Engine Assembly & Rearend

WOW, it's finally time to assemble the engine. 

 

I dropped off the parts right after labor day and got them back after a long 6 weeks.  The first step was to layout the parts for assembly and do some cleaning to ensure the parts are ready to go.  Below you can see all of the parts laid out on the floor the only unfortunate thing is that the windage tray and stud kit had to be returned.  

 

The machine work was completed by E&G Automotive in Wallingford, they did a great job with he machine work!  Everything mic'd out perfectly fine and the block and all parts were ready to assemble.

 

Below are pictures after the crank, rods/pistons and cam were installed.  I checked the main bearing clearance with plastigage and it was right on the spec at 0.003.   I also checked the rings and everyone was fine except the #6 cylinder top ring that I had to file with the oil ring gap of 0.015, the 2nd ring 0.020 and the top ring 0.017.  I used the dial indicator from the cam degree kit to check the crank endplay and it was 0.006.

 

Here's a view from the bottom, below the oil pump you can see the plat that should help keep the oil from splashing the rear main during take off :)  Otherwise nothing special here, just a good Melling oil pump and rod.

Here you can get a real perspective of the dome and compression, notice the #6 piston at TDC, the pistons are SPR 73, which I think based on the 118cc head should put the compression ratio at about 12.25:1 to 12.5:1.

In addition to the engine I also got the rearend back on Friday.  It was rebuilt with a 4-series posi holding 4.10 gears.  The rearend had to be straightened and overall I think it came out quite nice given how it started out.   I had to remove the ladder bars and coil spring struts that were welded on the rearend and then install the factory brackets.    I added the QA1 anti-hop bars along with adjustable uppers and then the F41 boxed lower control arms along with the sway bar.  There's new coil springs and I'll be adding Competition Engineer adjustable shocks.

Here's a close-up of the QA1 anti-hop bars which change the upper mounting point by about 3 inches which should give a much better angle and also provide more adjustments.