Thanks Fopar. I took out all the bolts I can see, which was 5 or 6 bolts. Then, tried removing and would not come loose. Tapped lightly with a mallet around the body to try and loosen, to no avail. Hmmmm!!

Is the impeller supposed to slide off the shaft? I remember reading recently in the FSM that it just says "remove the oil pump": don't recall it saying anything special about oil pump removal, other than that the rotor ring and seal may fall out, when one removes the oil pump cover, so be careful and don't let them....

Thanks Fopar and DI. I'll have to do further work on the oil pump I guess. Maybe a little more percussive persuasion will help the pump body come loose.

I'm now at this stage. Removed the rocker assembly, head and rods last night. Currently inspecting the chambers, bores and piston tops.

Don't exactly know: how do I look at the piston tops or chambers and identify signs of 'leanouts'? Carbon deposits seem pretty easy to tell, but I don't know what's considered 'normal'. All the tops of my pistons seem pretty black, as you can see in the photos below. Each piston has a slight sideways "v" notch in the piston top. Some are larger than others. Is this supposed to be there?

Also, when you say "also with a finger nail check the wear ridge at the top of the bore in each cylinder", what am I looking for? There is barely a ridge. I mean, nearly none. What am I checking here?

Regarding the bores, how do I measure wear or out-of-roundness and/or identify scratches that will require me to overbore? I haven't taken the pistons out: yet to do today is remove the lifters, damper off, timing cover off, gear off. Any more, and we'll see.

Bump up.

Looks like the one piston has a broken ring groove, the little notches are to face the front of the motor (that is normal).

Richard

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Part of Tyrde-Browne Racing

Thanks Richard. Coincidentally (or not), that's cylinder #6 which had the lowest compression rating of all the cylinders.

What about the tops of the cylinders...do they look normal, in terms of leanouts or carbon deposits? I don't really know what I'm looking for....

If thay are all some shade of black without any sort of aluminum coloring you should be good.

Richard

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Part of Tyrde-Browne Racing

Hey Brendan, thanks for this. I'm at this stage now. I've torn the engine down quite a bit, and need to take these measurements (hopefully haven't gone too far to do it yet). Pistons, rods and crankshaft are left in the block, head is off, so is the harmonic balancer, timing chain, and cam/lifters, rods, assembly are off/out.

How am I rotating the crankshaft to realize TDC, so I can take these measurements now? Do I just rotate the crank to get #1 and #6 pistons at the top of their stroke in their bores, then measure from the top of the piston to the deck?

CC the head = carbon clean? Why do this before compressing/removing the valves?

Thanks.

Measure how far down the pistons are from the top of block when they are at the top position. Numbers 1 & 6 cylinders will both be up at the same time. Clean off carbon from cylinder head then with valves still in find out how many CC's volume the combustion chamber has.

Richard

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Part of Tyrde-Browne Racing

Hey thanks Richard. Hmm. How do I measure the cc's of volume for the chamber?

Also, what tool am I using to measure from the top of the piston to the deck? It would have to be something pretty precise and not very clunky. Nothing I have currently would do a good job of taking that small of a measurement.

The easiest way to measure the volume of a combustion chamber is to:

(1) get a flat piece of plastic that is larger than the diameter of the combustion chamber.
(2) Drill two small holes in the piece of plastic.
(3) put a thin ring of grease (such as wheel bearing grease) around the perimeter of the combustion chamber you want to measure.
(4) Press the piece of plastic over the combustion chamber to seal the chamber and center the two holes over the middle of the combustion chamber.
(5) Get a needle-less syringe that is marked in one CC increments. i had trouble finding one even though I live in a big city. Other folks who live in rural areas can go down to the feed store and buy these all day. I eventually found mine at an online shop. however, CeeJ was kind enough to give me one as well.
(6) Get a bowl of water and add your favorite color of food coloring.
(7) Fill the syringe with 60 CCs of the colored water
( put the syringe tip into one of the holes in the piece of plastic and SLOWLY fill the combustion chamber. The head will need to be firmly mounted flat. One hole will let the water in, the other will let the air out.
(9) stop filling when the water reaches the bottom of the air-hole in the plastic
(10) look at how much water is left in the syringe. Subtract that amount from 60 to get the volume of the combustion chamber.

You must measure the volume of each chamber since manufacturing tolerances allow for differences in volume.



Richard

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Part of Tyrde-Browne Racing

Thanks Richard. What measuring implement would I use to measure the piston top to deck height? Is there a feeler gauge with measurements that would do the job?

I'll take these measurements in the head (thanks for detailing the procedure). It may be a moot point though: I may upgrade to a newer head with different chambers.

Any possible undoable damage to my current head and components by hot tanking it now WITH the valves/springs/in? Thing's filthy, can't work easily with it. Or should I just remove the springs/valves and re-install once the head is tanked?

Remove the springs/valves and re-install once the head is tanked.
Get a cheap Harbor freight venier caliper (about $10) it will have a shaft that sticks out, set the end of the caliper on the edge of the block and run the shaft down to the piston.

Richard

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Part of Tyrde-Browne Racing

You can thank the Doc Dutra. I pinched that one off him
May be time to get a dial indicator and magnetic stand.
These things are almost mandatory for engine building and very handy.
You can find TDC with it reasonably accurate. you can check valve lift with it. you can check piston to valve clearance with it.
Crankshaft end play.
Also piston to deck height by putting dial tip in center of piston ,then turning indicator and stand so tip is on the block deck and note the difference. easy.
A verier caliper will also work as stated above.just use it over the piston pin center to avoid piston rock error.

clean the head with some Kerosene, then rinse of with soapy water, then rinse with plain water.

If you will be re -using the head ,you may want to know the cc of your head before it goes to the machine shop. that way you can calculate how much to take off the head (if any)and block,to get the Static Compression Ratio needed for the camshaft and Dynamic Compression Ratio.

Have fun
Brendan

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1963 AP5 Valiant 225 PB 904 Stock except extractors & 2 1/4 inch exhaust.


1962 S series valiant 225 PB auto. factory every thing. Full restoration job.
Currently on hold till AP5 is on the road.

Hey Richard, maybe I don't understand. I purchased a vernier digital caliper with jaws, etc. Even if I put the edge of the caliper on the edge of the block and stick the shaft down to the top of the piston, it's not going to give me an accurate reading. The caliper is reading the measurements at the jaws (either interior or exterior jaws), not the measurement at the end of the shaft (aka top of the head of the jaw). This is the caliper I bought. Wrong one?

http://www.harborfreight.com/4-inch-dig ... 47256.html

I was thinking I should get something more like this gauge, but it doesn't have an 'edge' to set on the block. But it would give me an accurate reading, as long as I could set the deck as "0". What say you all?

http://www.harborfreight.com/1-inch-tra ... r-623.html

You can use the caliper you bought. The piece that comes out of the tail can be used to measure as well. Stand it up on the end along one of the cylinders and push the tail piece down until it touches the piston. Now you know your deck height. The distance the jaws open and the distance the tail piece drops into the cylinder are the same. The dial indicator is very useful too.


Rick

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2 Mopars come with Spark plug tubes. One is a world class, racing machine. The other is a 426 CI. boat anchor!

12.70 @ 104.6