Guess What Came Home With
Me?
This portion describes what we did when the block came back from the machine shop.
Friday 5/24/02
Went to the machine shop and picked up the block, crank, pistons, and connecting rods during lunch. The good news was that all the work they did cost $267.00, the bad news was that they could not get the main or rod bearings or the freeze plugs. I know that I can get these from several sources. In the meantime I dropped the head off to be pressure tested, magnafluxed, valves reground, new guides and springs installed. They will skim the head to raise the compression ratio. I have to get the bearings first and install the pistons in order to get the distance between the top of the pistons and the top of the block.. With this figure, they will check the volume of the head and calculate the amount to remove to get a 10:1 compression ratio.
Saturday 5/25/02
The first thing I did today was to mount the bare block on the engine stand. With this done we (my son and I) hooked the garden hose to the hot water heater. Next we soaped the block with Simple Green soap, scrubbed every part with Scotch Brite pads and rinsed with the hot water. I use a gun barrel cleaner with a stiff nylon brush for a .22 cal. rifle to clean the oil and water passages. This worked out well. The kit came with a tool that holds small cloth patches. I ran the patches thru the passages until they came out clean Then it was high pressure hot water soaking. The compressor was put into action, blowing the water out of all the passages and other areas of the block.
Picture time
This is a picture of the top of the block. Isn’t it shiny
This is the bottom, not much inside of these engines, is there?
This is the front
Getting clean, and another clean shot of the side
The crank has some kind of green stuff on the ground surfaces. I did not clean the crank until after I get the bearings. I’m afraid that if I remove the green stuff, the bearing surfaces will start to rust as fast as the block did. I will clean and run pipe cleaners thru all oil passages before installing into the block.
Nothing wrong with the thrust surface inside or outside
Want to see how fast rust can start? While I was blowing the block dry, I noticed that the rust started forming all over, specially in the nice shiny honed bores. In a panic, I sprayed all of the areas with WD-40 and scrubbed with another Scotch Brite pad. The rust seemed to magically float in the penetrating oil. Some shop towels were put into action to clean all of the rusty WD-40, which was replaced with another coating of clean WD-40
The afternoon was spent on sanding the firewall and front frame members in preparation of re-spraying. I removed the wire harness as far as I could, and taped and covered with newspaper.
Sunday 5/26/02
The morning was spent spraying the firewall and frame member with the spray cans of paint. I found that I got a lot better coverage by painting with Rustolium white, then when the paint was dry painting over with the specially mixed Leyland white. At $15.00 a can I wanted to maximize my results. The paint that came out of the custom made can seemed to be watery and did not cover anything. I took a trip to the store and was told that Automotive paint was made thinner than other paint, and that I would have to adjust my technique. I had the guy behind the counter demonstrated the how to spray using the cans and his job came out much better than mine. With my new found knowledge I painted the firewall. This is how it came out.
Brake area: Before half way and painted
I wanted to reinstall all of the stuff back on the firewall shelf, but I have to go to a relatives (wife’s side) graduation party. I’m happy that this person graduated, she has been going part-time nights for about 20 years and has finally earned her degree in nursing. I would have (and did) stopped years ago and never gotten my degree. I did get my degree though, with the help of my darling wife I went full time nights and received a degree in Business Management in four years. But I digress….
Monday was Memorial day, I spent this time in bed, my back was killing me and I got some kind of stomach virus. This virus lasted till Thursday. I’ve also have had Beverly massage my back followed by hot showers and an application of Icy-Hot.
Friday 5/31/02
Want to know how popular this car is, call your local parts suppliers and try to order main and rod bearings that are .010 and .030 oversize. I have been trying to get these locally in order to fit the pistons to get the figures to the machine shop for the skimming of the head. It looks like I’ll have to order these from one of the specialty spitfire suppliers. I have to order lots of other things (clutch kit, exhaust studs, one of those cone shaped rubber things for the bonnet, etc…) so I’ll just order everything at once and get it over with.
Doesn’t look like I’ll get much done this weekend as I promised to install a new bathroom sink in the main bathroom. Beverly wants to get rid of the old white sink/vanity and replace this with a new pedestal sink. If I want her to let me work on my projects, I have to do hers also.
Sunday will be spent at another family function. Beverly’s brother’s son will be christened this Sunday around 12:30, followed by a party. I had plans on going to a British car show, but the show starts at 10:00 am and runs to 4:00 pm. The show is 2 hours away, and the christening is 45 minutes away in the opposite direction. Oh well, there will be other years.
It all goes back together like this
