So I’ve been busy...
Surgery last week went well, finger’s healing very quickly, so I’m back into it. Picked up my block and head from KCs last Saturday: sleeve in No.3, decked and honed the block, retaining the .040” oversize. The job done on the sleeve is superb:
The head was dismantled and skimmed flat, new stem seals fitted, nothing done to the valves themselves as they’re seating perfectly.
Oh and I asked Jack to press off the old crank timing gear and the new JP billet one for me. Relieved to hear that he had quite a struggle with it too...
So pleased with the work they did! And very reasonable. Highly recommended for anyone in Sydney.
While I was up in Castle Hill, I killed time with a slightly depressing drive down to see what’s left of the old Amaroo Park Raceway (pretty sure that’s the main straight & Bitupave Hill!) before visiting old timer John, who still builds gearboxes in his shed for very reasonable money. We came to the conclusion that he’s the same guy who revived an Opel four speed for the 186S HT Monaro I owned in the 90s. Terrible box that was... but man, he has a heap of great old stuff!
I left two of the three crash boxes I have with him to check over and overhaul as needed for me - the gearsets are both good, but bearings & synchro unknown. He’ll do it better & cheaper than I ever could.
He also donated to me this NOS Grey motor water pump shaft & bearing - he said he has no use for it! If anyone wants this part, make me an offer, I’ve already got water pump sorted for my motor:
With bore size confirmed, the last piece of the puzzle was ordered in: piston rings. I was going to get Mahle rings as I’ve used them on all but one motor I’ve built (ACL piston & ring kit in the 186S), but had no luck through my usual channels getting them in .040 Oversize. So I’m using Hastings for the first time. I’m momentarily worried that they are not tapered - they have no dot denoting “top” like the original rings do, so they go in either way up. But I’ve read good reviews so I’m rolling with it.
Ring gaps are ok. Not amazing, but totally fine: workshop manual says .010 (+.006) which I assume is standard piston size.
Using the widely used calculation for ring gap by piston size, my 3.1” pistons should be around .015” gap.
I’ve found they’re all around .018-.019 and that’s just fine by me.
I was perversely looking forward to rigging up my home spun ring gapping tool using a dremmel bit on a drill... but it looks like I won’t be touching them at all!
Next task in my pre-assembly was to go for a drive up to Rob (ardiesse)’s place and not only purchase one of the modified-for-improved-cooling head gaskets from him, but also pick his brain for as much Grey-centric advice as I could, being as this is my first one. Bloody great help to have access to his wealth of knowledge. His FC is a real beauty too, not to mention the story behind his Humpy that has been to Ayers Rock and back!
So tonight I drilled out the coolant passages near number 6 cylinder in both head and block, as per the NASCO service bulletin instructions, and it was a breeze. The results are below.
Crank and pistons will be next, and the dreaded rear main malarkey too... hopefully over the weekend.
Cheers, Joe.
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