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Yeah I don't know if my clips are just made of thicker/stiffer wire or what but I just can't get enough squeeze on them with my thumbs. I did find that Mahle makes a tool for this and one is now on the way to me. Hopefully that's the solution I'm looking for. I kind of got ahead of myself a bit when I was playing with the rings anyway as they don't need to be installed for a while yet. Hoping to get some actual pre-assembly stuff done this weekend.
Boaz MacPhereson fucked around with this message at 13:36 on Sep 9, 2022 |
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Sep 8, 2022 23:41
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Man, filing rings is for the birds. Spent a chunk of yesterday and some of today cleaning holes. Got a thread chaser for the head bolt holes and then made my own chasers for the mains and other various threaded holes. Pulled some pretty gross poo poo out of the cylinder head holes. Glad I spent the money on the thread chaser. Spent the last couple hours fitting and filing rings. Got all 8 top rings ready to go and got 2 of the middle rings done. Then I decided my hand was tired enough from squeezing rings and my knees hurt bad enough from standing on the concrete that it was enough to call it a day. Maybe I'll try to get a couple done each night this week so I don't totally burn myself out. Once I get all the rings done I'll start squashing plastigauge.
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Sep 18, 2022 20:48
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How about some pictures, huh? Made some good progress this weekend but hit a bit of a wall today. More on that later. Finished up ring filing on Saturday morning. Got the sets bundled together per cylinder and tucked away for final assembly. With the rings (finally) done, it was time to move on to some actual pre-assembling and measuring. After I hauled all the poo poo back down to the garage - been keeping it all inside for temperature/humidity control - I realized that I didn't really have a good way to hold the crankshaft. I could have just set it on my workbench, but I didn't really like the idea of just having it lay there with the potential to roll off. Yikes. Now, I could have bought one of many available 'crankshaft inspection stands' that are available online, but if you're familiar with this thread, you should know that I'm not about to pay $130+ for something to literally just hold a part. Had a look around the garage and spotted some 1x6 offcuts from a summer project. 20 minutes later and...   Hell yeah, that'll work. Then it was time for bearings and dropping the crank in the block for the first time.  Then it's plastigauge, bottom bearings, caps, and bolts. Torque all the poo poo down and then rip it all back apart to check the squish. Crank clearances are perfect. Right in the middle of the range. Super happy with that. Then it's some tedium of checking runout on the end of the crank, number 3 journal, and reluctor plate. All perfect. Awesome. Then all the bearings can go back in (with oil), crank back in, and caps back on. Then the cam goes in, timing set goes on, and check for cam movement. Again, all perfect.  Note: bolt in the crankshaft there is just a regular 8.8 bolt and washer I'm using as an easy way to turn the crank. Unfortunately, this is when the aforementioned wall showed up. Next step is checking clearances on rods -> crank. To do this, you have to prevent the crank from turning so it doesn't spread the plastigauge and trash the readings. They make handy little things that engage with the teeth on the flywheel and bolt to the block to do just that. I even have one of those tools - pretty sure my parents bought it off a wishlist for me a while back. Unfortunately, I don't have a flywheel. I must have totally glossed over needing this when I read through the book after I got it so I hadn't planned on getting it until the engine was pretty much done and it was time for clutch & transmission. Oops. Another option would be to pick up a flywheel bolt set and rig up a chunk of steel to bolt to both the flange on the crankshaft and a hole in the block. I feel like that would be a lot of work for not much gain, though, as I need the flywheel anyway and I've already got the lock tool. Guess it's time to do a little more shopping. Who do you guys like for flywheels?
