Blue Hot

After a bit of frustration I was finally able to make a good deal of forward progress. The Crankshaft gear proved to be a real pain until I found the right tool (pictured below :-Þ).


Without it I struggled and felt like I almost broke several different things. With it I was able to place the crankshaft gear on by hand (well, a large oven mit).

All timing components have been installed and the engine is once again mounted in the car! I do not have any photos yet, but will provide some soon, hopefully with a video of a running engine.

Over the Rainbow

Well, here are some photos of the progress made. My only trouble halting me right now seems to be the Crankshaft gear and it has been a bear to deal with. I worked for 2 hours trying a variety of methods to get it on to no avail. After I dropped a 14" breaker bar straight on my little toe I decided to call it a night. Last time I worked on it I left the shop bleeding. I have spoken to some people at work and have a couple of other things to try. We'll see how it goes or if I end up with more injuries tonight.

Exhaust side with headers installed.


Intake Side


Here is the crankshaft gear. I put so much force into it I was in fear of breaking the head off of the crankshaft bolt. You can actually see how far it went on from the change in the finish on the ID of it in this photo.



And during a recent VERY windy storm here I had the chance to catch this gem. It only lasted about 2-3 minutes, and the picture still does not do it justice. It was a incredibly bright rainbow that you could see both sides of, and had a double rainbow on this side you can almost make out in the photo. I wish I has a fisheye lense to capture it all as it was incredible.


I'll be headed back to the 'Ville this weekend and will not be working on it, however I do plan to get lots of miles in on the new bike. I'll see if I can get a good photo of it then.

Two-Wheeled Training

I finally broke down and bought myself a little treat. I'll be doing a triathlon this spring and needed something a little faster than my old Raleigh Mojave


I now have a Trek FX 7.3 to go along with it.

















Which is quite nice and really fast. I just finished up a 20 mile trek(haha) on Saturday.

As for the engine, things are coming along nicely. Most of the accessories are now attached. I'm still working on the timing components however. I hope to get those finished up this week, and I'll get some more photos uploaded as well.

Where's Your Head At?

Finally received my ring set and quickly set to work. As you can see below items are being attached to the block, and the cams are out again and the head has been bolted down with a new head gasket (which is a much more involved process than I expected). Water pump and intake pipe has been mounted as well as some sensors. I need to search for the special deepwell socket I bought to tighten down the oil filter thread as I seemed to of lost it, so the oil pan is waiting on that. Timing components will be next in line.





I've also provided a quick video tour of the engine as well as the cams and engine bay. And yes the shop is a huge mess. I need to start getting items bolted back on to make room for organizing tools and such. Also I'm reluctant to start throwing out trash, lest I throw away some important component by accident. I'll probably be organizing things tonight.


Engine Rebuild - Head On from Thomas Anderson on Vimeo.