8/8/2008
Today was engine tear down day! Before I get to that, earlier in the day, I washed the engine down while still together to make things easier. I started with a spray bottle of straight solvent, then a solvent/soap wash, then alcohol spray, then hot water to rinse. I didn't get everything, but it will make the detail cleaning tomorrow easier.
I did leave the one mag/harness on the engine while doing this, so I covered it with a bag.
After work, I had plenty of help again, and we got the engine on the stand. A couple of our guys have done this A LOT, and knew the quick and easy way to do it. Use the hoist as the lever to lift the engine upright after we attached the stand horizontally.
Voila!
My partner in crime for this, is my A&P buddy Ray Ortega. I was assisting him for the most part on this adventure. I removed the mag, and started taping and covering holes, while Ray was working on removing the valve covers. In no time at all, we had the first cylinder off!
Fast forward about an hour and a half, and we had all four of them in the cylinder bin.
I bought these covers called Top Caps to protect the connecting rods while the pistons are off. I had to modify each one to allow the thru bolt nuts to be torqued back down while the cylinders are off (this is a MUST to keep the bearings in place). A set of four was $63 shipped, and is well worth it if you ask me.
I plugged the lifter holes, and looked things over a bit before I called it a night.
Tomorrow I hope to get everything painted, but I'll probably run in to Sunday before finishing.
I've watched engines being torn down for almost ten years now at work, and nothing teaches one better about this than doing it. This was a BLAST to do, and I'm really looking forward to the finished engine!
4.25 hours