The Great Pumpkin - '71 Duster

Well progress has been a little slow on the engine build. I will admit, I have been hemming and hawing a little bit on one particular point and it's starting to make me a little nuts.

Currently, I am stuck on measuring the crank/bearings for clearances. Well, let me put it another way, I'm unsure of myself with a dial bore gauge and have been pushing this step off.

Per the machine shop, the clearances are .0025" which is right where they should be. But, I want to/need to confirm that things are correct and not too loose or tight. I feel like I can't get a good handle on using the dial bore gauge. The procedure is to 'zero' the gauge with a micrometer (after measuring the crank journal) then put it in the bore and see how much the dial indicator moves to verify clearances. I keep getting different readings and it never stays put. Grrr!

Do I need to do this step? Probably not but it is a good thing to do just to be certain of what you have. I'm one of those guys that needs all the answers so essentially yes, I need to do this step.

So I called the shop and told him what was going on and he said Plastigauge was fine to use just as a confirmation. Problem is now I have to clean things again. There is oil on the crank journals because I set it in the mains and put the caps on loosely. Not sure why I did this because now I have to clean it off again to use the Plastigauge. I think I unconsciously (or semi-consciously) wanted to skip the measuring step so I impulsively went ahead without doing it. Guess I was just excited to set the crank in blocck, it's been in a plastic bag on my bench for two months. Regardless, now I am paying for getting ahead of myself. Such is life with ADD. Maybe I can get away with just clearing a strip off and using the plastic. Anyway...

I have been skirting around this step for a week. I've done some other things like painting the other cylinder head, clean up the garage etc. Nothing associated with the task at hand though. I have it in my mind to go back and try to do this properly with the dial gauge though, I'm gonna get it right.

Another issue also cropped up. I realized that I put some of the pistons on incorrectly. The machine shop marked the pistons "R" and "L". Naturally, I misconstrued what this meant, I figured they needed to stay on one side due to balancing but that was not the case. The pistons all weigh the same so they can go in any cylinder. But of course, the "R" and "L" was in reference to the valve notches, not the side, so half of my pistons were on backwards. Doh! I had to re-do them. I am getting good at spiro locks! I can get them off and on in seconds now.

Did manage to have some success, I put the woodruff key in the crank. Funny, you'd think it was no big deal but it's not such a straightforward operation actually, the key is an interference fit. You need to put it in the freezer for a little while and then tap it in with a plastic mallet. It went in OK at first but didn't seat all the way in the slot. I had to whack it pretty hard with a dead blow to get it down but it's in. I checked it with the timing sprocket and it went on no problem. Done!

So a little up, some down but not much progress overall. It's getting into warmer weather now, I hope to be over this hump soon so I can get this engine project done. I feel like once I get over this hump there's a few more hurdles to clear like measuring pushrods and degreeing the cam.

Sorry, no pics this time.

More to come.