The V8 Owners Forum -

Hello all sins my last post I have picked the engine up and stripped it so find it in good condition with no sludge so ive taken the block and crank to the machine shop.
So I will soon start with the rebuild and fort I would post on hear to see wot all you experienced people recommend. I wont to put it in a Capri and use a 500 weber carb set up to keep it looking retro I also wont good drivability as this car is used as a fast road car .
I would be great full of any advice.

One more ? it is going from auto to manual so if i put a lightened and balanced fly wheel on it will i need to balance the whole rotating assembly

A balance is always good and not silly money- if you intend on keeping the car for a long time then I doubt you would regret it!

If the bores are good then there is no reason to get a re-bore as you will have to splash out on expensive oversize 4.2 pistons, a hone may do.

The eddy/weber 500cfm carb on a performer inlet manifold would be a good combo, along with some tubular headers and get Kevin (CastleMGBV8) to explain what areas of the heads to tidy up- very easy work and can weald good gains.

parsonspower wrote:One more ? it is going from auto to manual so if i put a lightened and balanced fly wheel on it will i need to balance the whole rotating assembly

For a fast road engine with a sensible rev limit of say 6000 RPM it should not be necessary to rebalance the engine unless you intend to change any of the other internal rotating parts.

I would suggest that you go to not less than 22lb for the flywheel, mine is 27lb down from 32lb for the standard SD1 flywheel and it spins up fairly quickly

I have a 4.35 engine based around a 4.2 tuftrided crank and it makes for a nice free revving engine, mine was fully balanced but all the rotating parts have been changed.

The Edelbock 500 and Performer manifold is a good choice for a road engine, if you have the Hotwire EFI hardware then might be worth considering a Megasquirt ECU at a similar cost.

What mods are you intending to do re heads and cam as I can make some recommendations.

With a good pair of stage 3 heads and the Crower 50232 cam which I have used you can expect 260+ BHP with quite strong power from approx 1500 RPM.

Kevin.

Lucky for me the boors are good just need a hone to be perfect and for the 200 pound I paid for the whole engine it came with a nice set of rimmer brothers manifolds

£200 for a 4.2 with good bores and nice headers sounds like you got a bit of a bargain! You could hone it yourself with a £20 honing tool

I did think of doing that but the machine shop only wonted £40 to power hone it so decided to go that way. As with cams I wont to put a good cam in it but one that dus not need any head work as I plan to get the bottom end right so I dont have to pull it out of the car again. With a pair of home ported 4.6 heads until I can afford some nice ones.
Ideally the cam will be in a kit with a nice timing chain set ,lifters,springs,gaskets

Sounds like your sorted

parsonspower wrote:I did think of doing that but the machine shop only wonted £40 to power hone it so decided to go that way. As with cams I wont to put a good cam in it but one that dus not need any head work as I plan to get the bottom end right so I dont have to pull it out of the car again. With a pair of home ported 4.6 heads until I can afford some nice ones.
Ideally the cam will be in a kit with a nice timing chain set ,lifters,springs,gaskets

Speak to Paul at V8 Tuner (see links at bottom of home page) he will sort you out a suitable cam which will not need any machining and all the other bits you will need at sensible prices.

Kevin.

do you aways have to do work on the cylinder when you fit new pistons?

A hone is always a good idea as when you fit new pistons you will also fit new rings- which need to bed in properly. A bore depends on how round and worn the cylinders are.

Hi
You nearly always need to re hone the bores when you fit new piston rings, even if the bores are in very good condition as regards roundness and general wear they normally have a glaze on them. Even if that is not the case it is much easier to get new rings to bed onto a fresh honed surface, also if you have the engine stripped and are replacing the rings you may as well do it, the cost of a tool to do it yourself is about £20 plus a drill that will spin reasonably slowly and a steady hand. That by the way is why you can get a machine shop to do it for £40. If you fit new pistons then it follows you will be fitting new rings and all the above applies.
Best regards
Mike

so you can hone with the block still in the bay then. my 3.9 is only around 12k and was thinking about making it into a 4.2.

The hone will produce plenty of grit/filings/bad-for-engine-stuff that you do not want in your oil, so you will have to give it a good clean out if it's still in car, sump off and flush inside of block.

Personally I wouldn't risk honing the bores in anything but a fully stripped block so that it can be thorughly cleaned before reassembly.

All the oilways need to properly cleaned and pressure blasted as one bit of grit will ruin your engine.

Kevin.