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Sep 25, 2022 21:27
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Boaz MacPhereson posted:Then all the bearings can go back in (with oil), crank back in, and caps back on. Then the cam goes in, timing set goes on, and check for cam movement. Again, all perfect. no assembly lube? just oil? is that a thing? Boaz MacPhereson posted:Guess it's time to do a little more shopping. Who do you guys like for flywheels? have you considered sourcing a junk flexplate, from a junkyard or some spare motor or whatever, so you dont have to drop money on your actual flywheel yet? i think sbc ones fit too, they just wont line up with the starter or trans quite right, but hopefully should be fine for locking the crank surely someone has one laying around?
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Sep 25, 2022 23:33
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Raluek posted:no assembly lube? just oil? is that a thing? No assembly lube yet. This is all pre-assembly. It'll all come back apart for a final cleaning and then go back together with the real deal goopy stuff. That's why I'm using old fasteners as well. Funny you mention using a cheapo flexplate. I actually had the one that came off this engine but sold it a good while back. I'm gonna need a flywheel eventually so it's not a huge deal to just move the purchase time up a bit.
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Sep 25, 2022 23:58
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every time i get rid of parts i later regret it, lol
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Sep 26, 2022 00:05
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Raluek posted:every time i get rid of parts i later regret it, lol Never fails.
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Sep 26, 2022 00:14
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Went with the GM flywheel. Why not. Ordered on Monday and delivered on Wednesday so that's neat. Went and picked up some bolts after work today. I was going to throw the wheel on there so it'll be ready to go for playing around this weekend, but it will not go on with the crank installed while it's on the stand. That sucks. Not the end of the world, obviously, but I'm going to have to take everything back apart, put the flywheel on the crank, and then lower the whole thing into the block. Very annoying. Oh well.
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Sep 29, 2022 23:01
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You can't just take the engine off the stand for a minute?
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Sep 30, 2022 19:10
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LloydDobler posted:You can't just take the engine off the stand for a minute? Building the upper body strength to do that is gonna push me waaaay off schedule. I don't have a hoist 
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Sep 30, 2022 19:36
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how strong are the rafters in your garage?
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Oct 1, 2022 07:09
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Haha. Honestly, probably strong enough for 300ish pounds of block, crank, and flywheel. We're rapidly approaching "more work than just taking the crank out again" though.
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Oct 1, 2022 13:12
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Ya I'd be considering sliding my jack underneath with a 2x12 for a wider base. I see the engine stand has that center beam. Jack and a longer 2x12 on a pillar as a lever then.
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Oct 1, 2022 16:03
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How are you going to install it without a hoist? Just buy one now instead of later?
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Oct 1, 2022 16:35
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Suburban Dad posted:How are you going to install it without a hoist? Just buy one now instead of later? Rent or borrow. Same thing I did when I re/re'd the 350 that's in there now.
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Oct 1, 2022 18:20
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I was assuming you had access to a hoist. Maybe just don't install the thing until you do have a hoist and are about to fit up the transmission. I guess I have an aversion to extra install/remove on the crank journals. Do what you gotta do.
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Oct 1, 2022 19:52
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A very nice day that started out as annoying but finished pretty well. As previously mentioned, the first step was ripping all my poo poo apart (again) so I could finagle the flywheel and crank in at the same time so I could later use my lock to keep my crank from rotating so I can check rod clearances. Once I got the crank out and back on my stand, I did a little measuring and discovered that the flywheel will (just loving barely) not fit with the block mounted on the stand. So that sucks. Now I'm moving on to my Plan B: drill some holes in a steel bar and rig up a lock a different way. And that's exactly what I did:  (Obviously after putting all the poo poo back together) Two bolts run through the bar into the crank, rotate 'til it hits the stand, then zip tie it down so it can't rotate. Ta-daa. With that handled, I dropped in 7&8 with some plastigauge and checked some clearances. Keeping with the overall theme, rod clearances are right where they need to be. Then pull those out, clean off the plastic, then lube up the bearings and journals and drop in all the rods.  Fun fact: the rod bolts have 7/16" heads making them the only SAE fasteners on this engine (that I know of, anyway). With all the rods in place, side clearance gets checked with feelers. Range is .015" - .040". Gaps are right around .023" so I'm very happy with that. With everything in block, I checked clearance between fastener heads and the block itself (stroker stuff) and was happy to discover that I've got plenty of room there. So that's pretty much that for the time being. Need to pick up a degree wheel so I can degree the cam, but then it's kind of paused until I spend $Texas on some cylinder heads. Then it's time for more measuring and clearance checking. Probably pick up a cheap degree wheel soon and then we'll see what happens. Until that happens, I'm just happy to have a block full of uppy and downy things.  
