Parts are accumulating! The build is near!

[80Stang]

Great! Building engines is sooooo much fun.

Now when you are at it, pay attention to your paint job. Do not paint with spray cans, if you want it to look great for long time and want the paint not to fly off when you wash your engine bay with your water pressure gun.

So take your time using an air paint gun and high quality paints. I painted most parts in my car's bay first with epoxy primer and then with Sikkens Autocoat BT paints, and I love the results. No paint is going to last long if the surface was not cleaned properly, so take your time with that first. Don't worry about heat resistance; there are noticeable heat effects only close to exhaust ports of the head, and down in the "head bolt wells" between intake and valve cover. My painted GEN1 engine was welded a little bit due to damage to alt attachment, and the paint didn't get damaged further than 2" from where it was welded. It sticks...the guy at the shop was amazed how it didn't burn off more.

 

[addo]

Hey Kris, do me a favour and promise you'll observe the following:

•Use wsaIII's method for the rear main seal (It should also be extremely stiff to turn)
•Place sealer on the flywheel/flexplate bolts
•Dial the cam to verify all card specs
•Be sure all rings are the right way up...
•Pack the oil pump with moly grease
•Last thing before fitting the head, set the motor to TDC compression on #1 (do not turn it again before startup)
•Confirm valve spring compressed height
•Snag a dual advance points dizzy for startup - no ifs or buts about sparking and you can test this without cranking
•Use a carb removed that very day from a good running car and prefill the float bowl.
•Verify the starter is in good condition and meshes correctly.

After break-in, you can swap the carby and distributor. Do it this way and it will cough into life on the second turn. This list is in addition to all the usual stuff but should save you 85% of the distressed "New Motor, won't start" posts we get at times!

There ya go!

 

[WhitePony]

Teppo, OK, but you should be glad that you are on the other side of the planet if I'm going to have a compressed air paint gun in my hands. Everybody needs to put their kids and pets behind locked doors and be sure not to drive within 10 miles of my house! LOL Honestly, I was thinking about getting a paint gun, but I don't have any experience with them. I know that I'd have a better selection of colors, but I'm worried that I'll get either the mixture or the sprayer settings wrong and poodle the job up. I WILL make sure that the engine is clean and oil free before painting in any case.

Adam, I was planning on doing some of those things that you listed anyway, but I don't know where I'd get some of the things that you listed. I only have the old vacuum only dizzy and 2 DS2's, and I don't have another carb that will fit on this head besides the 5200 with the adapter. I can certainly see where it would be advisable to start like that, but unless someone around here has a points dizzy and a carb that will fit my head, I'm going to have to run with what I have.

I had the block remanned and assembled, and other than checking the torque, and degreeing the cam, I wasn't planning on doing anything to the block. Whitout removing the pistons, is there any way to confirm that the rings are in right? The engine shop where I had the work done has a good reputation here. As far as the head goes, I STILL am trying to find the right springs so I can ditch the stock ones. I don't want to have to do any more machining to the head, and I know that alot of uprated springs will require that.

So many pieces to the puzzle!

Kris