Old Race 340 Teardown
I've had an interesting time starting to put this engine back together. With all my measurements made and inspections done I discovered that I could not find a source for rod bearings with the dowel pin hole that these rods require. So I had to rig up a way to cut the holes myself. I bought a standard reconditioned rod to use as a holder and drilled a hole in the rod cap through to the bearing saddle to give me a place to get a tool into the spot where the dowel pin would be. I used a 3/16" extra long end mill to index the rod in my milling clamp onto the axis of the lathe spindle. I used a couple of the old rod bottom bearing shells (with the dowel pin holes) to give me a precision reference to clamp the rod into place. It took some real fiddling to align everything just right but when I was done and everything tight I could wheel the carriage back and forth into the bearing dowel pin holes with no resistance. Then I shortened the end mill and clamped my new lower bearing shells into the rod and voila - cut down pin holes. Also spent some time with the cam gear drive. So now the crank and cam are in and the pistons/rods are next up.
I've had an interesting time starting to put this engine back together. With all my measurements made and inspections done I discovered that I could not find a source for rod bearings with the dowel pin hole that these rods require. So I had to rig up a way to cut the holes myself. I bought a standard reconditioned rod to use as a holder and drilled a hole in the rod cap through to the bearing saddle to give me a place to get a tool into the spot where the dowel pin would be. I used a 3/16" extra long end mill to index the rod in my milling clamp onto the axis of the lathe spindle. I used a couple of the old rod bottom bearing shells (with the dowel pin holes) to give me a precision reference to clamp the rod into place. It took some real fiddling to align everything just right but when I was done and everything tight I could wheel the carriage back and forth into the bearing dowel pin holes with no resistance. Then I shortened the end mill and clamped my new lower bearing shells into the rod and voila - cut down pin holes. Also spent some time with the cam gear drive. So now the crank and cam are in and the pistons/rods are next up.