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Oct 2, 2022 22:57
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Boaz MacPhereson posted:it's kind of paused until I spend $Texas on some cylinder heads. oh? that sounds interesting. i thought the truck heads already flowed pretty good, so this must be extra special
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Oct 2, 2022 23:06
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Raluek posted:oh? that sounds interesting. i thought the truck heads already flowed pretty good, so this must be extra special I bought this stupid thing without heads  . GM sells CNC ported versions of the LS3 heads that are apparently killer bang for the buck so that's the plan.
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Oct 2, 2022 23:10
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To keep the general lifetime theme of my absolute poo poo luck, the CNC LS3 heads have been discontinued and are no longer available.  Factory LS3 heads it is, then. Boaz MacPhereson fucked around with this message at 00:02 on Oct 4, 2022 |
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Oct 3, 2022 23:57
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Boaz MacPhereson posted:To keep the general lifetime theme of my absolute poo poo luck, the CNC LS3 heads have been discontinued and are no longer available. I was going to ask where you got them, since I wasn't able to find any info on them besides "no, go away", but figured I was missing something. regular LS3 heads are probably good enough! or you could go get something fancy like AFR or whatever the current hot poo poo is
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Oct 4, 2022 05:15
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Well my dog decided she wanted some more surgery so cylinder heads are paused temporarily. Just temporarily. I thought about going out and thrashing on this thing a bit and getting it fired up as it's been sitting for a while, but I decided against that as both wife and dog were napping on the couch. Last thing they need is to get rattled awake by this turd. I did decide to go do a little investigative poking around to see if I could figure out where my current leaks are coming from. When I swapped the PS hose and the transmission bullet a while back I also swapped the cardboard under the car to see if that work actually stopped those leaks. Good news is that I'm pretty drat sure it did. Bad news is that the fresh cardboard showed off 5 or 6 other small drips. I'm not really surprised. Wish I had a big sheet of white cardboard so I could see what color these fluids are, but after getting under it and poking around, it looks to be mostly just engine oil. Had a couple drips of trans fluid, but they weren't coming from the bullet. I think it's coming from the selector shaft. Might look into it to see what it takes to get in there. Moving on... Oil leaks seemed to be coming from the valve covers and the oil pan. Leaky valve covers on an SBC. Who could have foreseen this? Last guy to pull the valve covers was a real rear end in a top hat* so he probably didn't get enough rear end in the fasteners when he put them back on. Snugged those up and all 8 bolts took some more squeeze. Hopefully that will help on the top end. Oil pan bolts are supposed to get 12 ft-lbs (~16 nm) and every one I turned took a bit before the wrench clicked. I've got a hunch the rear main is leaking too, but I really don't care enough to change that. Womp womp. Threw some fresh cardboard under it to catch more drips and went back inside. Maybe I'll beat on it a little more next weekend and take it around the block. *We all know who it was. Same guy that wrote this post.
