i just tore down my 302 and found the pistons to be heavily soiled with carbon as well as the valve seats. if this is normal and replacement isnt nessecary, what do i need to use to clean both the heads and pistons? im a kid and i have no one to teach me, so im sorta having to figure these things on my own. im sure i could buy a honda and go down to the local parts store and bolt on crap that i have no clue of its function, but i love muscle, i have to learn it. some one help me!!! and any other information you might have that a clueless kid might need for a rebuild would be immensely appreciated. thanx!
a wire brush will work, and a little carb cleaner or mineral spirits will make it easier. FYI if you don't want to tear down an engine to remove carbon, go down to your yamaha dealer and ask for a bottle of Ring free. Great stuff, add it to the fuel and it will eat a lot of carbon off the valves, pistons, combustion chambers, and injector tips. You can actually see this stuff work when you floor it and you see a ton of carbon smoke come out of the tailpipe
Hello. You need to take it slow. Safety Kleen is a product that is great for cleaning parts. You will need a metal bucket or wash pan. By the way, the machine shop that checks your block or prepares it for a rebuild can handle all of this by vatting the block. Also, if your motor has any miles on it over 50K since it was last built, you are probably needing an oversize bore. Analysis of this need is better left to machine shop experts or engine builders who know how to mic a block. That means checking for tolerances and clearances in the cylinder bores. If you are planning on saving money by doing a rebuild yourself, just be aware that you may be shooting yourself in the foot without proper checking, vatting and block prep. Many people attempt to re-ring and install new bearings in a motor to get by. Have your block checked and cleaned. Bore the block and install new oversize pistons if needed. If you don't need boring or if you have one bad cylinder, it can be bored and a stock size 'sleeve' can be installed to restore the original diameter to the cylinder. As far as your heads, again a builder or machine shop can take care of cleaning and rebuilding them. Rarely can an individual prepare heads at home. The valves need to seat and seal the heads properly. They can make sure it is done correctly the first time. In light of this you may consider a short block or long block assembly from a company that sells motors. You MAY save money. Just make sure it matches the year of your engine. By the way, short block is a complete assembly minus cylinder heads and intake, carb and exhaust. Long blocks are the same plus cylinder heads. I hope this helps. Undertaking a rebuild on your own with no experience, no guidance and probably without having the correct tools is not something that could turn out well for you. Sign up for a shop class or join a club. Find some friends that have experience. Buy books. All can help you learn. Good Luck. Seth
thanks for the help. also, a big thanks for the esteem killer. im obvioulsly not a complete moron and not completely unprepared, seeing as i at least have the capability to pull my engine. i started the overhaul because the bastard ford block was spewing oil like a texas oil derrick. i posted because i have my engine pulled, stripped down and ready to go, i just needed the small little tips that not all books provide. if i had a father or someone else around to help me i wouldnt have posted would I? and if i didnt do a little studying how the hell would i have gotten this far? oh, but youre right, ill go talk to my connection at summit racing and just get a new free long block sent this way, and dish out the thousands of dollars it will take build my ultimate mammoth muscle/drag car. sorry bub, we dont all have the cash, and if i did i wouldnt be an 18 year old dumbass trying to do all the work on my own. im looking for someone to teach me. not knock me down because im not part of the almighty tuners club. im thinking about turning to the dark side. i can see it now- 4 inch tips, humming, buzzing, euroclear tailights fading into the distance, the flapping of a rediculous body kit in the wind, as i soar through the air with my winged beast... no not beast... just thing. as i smoke away the imperious flock of a bygone hobby with parts strewn underhood, found at a local parts store. all thats left for you is the smell of overcooked rice. b.s. im just kiddin, but really cut me some slack, cause i really want to learn.
Engine rebuild To an extent I have to agree with your post, but the gentleman was just giving you his thinking on the subject. If you will just chill out some and let me talk you through the process I will be glad to do so. Have been where you are and built many on the floor, used parts and not so professional techniques. Always have been a person to learn by doing, made plenty of freakin mistakes and still do, but that is part of the process. To many guys now days send all the stuff out to a shop and put it back in the car or have someone else do it. Is fine if you got the bucks and sometimes is the best way if you are not mechanical inclined. I truly wish I could come to your place and help out but this board is probably going to be the classroom, I can teach and I can learn also from it, please take time to relax and give all here a chance to help. I will start with your first question, assuming the parts are ready for prep, I would first make sure the ring groove in the block is removed, this should be done before removing pistons, but either way the next step would be to wire brush and scrape the tops of the pistons(bench grinder with 6in brush works great). next is to break a top compression ring in half and use it to clean the ring grooves(use like a scraper in the grooves). Wash all the rods and pistons afterwards in solvent blow off with air etc. Remove the rod caps and clean these bores with emery cloth or brillo pads. Look for any flaws etc. I like to take a small file and lightly go over them and the sides to get rid of any burrs etc. New rod bolts would be great but the old ones if looking good can be reused in this case. Take a piece of grit cloth(drywall sanding cloth) and lightly go over the outside of the piston in a circular motion, not up and down from top to bottom, if no crack or scores are on them, put the rod caps back on each rod and throughly wash the whole assy again. The caps have to go on the same way they came off(bearing tang grooves go on the same side) or matching numbers of the cyl. they came from together. Should have been stamped from the factory or by you on the bolt side of the cap. Put these 8 dudes is a box or bags for now. Basically do the same for the heads, when you get to them let me know and we will go to that procedure. All this info is considering that your parts are in pretty good shape and need no major work done, this in mind, you should be able to build a good running engine for cheap and I bet even tear up a few guys with high dollar ones(done it alot of times in my day). Yeah, yours may rattle a little(lots of clearance etc.) and use a bit of oil but those are minor things at your age. Too do this rebuild and install it in the car then turn that key and she fires up, will give you a thrill that can't be described "You did it yourself my friend" and thats the name of that tune. Later in life as finances etc. become available, then you may want to advance to a little more machine work and better parts. For now you and we on this board that are willing , can get you through this. Don't end up a crabby old goat like me by stressing out at stuff that is just part of life in general. Will make one more comment on the subject, have torn down many small block Ford's with very high miles(more than 50,000 and found the cyld's with very little wear or other boo-boo's. Depends on how well they were taken care of, rebore is not always a must but can be if the block warrants it. Good luck my friend.
