Engine Build Pre-Assembly (Oil Pump Fit and Clearance to Pan)

 



I am almost coming to the end of the pre-assembly stage of my engine build, there are just a few other things to do.  With both heads on the block tightened down just snug (not torgued)  I installed the intake manifold with just 4 bolts to make sure it lined up on the heads ok.

 

I'm really glad I went with the black powdercoated version on the intake manifold.  I really like the look of the black on red, and it will go well with the black on red look of my chevelle when it's done.

I then test fitted the distributor in the block and tightened it down with it's hold down clamp, because next I will be turning the engine upside down.

With the engine upside down I put the oil pump driveshaft down into it's hole in the block.

The picture below shows the oil pump driveshaft in the block.  Also I installed the oil pump stud in the block.

I then tightened the oil pump onto it's stud.

The oil pump driveshaft play is then measured.  To do this, using my pinky finger I slid the driveshaft as far up as it would go.   I then drew a line on the oil pump, where the two met.  I then pushed the driveshaft down as far as it would go and made another line.

Below are the two lines that were made on the oil pump shaft.  This indicates that there is some endplay with the driveshaft, which is good.

 

 

I next installed the oil pump pickup into it's hole in the oil pump.  It is a press fit and had to be tapped down into the hole using a punch.

  

The oil pump and pickup that came in my kit had a locating tab on the pickup that set the pickup to it's desired depth within the kit's oil pan.  I will be verifying the clearance between the pan and pickup just to be sure.

The bolt in the oil pump kit is removed and then reinstalled over the pickup locating tab.

Here is the oil pan

To check the clearance between the pan and the oil pickup, I once again pulled out some modeling clay.  I placed a blob on top of the pickup.

The pan was then placed onto the block, which in turn squished the clay to the clearance.  I then removed the pan again and using my calipers measured the thickness of the clay.  I forgot to take a picture of this, but I measured the clearance to a little bit less then 3/8" which is good.

All my engine pre-assembly checks have now been completed.  I am happy with all my measurements that I have taken.  I now will start to dissassemble the engine in preparation for final assembly.

Engine Build Pre-Assembly (Piston to Valve Clearance)

 

Piston to valve clearance is a very important measurement that must be performed in any engine build.  In all my research I came across two different methods of doing this.  The first is using a dial gauge set up on the valve spring retainer and checking at different intervals of crankshaft revolution how far the valve can be pushed down before contacting the piston (more on this farther down).  The other method of checking is using clay, which I will explain.  I did both checks, this is my first engine build so I figure better safe than sorry.

 

Here is the dial gauge set up on the valve spring retainer.

The degree wheel is used again for this check.  I brought the piston to 20 degrees before top dead centre (BTDC) as my starting point.

I then pushed down on the lifter slowly watching the dial gauge until I felt the valve contact the piston.  I recorded the reading from the gauge at this point.  I then moved the crankshaft in the normal rotation (clockwise) to different degrees in the crankshaft rotation and did the same thing.

After I did the measurements for the intake valve I moved the setup over to the exhaust valve and did the same thing.

Below are the recordings that I got at each interval.  It looks like the closest clearances seem to be about 8-10 degrees after top dead centre on the intake valve and 6-8 degrees before top dead centre.  Minimum clearance on the intake valve should be 0.080" or more and for the exhaust side 0.100" or more.  My numbers are well within safe limits.

Next I decided to see what clearance numbers I get using the clay method.  I won't be needing to have the light weight checking springs on the number 1 valves anymore so I first swapped the regular springs back into the head.

Below I have my valve spring compressor set up.

The valve is compressed to insert the two valve retainers in

Below are the two valve spring retainers

Valve spring installed

To perform the clay method of checking piston to valve clearance the head gasket needs to be used also to get a accurate value. 

A chunk of modeling clay was placed on the #1 piston, enough to cover the whole span of the piston where the intake and exhaust valves are.

The cylinder head was then placed on the block and just snugged down. 

The valve train for the #1 cylinder are setup again.   Once again using the lifters that I made into solid lifters.  The engine was then turned over a few times, enough that the intake and exhaust valve open a couple times.

Everything is then taken off again.  Below the intake and exhaust valve indentations in the clay can be seen.

Carefully using an x-acto knife I cut each indentation in half.  I then used my calipers to measure each indentation at it's thinest points. 

Sidetracked

The engine build has been put on hold for the time being.   Winter is coming here in Canada and I'm trying to get my garage in order before the snow hits.  I thought I'd just let everyone that's following my blog know what I've been up to. 


My garage isn't heated or insulated.  After last years winter that seen temperatures dropping close to  -40 I decided it needs to be heated if I want to get anything accomplished.  I went over across the border to Menards and got a good deal on some R38 insulation and used this to insulate the ceiling.    I also picked up a 50k btu Mr. Heater at Lowes.  Hopefully it does the job. 