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Nov 13, 2022 21:46
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if they're perimiter bolt valve covers, it's quite easy to over-tighten them and bend the sealing surfaces of the covers. assuming stamped sheet metal, anyway. so dont put too much rear end into it
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Nov 13, 2022 22:03
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Raluek posted:if they're perimiter bolt valve covers, it's quite easy to over-tighten them and bend the sealing surfaces of the covers. assuming stamped sheet metal, anyway. so dont put too much rear end into it Yeah, stamped covers with perimeter bolts. I found torque values of 5-6 pounds so that's what I gave them. Edit: did some looking around and I can get a new selector seal and install/removal tool for less than 20 bucks. Job looks piss easy, too. Guess I might as well. Boaz MacPhereson fucked around with this message at 23:06 on Nov 13, 2022 |
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Nov 13, 2022 22:05
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Tackled that seal today. Not too bad at all. Bit of a struggle getting the removal tool to bite into the old seal, but perseverance (and stronger hammer blows) was the strategy of the day. Essentially, you thread the removal tool into the old seal and then a bolt threads into that to push against the selector shaft to then pull the tool and old seal out. Took me 5 or 6 tries of tightening the bolt until it finally bit hard enough to pull the seal, but it eventually came out without too much drama. Had a catch pan ready for potential fluid leakage but didn't have any. Tool in old seal:  Next to the new one:  You can actually see what looks to be a little tear in the old one there. Not sure if I did that on removal or if it was part of the leak problem, but that rubber in there is rock hard just like the o-rings in the bullet so swapping them out was probably wise. New seal went in no problem. Smear a little grease on the rubber and around the outside and sent it home with the little driver that the tool came with. Had the removal tool bit on the first attempt, this would have been a 15 minute job. As it was, maybe 40 minutes from tires up to tires down. Not bad. Now I have another single-purpose tool that I will most likely never use again. Oh, and I think my click-fest last time with the torque wrench did some good as there are fewer leaks on the cardboard. We'll see if today's work killed another one.
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Nov 27, 2022 19:29
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Alright, done with old poo poo (for now); time for new poo poo.  Gonna be cold and terrible this weekend but I can still go sling some metal around in the garage. I'll get this thing strapped on and measure for pushrod length. Stock length will probably be what I end up buying, but always better to measure and be sure. Once I get those ordered I'll make sure my valve -> piston clearance is good and everything looks groovy. Once all that checks out, that's pre-assembly pretty much done. Then it's tear it all apart, clean the bejesus out of it again and then start buying more parts.
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Jan 26, 2023 22:03
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Boaz MacPhereson posted:Tackled that seal today. Not too bad at all. Bit of a struggle getting the removal tool to bite into the old seal, but perseverance (and stronger hammer blows) was the strategy of the day. Reminds me I have new seals (I bought like a 5 pack in case I gently caress it up) and the tool laying around here somewhere, I just haven't gotten to it yet.
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Jan 27, 2023 17:57
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Nidhg00670000 posted:Reminds me I have new seals (I bought like a 5 pack in case I gently caress it up) and the tool laying around here somewhere, I just haven't gotten to it yet. Selector shaft seals? It's really not a bad job. Just stick with it and be gentle with the tool until you're sure it's got a good bite.
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Jan 27, 2023 18:35
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As predicted, today was cold and snowy, but I was motivated enough to deal with a cold garage. Quick shot under the skirt of the head. All the crap on the valves is just dust stuck to whatever oil residue was left on there. That all got cleaned off before it got bolted on.  Apparently the LS9 head gaskets are a cheap upgrade over the standard LS3 and I thought that sounded like a good idea because why not. They're even helpfully labeled for idiots like me.  Head goes plop and bolts go turn turn turn.  Then used the pushrod length checker thing to figure out what kind of rods I need. Once I was happy with measurements I got those ordered from Summit. Should be here next week so I can then check the rocker geometry and make sure my piston to valve clearance is good. I don't foresee any problems there as I was able to make full rotation with the checker in place and didn't hear or feel any contact. I'll get some numbers to be sure though. Once that happens it'll be time to rip it all apart again.
