Made some good progress this week...started by putting the flywheel back between the crank halves, giving it a really good cleaning up and finally slathering it with oil. I had to clean up the oil seal journal since it had been damaged by water. I've had to conduct some much more extensive repairs to these things on past builds, , but this time I got lucky: I only had to shave about 0.003" off to get a smooth surface, and since there is still plenty of stretch on the crank seal, I'm sure it will be fine. The connecting rods were cleaned and polished and I checked the clearance with Plastigauge before fitting them. The cases needed a lot of careful cleaning, as some of the lower passages had become completely clogged with aluminum oxide (more water related problems), but eventually I was satisfied with the results. After that I heated the cases in the BBQ to remove the old ball and roller bearings (they fell right out on the grill, YAY!!!), then a new set of Superblends were fitted. A crank end play of 0.005" was easily established with only one 0.010" shim under the timing side inner bearing race. The breather plate and camshaft were slipped into the drive side case along with the crankshaft assembly. Following a light coat of Threebond on the mating surfaces the timing side case was slipped on over the whole lot and the two case halves were bolted together. Next I will turn my attention to the pistons and cylinders.
