3.3SS rebuild finally underway..........

[fred cook]

Pulled the rods off the crankshaft yesterday. Did a bunch of measuring and found that the mains and rod journals appear to be in great shape with little or no wear. The only bearings that showed any wear were the thrust bearing and the intermediate shaft bearings. Will get the crank journals polished and measured at the engine shop just to be certain that standard bearings will go back into the engine.

Meanwhile, I have been cleaning the block halves, chain housings, cam housings, etc. It is going to take a while to get 33 years of grunge off of everything! Unfortunately there is no place local that can blast the parts with dry ice or anything that would not damage the sealing surfaces so this will involve lots of "elbow grease" and time.

[fred cook]

With the help of a Mapp gas torch and my left handed metric pipe wrench I managed to remove all of the Dilivar studs out of the block this afternoon, also did some more cleaning on both block halves. Another cleaning session or two and they should be ready to reassemble. Also made a thread chaser out of one of the Dilivar studs by cutting slots in the threads and then cleaning the threads of old debris. Will use this to run in and out of the threaded bores to make certain the old sealant is removed. The next step (Monday) is to take the crank to the engine shop and have it polished and checked for wear. I believe it will be ok, but "just in case"! Once it is back from the shop I will be able to order the bearing sets. Who knows, I might be ready to start reassembling the engine in a week or so! A picture of one of the broken studs.

[fred cook]

Still working on getting things clean. Here are before and after pictures of one side of the engine block. Still have some small spots to work on, but it's almost there. The right side of the block is in about the same condition as the after picture, just have a few small areas to work on. Once the engine cleaning is done, it's time out to clean the shop floor!

Before


After

[Lapkritis]

Nice work Fred. I used the same dilavar chaser for mine. Also works great for chasing the case through bolt acorns clean with wd40 and then a little carb or brake clean. Keep it up- you're moving at a great pace (much faster than I).

[fred cook]

Finished cleaning the block halves, the chain housings and the cam housings today. Installed the new lower head studs using "red" thread locker. Also (finally) got my pressure washer started and gave the tranny a good bath! Jobs for tomorrow include cleaning the SSI exhaust headers of grunge from the oil leak, installing the rings on the pistons and (maybe) installing the Mahle pistons into the LN cylinders. Also need to do some light cleaning on the crankshaft. If time permits, I might even put the black wrinkle finish on the cam covers! Still trying to decide what color to paint the fiberglass engine shroud. Don't particularly like the red, might use a bright yellow which would match the seat belts and door pulls. Also need to find time to start installing the XDi ignition system. Hmmm, looks like the rest of the week will be a busy one!

[fred cook]

Got the SSI exhausts cleaned up this morning. They had gotten very oily/dirty from the oil leaks. Took me about 3 hours to clean both sides. While I had them on the work bench (after cleaning) I did a test fit on the Carrera heads. Discovered that I will have to replace the exhaust studs in the heads to accommodate the thick flanges on the SSI exhausts. Some pictures.

[warlock]

Wow Fred, those SSIs look like new. Could you expand on the cleaning process and the chemicals used ?

[fred cook]

Originally Posted by warlock

Wow Fred, those SSIs look like new. Could you expand on the cleaning process and the chemicals used ?

I used some POR15 marine parts cleaner, a can or two of brake cleaner, a couple of wire brushes, a water hose and about 4 hours of labor! Some of the grunge on the SSIs was baked on so hard that I had to use a small screwdriver as a scraper to break it loose. At least it was fairly cool and most of the time I was working in the shade just outside my shop. The nice thing about the POR15 Marine cleaner is that it is water soluble and biodegradable. I use it in my parts washer as well.

[fred cook]

First thing this morning I worked on the heads a bit. The exhaust studs were too short to work with the thick flange SSI exhausts that I have so I had to remove the existing studs and replace them with longer ones. Must have had a Leprechaun or two in my pocket as all of them came out without too much trouble. Replaced them with some 8nn x 50mm studs. Was really glad to get that done without breaking any! Next I started working on putting a black wrinkle finish on the rocker covers. They turned out pretty good but need to dry overnight before I buff off the "Porsche" letters on the uppers and the ribs on the lowers. Pictures tomorrow when they are done! I also finished putting the rings on the pistons, installed one wrist pin circlip in each piston (what a pain!) and installed the pistons in the LN Engineering cylinders. Oh, yes, I also swept out the shop in preparation for a floor mopping tomorrow! Tearing down a dirty engine REALLY makes a mess! Received a parts order from PP late this afternoon, so now I have main and rod bearings, new head nuts and washers and some other bits needed for the new engine. Thanks PP for the fast delivery, ordered on Monday, received on Wednesday! Here are a couple of pictures.

