That's right race fans, this is the real deal, lots of good old A'merican horsepower! All the final little bits of grinding and smoothing are done, now it's time to put this baby together.
Now building an engine is kind of like putting together a puzzle, one piece missing or one out of place and it doesn't work. It always seemed to me that an internal combustion engine was a very complicated piece of machinery, and they are, but really there's not that many parts that go inside one. When you see one going together, starting with the block they become much simpler. It's something like "the foot bone's connected to the leg bone and the leg bone's connected to the knee bone" kind of thing. Also what's being built is pretty simple and straightforward, with the car being as old as it is, there is no pollution controls to deal with, no fuel injection, no turbos, no double overhead cams, nothing too fancy, just a good ol' V8. 
Now our team of experts were, myself, of course, my racing pard, Rick, who's been building engines since High School, Everett Selby, machinist extraordinaire, and Joe. Ahh Joe, I'm sorry I didn't get your last name, being our utmost expert consultant, but maybe that makes for a better story.
What I know of Joe, is he's a young fellow of about 26, who's put together umpteen motors for himself and others while working at the local hot rod shop. He's a Chevy man at heart and he has been a big help to us prescribing what brands of parts to secure. He likes to make sure the Ford guys know that we're building a "real motor". Being a hot rodder, he looks at engines in terms of drag racing, so we had to make sure to kept him on the right page for road racing. He donated our 350 block, and he also tells funny stories.
What you'll see in these pictures is building what's called "the short block". The actual steps in putting a motor together, you can read in an engine building manual, what I'll give you is the highly abbreviated version
First the block is cleaned, dirt being the villain, can't have it clogging an oil passage. The crankshaft, main caps and bearings come next, with measurements always taking place to make sure it's straight and fits as it should. Like cooking or carpentry, engine building is a matter of having the right tool, so it's good to know that if the hammer to smack the crank place isn't big enough, there's always a BIGGER one around. But hey, like Joe sez, "It's only a gas motor"! Meaning, it's not some alcohol fueled, fire breathing, 1200 HP monster, just a little gas engine!
Next, comes the rods and pistons, which have been prepared with the rings, and are fitted into the block and attached to the crankshaft. More measurements take place to make sure the piston heights are right.
Following that, the camshaft is is installed, which slid right into place for us, they sometimes can be a problem if things aren't lined up right.
A quick side note about our cam. One of the top cam grinders in the business just happened to move in across the street from the shop. Dimitri Elgin of Elgin Cams did the work for us, and if you have any notion to learn more about camshafts, go to this link and read up on it.....
He told me it was written for a tenth grade education, if that's so, I'll see you in kindergarten!
Next, you throw on a timing chain. And finally, the camshafts position is checked so it matches with that of the crankshaft, so their rotation is synchronized, that's called "degreeing the cam". As it sounds, it's rather complicated, with lots more calibrating and measuring to get it right. With that, you have yourself a finished short block.
Whew, I'm all worn out doing all that wrenchin', so next time we'll do the top half, or "the
long block". But first we'll talk about "The Chihuahua Express"!
NEXT TIME: Ay Chihuahua!
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