Now that the chevy 350 throttle body injection motor is not going to be going into Betty, I need to get it put back together and get it out of the way to make room for working on Betty’s actual engine. I talked my sweet lady into towing Betty up the driveway backwards so I could coast her down to the shop. To my surprise and joy it went exactly as planned. Big red may only be a 5 cylinder but 4 wheel drive locked in low could have pulled my truck up a tree! I managed to coast Betty down to within a foot of the front door of the shop. If I want to pull it in I can use the come along on the D ring that is bolted to the concrete at the back of the shop. For now it is out of sight up front and where it needs to be for me to run down and get a few hours of work done whenever I get the chance.
The first order of business is getting the donor engine parts put back in the donor and off the engine stand. I just bought this engine stand because I still have not had enough time to clean off the caked on grease on the block for the Disco, that is still attached to my original engine stand.
I can’t even convince myself that I need 3 of them. So I am planning on making an engine cradle with casters to make it more convenient to store the engine out of the way. But again the first step is going to be to get all of these parts put back into it.
My new plan of action is to re-use any bearings that came out of it and clean everything. I will check to make sure the piston rings are correctly gapped after re-honing the cylinders and I will check the bearings with Plastiguage. The block is almost clean as are the heads and I will do the valve job and replace all the gaskets and valve seats. I have already rebuilt half of the lifter and will finish the other half. I am going to put the intake manifold back on by not with gaskets or torque it since I doubt I would use that setup. I will replace the head bolts and get the cranked down to spec. It should be a good long block ready to go and sitting in a cradle out of the way. Well that is the plan for now.
