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EFV-8 Club Forum / General Ford Discussion / Engine Rebuild Done (sort of)

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Posted By Discussion Topic: Engine Rebuild Done (sort of)     Stroker 04-30-2011 @ 3:03 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 1460 Joined: Oct 2009 Turning the engine by the counterweights sort of factored-in with my response. If the rod bearings were tight, I don't believe he would be able to turn the crank at all in this manner. Since this thread has expanded a bit from the original question to advice for others, I would add that besides triple-checking clearances, and using a good grade of assembly lube, I like to immerse the pistons in a clean coffee can partially filled with motor oil after the rods and rings are installed. This gets oil behind the rings, in all the ring lands, and around the wrist pins. Another caveat is that simply cleaning a block with solvent after machining is not sufficient. The solvent will not "lift" the machining detritus away from the cast iron bores. A good scrubbing with a laundry detergent such as Tide is much better; followed by an oil wipe-down to prevent rusting. I have a very understanding wife. She returned from a shopping trip one day to find a small engine block in her dishwasher. I still have both the family jewels, and the engine went on to set a land speed class record. There was of course, a "discussion" regarding priorities. oldford2 04-30-2011 @ 2:17 PM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 275 Joined: Oct 2009 If you wait until the crank is installed and connecting rods and pistons are installed to check resistance, and there is excessive resistance you don't know what is causing it. With the crank on the bench I install and torque the rods and check each one. If the rod is lifted and released, I like it to gently fall down. If one or more is too tight you can take corrective action on the rod. Then remove the rods and proceed with assembly. Just my 2 cents worth. Did you prelube all the bearings? John supereal 04-30-2011 @ 11:45 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 6819 Joined: Oct 2009 The usual problem with a "tight" engine is incorrect bearing clearance. The rod bearing clearance is .0015-.0035 for the 59A. For the 8BA, it is .0008 to .0033. If the 59A engine was set up to the later specs, it will be tight. The new 59A pistons should be set with .003 to .005 for aluminum. The 8BA clearance for new pistons in a new bore is .0015 Fit is measured with a scale to determine the "pull" required to move them through the bore, between 6 to 12 pounds, 3 to 12 for the later engines. These seem like minor differences, but are considerable in practice, and enough to make direct comparison with the later engine impractical. If you get the engine running, you shouldn't exceed a fast idle until you observe that there is no serious overheating. Breakin will likely take extra time, depending on how it was set up. grandpasshoebox 04-30-2011 @ 10:33 AM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 12 Joined: Jul 2010 Stroker is right. I had the same concern after putting my 8BA back togther. Fortunately a friend of mine had one professionally rebuilt at the same time so I compared the torque required to turn it over by the crank bolt and it was spot on. swmddo 04-28-2011 @ 1:44 PM reply profile send p.m. New Member Posts: 111 Joined: Oct 2009 Thanks, Stroker! It is always good to have some confirmation from someone who has done it before, and knows what to expect. Appreciate the help! Steve Stroker 04-28-2011 @ 1:35 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 1460 Joined: Oct 2009 Based on your above described procedures, I'd say things are going well. Turning an assembled engine (sans heads) by hand will be difficult at this point. Remember that you are now sliding 8 pistons/40 rings (with varying degrees of leverage), moving 16 valves (some working against you; and some closing). All this adds up to quite a bit of drag. To help "free-up" the engines at the factory; Ford would spin them for a period of time using large electric motors that drove the output shaft on the transmission. Since we don't have these available today, you will have a run-in period once you fire it up. swmddo 04-28-2011 @ 12:41 PM reply profile send p.m. New Member Posts: 111 Joined: Oct 2009 Ok, I got my 59AB block back from the machine shop, with all surfaces ground properly, measurements all correct. I installed the re-ground crankshaft, new bearings, (the machine shop put valves and cam in and adjusted each valve), and torqued the bolts as recommended. The crank turned fairly easily, but certainly didn't spin freely, so I felt good. After replacing the one broken ring (previous discussion of mine!), I installed all of the new pistons (oversized to fit the new bore), and checked each one for any binding around the bearings. With all of them in now, I can barely move the crankshaft with pushing and pulling on the counterweights. Each set of rods/caps (pre-1949 bearings) fit snugly around the bearings and have a slight side to side play, but nothing extreme. And the nuts were all torqued to specs. Having never done this before, I don't know how "tough" it should be to turn the crankshaft. Is what I described the norm? Thanks Steve

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