My Engine Build

[Ben's Z]

Those fenders have more dimples than a post menapausel 65 year old mother of 4 in a two piece. A few more at this point won't matter until she goes in for plastic surgery aka the repaint.

[EuroDat]

Zcurves advies on the fenders is spot on. Even leaning on them wil dent the crap out of them:angry: I learnt the hard way. Luckly the car needed repaintng.

Your project is looking good. Looking forward to see how you go with the L28 ZXT upgrade. Dont forget to step back, take a moment and enjoy what you are creating:classic:

[Ben's Z]

Well my engine bay is damn near empty and I spent about 1 hour destroying my wife's kitchen sponges with the green scrubber backing scrubbing my engine bay. I was quite surprised how well that with some dish soap made the engine bay look a lot better. I got my single stage DuPont Nason paint, unfortunately my customer I got it from gave me Acrylic Enamel, which is crap. I am going to shoot it anyhow since it is the engine bay. I am going to spend tomorrow with my posterior parked on the engine cross member using red scotch brite pads scuffing it all down. Wax and degrease one more time and then tape it off for paint on Sunday. Por 15 for the rust, followed by Dupont Epoxy primer and then top coat. Then I get to put all this crap back in! YAY!

[Ben's Z]

Seeing as this is my first engine I have ever built I have some concerns.

1) I did get the "nails" in from the Fel Pro kit but felt the instructions on the "How to" book were wrong and his way was holding me from getting them seated. He said to put the chamfered side towards the block so that the sharp side does not dig into the seal. After trying to force it in and bending the nails I turned them so the tapered side was going along the rubber and that helped a lot. It also took me about 20 minutes to work all of this out. Will this engine leak oil live a sieve?

2) See pictures. One of the main cap bearings is sticking out past the main cap saddle. I did this when I plastigaged all the caps and I rechecked it for alignment in the saddle before final install with no difference. Should this be something to be worried about? I checked for end play and could not get the .007 feeler between the thrust bearing and crank. I tried the .002 as stated in the rebuild book but it is so flimsy I wasn't sure if it was in there or not. Crank spins freely.

3) I notice that the rear main seal is not riding totally parallel to the back of the block will this leak? It is not that bad.

[EuroDat]

That is strange, you shouldnt be able to see the bearing protruding out of the main bearing cap. Sounds like its not positioned in the centre. Is it showing on both sides of the main bearing cap? One main bearing is used for thrust alignment. If its to tight it will not get enough lubrication, overheat and wearout quickly.

I would dismantle and start again. The bearing shells should fit the caps and be if anything a fraction smaller than the cap, but not wider.

Are you sure the bearings are correct for a L-series motor?

[Ben's Z]

Yes that one picture shows (hard to see I know) the bearing being completely flush with the main saddle towards the front of the engine. All plastigage marks were equal across all main caps including this one when I checked them all.

[EuroDat]

Just a couple of questions. I still trying to figure out why the shell is sticking out one side. Sounds like they are the right diameter. You checked it with plastigage and its turning freely.

1. Are the bearing shells in the right section?

By this I mean; are the shell halfs with groove and a hole in the block section and not in the cap. The hole should line up with the drilling in the block. This lubricates the journal and the connecting rod for the piston next to it.

2. Do you still have the old bearing shells to compare? Check if they are the same width.

3. The thrust bearing is on nr: 4 bearing in the centre. Can you insert the feelergauge in one side of the thrust bearing?

Assuming the bearing thats protruding out one side is pushing the crankshaft against the thrust bearing.

4. An extra check would be to remove the crankshaft and install the bearing cap with the bearing shells and see if its aligning correctly. The two halfs should meet exactly and not staggered.

Hope this helps you. Keep us posted. It will be interesting to hear what the problem is.

[Ben's Z]

Just a couple of questions. I still trying to figure out why the shell is sticking out one side. Sounds like they are the right diameter. You checked it with plastigage and its turning freely.

1. Are the bearing shells in the right section?

By this I mean; are the shell halfs with groove and a hole in the block section and not in the cap. The hole should line up with the drilling in the block. This lubricates the journal and the connecting rod for the piston next to it.

Yes, I have the shells with the oil hole on the block and not on the main caps.

2. Do you still have the old bearing shells to compare? Check if they are the same width.

No unfortunately I do not.

