Leon Posted June 18, 2013 Author Share Posted June 18, 2013 Got some 7075-T6 shim stock today and modeled up the shims... I'll be cutting them on a CNC wire EDM for accuracy, plus there will be no burrs for me to clean up. Just perfectly sharp corners. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leon Posted June 20, 2013 Author Share Posted June 20, 2013 Engine is back from the shop!Block was bored out .020" and decked .004". It's a bit wet from a generous dose of WD40. The head was shaved and got a 3-angle seat cut. Rods and pistons were balanced, pistons mounted (ITM flat tops), and rod bolts pressed in. Today, I finally took my crank to a shop close to work who will polish it and send it off to be checked for balance. I'm including the flywheel with it to be balanced as well. Figured the crank pulley should be in balance, but I'm thinking of taking it in as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madkaw Posted June 20, 2013 Share Posted June 20, 2013 Take the pulley- they will want to balance that to the crank. The flywheel should be balanced all by itself. Make sure your pulley is in good shape Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JCan Posted June 20, 2013 Share Posted June 20, 2013 New toys! I purchased some engine paint from autozone. This paint actually cures above 100degrees. I painted the block 2-3 light coats prior to re-assembly. Be sure to remove the wd40 prior to paint when you do paint and prior to putting the head gasket on permanently. Looks good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leon Posted June 20, 2013 Author Share Posted June 20, 2013 Take the pulley- they will want to balance that to the crank. The flywheel should be balanced all by itself. Make sure your pulley is in good shape Both the pulley and flywheel should be balanced all by themselves, as this is an internally balanced engine. The reason I'm not as concerned about the pulley is because it is a smaller-diameter part compared to the flywheel and "should" be balanced as long as it's in good shape. Plus, I may buy a new pulley in the near future. The flywheel is an old 10lb Tilton unit and I'd like to make sure that it's in good shape. Plus, I'd have to figure out which pulley I want to use from my collection! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leon Posted June 21, 2013 Author Share Posted June 21, 2013 New toys! I purchased some engine paint from autozone. This paint actually cures above 100degrees. I painted the block 2-3 light coats prior to re-assembly. Be sure to remove the wd40 prior to paint when you do paint and prior to putting the head gasket on permanently. Looks good! I got some Duplicolor engine paint at O'Reilly, Pontiac DE1610. It's about the closest you get to the stock color. I also got some self-etching primer for the block, as recommended by my engine guy. The WD will be removed and I will be cleaning everything obsessively, that's for sure. Thanks Jim! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leon Posted June 22, 2013 Author Share Posted June 22, 2013 I sent the P90 cam to Isky for a custom regrind today. I also heeded Steve's advice and took a crank pulley along with a couple of flywheels to the shop for balancing. I'm hoping I get my bottom end stuff back by next Friday, but I'm not sure what the timeline on the cam will be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leon Posted July 2, 2013 Author Share Posted July 2, 2013 No cam or crank yet, but I did take advantage of yesterday's beautiful weather to prep and paint the block right before leaving for vacation (paid the price for it via a hostile fiancee )! Primed: Painted: Also, found a brand new Nissan L28 head-gasket in my stash. I assume it's for an early L28 but I haven't confirmed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madkaw Posted July 2, 2013 Share Posted July 2, 2013 Tell her it could be worse, you could take some parts to polish on vacation- LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leon Posted July 7, 2013 Author Share Posted July 7, 2013 Tell her it could be worse, you could take some parts to polish on vacation- LOL That's a great idea! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leon Posted July 10, 2013 Author Share Posted July 10, 2013 (edited) I'm finally ready to put the top-end together. Rockers were done by Delta in WA and the valve-train is from Iskenderian. OK, more like almost ready. I've got the cam tower shims programmed up and ready to go into the EDM. I'll pop some holes into the Al shim stock and hopefully have some nice tower shims in the next day or two. On another note, I registered for JCCS today. Time to start planning the trip (but first finish up wedding and honeymoon plans). Edited July 10, 2013 by Leon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tamo3 Posted July 10, 2013 Share Posted July 10, 2013 Nice progress! Just get back from vacation and start working on my car tomorrow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leon Posted July 10, 2013 Author Share Posted July 10, 2013 Nice progress! Just get back from vacation and start working on my car tomorrow Thanks Takashi! I just got back from my vacation on Sunday, wish I could do that more often... How's your Z doing, getting close? