Delays from neck / shoulder injury week before the holiday break ruined that week off, on top of battling main crank clearances.
- At first the crankshaft wouldn't spin when torquing the mains.
- I burnished off the cerakote coating and it only added 0.0001-0.0003" to mains diameter, so with plastigage and bore gage it now agreed things were too tight (some under 1 thou). I'm no longer a fan of Taitanium mics and bore gages.
- I asked a shop to polish out 0.0008" from all mains. Crank runout was nothing.
- After this it was still too tight (0.0011-0.0016" roughly).
- I then picked up a new set of bearings from a dealership and now everything is in spec (0.0016"-0.0020").
- Will be running 5w30 Amsoil after dino breakin
*Pretty sure lifting the block off the stand multiple times (to bore gage all mains) along with selling an old iron SBC block and manhandling it into the back of my truck fast tracked my neck / shoulder issue.
Another major issue is the top piston ring lands are too tight. Obviously I thought it was my coating so I took an old stock ring and started scraping, still too tight. I then used valve lapping compound to make sure all coating is gone...and it is still too tight with all coating gone. I am working on a solution right now that involves a 4-jaw chuck and a P1N blade.
Depowered the power steering rack; where I just cut and flared the tubes into each other, I randomly did it on a bench and it fits no clearance issues lol. I attempted to disassemble and weld the shaft, but it has a special plastic dust cap I didn't feel like destroying it further after chiseling at it or do I have the inclination to chop up a socket to fab a special tool. If it needs to be welded I will make it happen after the car is running, or if manual steering is no longer my preference I will go back to power anyway.
Super clean engine bay (was disgusting because Fluid Film and this engine bay picks up all the dust/debris from the road it seems) and then the exposed rust spots were hit with rust converter, then hit with grey primer:
*Also see new energy suspension sway bar bushings are installed.
Duplicolor base coat, then Acrylic clear:
Drilled out the head restrictor, increased cross sectional area (pi*r^2) by ~33%. Used a #48 0.076" drill bit, stock restrictor is about 0.064-0.065" diameter. Also note the head gaskets have a small orifice hole at this location.
Front energy suspension bushings done, I got one of last sets. You can use a shop press to do the uppers, but you need an arbor press for the lowers. The harbor fright arbor works perfect [if you use a car jack handle and react this torque with a steel tube on the gear-rack of the arbor press], I used two 123 blocks as the clearance spacers and removed the arbor press u-disc to get clearance. Rear bushings and quaife diff on the list among a boat load of things. Be sure to grease up the arbor press.
Another issue is the rusty stuck suspension bushing spacers. These special washers with precision dimensions tighten up the bolt-to-bushing clearance, ES instructions say to reuse them. Kind of tough if they arent resuable when they are rusted on or sliced from taking a cutoff wheel to the first one because it was a puzzle I was exploring. These bushing washers make sense, your alignment could change after bump with the play, so I am not going to slap washers in there. I am working on turning some 6061 aluminum spacers.
*Pro-Tip from my experience mechanic friend, Step 1: take an air hammer with flat tool and hammer it behind these bushings and they will pop right now [if you live in Florida where he lived previously]. But hey it worked for two of mine.
The lower control arm rear bushing is a $*&%@*#! From my experience I theorize you could take a hole saw to it to help cut out a rubber ring just inside the outer diameter of the rubber bushing rim; the rubber rim has a full circle steel ring embedded into it. A grinder cutoff wheel clogs with rubber so not recommended; I went at it with a razor knife to cut that dang ring out of the second CA, all this so you can push the bushing through.
Energy Suspension bushing install tip, Using a large 1/2" socket (diameter big enough to press new bushing in), stick a 1/2"-to-3/8" drive adapter in the socket with another adapter (3/8"-to-1/2") into the 1/2" socket to create a sort of stub that is small enough to fit inside the urethane bushing hole, this will keep the bushing from flying out of the press 5 times ask me how I know.
