So, we now have all the engine parts to allow assembly and Rodney Gibbs has
commenced this journey.
Crankshaft is now assembled into the block (photo above)
The above photo shows the bracing studs that run crosswise along the bottom of the engine plus an illustration of some previously repaired damage to the block. at the location where a broken rod would have punched out the side.
Good solid bearing bolts
All the valve seats and the valve guides have now been cut and reamed by Crawford Hall to suit the new valves.
Cylinder heads now ready for final valve assembly in photo above.
The series of photos below are of a trial assembly in order to check the clearances - piston to each valve and also to the cylinder head.
Rodney has had Crawford Hall do some very fine re-machining of the heads of the pistons to ensure there is the correct clearance for when the engine is hot and valves are fully depressed.
You will note the Plasticine check in the final photos of this set, even after there has been innumerable measurements.
There is nothing like a dummy assembly with Plasticine at high spots then visually checking the clearance by inspection of the 'squished' Plasticine following dis-assembly.
Rodney has calculated that the engine will have a final compression ratio of 12.2 to 1, which will be ideal.
The photo below is simply to illustrate the straight flow of the inlet into the cylinder, very nice design to have such an uninterrupted gas flow.
The plasticine test identified a small amount of further machining necessary for each piston to provide adequate valve clearance into the recesses and so the final main block and cylinder head reassembly is now delayed until next Monday.
By the end of this week the shock absorbers will also return from refurbishment by Rick Kemp and I will then be able to finalise the reassembly of the front end, which I will show on the next blog post.
There is then ample time to do all the measurements that will be invaluable when setting the car up, be that shock lengths on full bump and rebound, wishbone angles on full bump and rebound, chassis height on full bump and rebound, etc etc.
The two photos below illustrate the extent of front suspension movement from full droop to full bump, which translates to a total of 2.5 inches of shock absorber travel and a total of 17 degrees of movement of the lower wishbone.