Cylinder head with new exhaust studs!


Another view showing the combustion chamber and the threaded holes for the twin plugs!


Nice fat intake port!


Mahle 10;1:1 piston in LN Engineering cylinder


Another view of piston and cylinder

[fred cook]

Finished painting and highlighting the rocker covers. Detail cleaned the crankshaft and a couple of other small parts that were still dirty. Painted the engine shroud and made a set of hold-downs for the cylinders. I also did a trial fit of the cylinders/pistons and marked them for location. Also did a trial fit of one cylinder head while I was at it! Boxed up and stored some parts that will not be reused. Tomorrow will do the final cleaning on the block and start putting it back together.

[Flat6Heaven]

Wow! Thanks for sharing.

Ben.

[Aurel]

What type of paint did you use on the valve covers? I was going to have mine powder coated, but what you did looks good.

[Lapkritis]

Looks great Fred. Moving right along.

[KTL]

Don't forget to notch the chain box for the lower spark plugs- note how the lower valve cover only has a half-circle. The other half of the circle is made by opening the "blank" on the chain box.

[fred cook]

Originally Posted by Aurel

What type of paint did you use on the valve covers? I was going to have mine powder coated, but what you did looks good.

I used the VHT brand "wrinkle" finish black paint. If you can warm up the parts before painting you will get a more pronounced "wrinkle" effect. The best way to warm the parts is to stick them in the oven at a low temp for a few minutes. Of course, it is best to do so when the wife is away! Good luck on your project!

[fred cook]

Originally Posted by KTL

Don't forget to notch the chain box for the lower spark plugs- note how the lower valve cover only has a half-circle. The other half of the circle is made by opening the "blank" on the chain box.

Thanks, I had not thought about that! Good tip!

[fred cook]

Spent most of the day cleaning parts, sorting out stuff that won't be reused and cleaning gasket surfaces. Finally, late this after noon I got the new main bearings installed and the oil pump/timing gears and chains installed. I put the rebuilt/balanced rods on the crankshaft last night after giving the crank one last cleaning so it will be ready to go into the block tomorrow. Then come the fun of putting the sealant on the block halves and getting it bolted together in a timely manner! Some pictures.

The old Dilivar studs. Notice the one new coated stud. It came out of the right side of
the engine.


Crankshaft and rods waiting to go into the block


Block half on engine stand w/oil pump assembly.


Top half w/bearings installed

[fred cook]

Put the crank and rods back in the block, put sealer on, added the 3 oil passage seals and put the block back together. I discovered that I was missing one of the special washers for the thru-block bolts but used a regular washer temporarily to torque the bolts. Will order the special washer along with a couple other items on Monday. When the block bolts were tightened, some of the Loctite sealer "squished" out around all the edges so hopefully there won't be any oil leaks (fingers crossed!). Put the breather cover, oil thermostat, oil pressure sender and the two oil relief valves back on. Some pictures. Next step is to install cylinder #1 and check the deck height. Once deck height is settled, will add a head and verify piston to head clearance. Since these pistons are only 10.1:1 with a relatively low dome, I don't expect any problems with the piston to head clearances but will verify anyway!

Right side of block. Wires hold up the rods so they won't bang on the spigots.


Left side of block


Will fit #1 piston and cylinder next to determine deck height.

[fred cook]

Let's see, installed the rear main seal, flywheel and XDi front pulley/sensor wheel. Also installed all of the piston/cylinder sets......except for one (1) wrist pin circlip that decided it would rather deform than go into place! So, a call Don at EBS to get a couple more of the 23mm clips on the way. Put the cylinder heads into place mainly to keep trash out of the cylinders. Not torqued, just "in place". What do you know....... starting to look like an engine!

If you are reading this thread, I am sure that you also read Henry's thread about the 3.1SS engine built for a customer overseas. Well, I liked the looks of his air diverter pieces so much that I ordered a set from him. Got notice that they were shipped this morning. The old set that was on my engine was in pretty sad shape, peeling paint, rust, etc. so it wasn't too hard to justify getting these parts. So, it looks like I get a couple of days off until the piston circlips and the engine pieces arrive. Probably should start looking at how I'm going to mount the coil units for the XDi system. Also need to do a little porting on the intake runners that match the air box to the heads. The runners are 38mm inside diameter and the head ports are 42mm. So, they will need to be opened up about 2mm all the way around! Where's the Dremel?

[KTL]

XDi will take some work with your CIS in terms of spark plug wire routing and the wire lengths.

The DFU (coil board/Direct Fire Unit) platform that Clewett makes is very nice when you've got carbs or throttle bodies, which allows the area between the throttles to be very open. Platform mounts on standoffs that screw into the engine case breather cover studs.