3. The thrust bearing is on nr: 4 bearing in the centre. Can you insert the feelergauge in one side of the thrust bearing?

Assuming the bearing thats protruding out one side is pushing the crankshaft against the thrust bearing.

Yes the thrust bearing is on the center main. I tried to pry the crank forward with a pry bar and checked for crankshaft run out. A .007 feeler according to the "how to" book would not fit. It said to check it with .002 and if that is too tight you need to skim the thrust bearing with some sandpaper. I couldn't get the .002 in there, but I really think it is because a .002 feeler is about as thick as aluminum foil, it bend so easily I wouldn't be able to tell.

4. An extra check would be to remove the crankshaft and install the bearing cap with the bearing shells and see if its aligning correctly. The two halfs should meet exactly and not staggered.

Hope this helps you. Keep us posted. It will be interesting to hear what the problem is.

If the bearing wasn't aligned with the saddle perfectly towards the front I would know what the problem is, but since it is I do not know. I am thinking about taking off two main caps and comparing the width of the bearings. Mayb that cap is narrower for some reason?

[EuroDat]

I cant remember the caps being different in thickness. The only shells that are different are the nr 4 thrust bearing. I tossed the old ones i had when I cleaned up the shed. Its puzzling to say the least, because it almost impossable to mount them incorrectly and still get the crankshaft to turn freely. Im going from memory and the FSM which aint much help in this situation.:disappoin

Anyone else got any ideas???

[Ben's Z]

I painted the engine bay tonight. Talk about testing my patience.:mad:

1) Wet sanded some of the epoxy primer where the orange peel was the worst.

2) Jacked up car and put on jack stands to make life easier. (Was actually laying on my stomach and painting up to the trans tunnel and the frame at one point, all in my driveway. Neighbors must think I am crazy)

3) Loaded up Andrew Streckfuss's ZCurves touch up paint gun and went at it. Using a touch up paint gun rocks for an engine bay:cool:

4) Bumped the fan adjustment knob and proceeded to put runs where? On the fire wall of course, not underneath the battery tray where it would never be seen.

5) Missed some water left over from wet sanding and proceeded to blow the water out with the paint gun and into my fresh silver on top of the core support.:mad:

6) Go to reload the paint gun and one of the hooks on this siphon unit snaps off! Curing paint and my other paint gun is still tore down from the primer spray! :mad:

7) Put my gun together and load up the cup and go at it. Unfortunately my paint gun was bought my a deceased friend who used it to paint concrete pump trucks, so using it in an engine bay is like brushing your cats teeth with a toilet brush.

8) Painting around the brake diverter valve and master cylinder is a PITA and leads to some more runs.

So you are thinking. "Damn Ben you are worthless and shouldn't even own a paint gun!" This is true to a certain degree.

Did I mention I had 1) Never sprayed silver. 2) Never sprayed single stage paint?

Actually my biggest concern is when I have the car painted on the outside will be the color match. This is supposed to be Paint Code 306, but damn it is darker! Mind you the last time my car was painted was 1979. Could the paint have faded that much? Operator error? Bad paint mix? All the above? I actually love the color, but the pros are going to have to try to match it when I plan on getting it repainted next year. Oh well here are the pictures.

All in all when I fix my water spots in the paint and if I can attempt to wet sand out my runs which subsided quite a bit when the paint flashed; and given my working conditions I will rate my paint job a 7.5. I really don't think the color mismatch is really my fault. Maybe you guys who have had cars painted versus 30 year old paint can provide some insight.

[EuroDat]

Hey Ben,

Reading you horror story I almost didnt want to look at the photos. When I did I was pleased to see it turn out very nice;). Pity about the runs on the firewall. Tipical how those things always happen at the worsed possible moments, I guess:cry:. I can't see them on the photo so they are not that bad and once the engine is back in it won't be that notacable.

My car was blue 305, but someone painted it red (badly) so I will need to remove it completly. The blue was faded. I can see a difference between under the hood and by the reserve wheel. The wheel area is darker "grey" in colour and under th hood has a "white" look to it.

pS: Nice to see you still got a sence of humour after itLOL

[Ben's Z]

Here is a question. My car had some what I believe to be factory runs in the paint on the strut towers. Does anyone else have these? I wet sanded them out for the most part, but they almost ran 2/3 of the way down to the frame.