Progress report for New Year's week: all of the engine rebuild parts arrived and the fun began. Little things measured to 1/1000ths of an inch, cleaned, coated with assembly lube and torqued to the appropriate spec.
First the crankshaft, then the case halves, the bearings, the camshaft and lifters, and finally the piston rods. Sealing the case around the parts yields a complete short block.
The rings are installed on the pistons, the pistons gently inserted into the cylinders, the pistons/cylinders attached to each connecting rods using the wrist pins and the cylinders sealed to the case with aviation sealant.
The heads are bolted onto the cylinders and the valve train installed and adjusted to 5/1000ths of an inch gap. Valve covers installed and we've completed a long block.
The flywheel, clutch, pulleys, crankshaft tooth wheel, crankshaft sensor, oil cooler and engine tin are installed and the engine is ready for installation.
Oh, then I spin a heavy duty drill handle into my right hand. I've done it at least 20 times while building this car and escaped with bruises and very sore fingers. This time I heard a pop and while icing my hand, I figured that I'd broken a finger and maybe a wrist. Thirty minutes later the x-rays show a neat diagonal break on my 4th finger and that my wrist was just fine. A custom splint cast and wrapping later I was back at home taking ibuprofen and continuing to ice it. The strategy worked. No real pain and I was able to do a few low stress tasks before going out to pupus with friends at the beach. Here's a picture demonstrating how to measure 3 fingers of scotch. Could have been a lot worse!
