Engine Assembly 1 - day 'o problems

Post date: Mar 4, 2012 9:08:57 AM

The hope was to start assembly today, but was not to be. The first problem was the flexplate didn't fit on the crank anymore. It fit fine on my other cranks, and my other flexplates didn't fit on this crank. Obviously something not right. It looked like one area of the tail got hit, so I deburred that a bit. No good. Took it back to the shop, he put it on a machine and filed down the flange. He also opened up the flexplate a little. It fits on there now, but is a little loose once it's past the outside edge. Hm.

Then I got to welding! I needed two modifications to the block: 1) adding supports for the valley oil tray (the 455 has them built in over the #2 and #4 cam bearings, the small blocks do not), and 2) adding an extension for the dipstick tube. For the valley, I got those funky nuts that you embed into wood, like for adjustable feet on furniture. For the dipstick, I just got a short piece of galvanized 1/4" tube. I practiced a bit on my junk block then got to it. Not to bad for my first welds IMO. They'll at least hold for what I need. And I proved that even an idiot can MIG weld.

I borrowed a micrometer set from Charles on ClassicOlds - super nice guy, looks like he has a good shop in Frisco. They're only marked down to the thousandth, but it's better than nothing. The crank measured out easily enough (didn't write it down....) but had major problems with the bearings. I thought I'd just get the cheap Harbor Freight bore gauge set and make do.

Bad plan.

Every measurement I tried with those things varied by at least 0.003".

So throw that idea out the window. Back to plastigage. And, of course, the stores I've stopped in so far don't carry it any more.

To make at least some progress I started cleaning parts in prep for an eventual assembly. And hit some snags. The #4 big end is all chewed up on the sides:

It's smooth, so maybe not a big deal. It's worse than the picture shows.

Then the really interesting one. I got the piston'n'ring package from KB, which uses Total Seal rings. #8 had a copper-colored second compression ring:

No idea WTH is going on there.

Some quick visuals of the rings show the gaps - albeit out of the cylinder - are all over the place. So I'll double check that. When I got the block the oil pattern in the cylinders made it pretty obvious they had gapped the rings, so I hope it's just an oddity of the rings.

And the bonus round: that oil pan still doesn't sit anywhere near flat. Seems like the whole thing is twisted. No matter what I do, one corner ends up about 1/4" off the rail.