Winter break… time at last

302 with heads installed

Oops. Sorry I haven’t posted much lately… between the play, finals, and what little is left over for my social life, there hasn’t been much time to work at the garage. Thank heavens it’s winter break now.

Last weekend, we inserted the front oil seal into the timing chain cover. After warping the first two that came with our engine kit, Dad was finally able to fit the replacement we got at Kragen of South City with the seal driver set we bought there. We then installed the gasket for the timing chain cover with silicone sealer, torqued down the cover, and trimmed the extraneous pieces of gasket. We also got the left cylinder gasket and head installed before it was time to pack up.

Today we installed the second cylinder head and started on the valve train. With the lifters and bores lubed nice and proper, in went the pushrods. Next, we lubed the inside of the rocker arms, inserted the pivots, and placed them over the screw-in studs. Oddly enough, there were two types of pivots, but they fit just the same, so we’re hoping there are no problems. We hand-tightened the nuts, and were researching the proper rocker arm-to-valve clearance when it was time to go. Before going home, we picked up some gasket shellac from NAPA Auto Parts so we can install the intake manifold tomorrow. The guy at the Napa counter was very helpful, and pointed us to a sale at Vic Hubbard Speed and Marine, so we’ll be driving there tomorrow for an electronic ignition setup for the mustang.