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leon Posted July 10, 2013 Author Share Posted July 10, 2013 For my own records:Shim stock measured .0778-.0785" across the entire 12"X12". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leon Posted July 11, 2013 Author Share Posted July 11, 2013 (edited) Good news and bad news... The good news is that I picked up my crank, flywheels, and balancer from the machine shop today. The crank looked great and just needed a polish, the Tilton FW had to be balanced but the Fidanza didn't need it, and the harmonic damper also did not need balancing as I had suspected. This was all done as a double-check really, so it's mostly for peace-of-mind. The bottom end is ready to assemble, besides the main bearings which I ordered today. The bad news is that our EDM hole-popper took a crap as I was booting it up today, so I wasn't able to make the shims... If I can't fix it quickly, I'll have to go the old-fashioned way and mill some starter holes. Edited July 11, 2013 by Leon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spitz17 Posted July 11, 2013 Share Posted July 11, 2013 Looks like solid progress Leon. Hope to see you at the upcoming events! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leon Posted July 11, 2013 Author Share Posted July 11, 2013 Looks like solid progress Leon. Hope to see you at the upcoming events! Thanks man, looking forward to it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leon Posted July 16, 2013 Author Share Posted July 16, 2013 Painted the pulley yesterday and got my shims done today! Also, got a radio coming from Clive to round out my interior. Glad I found a nice original radio instead of the way-too-modern one in there. Anyway, on to the shims. Thanks go out to the toolmakers at work for helping me out! I milled starter holes into the stock Set up in the wire EDM The program Cutting the holes (don't mind the mistake ) And we're done! I didn't take pics when cutting the profile unfortunately. I did make a few videos but I haven't watched them to see if they're interesting enough to upload. Main bearings should come in tomorrow and I should have no more excuses not to have this thing together. I borrowed mikes, snap gauge, and ring compressor from my neighbor. I just need a c-clamp style valve compressor and I should be set, besides the inevitable random seals and gaskets that I may have to get. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JCan Posted July 28, 2013 Share Posted July 28, 2013 Hi Leon. It has been a while, was wondering how your engine rebuild is going? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leon Posted July 29, 2013 Author Share Posted July 29, 2013 Hi Leon. It has been a while, was wondering how your engine rebuild is going? Hey Jim, good timing! It's been going pretty slowly... Up until last weekend, it was a lot of parts cleaning, painting, and inventorying what I have. I finally spent all weekend doing engine stuff. This involved a lot of cleaning, assembly, and disassembly. I mic'd all crankshaft journals, the main bearings, and rod bearings (only did 1). From memory, main clearances were mostly .001" with a .0015" and .002" thrown in. Rods were in spec but I don't remember the number. This took quite a while, as I was getting a feel for using the mic and snap gauge. I also verified that 45ft-lb does indeed equate to .0065" of bolt stretch on the ARP rod bolts. I was going to install the crank but I found that the rear-main seal was really loose on the crank (more on that in a second). Towards the end of Sunday I switched to the head and put the valves into their guides, and worked the stem seals onto the valves. The stem seals aren't fully installed yet, but that's the next job on the head. These Ford seals are a bit of a PITA to do right. Then I can temporarily install the outer springs and check the cam wipe pattern. I'm anticipating the need for thicker lash pads. As for the rear main seal, it was very easy to fit it onto the crank and it had a bit of wobble to it when sitting on the crankshaft. It's a Nissan seal for a 200SX (if I remember right), but I cross-referenced the P/N and it said it works for a '79 and later 280ZX. I would think it's the right part then, but the really loose fit on the crank threw me off. Isn't the rear seal supposed to be pretty tight or does it get squished and tighten up when you install the crank into the block? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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