[smuryof]

Originally Posted by Tim Corcoran

I would say the following upgrads would enhance performance without suffering in driveability and work well with a heavy car with A/C.

1. Factory 4 barrel intake with a Q-jet rebuilt by Cliff Ruggles
2. OEM 068 cam, very mild and works with all factory drive train
3. RA/HO style cast iron exhaust manifolds
4. Later add on 2-1/2" dual exhaust and some quiet Walker Dynomax mufflers

Tim C

Thanks, this is almost what I'm ending up with. difrence is a 1" alum. Edelbrock intake, Summit cam, and already have the duals. Still stock exh. manifolds, ran out of money at the machine shop.

[dreambird72]

While ya have the engine out ....pull the tranny,rearend,gastank,suspension,etc,etc,etc.....
and put it on a rotisserie





.

[smuryof]

OK so - when I install the main and rod bearings - please check my procedure for correctness:

• Clean everything
• Lay all bearings in the block and in main bearing caps
• Set crank in block
• Set plastigage on each crank main journal (5)
• Install caps and torque to specifications
• Remove caps and measure plastigage
• If any plastigage measurement is off, have a couple drinks and start over..
• If they're all spot-on, remove caps and crank, cover bearing surface with assembly lube (but NOT on the rear side of the bearing I assume) and reinstall crank

At this point the crank should turn fairly easily - correct?

Then...

• Same deal for rods - 1 at a time
• Slip piston in thru top of engine while protecting cylinder walls from the rod bolts
• Install bearings in rod and cap
• Plastigage on crank journal
• Torque down rod cap to specs
• Remove and check gauge
• If good, apply assembly lube to bearing surfaces and torque down
• Repeat for other pistons

All look right?

[smuryof]

OK folks, I need some experienced advice here.

I've had some people swear that you liberally oil the whole area, and others say only put one drop of oil around each ring so the rings "bite" the walls correctly. Which is it? And am I right in assuming I don't want to use assembly lube, instead actual motor oil?

And, how critical is it to get the pistons sparkly clean - I don't have any solvent, so can I just scrape 95% of the carbon deposits off and call it good?

Thanks for any and all advice...

[form406]

i wire wheel the pistons lightly to remove carbon..dont apply too much pressure or stay in one area too long and scar pistons..i use plenty of motor oil on rings...ring gap is measured in piston hole right...daaaaahhh? follow ring instructions...

[smuryof]

Originally Posted by form406

i wire wheel the pistons lightly to remove carbon..dont apply too much pressure or stay in one area too long and scar pistons..i use plenty of motor oil on rings...ring gap is measured in piston hole right...daaaaahhh? follow ring instructions...

I was going to do the ring gap measurement piston by piston as I install them, so I am sure not to mix up any rings or miss any steps. The first piston I measured (#8) is .030 on both compression rings.

Can I just say, that rear main seal was a pain in the arse to install. Sucky cutting business with the razor blade and rope threads everywhere...

[Ron H]

Should have bought a BOP rear seal. They are alot easier and work better too.

[form406]

if im not mistaken dont forget a piston hole bore gets smaller the lower you go in the hole...i measured my gap in three areas of piston hole (is this right board people?)did you put the correct rear main seal in...? big rope goes in 400..little rope goes in 455...

[smuryof]

Originally Posted by form406

if im not mistaken dont forget a piston hole bore gets smaller the lower you go in the hole...i measured my gap in three areas of piston hole (is this right board people?)did you put the correct rear main seal in...? big rope goes in 400..little rope goes in 455...

What do you mean by "big rope" and "little rope" - thickness, or length? The instructions said to put the 6" ropes into a 400, 7" ropes into the 455... or at least I'm pretty sure they did. I never tried the 7". Anyway, the ropes were a little (maybe 1/4") over the top on the cap and the block, so it looked right. Of course I cut them to fit flush, as per instructions. Roughly 1/16" rising out of the seal channel after packing, that also matched the instructions.

I measured the piston ring gap near the top, that's where I got the .030 reading. Thanks for the note - before I stick 'em in for good, I'll push them down farther in the bore and get more measurements. Hopefully they'll be in the spec'ed range further down.

[form406]

rope thickness...i helped crack the rear main seal lip on a 455 block by putting the wrong thickness rope seal in...somebody probably did it once before me on that block as well...

[smuryof]

Measured near the bottom of the cylinder (almost bottom of piston ring travel) and registered .015 on the feeler gauge. .030 at top, .015 at bottom - seems like a sizeable difference. Maybe I should have had them bored, how much of a problem is this really?

Only done pistons #8 and #7 (working from back to front of engine) so far. Will see how the others measure up this weekend.

[form406]

its supposed to be coned like that..hows the hone on those cylinder walls..cant install new rings on a smooth bore...it must have a nice cross hatch pattern on it...i honed mine nicely with a ball hone...

[smuryof]

Originally Posted by form406

its supposed to be coned like that..hows the hone on those cylinder walls..cant install new rings on a smooth bore...it must have a nice cross hatch pattern on it...i honed mine nicely with a ball hone...

