Donor Parts - Refurb

So I've spent the last few weeks getting all the donor parts refurbished ready for the build.
I decided to go for por-15 again - despite not being overly impressed by their engine enamel. I was thinking that maybe the rust preventative paint would be better. So I bought a tin of rust preventative por15 and top coat - both in black.

I first left the parts in a bath of deox-c for a few days to remove the rust. I have since found out that por15 rust paint bonds better to rust so I should have left them as they were.
I then used the por15 marine clean followed by the metal prep. The pics below show the parts covered in the metal prep.

I then did 2 coats of rust preventative paint - leaving a couple of hours between each coat. This was followed by 2 coats for top coat. Before applying the top coat I roughed up the service with some fine sand paper.

Over all, the parts look pretty good and I'm quite pleased with the finish.

I also took a drive down to Redditch to pick up my diff from Russell Ram. Russ has done a fantastic job and the diff looks as good as new. Money well spent.

 I decided to have a go at zinc plating the fulcrum bolts. These also turned out pretty well. I used a home plating kit from Gateros Plating. The kit uses a battery charger to power it. The set up looks a bit basic but the results are okay. This will give a bit extra corrosion protection.

Kit arrives

My original delivery date was July 17th. However, due to a cancellation I was able to get an earlier delivery date of June 13th.
I opted for AK to deliver the kit. I worked out that by the time I'd hired a van/truck, paid for diesel, plus took a day to drive down and back it was just easier to get it delivery.

Noel who delivers the kits for AK was fantastic. He stayed and helped lift the body and chassis to where I wanted them to be - chassis in the garage and body in the back garden.
Getting the body into the back garen proved to be a challenge. We had 3 options - Over an 8 foot wall, through a side gate or through the house. We opted for the most direct route which was through the house. This involved tipping the body onto its side which I was a bit worried about but it all worked out in the end.

 I also decided to paint the exposed metal just to stop it rusting. Just used hammerite for this.

Engine arrives

I picked up the engine from AmericanV8engines towards the end of May. I have to say, Adrian has done a fantastic job on it.

As well as a full rebuild with new components, I've also had the bellhousing and gearbox attached, engine run up to temp, cam broken in and engine dated with certificate. The engine is now ready to drop into the car.

Engine Details

2 bolt main Chevy 350 - originally from a 210HP TBI Truck

Built August 29th 1989 in McKinnon Factory in Ontario Canada

Machine Work:

Rebore block and hone to +60

Decked block surfaces

Engine balanced

Engine Parts:

Crank - Eagle one piece replacement 350 chevy crank

Pistons - Sealed power flat top hypertechtic floating pin pistons (+60)

Rods - Eagle bushed I beams with cap screws 5.7inch

Cam - Comp cams flat tappet 270 degree cam shaft

Rocker arms - Scorpion 1:5 ratio roller rockers

Rings - Marhle Moly rings (+60)

Oil Pump - Melling high pressure standard volume

Manifold - Edelbrock torquer

Pulleys - March 6050

Tremec TKO 600 0.82 gearbox

Lakewood scattershield bellhousing

Carter 5psi fuel pump

The engine was run up to temp and the cam broken in. It looks like I'll get 350HP and 400 ft/lbs torque:

Gearbox:

For the gearbox I went for a Tremec TKO600 0.82 ratio.

This was recommended to me by my engine builder as the .82 ratio would give a quicker acceleration. Tremec ratio calculator below shows the difference between the .82 and .64

Stoneleigh

Two posts in one day!

Just got back from Stoneleigh. I spent about an hour on the AK stand looking at all the cars they had on display - including the new Gen 3 demonstrator that looks fantastic.

I think my favourite car there was a black and red Gen 2 which looks fantastic and has seriously got me thinking about changing from blue with white stripe.

I spent a good half hour talking to Paul who owns the blue Gen 1 in the pic below. He was kind enough to talk me through his build photos and gave me some great tips which will really help me in my build.

All in all, a great day as usual. The wife came back with some jewellery, the lad came back with a big bag of sweets and I came back with some brake pipe!

Engine Update

It's been a while since my last post. A few things to update - the main one being that my kit delivery date has been brought forward and I'll now be getting the kit delivered on the 13th June!

I've also been busy with the donor parts - getting all the grease off them and removing the drive shaft u-joints so that I can exchange the drive shafts with AK. I've also sent the front and rear hubs and calipers to Wards for refurb. I'm hoping that I'll get these back and my diff in June so I can start assembling the rolling chassis.

