Today, with a lot of help from Bobby, I was able to get the car over to Evil Genius Racing to get a full roll cage put on. With a proper roll cage, and some additional bracing and anti-intrusion bars around the passenger compartment, the car will meet the safety requirements for many more events than previously. They will also be powder coating the frame and suspension components, so when I get it back I will be able to start putting more of the car together.
In the mean time, I had the engine to build, and last weekend I finished filing piston rings, and began assembling the short block itself.
Unfortunately, one of the connecting rod bearings I had had a manufacturing defect, and I wasn’t able to put all 8 cylinders together.
So, I ordered a replacement, as well as a new piston ring compressor. The ring compressor I had been using was taking about 5-10 minutes per cylinder, and was a lot of difficult work. Today, with the new one, that step was taking only about 1 minute per cylinder. I installed the final rod bearings, and then finished assembling the short block.
With that done, I need to get a cam, pushrods, and head gaskets, and I will be able to assemble the long block. From there, I will need more of the external engine components, like the sensors, oil pan and pump, timing gear and chain, and the serpentine belt system to have a runnable engine.
So far, I have roughly 25 hours of labor into this short block, a good part of that has been learning how to do just about everything done so far. Things are a little more familiar to me from this point on, and hopefully I’ll be able to make faster progress. Can’t wait to get this engine started and see what it can do!
James Builds A Car 