Cleaning, Cleaning and More Cleaning

Cleaning engine parts is a slow and laborious process. From scraping gaskets to wire brushing and painting bolts; cleaning is at least 50% of my time in this engine freshen up.

Take this timing cover. You can see what it looked like before when I was tearing the engine down. It wasn't pretty...
It's not so just for poser rights to have flat black bolts, but for rust protection too. I used High Heat Tremclad in Matt Black, like for your barbecue. Anything that comes in contact with the engine should be able to withstand high temps.


After painting you have to scrape any sealing surface and clean them up before adding the silicone and gaskets. For the timing cover I prepped all the bolts and installed the front seal. Oil up the timing chain and gears before you pop the cover on.I don't have a new water pump as I just haven't got around to going and buying one, so I will wait at this stage until the water pump is on so I can torque down and press the seal tight.

All in the Timing

Tonight I got a few hours in on the engine again. Most of my time was spent cleaning, but I did get the torque wrench on the bottom end and got the cam, lifters and timing chain and sprockets on.

The camshaft and lifters got a generous shot of Lubriplate and the captive guide bars , aka "dogbones" set in place. The spider tray holds the dogbones bars down.

The cam thrust plate has two bolts that are torqued to 16 Nm (12 ft-lb) and the crank sprocket is tapped in the crankshaft with the #1 cylinder at TDC. You'll see the woodruff key on the top of the crankshaft, pointing toward the camshaft.

Slip the chain on and align the camshaft sproket so the dots on both sprockets face each other. Install the cam bolt and washer and torque. It was hard to keep the crank from turning, so I put the damper bolt back in the crank, gave it a quick rap with the impact and used that to hold the crank from turning.

Voila! Now to scrape clean the aluminum timing cover and remove the crusty gasket residue and grunge.

I have been dreaming, schemeing and brainstorming on the Cougar.

Pistons are Finally in

I got home late from work today. I managed to pick up the valve stem seals from Prime. After I got to work in the garage I got into the swing of installing pistons.

Once again wipe the cylinder bore with a clean rag and apply a little lube. Set the bearings on the two halves of the connecting rod and position the ring ends. There are differing debates on how the ring openings should be placed and one manufacturer even suggest that they will rotate inside the bore when the engine runs, so why bother. Erring on the side of caution I went with the 9 o'clock oil ring with plus and minus 45 degrees for the top and bottom oil control rings, then set the compression rings at 12 o'clock and 6 o'clock. Not that this will make a lot of sense, but keeping the compression rings 180 degrees apart did make some sense to me.

Always make sure that the dot on the piston top is toward the front of the engine and that the connecting rod caps have the numbered faces that match. I put some pieces of rubber hose on the rod bolts to prevent them from scuffing the crank journal face when installing.


Adjust the crank so that the journal is near TDC position for the cylinder that is getting a piston. Then slip the piston into the hole, checking the ring orientation quickly before it goes in. Now set the ring compressor on the part of the piston that is above the deck and carefully crank the ring compressor down. I was able to lightly tap the piston in the centre with the wooden handle of a rubber mallet. Just tap lightly and the piston will fall down into the bore. Once in, the compressor band pops off. So easy.

Remove the rubber hoses and attach the other half of the rod cap and bearing. Finger tighten and torque them all down when all the pistons are in. Check that the crank turns after each piston install. I attached the damper pulley bolt and cranked it easily with a wrench.

It took about two hours to put all the pistons in and install the oil pump and its gaskets.


Tomorrow is the Show & Shine. Not alot going to be got done, I don't think. Maybe Sunday I can Get the timing chain and lifters in.

Ciao for now.

Crushed the Bearings

Ok, that title sounds way worse that it is.

Tonight I managed to get some work done on the block. I did the Plastigage on the bearings to verify oil clearances. Everything looked good. They typical clearances were between .0015 and .002 of an inch which is within specification.

