Visiting Hours

Just like you would visit your wife in the hospital if she was having reconstructive surgery, it was time to take a Saturday morning and pay a visit to the shop.



As you can see from the photos below, the critically-important structural work is well underway, including tearout and reconstruction of the front and rear torque boxes and inner rocker / frame rails.







I've been told many times about the virtues of patience in a project like this, so I'm not expecting a whole lot of progress at this early stage. But there was an excellent sense of renewed structural integrity when I was able to open and close the doors without any special effort.



It's been over 25 years since I've been able to do that. It was cool.

When a Broken Down Engine is Actually Fun

Cold temperatures seem to be settling into Chicago early this winter, so I'd like to get the engine broken down and to the shop before it becomes ridiculously cold to work in the garage. I have a small $20 space heater which keeps the work area tolerable, but not when it's 20 degrees out.

I have a great book called 'How to Rebuild Small Block Ford Engines' which is helping guide me through the engine breakdown and rebuilding process. I have been pleasantly surprised by how easy the disassembly has been. Pretty much everything has come off without too much effort, which I hope is a good sign.

First you take off the intake manifold..



then remove the heads (10 bolts each)...



Now get your hands on a puller and remove the harmonic balancer from the front of the crankshaft, then take off the timing chain cover...





Now, flip the engine upside down (which is pretty easy on the stand now that the block weighs a lot less) and remove the pistons. There's lots of details I'm glancing over here that are covered in the book I mentioned above...

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Now I can lift the crankshaft (which is pretty darn heavy) and remove the camshaft, and it'll be down to the bare metal with no more moving parts, ready to haul to an engine shop.



Brrrrrrrrr.