Here is a picture of it hung on the ceiling.  I just have to get the gas and electrical hooked up and the exhaust.

I also got an early christmas present.  A new tool chest.  I've been looking for awhile for a bigger tool chest to accomodate my ever growing tool collection.  So I finally broke down and went and got the biggest chest combo Canadian Tire offered in their store.   If it doesn't fit all my tools, then I think I need to get rid of some.

With alot of my garage time lately I've been transferring my tools into the new chest.

I'm still going to use my old tool boxes.  I think I'm going to use them to hold chevelle/engine parts and stuff like that.

I'm hoping with all the newly aquired storage I can cut down on the clutter, which can be seen on my tool bench in the above picture.   I know it's bad.....haha

I've also been using some of my time to make repairs on our family vehicles and getting our house ready for the winter. 

Here's my helper mechanic making some repairs to my Focus. 

Anyways, that's what I've been up to lately.  I will get back to the engine build soon.  If anyone has any suggestions on some tool chest organization tips I would gladly take some.  Just comment on this post.

Engine Build Pre-Assembly (Pushrods)

In my last post I had ordered my pushrods.  I actually lucked out and Comp Cams offers a kit for my exact setup with 7.725" intake pushrods and 8.684" exhaust pushrods.  So I placed my order through Summit Racing.  I have been getting most of my stuff through Summit because I find their service excellent.  Most everything I have purchased from there is lower price then anywhere I have found and they ship very fast.  I placed my order for the pushrods and it was shipped an hour later.  I got the pushrods the next day.

The kit I got are the 3/8" thick pushrods which is what I need because that is the size of the pushrod guideplates on my cylinder heads.  The guideplates do exactly what the name suggests.  They hold the pushrods and actually hold the rockerarms from walking around side to side when the engine is running. 

Next thing to do will be to perform the same checks as in my last post, but using the actual pushrods in place of the checking pushrods to see if I can get the same wear patterns on the valve tips.

In the picture below you can see the exhaust pushrod sitting nicely in it's guideplate.

Here is the wear pattern I got with the new pushrods.  If you notice, the wear pattern is slightly on the outboard side of the valve tip.  This is because I am still using the solid lifters in place of the hydraulic lifters for the checks.  Once I put the engine together for the final time using the hydraulic lifters I will be putting a preload on the lifter.  This basically means I will be tightening the rocker arm a small specific amount more which will push the lifter plunger down into the lifter body a small amount.  Once I put that required preload on these lifters that will bring the rocker arm travel exactly where I want it.

Here is a good picture showing the combustion chambers on one of the cylinder heads.  Look at the size of those valves!.... it's not going to be fuel efficient, that's for sure.

I put the other cylinder head on.

I set up the #2 cylinder valvetrain.  I'm going to see what the wear pattern looks like on this side, just to double check.  I didn't have to use the checking springs this time because I was using the actual pushrods and didn't have to worry about the spring pressure bending them like the pushrod checkers.

Wear pattern looks good on this side too.  Once again, a tiny bit on the outside tip of the valve.  But once the lifter preload is set this will be right in the middle.  The preload will be somewhere in the ball park of 0.030"-0.060".
 

Next thing I did today was set up my dial indicator on the top of the valve retainer.  I'm going to verify that my rocker arm ratio is actually 1.7.  This means that the rocker arm actually opens the valves 1.7 times the lift of the lifter.   During this check I'm also going to check the valve spring retainer to the valve seal clearance.

The dial indicator is set up on the valve spring retainer and set to zero.

The engine is turned over until max lift is achieved (the dial indicator stops and reverses direction at max lift).  This number is recorded.  At max lift I took a screw driver and pushed the spring down to take a look and verify the retainer to valve seal clearance.  I did not need to use a feeler gauge here, I could tell that there was plenty of clearance here.  It needed to be more then 0.070".

The picture below is kind of hard to actually see, but I was checking the distance between the top spring retainer to the valve seal on the bottom inside the spring.

Checking the intake side also

Here is max lift on the intake valve.  It read 0.550" lift.

For the exhaust valve I got a max lift of 0.566".  So in one of my previous posts I measured the lift at the actual lifters which was 0.319" on the intake and 0.330" on the exhaust.   If you take each of those and times them by the rocker ratio that gives my a theoretical lift of 0.542" (intake) and 0.561" (exhaust).   So my actual lift results are very close to theoretical lifts, only off by .008" (intake) and 0.005"(exhaust).  I will chalk that up to accuracy errors on the instruments.

I'm getting pretty close to being done the pre-assembly checks, just a few more things to do.