Even I'm Impressed

Okay, it's been awhile.  Is anyone still our there?  Let me get right to it and a picture is worth a thousand words.

Yes, deep inside there is that same engine block I showed in the last post.  Quite a transformation!  I have a (nearly) completed engine and it was a blast to build.  I'm even fairly confident it will start.

Of course, there's still a lot to do before I hit the start button, but I'm shooting for June 21 as the official first start.  I'll have family in town and any of my followers are also welcome to attend (bring your own fire extinguisher).

There's so much I could get into, but I think I'll just show some pictures.

Piston and connecting rod

Testing sidewall clearance

Modeling clay used to check valve clearance

Installing pistons

Ben and his friend installing pistons

My brother supervising

Oil pump and pickup

Oil pan

Timing cover and water pump

Harmonic balancer

Rocker arms and intake manifold

Now I have this amazing engine sitting on a stand.  I've got to get it in the car.  That means getting the transmission and clutch attached to the the engine, prepping the chassis for the engine and then lowering it into place.  It should be interesting to have a 700 lb. engine swinging around on a chain as I try to lower it into the engine compartment, but that's for another day.

Should I Be Nervous?

Even though I haven't been updating as frequently, I am still making progress on the build.  I actually think I have a lot to update so here goes in no particular order.

Last time I mentioned the punch list.  Here it is again with a status update:
- Mount fuel pump (done)
- Run fuel lines (half done)
- Install master cylinder (done)
- Run brake lines (not done)
- Mount radiator (not done)
- Install parking brake (done)
- Design and build hydraulic clutch (half done)

I'll say that's not bad.  Here's a few pictures:

Parts I made for the hydraulic clutch

 Clutch master cylinder assembled

 Installed in the car with pedals attached

 Brackets I made and welded to support the fuel pump.  Fortunately I didn't mess up the powdercoating

 Small brackets I made to support the parking brake cables

I should have added pictures of the parking brake assembly and the fuel pump assembly but I don't feel like going back outside now.

And I did do a few other things while waiting for my engine block like getting my tires delivered and having them mounted.  They look great!

I also worked on designing some of the aluminum panels but I don't have pictures of that either.  Just trust me that I'm really doing these things.

And I had a few visitors over the last week.  First, Larry and Dave came up to see my progress.  They arrived in a cool Porsche 911.  Larry is going to be building a cobra starting in a few weeks.  Then Uncle Carmen and his friend Danny came over.  Danny has restored a few cars and they arrived in a very sharp '37 Ford 4-door convertible.  I should have taken a picture of that too.

I've also been busy with the boat building class I'm teaching.  As I should have expected, it's taking a lot more of my time than I imagined, but it has been a lot of fun.  Here is a picture of one of the boats (we're making three of these simultaneously).

Now onto the engine.  I received all the necessary parts about 1 1/2 weeks ago and immediately brought them to the machine shop so they could complete their work.  Again, after putting so much time into selecting every component, I really wanted them to be impressed by the parts I was unloading from my trunk.  But what did I get -- "put them over there and we'll have your block done in a week".  My shoulders must have been noticeably lower, at least I felt that way.  They didn't seem to notice.  And then I expected them to ask if I wanted to see how the block was coming along, but that didn't happen either.  I felt like I was in a dirty, greasy hospital with the patient just down the hall but with a no-nonsense desk nurse saying "sorry, you're not allowed in there".  I left hoping my block was in good hands.

One week later, around 11am on a Friday, the phone rang.  "Ralph, it's Dave.  Your block is ready.  Come before 3pm if you want it today."  At 11:35am, I was backing my car into their loading dock.  I went inside and could tell right away that the shiny, 200 pound chunk of metal in the translucent plastic bag was my block.  I wanted to rip the bag open and run my fingers along the newly machined surfaces, but I played it cool, real cool.  "How'd everything look?", I asked.  "Fine", Dave replied.  And then I looked around again to see literally 50 other blocks going through the same process.  I guess it stops being exciting after the first few hundred.  I paid, collected my parts, loaded the block and I was back on my way home.

Unlike the Rube Goldberg method of loading the block into the car when I first brought it to the machine shop, I waited a couple hours after I got home and had Ben help me lift the block out of the car and back on the stand.  Then I ripped the bag off and ran my fingers along the newly machined surfaces.  It actually looked brand new.  Here are a couple pictures.

