Chris Williams' Journal

Spent the whole day on the motor today.
Last night, while preparing for today I realised that the rocker assembly had been done incorrectly. The rockers were the wrong way relative to the shaft pedestals.
Didn't take long to fix, as one member put it - 'just like making a shish-kabab'.
I'd already wiped out the cylinders and they were pretty clean anyway.
I had a question in my mind about whether the rings had been sized to the cylinders and even though I'd rung Leo to check, the rocker incident shook my faith a little so I took one off a piston and checked the gap in a cylinder. I figured if one was right they would all be right.
Well, it had exactly the minimum gap of .008". So that was good enough for me.
Following the procedure I had worked out in my head, I started to install the pistons.
After checking the matching of the rods and the caps and the orientation of the little ends, (just to make sure) I aligned the rings as per Hap's diagram I got from a post some time ago.
The orientation of the three part oil ring was the trickiest and there is a definite knack to the positioning of the ring compressor to make sure it is parallel to the block surface and that it holds the rings in at the gaps.
Cheap ring compressor, too widely spaced notches on the ratchet.
One notch too loose, but the next notch too far away to catch.
But I worked out that if the part of the sleeve that followed the piston curve was covering the oil ring gaps and number 2 ring gap, they seemed to be the most important.
I'd not done this before and even though I had oil 'up to my elbows' I was surprised at how hard I had to push the pistons down.
It was a little disconcerting but I think I was being over cautious.
David came out and watched me do the third one and then he did the last piston.
In an effort to close every thing up, I then assembled the head with the head gasket.
The studs I inserted finger tight with blue locktite and the head gasket I sprayed with Hymolar on both sides.
I used the old nuts and washers and just nipped them down temporarily.
I want to get new nuts and new washers before I torque the head down properly. The studs look good and I think they may be new. I used the split dies adjusted to the studs to clean the threads without cutting anything off the threads.

I had an issue with the 5/16" studs which hold the second side of the rocker pedestals down. They were to be torqued to 25ftlbs, but two of them stripped before the torque wrench 'clicked' off.
Either I not feeling/hearing the 'click' or they were weak before I started. I made two new ones, but I don't think they are strong enough as I couldn't get the wrench to 'click' without the feeling they were stripping too.
I'll try to buy a new set of suitable studs tomorrow when I get the nuts. If I can't, I'll get some suitable HT bolts and thread the other end after cutting the heads off.

My plan now is to attach the oil pump and the sump - after painting it black (or red). Then move the motor to the other stand to finish of the assembly.
I'm not going to try to run the motor on the stand now. As soon as it's together, I'll put it in the car.

I've got a stack of photos at:
http://s114.photobucket.com/albums/n255/sweep_2006/Engine%20refresh/

These are just a small selection.