Mavsown... ..I don't recall thinking you were a 'moron'. I only offered my experience to help you. If you are looking for a budget rebuild, then by all means that is what WE should help you with. As Old Guy said, Use solvent to clean up your parts along with abrasive pads and wire brushes. Ask at the local parts store for types of solvent, don't use anything under the kitchen sink, YET! Also check around at the local supermarket type parts stores for tool loaning programs. They usually require a deposit, but you can save some money and do things correctly with these programs. A clean working environment is essential to engine rebuilding. Clean EVERYTHING metal as best you can. My suggestion, hit K-mart or Wal-Mart and buy a rifle cleaning kit with the wire pipe cleaning brushes. Use this with the solvent and save it because you will use it again later. The method that Old Guy mentioned for filing down the ring groove is one that I have used before, do as he says. As he mentioned, hopefully you have everything labeled as it came off of the engines: pistons, main bearing caps. They need to be in the same order going back. Check this website and pay attention to what they say about the crankshaft. Look for wear there. http://www.musclemustangfastfords.com/tech/0306mm_toohot/ Unfortunately it is hard to say where the break point is here for 'will it be okay'. IF there is wear or scoring on the crank, and you are installing new bearings, they will not have a proper fit. Look at counterweights on the crank. Try to see of you can find any stampings. Such as .010/.010 or the like. That identifies that the main bearing journals and the crank journals are undercut. Thus larger thickness bearings are installed. If there are no markings it should be a 'standard' crank. That will be important to know when you order your rebuild kit. Do your pistons have any numbers stamped on the top? Do you have an air compressor? Get lots of shop rags. Nothing that leaves lint. Go get some assembly grease, oil, plasti gauge and other pieces that Old Guy mentioned such as cleaning materials. When Old Guy has you done with the block analysis, you need to clean your block thoroughly with HOT soapy water, (kitchen sink). Some people don't like this but I was taught this method for final cleaning when I was very young. I even did it after my block was vatted. You would be surprised how much dirt soapy hot water and that rifle cleaning kit will find. You are going to dry it off with the air compressor nozzle. You want all of the oil, grease, water and soap off of the block. Fluids such as water, oil, grease don't compress very well and if you have something in a threaded hole you can end up with a crack when you starting torquing a bolt into it. After this you can take a rag and rub down the walls of the cylinders with oil as well as the lifter bores, light amounts only to prevent surface rust. Get to this point. Old Guy or someone here may be able to point you in the direction of some decent rebuild kits at affordable prices. Old Guy. Can you tell him what to look at as far as his cam bearings to tell if he needs to replace them? The last time I saw one a cam bearing tool was around $100. Maybe he can get one of those from the loaner program, but I am not sure about that one. You will need a honing tool before 'FINAL' cleaning. Old Guy should walk you through that step. Best of luck.
sorry to appear truly upset, i was only flirting with being truly offended. my rant was in a sarcastical jest, its hard to make evident ones intent by using only words. thats why i threw in the ridiculous dark side daydream. it was a failure on my behalf. thank you so much for not deeming me a complete waste of time, and thank you for your further explanation. i will follow through on the info you gave me and will post again to update you on my progress. sorry, once again.
hi, just want to add my .02 worth. building your own motor will give you a lot of satisfaction the first time you start it up. so by all means do as much as you can yourself. i'm not real smart when it comes to the mechanical side of things but i've managed to put a few motors together that stay to gether. one of the best things i've bought to help me and it saves a lot of time compared to asking questions and then having to wait for the answers is a book usually available at the local parts store. HP books "how to rebuild small block ford engines". about $15.95. ive also got the haynes manual "ford engine overhaul manual". these are 2 good books that answer a lot of questions. i go to a used book store every so often and see if they have any ford material. another source is E-bay. good luck.
Don't be intimidated by engine building. Actually, it's pretty easy, and very rewarding. Listen to Old Guy...he knows his stuff and fortunately is willing to share his knowledge. There are many that will not, and that is fine. The biggest thing is not to get intimidated and to think from the start that you can do it! Speaking from experience here.....The 351w mav headers almost got the best of me, but after I spent a week and a half on one side, the other just fell into place more or less. Keep at it and next thing you know it'll be running:bananaman
alright, thats the encouragement i was looking for!! o.k. old dude, my block is naked. ive not yet begun the cleaning process, but im ready to go to the store to pick up the nessecary supplies, i.e. tubs, solvent, abrasives, lubricants. are there part specific solvents or are mineral spirits great all around? lubricants? what is plastigauge for? sorry to ask so many questions, i just wanna do this correctly. the block looks sad as it sits there lonely, with its buds the crank and cam staring at it from across the distance. if only it new the beatiful life it has ahead of it. holy crap!!!! this is gonna be incredible!!! thanks again!!!
i just took a gander at the block cast. # and it read D2OE-6016-AB. am i wrong or is my block out of a 72' torino?i guess it doesnt really make a difference, or does it??
