This moment is the fourth most exciting part of the build for me. The final assembly! Now fourth may not sound very high. It's not even on the podium in a proper race right? But consider what's ahead of it in ascending order- install into the car, the first start up, the first time at wide open throttle to redline! It give's me chills just typing that. I think success can be so much sweeter after such a long wait. So on with it!
The block came back from the machine shop, Doug's in West Columbia, SC. Nice little indie shop nearby. I had a much better experience compared to the national chain store place I went to earlier in the year. Check out the handy-work on the deck in the shot below. Clean!
I was waiting for the deck to be done before giving the bores a freshening with a Flex-hone. It was very easy and a little fun too. I set a medium sized cardboard box with the bottom punched out around the engine-on-stand so that the box was centered at the height of the deck. This served as a splash shield since I planned to liberally apply cutting fluid during the honing process. Although I had bought a bottle of Flex-hone branded cutting oil, I ended up using WD-40 just because spraying was easier one-handed.
There are two tricks to using a Flex-hone that are most important. First is to have the tool spinning at speed prior to entry. The second is the oscillation speed. To get the 60º cross hatch spec'ed in the manual I had to move much faster than I had imagined. The good thing is you can rework the surface if the first pass isn't quite right. See my results.
Deck is good. Bores are good. Next step, piston install!
There they are preassembled on the rods.
Some oil on the piston rings and skirts. I'm using SAE30 because it's laying around and as soon as oil pressure is up at the first start up it will be replaced... that's my theory at least. Anyway, the rings have been "clocked" per the factory service manual. First compression ring near one intake valve recess, second near the other, and the three part oil control ring near one of the exhaust valve recesses with 15º between each. Also, unlike the D-series piston and rod assembly the F/K-series combo is a slip fit. I lightly tapped the wrist pin in with a rubber mallet and a 15mm socket. Unlike the wire style clips on the factory pistons, the Rockauto.com house brand pistons use a more standard C-clips.
Now prepping the block with OE bearings. A little assembly lube and the crank drops in. The lube I've chosen is Permatex Ultra Slick. I added a little to the mains, rods and thrust bearings.
As you can see it's a small bottle. it doesn't take much.
Then, because of the "bulkiness" of the main brace/bridge (a good thing as far as I'm concerned) I've elected to torque the rods prior to installing the mains. I wanted to keep the crankshaft from moving to be sure I was getting accurate torque readings and not go crazy chasing it around. I could have just put two flywheel bolts in and held them still with a pry bar, but that wasn't the first thought I had. This was...
A scrap piece of MDF with a foam packing sheet wrapped around. This worked quite well!
This is the bulky main bridge I was referring to. Notice the M6 (10mm head) bolts at the edge that tie into the perimeter block structure. Later designs (the K-series) take this design a step further with a "lower block" casting that incorporates about 35mm of the block structure with the main caps into one piece. I do like this design though as it reduces the potential leak points for oil.
So here it stands for now. Pistons in. Crank and rods all set. Head studs threaded in hand-tight. Next step includes finishing the oil pump and install, rear main seal housing install and cylinder head test fit and clearance check. Until then, thanks for reading!
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