Whilst I am waiting for the paint to dry on the axle housing, I thought I would post a few screen shots from the engine re-build. I recorded the whole process on GoPro cameras. When I get time I will try and put a bit of video together of the whole process.
Installing the last valve on the cylinder head, pretty easy process, except valve springs are quite strong, and I needed an extension on the handle of the spring compressor to be able to make it work.
Completed cylinder head, it has the valves re-ground, and I have ground out all the casting marks, matched the exhaust ports to the exhaust manifold and generally radiused all of the sharp edges, I would not call it "polished and ported" but I think it will be a bit better than before I did it.
Plate type oil cooler insides, this is the primary oil cooling system on the truck, it must work from the water jacket around the block, not much air cooling going to happen on that side of the block.
This what it looks like ready to be attached, quite a big block of cast iron.
Installing the crank - that thing is damn heavy, and there is not much place to grab onto it.
Torquing down the main bearing caps, three stage torquing required. The manual makes it all quite clear how to do it.
Camshaft installed, this was a bit trick, maybe I should have installed the camshaft before I put the crank in, still it went in OK, just had to take a bit longer and be really gentle so as not to damage the bearings. When the installed the new bearing in the block, they asked for the cam to ensure it was a proper fit as they sometime are really tight, and need some "bearing scraping", but mine was OK.
Timing gear installed - there are marks on both the camshaft timing gear and the crankshaft gear, makes it very easy to get it right. Ther are two marks on the timing gear, and one on the crank. The crank one goes in between the two marks on the cam timing gear.
Block ready to install the pistons, I had to get a new piston ring compressor, the fancy "Made In Germany" set I got off e-bay broke the very first time I tried to use it.
Crank with all big ends and mains installed. Having an decent engine stand is so much better, I could rotated the block very easily, made life so much easier. All my previous engine builds have be done on the workshop floor, manhandling the block around each time I needed to turn it over. This one is way too heavy to even thing about doing that.
