First Engine Assembly, and Parts Correction
Richard's Corvair
The Restoration of my 1960 Corvair
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Month 13 part 2
This is the second part of month 13, dealing mostly with the engine and mechanical assembly.
We borrowed a trailer and lifted the body onto it to take it to a shop where I could assemble the mechanical parts. It only took 5 people to lift it onto the trailer.
The engine is finally moving into full speed assembly. The engine stand was made from a Nissan truck crankshaft with a tensioning nut, half-inch steel plate, and miscellaneous tubes. It facilitates turning the engine over to whatever position is convenient.
You can see from the first two pictures that the .03 inch play in the crankshaft from the worn thrust bearing has completely gone away. The new thrust bearing only reduced it to .010 inches so I had to have it widened, then sanded it down to the correct .002” clearance.
A check of clearance of the new rings that came with the pistons and barrels showed they were not correct. I’ll assemble what I can of the engine while I await the arrival of the correct rings.
Here I’ve set up the pistons in the barrels to check the skirt clearance. One piston had bulges on both skirts and one on one skirt so they did not fit in their cylinders. The picture shows where it rubbed the cylinder and stopped going in. You can see light below the straight-edge resting on the bulge. I sanded out the bulges with 100 grit paper and polished with 1000 grit. Then we compressed the new valve springs to put in the keepers.
The crankshaft was machined to the 0.010 bearings that I bought. Here I’m installing those bearings and breaking in my new torque wrench.
Unfortunately as I tightened up the rod caps the engine became too tight. I decided to take it back apart, double check the match on the rod caps and finally test each bearing individually. I found that one bearing had a bulge near the end that I needed to sand off.
Assembly the second time around should be easy.
I’m starting to assemble the car so that the body shop can finish their work.
The gas tank is finally finished after waiting for the epoxy paint. Here are the top, bottom and inside views (taken through the sending unit hole. The sending unit is the reconstructed original and ready to install.
While I have the body up on a table I also decided to give the underside another layer of undercoating to protect it against stones and rust..
Here is the installation of the front suspension, which did not fit as easily as it should have since the body was cracked and the original suspension twisted. Also the lifting of the rear suspension and its final position in the car, ready for connecting the brakes.
Here is the engine compartment sanded and primed, then painted with the selected Turquoise Glamour. I decided it is darker than I want so I’ve picked a lighter turquoise.
We borrowed a trailer and lifted the body onto it to take it to a shop where I could assemble the mechanical parts. It only took 5 people to lift it onto the trailer.
The engine is finally moving into full speed assembly. The engine stand was made from a Nissan truck crankshaft with a tensioning nut, half-inch steel plate, and miscellaneous tubes. It facilitates turning the engine over to whatever position is convenient.
You can see from the first two pictures that the .03 inch play in the crankshaft from the worn thrust bearing has completely gone away. The new thrust bearing only reduced it to .010 inches so I had to have it widened, then sanded it down to the correct .002” clearance.
A check of clearance of the new rings that came with the pistons and barrels showed they were not correct. I’ll assemble what I can of the engine while I await the arrival of the correct rings.
Here I’ve set up the pistons in the barrels to check the skirt clearance. One piston had bulges on both skirts and one on one skirt so they did not fit in their cylinders. The picture shows where it rubbed the cylinder and stopped going in. You can see light below the straight-edge resting on the bulge. I sanded out the bulges with 100 grit paper and polished with 1000 grit. Then we compressed the new valve springs to put in the keepers.
The crankshaft was machined to the 0.010 bearings that I bought. Here I’m installing those bearings and breaking in my new torque wrench.
Unfortunately as I tightened up the rod caps the engine became too tight. I decided to take it back apart, double check the match on the rod caps and finally test each bearing individually. I found that one bearing had a bulge near the end that I needed to sand off.
Assembly the second time around should be easy.
I’m starting to assemble the car so that the body shop can finish their work.
The gas tank is finally finished after waiting for the epoxy paint. Here are the top, bottom and inside views (taken through the sending unit hole. The sending unit is the reconstructed original and ready to install.
While I have the body up on a table I also decided to give the underside another layer of undercoating to protect it against stones and rust..
Here is the installation of the front suspension, which did not fit as easily as it should have since the body was cracked and the original suspension twisted. Also the lifting of the rear suspension and its final position in the car, ready for connecting the brakes.
Here is the engine compartment sanded and primed, then painted with the selected Turquoise Glamour. I decided it is darker than I want so I’ve picked a lighter turquoise.
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