Continuing through September 2013 and as the parts arrive for the block attention was turned to the re build. I was lucky enough to acquire 4 brand new standard size 600cc pistons complete with rings, so I wanted to fit these. However, it soon became clear I did not have the tools to carry out any adjustments in fitting them to the rods. So I decided to send these off to L E Cramer. 9/9/13 and the piston assemblies arrive fully assembled.
These replacement pistons were a little different to the originals. The gudgeon pin was a slightly different size, the skirt does not feature a split & the top is not marked "FRONT" to denote annotation according to the front of the engine.
By this stage the coolant void of the block had been de scaled. With the help of a piston ring compression tool (motorcycle size) and lubrication, each piston assembly is pushed into the cylinder. One thing neglected at this stage was to check the gap in the rings. This would become something retrospectively done. For now the assemblies will be left in the block awaiting the main bearing shells.
As the parts began to arrive the rebuild got going in earnest. New big end shells, new main shells, new timing chain, new timing chain cover oil seal & restored front and rear plates were all fitted. A new sump had to be purchased as the original had a spot of rot. The replacement features a different drain plug as the thread was changed after the 3/25. A later style water pump is fitted with a three bladed plastic fan. I was careful to avoid the nasty cast Indian examples. The newer style pump sits slightly further forward than the dynamo pulley wheel and the crank pulley wheel, but at this stage I did not have a NOS pump for the 600cc block. I had intended swapping the pulley from an old pump, but soon realised that the shafts are different diameters. There was concern that the new style pump would be too long and foul the radiator. However, I measured up one of the other blocks and compared. The new pump is barely a few MM longer. The fuel filter was fitted along with the other items. Assembly of the block was done very carefully following the workshop manual & Elvis' excellent book. Failure to set the arch pieces properly can lead to oil leaks & It turns out this is exactly what happens ! To aid the gaskets I used Reinzosil instant gasket / sealer.
A new build oil pump was fitted but there were concerns about its operation. The 600cc distributor rotates the opposite direction to the later engines. Therefore the shaft that drives the pump also rotates the opposite way. The concern was that if the pump was for later engines, it could end up just blowing bubbles in the oil. a rudimentary test of filling the pump with oil and rotating the shaft showed it lifted oil. One of the features my Father added to the car was an oil pressure gauge. Once the engine is ready for testing, this will be rigged up to help diagnose the pumps functionality.
In preparation for attaching the head number one cylinder is set to TDC. However, I created an awful lot of work when one of the bolts on the front plate snapped. My first idea was to drill the centre of the bolt and use an extractor to undo the bolts shaft. This did not go at well and the extractor snapped the end off leaving bearing grade steel in the centre of the entombed bolt. My first attempts to drill this out were alarming as I had no stand for the block and no pillar drill for stability. As I wanted to avoid re drilling and re threading the bolt hole I decided to take the block to a local engineers to see what they could do. Sadly, other than snapping lots of drill bits the advice was arc erosion. Since this sounded specialist, and therefore expensive, I took the block back home and purchased a load of diamond tipped burrs for my Dremmel. Over a period of several days I carefully hollowed out the bolt and was able to pick it out of the thread as I went. Re drilling the thread would have been risky as the bolt hole is drilled into a part that extends into the engine block by the crankcase & coolant void & the alloy may have been too thin.