Back To Basics: Budget Rebuild

[sergechronos]

2nd block dropped off at the machine shop. Told them I don't want the short blocks reassembled unless necessary. No sense paying someone else to do something I can do on my own. Was told that I could probably expect the bill probably to run more than 500 total, but might be closer to the 1000 mark, they won't know till they start measuring stuff and seeing just how much machine work needs to be done.

Forged Block: ARP Main studs and line hone and/or line bore the mains if necessary (if there is any distortion upon tightening down), resize big ends of the rods to bring clearances to about .025mm, hone cylinders, balance rotating assembly, tank the block.
On the fence about re-using my King Bi-metals (have about 5 minutes run time on them) or going ahead and getting Clevite H bearings and having them WPC coated.

OEM spare block: turn spare crank, oversize bearings, line hone or bore the mains if necessary.
Cylinders are already known to be round, still in spec and have a fresh hone and rings.

We will see what happens.

[sergechronos]

Washed the car today for the first time in 15 months...


Progress on the fuel sender upgrade with a cruddy old sender for proof of concept. Concept works so next step is ordering a couple more and turning it into a finished product.

Finished the AN fittings on the water neck. May do a 2nd one since I have the extra water neck and sell it. Still need to make the lines themselves but that's pretty easy once. Get one of my short blocks back.

Made progress with a 99 bumper I'm restoring for someone.

Need to get my compressor back from a friend so I can get back to spraying paint on stuff that needs painting.

Did get the rear ds shock off..but damaged threads on the driver side rear trailing arm unfortunately getting the factory strut off. Going to try to repair it if possible but may now have to buy another one. Will need to torch the metal bushing to get it off and install the rear coil overs.

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[sergechronos]

Rings arrived from Wiseco today...5 sets of rings Hoping I can get this resolved. Looking to go to a different machine shop with this stuff as the current shop has managed to piss me off. They threw out my bearings from my original short block (literally 4 minutes of run time on them, brand new) without asking, they proceeded to argue with me over clearances for half an hour that 20 is too small and I should be at 35 or larger, and in general just irritated the piss out of me. Throw in the 3 week plus turn around time I can expect...Not really happy about it.

[CoopKill]

Crap tastic is flowing lately.

Sent from the Man Cave!

*\( ^o^ )/*

[sergechronos]

Yeah, going tomorrow to go pick it all up from this shop and take it to another shop nearly an hour away. Wish there were more shops capable of doing this shit, seems like all people want to do here is bowties and ovals.

[KeithMac]

First off great build thread, keep going at it the end is near .

Interested which parts you rounded off in the above picture, I've had two boxes with notchy shifting (even with engine off) so am interested to try this mod!, did you just round the inside and outside corners of the cage or is there more to it?.

[sergechronos]

Unfortunately my trans is at Chris' to get opened up and checked over before this rebuild is done.



Using my formidable MS Paint skills, I circled the areas to shave down here. The cage itself should remain untouched, or if you grind anything just a small hair of it.

If you hold the cage and turn the shaft, you will see and feel where the cage is contacting it if you have a problem. While I have not used the trans in driving yet, after grinding down those corners, I could much more smoothly rotate the shaft by hand, and when reinstalled in the trans, the shifter in the car was noticeably less notchy.

If you have a Dremel, an elongated tungsten carbide bit would probably be perfect for this. At the time I did it my dremel had busted so I just used a bench grinder.

[KeithMac]

Thanks!.

[sergechronos]

Honestly, if you could snap some pictures (or video) of it as you do it, might help others replicate it later. This plus a good trans oil should pretty much completely eliminate notchiness unless your trans is in need of a rebuild honestly.

Not sure if this applied to the 6 speeds as well, or if it's just the 5 speeds (both of them that I did this to were 5 speeds, an 18 and a 25 spline and had the same issue.)

[KeithMac]

Yep, I had an 18spline and now a 25spline so it makes sense, I wonder if the shift towers are the same? (bar the counterweight in the shift lever).