On the engine side I've also had a slight change of plan. I've decided to go for a complete rebuild using new parts - so the only part I'm keeping from the original engine is the block. This will enable me to get the best out of the new cylinder heads I have. The engine is currently with Adrian at AmericanV8engines. I'll post a full list of parts and work carried out on the engine soon. Here are a few pics of the engine mid build:

Donor Parts

On the AK website, it lists the AK gen 2 as requiring the following donor parts:

Jaguar XJ40 1986 - 2003 (Outboard rear discs)
- Front axle - Bottom wishbones, uprights, hubs, discs and callipers
- Rear axle - complete on subframe
- Ratios - 3.54/3.58 from XJ40 3.6 Auto

AK require front bottom wishbones and uprights for modification (Exchange)
AK require rear wishbones and drive shafts for modification (Exchange)

Jaguar XJS - Handbrake assembly (or new item from Jaguar)
BMW E34 (series 5) - Adjustable steering column (including ignition key and steering wheel, although these items will not be used. Top spline has a nut fixing for wheel boss
Rover MK3 200 or Rover 25 Series (1995 - 2005) - Servo and master cylinder (AK pedal box)
Polo MK 2 - Heater

I decided that I didn't want to buy a donor car as I felt trying to remove the components from the car would be a nightmare, plus I didn't have the room. So I opted to buy the front and rear assembly only.
After posting a question on the Cobra forum to get some recommendations I decided to buy the donor parts from Jon at Simply Performance. Jon has supplied a number of other AK builders so knew exactly what I needed. I also liked the fact that if any of the parts were not up to scratch he would replace them.

I ended up going for a 1993 Jaguar XJ40 with a 3.54 non powerlock diff.

Here's the car!



And here are the parts!

So next job was to break it all down. Looking at the rusty bolts this was a job I was not looking forward to.
I started with the brake callipers. These were really easy and came off in no time.
Next job was the springs. I wasn't sure how to tackle these. A number of people recommend getting someone with a gas axe to cut through the springs. I found some local mechanics who could do it but they never turned up. In the end, a friend of mine sorted them for me. On the rear assembly he used some spring compressors to hold the springs in compression as he took of the top pan holding the spring in place. Once off he just loosened the compressor. He did the same for the front but we had to turn the assembly over and undo the bottom pan. Once the springs were off I was able to start removing the rest of the bits.

I won't go into all the details about how I removed each part, suffice to say I had to cut through a good few bolts and ended up having to buy an angle grinder with a bigger cutting disk.

I finally ended up with all the parts removed from the main assembly and a bench full of bits to sort out.











The diff I took down to Russell Ram to get it refurbished. Here's what it looked like before any work. I'll post a picture of the finished article once I get it back.

Engine Rebuild - Bottom End

Now that I had most of the parts for the engine, and it was painted a nice bright orange, it was time to start the rebuild.

Block Plugs
The first thing we did was to hammer in the freeze plugs. We smeared a thin bead of Permatex Form A number 1 gasket sealer on the edge of the plugs and then hammered them in with a socket. We couldn't get to all the plugs as the block was on the engine stand so we left these for later.

Next, we inserted the "hidden" oil galley plug. This is a plug that is located below the main cap. This website describes the correct placement of this plug:

http://www.crankshaftcoalition.com/wiki/Oiling_system_Chevy_V8

We were unsure as to which plug to use. In the set I got from Real Steel there were two possible candidates. One plug was slightly too big and needed to be hammered in. The other was too small and dropped in. We went with the first one and hammered it in. Only to find out later it was the wrong one. The plug to use is an EPC108 - this was stamped in to the smaller plug. The plug drops down into the block and then stops on the ridge 1- 3/8" from the surface of the block - see diagram on web link. You then have to hammer it in from here.

Crank and Pistons
Next step was to fit the crank and make sure the clearances were correct. I was using the same crank that I got with the block and it had just had a polish at the machine shop so I had to buy oversized bearings main bearings +0.020" and big end bearings +0.010".
After fitting the crank we torqued down the main caps to 70 ft lbs. We got the torque settings from this site:

http://boxwrench.net/specs/chevy_sb.htm

To check the bearing clearances we used green plastigague - this showed the clearances were within tolerance.

Next came the pistons. As the cylinder bores had been honed I had to fit +0.030 piston rings. Having a piston ring tools really helped here. Once all the rings were fitted we installed the pistons into the block - using a piston ring compression tool. This proved to be more difficult that we anticipated as the pistons rings kept popping out the bottom of the tool just as they were against the block. The trick here is to get the compression tool on and sitting right up against the block. Then give the piston some short sharp hits to knock it in. After each piston was installed we put the new bearings in and then put the caps on. Torquing them down to 70 ft lbs. NOTE: Just seen on Real Steels website they sell a piston installation tool that looks a bit better then the one I used.

Cam and timing chain
Cam installation was pretty straight forward. Just slot it in. As this is a flat tappet engine it is recommended to give the cam lobes a good dollop of grease so we liberally applied Competition cam lube to all the lobes.
A new timing chain and cogs was installed. I'd lost a bolt from the large cog so had to order a new set - this also came with a locking plate that you bend over the bolts.

The timing set I bought was a Cloyes Heavy Duty Speed Set (C-3023XSP).
This uses a patented multiple keyway system on the crankshaft sprocket to allow adjustment of the camshaft timing relative the the crank shaft. Refer here for more information.
We set it to the factory specification so this meant lining up the marks on both cogs with the O mark.
We then fitted a new timing chain cover and balancer.

You can see from the picture that we have also fitted a new timing marker as well.










Oil system

The inside of the oil pump looked fine so we fitted the original pump.
We then fitted a new oil pan seal and the original oil pan. This will be changed for a new one before fitting the engine in the car.