Some of you may have seem my thread over in Body and Paint on rebuilding my 71' that's been sitting in my garage for almost 6 years. You guys can see the resurrection of the previously doomed over here:

http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/body-paint-s30/49186-rebuilding-my-71-a.html

She had been in a bad accident and was very poorly repaired, now sporting a new front end from a younger girl but it suites her well

I'd like to start a new thread documenting getting her back on the road. so far I've gotten the brakes rebuilt, gas tank cleaned out and reinstalled to include removing the evap system by capping the extra vent lines on the tank. Refurbed the new to me differential and replaced a broken axel. Incidentally the original reason the car was parked back in 2000. When the axle broke it took out the parking brake cable and damaged the right rear frame and brake line. All that has been rectified and the car is awaiting a new heart.

So today I spent the day cleaning the old block from my 70' race car to do a quick re-ring and drop in my 71'.

And here is where its going to live:

Stay tuned for upcoming updates and hopefully the first fire and drive shortly!

You did a good job on that, congratulations. I can't wait to see what the motor turns out like.

That engine block turned out nice Will be nice to see the whole thing together again soon.

Thanks for the kind words! I had previously soaked this block in a 35 gallon garbage can with Krud Cutter and got it pretty darn clean. Took my ball hone to the cylinders to clean them up and gave it a quick coat of paint.

Today I got the crank installed with new standard sized bearings. This week will be final clean up of the pistons and putting them in to complete the short block. Fun times!

Make sure you use enough oil on everything, for the first start. Better to much then to less really.

I see plenty of Permatex Assembly Lube dripping out, looks like a murder scene.

, yeah you got me on that assembly lube. It does look rather murderous! Unfortunately the crank is coming back out tonight. I want to recheck the bearings and im not happy with the rear main side seals that came in the ITM gasket set. Got a FelPro rear main set this morning im going to swap out with.

Well things have really slowed down on getting my 71' back on the road. But I have made a little progress and thought I would post an update. In the process of putting the short block together I managed to snap a rod bolt. turns out those 8mm early L24 rob bolts don't like being torqued to the later 40ft/lb spec of the 9mm bolts. :stupid:

That's what I get for using the 1973 service manual I had laying around in the garage.

To top things off the FelPro head gasket I ordered from Amazon showed up bent into a "Z"! So I had to wait another week to get a replacement. turned out not to be as big of an issue except for the over torqued rod bolts.... Soo, after a fruitless search for a set of stock 8mm bolts I bit the bullet and bought an ARP set that I'm anxiously waiting for the UPS man to deliver tonight. Spent the last few evenings cleaning parts and painting. Fun stuff! Did get the head put together though! So all I need is my rod bolts and I can assemble the long block!

Here are some pix of freshly painted parts:

And the new fangled Z bend head gasket:

More updates to come shortly!

We have rod bolts, pretty sexy hardware too

Let the games begin!

And the "good" FelPro head gasket:

Ah the joy of reassembly... I remember it well.

Good Luck and God's speed.

Well got all excited and went out to put in my new ARP rod bolts only to find they wont fit

This thing is fighting me every step of the way!

Looks like the head just barely doesn't clear the bolt relief in the rod. In comparing the ARP bolt to a stocker, it appears the ARP bolt is a few thou larger in diameter making it a snugger fit in the rod. Where the stock bolt has a little play allowing the head to squeak by the relief and the bolt to seat. The ARP bolt is a very snug fit and ends up catching on the rod. Looks like just the very edge of the relief too.

Here are a couple pics:

What to do from here? Pulling it all apart and sending it to a machine shop is kinda out of the question at this juncture. Really leery about removing any material from the rods as they are balanced, albeit a factory close enough for govt work balance ;-) Not sure if I should take the bolt heads down a scosh or something else. My vote is for taking a tad off the inboard side of the bolt heads. Although arguably this will affect rod balance as well. Question is does it really matter?

What say the masses?

Thanks in advance for the sage advice!

Edited June 1, 201311 yr by er34gtt2000jp

I remember my APR bolts were really snug, I tapped them down with a small hammer then put on a short piece of rubber hose to keep from scratching the crank when I tapped the piston down before the caps went on.

EDIT: My extra set looks different. I apologize.

Edited June 1, 201311 yr by siteunseen