There are few things to mention here that I picked up reading my ASE textbook:

Buy the 'Green' Plastigage for checking oil clearance main and connecting rod bearings. Different colours of plastic are for different crush ranges.

Never touch the bearing surfaces with your fingers as you have natural acids on your skin that can affect the surface. (I would imagine that wouldn't be an issue if your finger was covered in assembly lube.)

Lay a strip of Plastigage 6mm (1/4") off the centre of the journal surface, not right on top. (see picture)

You should torque the cap bolts to specification then remove the caps to read the crush.

Once you are happy with all of the oil clearances, pop your crankshaft out and stand it up. You are not supposed to lay a crankshaft down on its counterweights as this can lead to distortion in the crank; which sounds great at a thrash metal concert, but not in your engine.

Apply a generous amount of assembly lube. I used Lubriplate 105 which comes highly recommended my some expert engine builder friends of mine. It's like mayonnaise! Coat both halves of the bearing surface. Do not put lube between the block and bearing or the cap and bearing. Just the bearing surfaces that mate with the journal surfaces.


Torque the cap bolts in sequence and to the torque specifications. I used the torque ranges found in the Haynes book. Once torqued, the crank should rotate smoothly and feel firm in the bearings. It's such a nice feeling to give it a rotate.




Put the plastic bag back on and go to bed! More work tomorrow if that is possible on a Friday night.

Lord of the Rings

This evening I washed all the pistons in warm soapy water and dried them with the compressor and a clean rag. I lightly oiled the wristpin and installed the rings. After splashing some oil on the rings I wrapped them in plastic grocery bags and set them aside.

I need to buy some assembly lube. Maybe tomorrow after work I will stop by NAPA and get a bottle. Then I can start reassembling the beast.

Sorry no pictures. Camera battery is flat.

Checking Rings

I picked up the rings on my way to work this morning. They are Perfect Circle brand, cast .020 oversized rings with chrome oil rings. There is a little instruction pamphlet with them that states the ring end gap to be .004 x per inch of bore diameter. Therefore with 4" pistons the minimum ring end gap should be around .016.

It is super important to note that rings expand when hot. If the ring end gap is too small the rings may bind in the cylinder when hot. Not good.

I pressed the top ring into the cylinder with a piston (in reverse) and set the ring about 10mm (3/8") from the top of the cylinder. Then slip the feeler gauge between the ring end gap. Then push the piston back in and move the ring to the bottom of the ring travel area. This was a little past where the piston skirt went below the top of the cylinder bore. The stroke is 3" so if you wanted to measure it would be about about 85mm or 3 3/8" down the cylinder.

This process was repeated eight times. These rings are going to fit fine.

I then wheeled the block outside and washed the whole thing with warm, soapy water. Then rinsed and blowed dry with the compressor. To keep from rusting I blasted WD-40 all over and wiped it down nicely.

Keeping everything clean is absolutely critical so I put a plastic bag around the block until I can get back to installing the pistons.

Freshen Up the Cylinders

My ridge reamer arrived this morning and I started on the block this afternoon. This thing works really well. It has a three position cam that allow for setup in the bore and removal of the ridge in simple 1-2-3 type operation.


After I reamed all the ridges, I honed the cylinder walls with a glaze breaker/cylinder hone. I used some basic motor oil while honing as that is what the instructions suggested. I did have special honing oil, but I followed the guide that came with the hone. There is an art to getting the drill speed correct and the up and down motion to create a good 60 degree crosshatch. Some practise is all that is required though.


Once the honing is complete, I chamfered the top 1mm (1/32") or so to allow for easy access of the rings. If you are going to do this, get a good file. I bought this little Nicholson file and it behaved very well.
I did some additional scraping and wiped down the bores with oil as I cannot get to washing the block today. I still need a kettle to get some serious hot water going in the garage. I guess I could carry buckets from the house, but electric kettles are cheap and efficient.

Hopefully tomorrow, I have the rings and can get the pistons in. I have the plastigage for checking the bearing oil clearances.


Should be good tomorrow.