115/3067 bought back from France

[Eddie]

Great job Kev.

How’s the engine coming along??

[Kevin Birch]

Not started it yet Eddie, been too busy stripping the engine bay. Still got to get the heads off to the machine shop, but should get that done by end of month. Should have more time over the next month to set about it. Bought the 2K paint for the engine bay yesterday, and have had a couple of rattle cans made up with the blue, to respray around the bonnet gutter.
How's your car, is it back together yet?

[Grant]

Well done Kev.. the worst is done now, that is all the horrible stuff done now
Now it gets more fun and more rewarding Kev .. as you know .. Good Man

[Eddie]

Engine bay done.

On the engine itself now.

I haven’t got the strip down like you have though, so am on the major degrease at the moment.

We need to both keep soldiering on though. I bet like me your starting to get busy again at work.

Anyway I am sure we will be talking about it all in the spring, when the cars are all back together.

Dartmouth Park this year??

[Grant]

Engine bay done.

On the engine itself now.

I haven’t got the strip down like you have though, so am on the major degrease at the moment.

We need to both keep soldiering on though. I bet like me your starting to get busy again at work.

Anyway I am sure we will be talking about it all in the spring, when the cars are all back together.

Dartmouth Park this year??

Don't try and swerve me Eddie
Glad yours is coming on fine too... bloody work always gets in the way doesn't it

[Eddie]

Engine bay done.

On the engine itself now.

I haven’t got the strip down like you have though, so am on the major degrease at the moment.

We need to both keep soldiering on though. I bet like me your starting to get busy again at work.

Anyway I am sure we will be talking about it all in the spring, when the cars are all back together.

Dartmouth Park this year??

Don't try and swerve me Eddie
Glad yours is coming on fine too... bloody work always gets in the way doesn't it

No swerve intended

I need to get it back on the road for the next grand day out, when ever that may be. Concours d’ Elagance and beer ???

[Grant]

Concours d’ Elagance and beer ???

[Kevin Birch]

Got quite a bit of the welding done today, but then ran out of gas . Got all the N/S done, have made the panels for the O/S and spot welded them in place along the bonnet gutter, just need to finish them off along the bottom. Will need to make the rear section of the triangular piece, and weld a new nut on it and also the captive nuts for the wing liners and the welding is done.

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[Grant]

That's a Nice Job there Kev

[Kevin Birch]

Had a good few days in the garage, had to do some major surgery on my welder, had to replace the gun and the cabling, and do a little engineering to get it to fit as I couldn't get the original fitting. Spent the rest of the time removing the front suspension, welding the captive nuts on for the wheel liners and masking up under the bonnet, which takes more time than you would think. A final rub down of the cross member now the suspension is off, and a a general de -grease and clean up of the engine bay, and it was out with the stone chip .
I've stonechipped everything under the bonnet, and under the wheel arches, as I've now removed all 4 of the wheel arch liners, and surprised at how little I've used. I bought 4 tins of the stuff, and only used just over 1 to do the lot.
Will leave it until next weekend to spray it satin black, just need to start painting everything else under the bonnet and start putting the engine back together now I have the heads back.
Finally going the right way after a lot of months pulling it all apart, my enthusiasm has kicked back in.

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[Grant]

Wah Hey Lovely Jubbley

[Christian]

Well done, Kev!

Looks so much better now.
I wondered why your heads were not resurfaced?

Christian

[Kevin Birch]

Hi Christian,

When I took them to have the work done, they asked if I wanted them skimmed and said not unless they need it, and they didn't. As standard my engine is 10.1:1 compression ratio, it has 30" pistons in it and has probably been skimmed before, so compression will be even higher, so don't want to increase it more. If you skim the head surface, the heads effectively move closer together when bolted to the block, so at some point the inlet surfaces should be skimmed too, but to a percentage of what the head skimming was done, to ensure the manifold fits correctly. I've seen this with Rover V8s where the inlet hasn't been skimmed and you can't align the bolts on the manifold.
I'll "surface" them with some 600 wet and dry on some flat MDF to clean them up a little and remove the stains.

[Christian]

Hi Kev,

I didn't mean skimming for more compression ratio. My shop took 0,1mm from the surface, which is 0,004". If you want to avoid the compression increase, you can use the Felpro gasket which is 0,039" instead of the original steel shim gasket which is 0,020" compressed thickness. So by using different gaskets you add 0,019" to the distance where my shop took 0,004" away. I'm still not sure which gasket I'll use. I'm struggling to get to 9,5:1 even with the KB400 pistons so rather planned to use the original steel gasket. But I know that the Felpro would be the safer way to avoid any pinging.

edit: interesting stuff http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/thr ... os.320123/

Christian

[Kevin Birch]

That's interesting stuff Christian, just glanced at it at the moment, as its late at night and I've just come home from the pub
I'm going with the thicker Feplro gasket, as they have a good reputation, will lower the CR slightly, and are the ones most people here who have experience in rebuilding these engines recommend. Its all personal preference, and we must all build our engines to how we want them to perform, and to our own budgets, so there is no right or wrong. There is so much advice out there you have to filter it to work out what you really want.
Ideally I'd stroke mine, with alloy heads, roller followers and rockers, fuel inject it and fit tubular manifolds, but I would end up having to live in the garage with the car as I'd have to sell the house to fund it
Keep me posted on what you do.