Hello everyone,

I'm finally getting my slant out of the rusty place it's in. I was just planning to have it running but seems I'm having so much trouble to do so and I took the head off, I figured out I'd have a go and see what's going down below.
I ordered a few parts which should be coming soon inclunding : rod bearings, oil pump, timing set, cam bearings, lifters and a few others.
The problem is that I now figured I shouldn't spend so much money on an engine that's not gonna see any performance mods and moreover an engine that's supposed to last forever... Also, given I didn't buy any new pistons or rings, I'd better not do a half-assed rebuild and find myself with new parts breaking because of old ones...
So here's my questions : when I take this engine apart, unless I find a completely shot crank and rods, what should I absolutely replace to make it worth a few thousands miles more? The more parts I save, the better will be my next slant (I have another block waiting).
What about the cylinders? There's a good amount of crud at the top of the cylinder. What can I remove it with? What about honing (no reboring...)? Does it take experience to do it right?
Since I'm a begginer, I'm also gonna try to port it but only gasket matching and then a bit of bowl job if I feel lucky.
Hope my post makes a bit of sense, it's 9 in the morning here and it's been a bit rough this night.
Thank you all for your help.

Marc

Welcome aboard. It is great to have slant friends from around the globe. It's too bad you did not, or could not do a compression check while you had it together. We don;t know if your rings and valves seal. To be on the save side, I would install new rings, hone the bores, and do a valve job. Reassemble it carefully, and drive it.

Since you have another one in the wings, put your creativity and engineering skills into that one. The beauty of these engines in their stock state is their simplicity , and the fact that they will run OK with such a wide tolerance in their specs. My vote is to just get this one going, and not get bogged down in the minutia, or you may have it apart forever and lose interest ulltimately.

Sam

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Welcome aboard. It is great to have slant friends from around the globe. It's too bad you did not, or could not do a compression check while you had it together. We don;t know if your rings and valves seal. To be on the safe side, I would install new rings, hone the bores, and do a valve job. Reassemble it carefully, and drive it.

Since you have another one in the wings, put your creativity and engineering skills into that one. The beauty of these engines in their stock state is their simplicity , and the fact that they will run OK with such a wide tolerance in their specs. My vote is to just get this one going, and not get bogged down in the minutia, or you may have it apart forever and lose interest ulltimately.

Sam

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Hi Sam!
Thanks for your answer,

Too bad for the compression test...
About the compression test, do you mean just put some paste and make them seal or do you mean recutting everything?
What about the valve guides? I read in my manual that they are part of the cylinder head and they can only be reamed...? ???


Marc

What year is your slant? In the US after 1972 the valve seats were induction hardened to tolerate unleaded fuel. Running unleaded fuel in pre 1972 heads is hard on them, and they tend to burn, and thus leak. If it is before '72, you might still just do a regular valve job, where you simply lap the valves into the seats, and then reassemble them with new seals. Then put time and effort into setting up your next slant better. The best way to do it is have hardened seats installed in the exhaust seats, and to have new guides installed. This is expensive but worth the money if you plan on driving the car much

As far as the piston bores and rings, simply hone the bores to smooth them out, and reassemble with new rings to get it on the road. This is not hard, and will aid in the break in of the new rings. I used a simple parts store honing tool in a hand drill. Document everything in a notebook as you work so you can refer bck to it later. This includes your torque specs so you can look back before starting the engine and assure yourself that everything has been tightened properly inside. I actually initialed each set of fasteners on the list as i tightened, and marke dthe date. And then had my brother initial it that he had checked it. I simply don;t trust myself, and my aging memory to do otherwise.

Then after that, put some time and research into your next slant, and build one really spec'd out while you are drving your old one. This is what I did. I simply installed a new timing set, and did a cheap valve job on a junk yard engine and put 30K miles on it while I was building the engine that is in this car now. I engineered the 5 speed behind the new engine while it was out of the car, and then installed everything together at once.

Sam

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