FB Standard Wagon

[Harv]

Harv already has the lifters.

Those lifters spent some quality time at Clive's Day Spa for Old Holden Cams. Awaiting their new home in a certain FED

Cheers,
Harv

[FbSTDwagon]

So I picked up the phone and rang HSD about their rods and asked a few questions.

It seems ‘direct replacement’ doesn’t mean ‘direct replacement’

The small end bushes are machined at .749” not .750” like I would expect and need.

Apparently gudgeon pins vary in size and the rods need to be finished machined to suit your actual pin.
Therefore they need your pin to match the rod..

So I’d have to send them a pin and pay for pin boring of the small ends.

That plus shipping would see the exercise cost about $900 and another week or 2 in waiting.

So i asked about pros and cons on adjusting the pistons heights and this is something that is common practice…

My pistons have .440” crown thickness so machining a max of .015” off one of them is no problem.

I’m going to go ahead and adjust the pistons to suit the rod and rebalance them at home on the kitchen scales.

This way I’ll be weeks ahead and save $900.

Decision made, now to get it done.

[Harv]

$900 is not cheap, but is 2/3 the cost of the similar Eagle Mitsi rods. Good to see the choice made, and good luck with the machining.

Cheers,
Harv

[Errol62]

Sounds like a plan Drew


FB ute fixer upper, EK van on rotisserie

[FbSTDwagon]

Cheers Harv and Clay.

I am 100% confident in the plan and it means some more fun time on the machines making some tooling and then using the tooling to finish the job.

So yesterday arvo I picked up a bore dial guage to check a few measurements.

Bores are exactly to spec at .003” clearance.

Main tunnel is even all the way through to .0005”
Will re measure the main tunnel with the bearings fitted on final assembly to get exact journal to bearings clearance measurements, but plastiguage told me it’s all .0025” - .003”.

Now that all of the bearings are removed and I have the measurements I will make a install tool for the RMS.

[Errol62]

They did a good job on machining the block at least

Sent from my SM-G781B using Tapatalk

[FbSTDwagon]

Yes block not looking too bad Clay, I’m sleeping well now I have double checked it all.

RMS install tool made…

[sgo]

Curious as to what this tool does ?

[FbSTDwagon]

Curious as to what this tool does ?

It’s a dolly to shape the RMS (rear main seal)
It’s machine .006 on the diameter smaller than the RMS journal in the crank so when I press the RMS into position with the dolly it won’t go too deep.

[sgo]

Cool , thanks.

[FbSTDwagon]

Custom fly cutter made for the machine job required on the piston tops.

Very happy with the surface finish and mill is accurately cutting to .001”.

So it full steam ahead, now to make to fixture to hold the pistons tight on the mill bed when they are getting decked.

[FbSTDwagon]

Made up the piston holding fixture, basic so it can’t go wrong.

Polished .003 off an old gudgeon pin to use for the main locator, made 2 pins that fit inside the gudgeon to clamp it down.

Works well and clamps tight without any damage.

Will clock up the piston on the axis of the clamps to ensure it’s sitting true then simply deck them to the individual heights required.

Old piston got sacrificed for a test and she seems to be all apples.

[Fex]

Drew, I’m not too familiar with milling machines so forgive the question. How do you true I up so you’re taking an even amount off across the piston? The amounts you’re talking are minuscule. And how do you take off, say 3 thou? Do you just dial it up?

Cheers; Andrew

[FbSTDwagon]

Drew, I’m not too familiar with milling machines so forgive the question. How do you true I up so you’re taking an even amount off across the piston? The amounts you’re talking are minuscule. And how do you take off, say 3 thou? Do you just dial it up?

Cheers; Andrew

Gday Fex, thanks for the question.
My machine had a digital read out which is pretty accurate.
Cross checking that with other measuring tools like a micrometer or dial indicator gives me the confidence to trust the read out.
During the day today making the fly cutter and the piston fixture I cross checked the digital read out and she is pretty accurate for this particular job.
The piston is clamped onto a parallel so that axis has a fixed height, the opposite axis which is held fast by the clamps is a variable so essentially the piston could be crooked.
That’s where I use I dial indicator to ensure that axis is flat to .000’
Then I simply touch the cutter on top of the piston and remove the material required for that piston to match it up with the other cylinders.
I’ll post a few other photos as I start to hit the individual pistons.

[FbSTDwagon]

Got home today and found myself at the point where I’m ready to start building the donk.

Gave it a kero clean and a hose off then a dry off with 100psi inside and out. Cylinder and lifter bores oiled up.

Fitted the welsh plugs and grub screws etc.

Had to machine a custom plug for the front oil gallery as that size welsh plug is unobtainable, well I can get them but they are too small and float around in the hole so I just made one to suit.

Fitted the oil elbow in the block for the full flow oil filter.
Oil pump and pipe needed to be dummied up to ensure alignment of the whole unit.

Next up is the crank and rear main seal.