Sent the engine to South Wales Pistons with the instructions to hone the bores to 84.1mm maximum and see what they look like. turns out the wear spots and taper were removed by the time it got to 84.1.....
The reason I gave that number to hone it out to was that a company by the name of Camcoat http://camcoat.com/ have a process which can add a coating to the piston skirts giving up to a 0.1mm increase in diameter.
Pistons were sent off and came back with a lovely charcoal grey coating to the skirts. That just left the issue of piston rings.
The rings that came with the engine were quite worn and the gaps were all over top spec. Looking at Guy Croft's engine manual he states that a 0.2mm oversize ring set can be used as long as the gaps are filed to recommended levels. Only place I could find a set of 84.2 rings for this engine was in America from http://www.midwest-bayless.com/.....my research prior that Goetze/Federal Mogul make them was correct but they had none in stock and couldn't find any in the UK. So that meant paying the extra for shipping and taxes from USA.
Having got my block home I gave it a good washing out with soapy water until no grit could be seen on a clean paper towel (this took several cleaning operations and a bit of pressure washer use).
The placing the rings in the bore they would live in, measured the gap with feeler gauges and filed them out to specs. This was done for all three rings on all four cylinders.....very time consuming!
Example "old" ring gap
and what it now uses (nice tight end gaps)
The rings were then put back on the pistons and everything of the bottom end of the block was bolted back together using new bearings, seals and gaskets everywhere.
Only part of note was the bottom pickup of the oil pump....
Looks like the mesh screen did its job as nothing was found inside the pump and no wear could be seen. So having been cleaned it too was bolted back in.
All internal parts coated with Torco engine assembly lube, the stuff sticks lovely so should protect everything until full rebuild and startup.
The outside of the block and sump then got a bit of tarting up with paint (engine in primer here which was painted over Bilt Hamber Hydrate 80 rust converter).
Then a new clutch bolted to the flywheel. It was a bargain I picked up at a car show for £5.....yes 5 whole pounds sterling
Latest thing to happen (yesterday) was the gearbox bolted back to the engine block.
I'm wondering what to do with the gearbox as far as outer finish, against the silver engine block the raw aluminium looks a bit drab. Will have a think about it.....
