Worden18

Rods torqued to spec....

All 6 in place!

#1 piston in, #2 about to slide on down....

Block before pistons....

New pistons!

Okay fellas, some updates. I've become friends with the builder, so its been fun talking to him and he's invited me to his shop to help out with a few things. Today was a great day. I got to do the one thing I really wanted to: put pistons together with the rods. I took apart the rods first and knocked out the old bearings with a brass hammer. Then I lubed up the bushings and fit the wrist pins to them. One was tight so my friend honed that one again. Then I put the pistons, rods, and wrist pins together as one. Then in went the little clips that keep the wrist pins in place. Next my friend (Dennis) put the rings on each piston and then put them into the block. He lubed up each piston and also put Lubriplate on the rod bearings. I hadn't previously seen the tool that is used to compress the rings when putting the pistons into the block. Simple as it may be, you need to have it! All the pistons slid in nicely. Earlier in the week Dennis had already put the cam, valves, springs, crank, etc. in the engine block. Wish I could've been there for that but I had other things to do at home. At least I got to take part in the piston assembly. Next we rotated the crank around by hand and torqued all the rod bolts down. Dennis also put the oil pickup assembly in. Tomorrow I'm gathering a bunch of parts that are in the trunk of the car and taking them to Dennis so he can continue the assembly. He's going to sandblast the manifolds, we'll put the timing chain cover on, oil pump, distributor, etc. He said he'll be able to bench test for spark so we know for sure the car will run before we even put the engine back in.

Love the patina on the blue one; its pretty sweet!

I'll hijack my own thread 4:31 into this clip is a nice shot of Mr. C's Desoto

I didn't realize how Fluid Drive actually worked until I read up on it in my shop manual. Of course the previous owner warned me about the car rolling away even "in gear" if the brake wasn't set. The engine builder has my shop manual right now for reassembly. I should be able to take the brake assembly off without it, but I'll for sure need it when I put a rebuilt/new one back on . I'll make sure I check the cable, too when I get that far. We used to watch Happy Days all the time (and still catch an episode every now and then on ME-TV) but I won't lie and say I remember the Desoto. I'll have to do a search on YouTube and see if it pops up. You got me interested now

Thanks dpollo for caring enough to give me advice, and for being interested in my project. I love this stuff. I absolutely can't wait to get it all back together. Yesterday I spent some time cleaning the 65 years of buildup off the transmission. Its not perfectly clean yet, but I got most of it. Tomorrow I'm going to remove the parking brake off the tranny and send it in for the core on a new/rebuilt one. Its pretty rusty and worn down. I also spent some time today talking to an old-timer that runs an exhaust shop. He actually had books and statistic cards that go WAY back. The cards showed how long each piece of exhaust should be, what angle the bends are, etc. It was really neat to see. I didn't even know something like that existed. Once I get it running again the first place I'm taking it is to that shop for new exhaust. The guy seemed pretty excited to work on it; he doesn't get many older cars anymore.

Wow nice looking car! Not a recommendation for the paint, but I'd try some Bleche-Wite on those whitewalls. Always worked nice for me.

Here's a video of the boring machine in action.

new piston; kinda blurry, I apologize

top view of .030 over piston

He'll of course hone it when he's done here.

another shot...

Stopped by the builder's today. I had requested he contact me when he was going to bore the block. So I got to see the boring machine in action. As a machinist myself (been out of it a long time) I've bored many parts in a lathe and on a mill, but never an engine block. It was fun to watch. The pistons are .030 over; I got to see one of those as well. He had ordered a number of new parts and we sorted through the box which included the pistons, new valve springs, a full gasket set, and quite a few other parts. And oh, dpollo, you were right, the exhaust valve seats are hardened. Not that I ever doubted you, but the builder got proof once he started messing around with them. He was able to grind them and they are good to go. He also decked the block about .006 to clean up a small dipped spot. Things are looking good. He said I'll likely have my engine back by the end of next week (April 21st). Can't wait!

Don't give up on it, just consistently pick away at it.....and enjoy it while you're picking away Congrats for finally getting to it! I have the engine out of my car atm, it's frustrating and a little worrisome but one day at a time is how I'm approaching it.

Wow that's looking nice! Looking at that just makes me even more pumped to get mine back. Patience....

Thank you for the info. I will show him this post

I will see him again next week and ask him what's going on. Maybe I missed something....definitely want to clear it up now

crankshaft