MIDGIE'S WEB SITE

10/19/2003 I had already planned on opening the engine up to replace some parts and gaskets. The cylinder head has been removed. There's a good bit of heavy carbon deposits in the combustion chamber, on the valves, and on top of the pistons. Looks like more work is needed. I'll probably pull the oil pan off to look at the big end and main bearings. I might even replace the piston rings with standard size. Depends on what the cylinder walls look like when I get there.

11/22/2003- The oil pump is off and I've had my first look at the bottom end. This engine at some point has to have been overhauled. I didn't find a single locktab on any of the connecting rod bolts. I checked it against the parts catalog and I believe they should be there. Bottom of connecting rods were removed and the crank journals looked good. I removed all pistons and rods. In doing this I discovered that 3 pistons had the first ring broken. I was afraid the cylinder walls were going to be scored but they looked OK. All head studs and finally the main bearing caps were taken off. Crankshaft looks good all the way around with no scratch marks. Nice radius from crank journal to throw. Can't get the blasted bolt out of the harmonic balancer. May have to get an air compressor and use an air hammer to take apart.

12/2/2003- Sears had a fantastic deal on a 33 gallon 6HP air compressor along with air hammer, ratchet, and air impact wrench. Brought it home and was able to free the bolt on the harmonic balancer. Finally!

12/29/2003- I took the engine completely apart. From what I could tell parts didn't look too bad. As you can see in the pics above though all the parts were dirty, greasy, or rusty. I decided to bite the bullet and take it to a machine shop for review. I took the parts to Reed Speed & Sport to measure and make sure I didn't have a boat anchor. So far the block has turned out to be in good condition, as well as the crankshaft. Cylinder bores did have a ridge at the top and will be punched out .020". The bores by the way are standard size. The crankshaft has never had a grind and only needs to be polished. I did have to order a new piston set, so I purchased a set of AE(Hepolite) pistons .020" over. The cam tappets were badly pitted and need to be replaced. I had three camshafts in my possession and he wanted to check which one, if any were any good. Two had flat lobes. One was a brand new camshaft that I received when I purchased the car. Talk about luck! He's checking the grind on it now. Engine is also being hot tanked to remove all grease, rust and so forth.

1/12/2004-When waiting on machine shop work you try to busy yourself with other projects on the car, while attempting to keep costs down to a minimum. I do that just in case there's an "uh-oh" moment and you have to spend some big bucks for something unseen. I picked up some refinishing wheels for the Dremel and I have to say they work great! Only gripe I have against them is they're not very durable. I've managed to clean up some parts and they really turned out well.

1/20/2004-A call to the machine shop lets me know that the short block parts are just about ready to bring back home. Block, and other parts have been hot tanked and look fantastic. I can't wait to take pictures and put them here to show what a difference this makes. It's very important to have clean parts (and a clean work area) when putting an engine back together. This weekend I'm hoping to bring most everything home. Cylinder head has been bead blasted and checked for cracks, which there are none. Hardened valve seats are going in, and new valve guides. A new ring gear will be fitted to the flywheel before it's resurfaced.

2/2/2004-Most of the parts are home. Everything looks great! The cylinder head at this point is still at the machine shop. We're waiting for valve guides to come in so it can be completed. I'm going back with cast iron guides. In my opinion there was just too much that could happen if the bronze guides were not setup just right. We're also waiting on the new ring gear so the flywheel can be resurfaced. Check out the pics so far.

4/14/2004-Engine rebuild has been very slow going. I didn't have all the parts that I needed. I did find out that these engines didn't come with a locktab set for the connecting rods. They're held with a type of nylock nut instead. Crankshaft and mains went in relatively easy, camshaft and oil pump is in too. Attached the flywheel to turn the assembly to check for any kind of binding. I decided against rebuilding the carbs and getting a rebuilt set instead.

8/18/2004-THE ENGINE IS IN!

I figured I better post since it's been a while, and this has been a long drawn out process. I'm not sure when the last time was that this car had an engine and transmission bolted in, but it has it now. The following is what's happened since the last post to get it to this stage.

I did research on the throwout bearings for the clutch. The clutch kit I ordered came with the usual carbon ring bearing which looked pretty weak. When talking with others they all suggested I put in a roller bearing instead. I found one with a Moss part number and fitted it. Just having it installed made me feel better. Hopefully it'll mean a bit more longevity of the clutch system.

One of the biggest problems I've had in this project is sourcing hardware, nuts, bolts, etc. I don't like paying a lot for nuts and bolts, but sometimes you have to in order to get the job done. Case in point is the engine/transmission bolts. I made several failed attempts to find these bolts at my local home centers and auto parts stores, but couldn't. I called Moss and they had to look up the part numbers in the Euro Moss catalog. There's no kit so each bolt and nut has to be ordered separately. I did find that the Euro Moss catalog can be downloaded and the fastners and part numbers are in the back.

I decided this past weekend since I had the bolts to go ahead and get the engine and transmission installed. I had researched what it would take to purchase an engine hoist, and the cost of shipping was over half the cost of the hoist. Renting prices were between $30-40 a day. I didn't like the idea of having to cut some of my time to install by returning a hoist, especially if something went wrong. Luckily I have a good friend who allowed me to borrow his hoist which also has the engine leveler.

Getting the engine from the basement to the garage level was quite an adventure. I still had the engine on the orange engine stand and it was a bit top heavy. When I tried to get the engine and stand out the basement door it started tipping backward toward me. My first instinct was to let it go. Then I thought of all the hard work that would be lost if it hit my concrete basement floor, and the crater it would leave. Somehow I managed to catch a couple hundred pounds of iron and steel and pushed it back upright. In the process my index finger knuckle on my right hand caught a lot of the weight between the engine and door jam. After a few moments rest I was able to get the whole assembly out the door and start the journey up the second drive, down the sidewalk, and then up the first drive to the garage.

I pulled the car out of the garage so the engine hoist boom would have enough room. I still had to get the engine off the engine stand, and the back and front engine plates wouldn't allow the engine to turn where the head was full horizontal. I attached my engine to the chain and started to lift. I could then pull the retaining pin off and remove the engine stand from the rotating piece still bolted to the engine. Another crisis out of many solved.

Before setting off on this install adventure I had read several postings on newsgroups, as well as the manuals I have in my possession. I'd read about how the driveshaft has to be installed first and one engine mount fastened on one side, hold your pinky out and turn you head and cough, etc. I jacked up the rear end of the car to help facilitate the install. The assembly went into the bay and down the tunnel OK. I was able to fit the driveshaft to the end of the transmission. Then we hit a snag. The assembly wouldn't budge. Jacking up the transmission allowed us to get it another inch or so further, but still not a home run. With mosquitos and nightfall coming on we decided to pack it all back in the garage and try again.

I had plenty of time to think about the situation. There was about 1 inch or so that was preventing any bolt holes for mounts to line up and that inch needed to slide up the driveshaft yolk. Monday evening I hooked the hoist back up, put the jack under the transmission and got the assembly somewhat suspended. I then used a large crowbar and pushed with success the last inch. Bolt holes lined up. I tried a couple different variations of getting the engine mounts installed. What finally worked was bolting the left engine mount to the body, but keepin the rubber block attached to the engine. It's easier to get the one bolt on the bottom of the rubber block to lineup over the two studs on top of the block into the holes on the front engine plate. That worked OK with some effort. Then the bolt holes for the right side mount started to cross thread. I had to pull it all apart and tap the hole again. Everything was cinched up, and even the holes on the side of the transmission tunnel inside the car lined up.