The first thing I did was to paint the exterior Ford blue.  Then I got to work on the actual engine assembly process.  I had to do some small modifications to the block to accept certain parts I plan to install later.  It involved grinding-down a few areas so a special bracket can be installed inside the engine.

It is a little hard to see, but this is the area I ground.  Most importantly, I had to get all the filings out of the engine before moving forward.

 The bent plate with the 8 arms is the bracket.  It is going to support rolling lifters which weren't available when the block was originally manufactured.

I'm learning that building an engine from a bunch of disparate parts is an iterative process.  Assemble some parts, take measurements, take them apart, take more measurements, put them together again.  Add more parts and repeat.  The first part to go on was the crankshaft.  After almost a year of having an empty engine block in my garage it was about to become something more than that.  At least I hoped so.  I had gone over the steps in my head many times, but now it was the real thing.  I prepped the block to accept the 60 pound crank, picked it up and brought it over to the block.  Here goes.  I gently lower it into position and it slowly drops into place.  It fits!  I'm only somewhat amazed that something I ordered over the internet based on a picture and some technical specifications fit so well.  I took the necessary measurements to make sure the fit was within tolerances and it was!  (Later, I went back to see what I would have done if it was out of tolerance.  I'll let you know if I ever come up with an answer.)

Here it is (notice the blue paint)

The first measurement I had to take was how much space there is between the crankshaft and the bearing that support it.  The spec is 0.002 inches.  To put that in perspective, a human hair is 0.004 inches!

I'm going to probably spend most of my time on the engine for now so I can get it sealed-up before it starts to rust.  My nervousness is  starting to diminish and I'm getting very excited to add part by part.  I still don't know how I'm going to get up the courage to actually try to start it.

The Punch List...

I can't believe it's been two weeks since my last post. A few days after dropping off the engine block, I got a call from the machinist with the status.  The block was in average shape and can be brought back to specifications with modest work.  He is going to bore the cylinders 0.030" larger so they are all the same size and I'd have to get pistons to match.  Since I already knew what type of pistons I wanted, I went online to order the appropriate size and found that it would take 2 weeks to get them.  Oh, well.  I also ordered all the other internal parts so the machinist can balance the crankshaft for me.  This is critical since hundreds of pounds of metal spinning at 6000 rpm can do a lot of damage if it isn't in balance.

With 2 weeks before I could start on the engine, I decided to create a punch list of things I need to do to finish the chassis.  I'm sure this will be the first punch list of many.  (For those of you who don't know what a punch list is, it's a list of smaller, pain in the neck, things to do to completely finish a project.)  Here are the major items:
- Mount fuel pump
- Run fuel lines
- Install master cylinder
- Run brake lines
- Mount radiator
- Install parking brake
- Design and build hydraulic clutch

The problem is that each of these things somewhat relies on something else being done so I've been trying to get them done as best I can.  I figured out where to install the fuel pump (wasn't easy, and I still have to make a bracket to mount it) and I ordered the fitting for the fuel lines.  I'm just about done with the master cylinder (I had to move the location to match the modified brake pedal).

I have to fit the fuel pump in here and make it lower than the fuel tank.  Also, it can't rub on anything (like the axles or suspension).  Having the fuel lines rupture is a bad idea.

Here's a picture of the modified brake and clutch pedals.  I had to put bends in them to provide the proper clearance for my feet.

I guess I've been spending most of my time on the clutch.  I designed it on paper and built a prototype of the brackets out of wood.  It looked great and worked just as I had designed it.

See, I'm learning.  Learning that what I design doesn't always work out.  I put the assembly in the car and found that the clutch pedal was traveling way too far (8-9") and that just wasn't going to be comfortable.  Furthermore, I had no way of adjusting it.  So back to the drawing board.  I refined the design and made it more adjustable.  After cutting out new wooden pieces, I put it back in the car -- beautiful!  But wait, now it was going to be too tall and the body wouldn't fit over it.  Third try.  I think I have it this time.  We'll see later today. 

I other news, I continue to surprise myself with how many parts I'm still ordering.  I spent a lot of time wringing my hands over tires.  As has become customary, it's just not that simple.  Who knew there were so many variations of tread design, rubber composition, sizes, etc.  Well, now I'm somewhat of an expert and ordered a set.  They'll be here on Wednesday.  I need the tires now to check the clearance of brake lines and other things that might rub.

Laurie ordered me a set of stainless steel side exhaust and I think they'll be here in a couple weeks.