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Jan 29, 2023 05:03
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Non-LQ content: I already knew that first-gen CTS-V front brakes (4 pot Brembos) will bolt up to my car thanks to the brackets mimicking the mounting points of fourth-gen F-body spindles. Thing is, it takes a 14" rotor and there's no way those will fit behind a 17" wheel. That means running 18s and buying new wheels and tires. Turns into an expensive upgrade pretty quickly. I was doing some wandering around on the internet last night and found that the ATS had some optional Brembos (4 pots, but a bit smaller than the CTS-V's) that will also bolt right up to F-bodies. And I saw a picture of them mounted behind a 17" factory Camaro wheel. They take 12.6" rotors. A bit larger than the F-body 11.9", but still small enough to run 17s. Base model C7 'Vettes have the same size rotor with the right bolt pattern. Caliper should take the F-body banjo fitting as well. I can get all brand new parts - calipers, mounting bolts, pads, and rotors - for around 400 bucks and should still be able to keep the 17s. I'd have to hog out the holes in my custom brackets just a little bit to fit the M14 mounting bolts, but I can live with that. Now this isn't a definite "I'm gonna go buy some new brakes" but it's definitely on my radar. Obviously I'd need to get my hands on one of these calipers to make sure they'll fit behind the Cragars, but it'd be pretty cool to have some Brembos on this thing. Anyway, just a thought.
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Jan 29, 2023 18:10
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Pushrods are good so Sunday was spent disassembling. Now it's literally just a matter of buying parts. Everything will get a good deep clean before final assembly, but for now the parts pile stay nice and warm while it grows. 
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Feb 6, 2023 18:46
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if you're cold, they're cold  so what do you do about like, head bolts and head gaskets, all those are supposed to be one-time use. but you did a test fit at full torque?
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Feb 7, 2023 04:42
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Raluek posted:if you're cold, they're cold Head gaskets are MLS and reusable. Head bolts are one time use so I bought three sets. Final assembly will get fresh fasteners everywhere.
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Feb 7, 2023 04:51
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Boaz MacPhereson posted:Pushrods are good so Sunday was spent disassembling. Now it's literally just a matter of buying parts. Everything will get a good deep clean before final assembly, but for now the parts pile stay nice and warm while it grows. It's working! 
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Apr 20, 2023 15:13
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In all seriousness, I have been getting some more parts for this engine. Timing cover was backordered, but it'll be on its way once Summit gets one for me. With the exception of that and an oil pan (know what I'm getting, just waiting a bit on that), I can pretty much build this longblock now. Need to pick up a couple little things - hand pump oiler, some break-in oil, PTFE paste, etc. - but I may start wrenching on this thing again soon. Need to get the car fired up as-is this Spring as well. I'm a sucker for black wrinkle finish. 
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Apr 21, 2023 14:14
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Black wrinkle looks so good.
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Apr 21, 2023 17:54
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thats a lot of shiny new parts
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Apr 22, 2023 08:43
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Started turning wrenches today. The crank is now reinstalled with new main bolts and plenty of assembly lube. Next step is pistons & rods so I gotta see if that little lock ring installer tool is gonna do what it says it's gonna do. Didn't take any pictures today, but it pretty much looks like this again but with the main caps and the block plugs installed: There's a lovely gear oil-esque aroma to the assembly lube so that's a lot of fun. Edit: GREAT SUCCESS. This little clip installer tool is the poo poo. Put one clip in each piston and it took me like 10 minutes. gently caress yeah. Got some Mother's Day stuff to do tomorrow, but I might get a chance to get some of these pistons/rods assembled in the afternoon. Good poo poo. Boaz MacPhereson fucked around with this message at 22:41 on May 13, 2023 |
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May 13, 2023 22:06
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The paint job on that block is fantastic
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May 14, 2023 03:39
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Jonny Nox posted:The paint job on that block is fantastic Thanks! I was waffling on what color to do for it for a little while. Maybe black, maybe a gunmetal silver, maybe maybe maybe. Then I had the (obvious) thought of, "well, it is a small block..."
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May 14, 2023 04:26
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