DeTomaso Mailing List: March 98, Message #118
     



From: 	"Steve Liebenow" <steve.liebenow@eur.ericsson.com>

Subject: Re: How to assemble an engin

Date: 	Tue, 3 Mar 1998 15:21:20 +0000



                      RE>How to assemble an engine.                3/3/98



Dave & All,

  Just got around to reading your dissertation on engine rebuilding.  A couple of items that I've noted in my romps thru motors....



Run a tap thru all holes before wash down with soap and water. This helps remove crudlys and burrs, making torque readings more accurate. Blow out with air.



I like using a mixture of 90W and moly lube for the crank, cam, and rods, lifters and anything else that needs lube, exception being the cam lobes where straight moly is used.



Torquing mains... you didn't mention seating the thrust bearing cap. Lightly snug the bolts down, center only, force the crank forward using a large prying device, and then grab a neighbor to torque the center bolts down to 35-45 ft/lbs, then proceed with finish torque values for all bolts.  Also, I like to walk the torques up in 2-3 steps, 35-45, 70-80, and then final.... 105?  (Big blocks again.....) Follow recommended values for your particular.....



Piston ring assembly: Nix on the knees thing.  Forged pistons are much too expensive to bounce off of the concrete floor....   Try a bench vice with the jaws set to smooooth. Firm, not clamped to death....!  Clamp on the rod and use the vice top to keep the piston from flopping around.  Then you can use either a ring expander or the thumbs and fore fingers to place rings on quite easily.  Bend 'em only enuf to get them over the edge....



Gas line on rod bolts: Put the bearing shells in the rods first, then put the fuel line over the rod bolts.  Fuel line is a little too big to allow the bearings room to fit past them when pushing them in place.  Potential for bending the shells if you don't know what to watch out for.  Store bought covers are thinner vinyl that don't offer this problem.



Oil pan and pick up clearance:  In order to avoid too much or too little gap here, I like to use a piece of clay on the bottom of the pick up. With the gaskets on the block pan rails, set the pan on and depress to get an impression in the clay. Remove pan and disect clay to determine clearance.  Too little can result in "sucking the pan" which blocks oil flow and leads to more engine rebuilding.  Adjust pick up as needed to maintain recommended clearances.... see oil pan spec sheet!?  No more than 3/16". Remember, gaskets will compress a hair.



Timing chain: two words- double roller.



Harmonic balancer: DON'T USE THE BOLT TO "PULL" THE BALANCER ONTO THE CRANK!  This is a good way to strip out either the crank or the bolt.  Yes sure, we've all perhaps done this already and it worked fine.  Well, we were lucky and there is no good reason to take this chance on your freshly polished crank!!! Not to mention your fulley assembled engine!!!!!!!    Find a long threaded piece, like the bolt in your harmonic balancer puller perhaps???  A couple of big washers with O.D. larger than the center hole of the harmonic balancer, or suitable metal parts and gizmos (Drewizm again??) and an appropriate threaded nut. Shwing!  You now have a handy dandy harmonic balancer installer!  Tighten the nut to pull the balancer onto the crank, and the threaded rod and nut will take the wear and tear and not the threads in your crank or on your bolt!



Pre oiling: One word- tape!   Tape the stupid socket to the socket drive extension!  I found that I had to use the 1/4" socket and extension.  Thank goodness for telescoping magnets!  I dropped a socket and short extension once.... clink kaclink klonk! Socket and adaptor disappeared into the camshaft area.... The magnetic thingy (Mike Drewism!) saved me from having to tear off the bottom end..... So now I use just enough tape to insure that I will get all my tools back whenst I'm done!



Pilot bushing: Two words- pilot BEARING!   Why use sintered bronze when you can have a sealed bearing for only a couple bucks more!?



Shop towels & cleanliness: Your stressing of cleanliness is something I agree with. Cover up your work at night with a CLEAN garbage bag, etc. However, I would say to use paper towels when cleaning around oiling holes etc.  Paper fibers will degrade where cloth fibers will not and could potentially cause a clog somewhere that you wouldn't want one!!!



Intake manifold cover: Fancy- aluminum/steel sheet with carb stud hole pattern,  Plain- 1/4 inch plywood or tag board with carb stud pattern, Cheap- cardboard- rubber malletize (another Drewism!) it down over carb studs. Plug the distributor hole with a couple of paper towels too!



Masking tape all other holes until final assembly, ie vacume holes, fuel pump, oil pressure guage hole, etc.



Tha's all I could think of at present....



Steve