I wasn't planning to order this yet, but I got a soft top for the car.  The guys who make it offered me a good deal so I took it.  It should be here this week.  Although I don't expect to drive much with the top on, I'd hate to get caught in the rain without it.

Finally, my garage looks like an auto parts warehouse.

So back to work...

Another Milestone

I forget what I said I was going to do this past week, but here's a rundown of the events as they happened.

Just to recap, last week I started working on the brake pedal.  Well now it's finished.  Here's before and after shots.

Besides being shiny in a couple spots, the important change was that, in effect, I moved the arm in the middle by about 2" and that changed the leverage the pedal applies to compensate for having manual brakes.  I had to put a bend in both the brake pedal and the clutch pedal to improve the spacing between them.  I got so excited that I was able to bend this 1/4" steel that I forgot to take a picture (but I will go back and take some later).  I really wanted to see how they were going to look in the car and here they are!

I'm very happy with how they turned out.

In other news, I did install the gas tank.

And best of all, I brought the engine block to a machine shop to start the prep work.  This is a big milestone for this chunk of metal has been sitting in our garage for nearly a year, being worshiped like an iron tiki idol.

Arrival May 2010

I did some final prep work at home.  Here I am taking out the bearings for the camshaft.

Before I dropped it off, I wanted to be ready.  These guys are the big leagues and they know their stuff.  I wanted to be able to talk their language and impress them with my plans.  I had my parts all listed, and the calculations I had done on compression ratios, octane requirements, spark advance, valve overlap, expected torque and horsepower.  It took me days to do all this, but it would be worth it.  Yep, they're going to ask me hundreds of questions about the car and the engine, and of course, they'll want to see the pictures.  I'm ready for anything they throw at me.

You can probably imagine that the shop is located under an elevated section of the Garden State Parkway surrounded by vacant lots and used tire dealers.  I let them know I'm here and back in to the driveway.  Maybe this is a good time to explain the ordeal getting the block into the car in the first place.  It weights about 175 lbs. and even I couldn't ask Laurie to help me load it.  But I had an idea and it goes like this:

The block has been sitting on a stand as you can see in the photo above.  I originally expected to take the block off the stand, put it on the floor and then pick it up and put it in the car.  But since the block is already 2 feet off the floor, maybe I can just raise it another 6" to get it in the back of the car.  So I used my jack to raise the whole stand and set it on the supports I have for the car.

Now the stand won't be able to roll, but the car can.  One of two things will happen, either the car will knock over the engine and ruin it, or it will neatly slip into the car.  With some careful driving by Laurie and a couple wooden blocks to raise the car a little, in the engine went.

Well, almost all the way.  I disconnected it from the stand and pulled it in the rest of the way.

Now back to the machine shop.  I back into the driveway and open the hatch, I guy comes out and grabs the block with one hand and pulls it out of the car.  I'm thinking, "Don't scratch my car and be careful with my block!", but what comes out is "how's it goin'".  I tell them what I want done and they say "okay, we'll call you when it's done".  That's it.  No questions, no pictures, no comments.  And I see my block on on a pile with 30 others waiting their turn at the boring machine.  I felt like I was abandoning a helpless puppy.  I hope they're taking good care of my tiki idol.

Anatomy of a Brake Pedal

Who ever thinks about their brake pedal?  You push it and the car stops.

Actually, there's lots of math an physics that goes into that simple concept.  I have a brake pedal from a car that had power brakes (as almost all cars have had for the last 20 years).  Power brakes add extra force to the effort applied by your leg when you press the pedal.  I didn't want to bother with having power brakes so I have to create the equivalent force another way.

It starts with the leverage being applied by the brake pedal itself.  Here is the pedal I have.

It pivots around the tube on the end and the arm that sticks-out about 1/3 of the way down pushes the brake mechanism.  In this case, the leverage is 3x.  If I push the pedal 3", the arm moves 1" but 3x harder.  Push with 50 lbs of force and get 150 pounds.

But that's not going to stop me well enough in my setup.  Without power brakes, I estimate I'll need about 6x leverage to get proper stopping forces.  My plan is to shorten the distance from the tube to the arm and lengthen the distance from the arm to the pedal.  To do this, I'll have to cut and reweld in a few places.

Here are my first cut marks.  I plan to take 1 1/2" out of the upper part.

Cut that apart.

Open up the bottom to reinsert the cutoff piece.

And reweld everything back together.  (It's just taped at this point, but you get the idea)

I just need to make sure it will actually fit in the car this way before I weld it and then install it.  By the way, the ratio is now 6.2x.