Engine rebuild continues: crank in, pistons half done
Tags: 350 crankshaft engine pistons rebuild
After the fun with the cam bearings, fitting the crank was relatively straightforward, though first I had to remove the flywheel and damper that had been put in place when it was all balanced.
Still, the second time round that was a fair bit easier.
Then it was just a matter of pushing the bearings in place, gently lowering the crank in place, putting on the main caps, and torquing them up.
Or rather, that's the theory. In practice, I had to clean up the threads on a couple of the bolts (I'd already cleaned the threads in the block and managed), which have put the caps in the right order and direction were suddenly a lot stiffer than the finger-tight they had been. Fortunately, I'd ordered a 7/16 UNC die off eBay around the same time I bought the plug taps for the block.
Once that was done, the rest was easy, and after tightening all the bolts to 75lbft, the crank was done, and move just as smoothly as you could have hoped for.
Yesterday I tackled the pistons, and got four of them in, having put the rings in and soaked them in oil. It's a fiddly job at times, but as long as you don't rush it, is quite enjoyable. The only hiccup was that one of the pistons had suffered a very small nick on the edge of one of the ring grooves and I had to file it out ever so gently so the ring could move freely.
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