Had the machine shop hone the cylinders. I don't know how noticeable the crosshatch is supposed to be, as this is my first time ever working on an engine rebuild.

When you push the rings into the cylinders for measuring ring end gap, doesn't this erode the honing? Or does that only happen when the engine heats up and the rings are moving quickly?

[form406]

that takes some rpms but dont catch the sharp corner of a ring and scar the cylinder...you should be able to clearly see a cross hatch pattern...i had the same end gap as you and im ok...i rebuilt my 406 myself (a few shadetree shortcuts)and so far its running really well...

[smuryof]

Thanks... Quick question, are there supposed to be oil "return holes" on the compression rings? Or is that just with the oil control ring? The book says to make sure none of the oil return holes are blocked on any of the ring grooves, but I don't see any obvious return holes on the compression grooves... I'm not cleaning the pistons to sparkling clean, just removing carbon deposits, using pieces of broken rings to clean the grooves.

[smuryof]

I've got the crank, pistons, oil pump/pan all done, now doing heads. However, I've run into a problem. I don't know which head bolts go into coolant passages and which don't - so I don't know which ones to use thread sealant on and which to use oil on.

If you look down at the head from the side of the engine, for instance, the left-hand head, standing at the left side of the engine, if you numbered the bolts 1-10 reading from left to right, top to bottom, which #'s enter coolant passages? I'm pretty sure #'s 7 and 9 do, but I'm not sure about the rest.

Help, anyone?

[happy_rappy]

Lots of good advice here! I am also opening my first v8. 428 with 2 bolt main caps. I have the heads off as well as the oil pan, oil pump and windage tray.

The crank turns freely. The block has never been bored. Lots of carbon on the piston tops. There is no ridge on most of the cylinders but two or three have about .005 ridge. Part of a piston sidewall (skirt) was found in the oil pan.

My buddy told me to stamp each rod and cap with the cylinder number before I remove them. I got a set of stamps and I will do it with a hammer tonight.

Just ordered the Jim Hand book. I am looking for a good shop that does pontiac heads near Rochester, New York.

Thanks for all the great advice.

[smuryof]

Originally Posted by happy_rappy

Lots of good advice here! I am also opening my first v8. 428 with 2 bolt main caps. I have the heads off as well as the oil pan, oil pump and windage tray.

The crank turns freely. The block has never been bored. Lots of carbon on the piston tops. There is no ridge on most of the cylinders but two or three have about .005 ridge. Part of a piston sidewall (skirt) was found in the oil pan.

My buddy told me to stamp each rod and cap with the cylinder number before I remove them. I got a set of stamps and I will do it with a hammer tonight.

Just ordered the Jim Hand book. I am looking for a good shop that does pontiac heads near Rochester, New York.

Thanks for all the great advice.

Yeah, it's my first rebuild too. I got started by deciding I wanted to paint the engine comp't and the engine itself. Then I felt cheap about painting the engine without actually doing something, so I ordered a cam. One thing led to another, and before you know it I had everything disassembled.

Instead of stamping the pistons, I put them in plastic bags with the cylinder # written in magic marker on the bag. Stamping probably would have made more sense, though.

I was intimidated for quite awhile about putting it all back together, but once I got into the swing of it, I felt pretty confident about the build-up. I got the pistons wrong twice before finally getting it right, so I had to remove and reinstall the first couple pistons a couple times. But it was worth it to be sure I had each ring in the correct place, facing the right direction, with the gap at the right o'clock position on the piston.

The one thing I still need to figure out is priming the engine. The book says you can take an old distributor, grind off the cam gear, and attach it to a drill to prime the oil pump / oil channels, but I don't have an extra distrib - so, if anyone has a junk distrib lying around, I'd be grateful... or, any alternate ideas for priming the oil channels? The cam installation guide says I want to run the engine at 1500+ rpm for the first 100 miles to break in the cam properly, and it makes me nervous to run it that hard before oil has a chance to work thru the system properly. Of course, maybe it happens pretty much instantly once it is started and I shouldn't worry about priming it...

[SGTGTO]

What I ended up doing to prime the engine was take a cheapo screwdriver with a large flat blade on it.. and cut off the handle. Insert into the chuck of a drill, and make sure you are in the slot on the pump shaft.. and slowly start the drill.... gaining speed as you are sure it isnt going to slip out of the pump shaft groove. Stop when you have oil coming out of the pushrods.

This really does not need to be done until you are getting ready to start the engine. After breakin.. change the oil. Baby her for the first 500 miles, change oil again. Then have at it.

[smuryof]

Well looks like I have a problem. I can't get the sprocket off of the old camshaft, and therefore I can't get to the thrust plate. Any ideas or tricks to get this sucker off? Or where I can get a replacement plate? A-zone / checker / etc. don't carry it (understandably so - really, how often would someone need one?)

Got the heads installed, everything cleaned up, ready to go, just waiting to get this plate so I can get the camshaft installed..... so close!

Any help is appreciated...