Hey Guys - here we go again. Ian's got a clapped out engine in his 122, so he wanted a new engine. It's been a long build process, but it made it to my garage two weeks ago and I thought I'd put it up here for fun. You've all watched this before, but there are a few differences, so I thought it would be worthwhile.

First up - the delivery. Lots of sawdust, oil and goo everywhere to keep the rust at bay. Lots of cleaning has gone on - but when you take an engine apart, this is what you're left with...boxes of gooey parts. I wish I had Matt's demon cleaning tank.





I started with the head work. The usual treatment with double valve springs, larger 37 mm exhausts and some porting as is appropriate for the KG17 cam.







Then on to the block (well a week later...this all takes time. First up was cleaning the gunk off this thing. The machine shop did a great job on the bores and the decking. We're not polishing the block on this one - she's a rusty nasty old block - in other words, well seasoned.

Close up of the rusty nastiness. You'll be surprised how clean I got this thing.



Scrubbing the insides...it's got to be perfectly clean or why bother.



Seriously...look at these pistons. Wow - three days soaking in carb clean and we're still not quite done (and my garage is now a toxic cloud).



With a lot of work, they come out like this - these pistons were fine, so we're just re-ringing the engine.



The piston oil holes were completely clogged. CHANGE YOUR OIL people!

The rings are ALL file to fit. Mount a file in a vice and very carefully fit each ring to the bores. Gap between 0.016 - 0.22" - don't go too far.



First they have to fit the hole at all...they don't right out of the box (this is after some filing). Yikes, no gap rings.



Turn these into a perfect 0.018" gap.



Lots of careful fitting and the first ring is set.



Two more sets of rings to do and we're done. Then the pistons and rods can be final cleaned and assembled. That's it for now. This won't get done until between Christmas and New Years at the earliest if we're lucky!

Thanks as always for taking the time to document all that.

I've been out of town for a week, so nothing has happened. Just before Christmas I spent 2 long hours taping up the engine for paint. I've never recorded how long it takes, now I know. Took an hour to unmask it as well. Anyway, things got very red and pretty even though I didn't polish this block. Looks great.





Then there was another round of final cleaning as things got ready for assembly. New bearings were offered to the block and as they're unknown, it gets measured using platigauge. The little pieces of wax are placed on the main (piston big ends were done as well) and clearances are read by measuring the squished wax. Make sure parts are perfectly clean, then torque and DON'T move the parts during the process.

Squished.



Checked.





Perfect 0.002" - right in the middle of the spec.

Found that the pilot bearing was seized in the crank and wouldn't rotate nicely either. Had to break out the puller for this job. Hey, they're $3 - change your pilot bearing.







Rings installed in the pistons. Deves rings (the very best) were used. They're a pain to assemble with a 4 part oil ring and 2 part second ring...but worth the trouble.





Finally - steel timing gears are being used. Buy these whenever you see them. Worth every penny. Had to deburr them a little as they're very 60's in their machining, but bull strong.



So that's where we're at so far. Bottom end is basically done - just waiting on a few more parts to come in - so this will sit for a few weeks in the corner of the shop until I get the rest of the needed gaskets.

Thank you very much for your attention to detail. I really appreciate it.

A few more.

Don't do as I did and want to keep that little protective shim disc at the pilot bearing for originality.

Perhaps I didn't seat the new bearing as far as should have, but regardless of why, the shim rubbed on the seal of the new bearing, and I had to redo it all under the car (544 tunnels are no fun, and yes I used the wet TP trick).
If the bearing is sealed, you don't need that disc, and it carries a risk to install it.

Thanks Ian - the disk fits fine when the pilot is properly seated. It's fine as it stands.

So purdy!