other components, and I thought I'd give this a try.

I did two treatments, just for peace of mind. Here's how they turned out

it works well, it lifts the rust right off the metal. But I found for rusty parts, it would be more effective to keep a small wire brush and scrape the rust off as the chemical lifts it away. You'll have a cleaner result this way than I did without.

KBS also makes high heat header paints which I thought I'd try. When I asked for a couple of spray cans, the dealer was out of stock and said their brush-on paint is far more popular. I had my doubts, but he convinced me to use it. And I wish I hadn't listened... hated every minute of it.

it's a good paint, applies very nicely, levels evenly, but it's a PITA using a brush on headers... looks like a monkey painted it. You have to spend alot more time and place attention to detail if you want them to look nice with the brush paint.

I spent alot of time and a few finishing coats to get a nice application pattern like this

and I borrowed a heat gun from work to cure the paint

 

[khan0165]

Re: Khan's Motoring Chronicles

well, I finally got a chance to upload my rebuilding pictures. It's been a slow process and there's a few things left to do, but here's how it's been going.

so here's how it looked when I got it back from machine shop. I wasn't able to get to it for a few days, so I sprayed the cylinders and lifter bores with wd40 and covered with oil soaked rags, and wrapped the engine in a garbage bag.

the deck has never been milled, but machinist sanded it a little to clean it up

you can see the hone couldn't get all the scratches. But machinist says they should be okay for my budget build

TRW L-2256-30, I think they have offset pins

 

[khan0165]

Re: Khan's Motoring Chronicles

putting on the heads

I gave alot of attention and care to the head bolts. I cleaned them, labeled them, and bagged them. But in the end, I lost a washer and couldn't find it. I looked for hardened washers and only found miss-matched sets. And I didn't want to order them from Summit because I didn't have anything else I was ordering. For what it would cost to get washers, I bought myself a set of Fel-Pro factory style flange bolts.

they had sealer on them, so I just chased the threads in the block and installed these as is

speed stick helps

followed the torque pattern. I stepped them up from 25lbs to 45lbs then 65lbs. At 65lbs, I loosened and retorqued to 65lbs to account for stretch.

here's the passenger side

guess what I'm pointing to?

fingers crossed, this fracture holds. I've got good gaskets and the fracture seems to be small.

I covered the cam lobes with the Comp assembly lube. I bolted the gear on while installing to use as a handle. I had brought cyl #1 to tdc before putting the heads on, and installed the timing gear as I marked it when I took it off

I had individually bagged and labeled the lifters on dis-assembly. So I cleaned the old oil off, soaked them in new oil, and put them in the bores. These are solid lifters, so I didn't have to leave them soaking over night. I used some assembly lube on the pushrod ends, on the rockers, and valve stems

put the intake there temporarily to keep dirt and animals out of the lifter valley. Looks pretty good I think

 

[khan0165]

Re: Khan's Motoring Chronicles

I thought at this stage, I should paint the engine. I degreased it with a rag and some brake clean and scraped off any remaining rtv and old loose paint. Here's how I masked it

alot of detail around the heads and gaskets for a clean look

I sprayed about 3 decent coats... not gonna bother with clear coat, it's not a show engine.

here's how it turned out, sorry for the blurry pics

I have to say... I'm getting quicker and quicker with my paint work. It used to take me hours to mask. This was one of my quicker paint jobs and even had time for other tasks that evening.

 

[khan0165]

Re: Khan's Motoring Chronicles

putting on the timing cover and water pump. I was a little unsure about the timing cover crank seal. I used a flat screw driver to catch the seal's ridge from the backside and hammered until it popped out. I was careful not to warp the cover and moved around the seal as I hammered. I lined up the new seal and used a flat 2x4 ontop to hammer it in. I tried to push it in to same depth as the old seal.

thin bead of silicone around the perimeter

some silicone around the water ports and pump

unfortunately, I tore a water pump gasket trying to take out of the package. I used the tacky "Gasgacinch" gasket sealer as an affect to glue the gasket together. I'm hoping it holds

clean up the silicone around the edges

 

[khan0165]

Re: Khan's Motoring Chronicles

installing the intake, needed some trimming on the gasket to match the ports. Here's the old gasket laid over the new.

used a straight edge and exacto knife. Just a little off the top

little silicone around the water ports and bolt holes. And some Gasgacinch around the air ports to keep the gasket and center section from shifting during install.

I don't know if anyone uses these cork end gaskets. I decided to use them with a generous bead of silicone

For a clean look, I masked the area under the front and back of the intake. I spent some time spreading and packing the silicone underneath. Then I smoothed it out and pealed away the tape for a straight line

I put sealer on the bolts to prevent oil coming up from from the lifter valley. And here's the finished result

I'm sort of on hold at this point. The intake could not be torqued down properly. Due to some odd interference from the shape of the intake and under the airgap bowl, it's tough to get a torque wrench on and easy to strip the bolts. Will need to install new bolts and torque them by feel.