I got the front cover and water pump installed.

The next step was the head.

That went on pretty smooth. Iused the same arp ultra torque, on the threads and on the shoulders of the head bolts. After assembling, everything rotated smoothly. You can hear the cylinders breathing.
Then I had to check my louvers fitment.

They will look nice. I need to make the side louvers match.

Today is engine assembly day.
There is a lot to do.
Everything of mine has already been cleaned. Make sure everything is clean. Clean anything that isn’t clean. In case you haven’t noticed, you want to be clean when you are assembling an engine.
So, first step, clean. Second step, lube.
I start with a glob of moly assembly lube, then spread it out. I try not to get any in the oil groove.

Also, get the side of the thrust bearing.

Once the bearings are lubed and installed in the block and caps, install the crankshaft.

Then I’ll install the bearing caps.

I prefer to use arp ultra torque. Even if I’m not using arp fasteners. You could use oil, or assembly lube.
I cheat a little and pretorque the bolts with my ryobi. I think it only goes up to 20, but I dial it back to 16 or so.

Then, torque them to spec. I’m going to use the same setting I used when I plastigauged the crank, 60 ft/lbs.

Once the crank is bolted in, I’ll flip the block over, or on its side, to start installing the pistons.

Proper ring placement is important.

In order not to scratch the newly ground crankshaft, I’m using pieces of silicone hose. They also help give an indication of how far, or how straight the piston is.
When I apply assembly lube to the big end caps, I try not to pack it in the hole.

I apply the ultra torque to the rod bolts, and nut base like so. Also torque to the same spec as plastigauged.

Then you should be able to rotate the assembly with a bit of effort. If you can’t rotate it, something went wrong.

The last thing I did, was setup the timing components.

It’s a little puzzle in itself, just because you have to align key ways, pins, dots and links.

Oh the joy.

The engine rebuild is in a paused state at the moment. Everything was looking good until I test fit the thrust bearing. I knew I should have brought the bearings to shaker for reference.

The width on the crank is 1.210″, the bearing width is 1.220″. That surely won’t fit. So if both sides get .007″ trimmed off, that should give me my .002-.007″ clearance.
The mains do check out to .003″ clearance, max is .005″.

I swapped over the G54b turbo cam from the conquest, along with the hydraulic rocker assembly.
The top two rings are gaped to .29mm, and the oil rings are .35mm.
I have not plastigauged the rod bearings, but they calculate out to .0015″ clearance.

And now I wait, and clean.

Ewwww.

I got my parts back from shaker. They look great. I painted the block a flat black rated to 2k° and oil resistant.

The crank and rod look real nice. This weekend I plan to check clearances so I can get everything put together so it isn’t sitting all over the garage.

The head came out looking great. With 135lbs spring pressure. It might be able to push over 6k! Hah! Imagine that.

I also finally got a manual for this car. It’s filling in my blanks.

I sent my pistons, valves, main and rod bearings off for coatings by FFWD Connection in Oklahoma. www.ffwdconnection.com
I got the piston tops and valve faces ceramic coated, and the piston skirts and bearings coated with a molybdenum film

This process should help concentrate my cylinder temperature within the cylinders. They should help reduce rotating resistance, and hopefully, reduce intake heat soak. One major benefit, is that the piston tops shouldn’t melt.
I also saw my brothers old Montero. One of many.

And the heater is going.

I cut the original mounts down a couple inches and welded them back together.

Do suspension work.
I have new front strut inserts to install.

These shouldn’t be too bad. Since they are inserts, there is a little more work to disassembly.

The easy part was separating the strut from the ball joint.

This is most of the motor. All parts washed, and dried. Not stripped. They won’t be getting any polishing, maybe some paint though.
The whole engine harness is getting removed and cleaned/remade for the new intake/mpi.

Not really masses, but definitely parts.

New front struts will help dramatically. The front end had one helluva bounce and dive to it.
I received my new pistons with rings (.020), main bearings (.010), and rod bearings (.010). I’m just waiting on my seven other valves. Once all of these parts arrive, they are getting shipped off to www.ffwdconnection.com for some ceramics and lubricity coatings.

Here are the chunks of the piston that came out of the oil pan. One is very close to round. Odd.

Poor man’s parts washer.

I’m going to redo most of this wiring harness and eliminate a fair amount as well. I get to remove the voltage regulator, which is about 7 feet of excess wiring. I also plan to clean and paint the engine bay. The engine harness will need redone with the new intake setup. I was planning on itbs, but now I’m thinking, keep it turbo friendly. And work more on injector placement/angle.

The headlights and grill will get some attention this time around as well.