SOHC Engine Removal/Rebuild/Install - Done!

[Mr. Alligator]

Meticulous, and impressive.

Well done.

 

[koda2000]

Meticulous, and impressive.

Well done.

Thanks. Many years ago I was taught that when it comes to building engines cleanliness was very important. That and I'm a bit OCD anyway.

Last Spring, when I began stripping down my engine in preparation to pull it, I had removed the DPFE sensor and had left the two small pipes that go to it from the EGR tube uncovered for a few days. Of course a freaking mud wasp decided to lay an egg in the smallest of the 2 pipes and sealed the end shut with mud. This tube has a very small ID and is kind of "S" shaped, so you can't just run something through it. I made a mental note that before reinstalling the EGR tube I'd have to clean out that small pipe. Today I decided to clean the EGR tube fitting/nut and nipple for where the EGR tube attaches to the driver's side exhaust header. This fitting was ridiculously frozen on and I had to heat the hell out multiple times with a torch of it to get it off. Every 1/8" of unscrewing it was a battle.

After dinner today I decided to clean up the threads on the nipple the fitting screws onto and the threads inside the fitting, coat them with anti-seize and make sure it could be reattached easily. That was the easy part. Then I decided to check/clean the small DPFE pipe out and make sure it was clear...

1.5 hours later I finally got that stupid pipe clear. I tried everything I could think of. Air pressure, bailing wire, parts cleaner and WD40. Little by little filling the pipe with WD40 and poking at the blockage with the metal goose-neck straw on the WD40 can finally got the garbage out of that pipe. I then sprayed everything out with parts cleaner and blew all the pipes/tube out with compressed air. Clear as a whistle now. Imagine if I hadn't noticed that the DPFE pipe was clogged? The DPFE wouldn't work correctly and the engine would never have run right. Like they say, "God is in the details".

After noticing the DPFE pipe was packed with mud, all the holes in everything were later covered/plugged and even the electrical connectors are now packed with dielectric grease to keep them dry and free of insects. I plan to test every line to make sure it's clear during reassembly.

Fun times.

 

[429CJ-3X2]

Chevy orange maybe?

NO

 

[donalds]

@koda2000 are you gonna clean the inside if the plastic intake

When I did my engine swap I filled mine with a strong mix of marvel mystery oil and diesel fuel and let it set for a day and a half
Then I rinsed it out with some gas and let it dry
When I was filling it up I used rubber gloves and rubber bands to seal up the holes in the intake

You would be surprised at what comes out

 

[koda2000]

NO

LOL, I figured that would get a rise out of someone, but honestly I have 1.5 cans of VHT Chevy orange spray paint, 2 cans of a VHT plumb purple and about a 1/2 can of VHT 60's Pontiac blue. If I was to buy a can of engine paint I'm thinking either gloss black or something close to a Ford blue. I just can't see repainting the block in light grey again. Maybe a darker metallic grey?

 

[koda2000]

@koda2000 are you gonna clean the inside if the plastic intake

When I did my engine swap I filled mine with a strong mix of marvel mystery oil and diesel fuel and let it set for a day and a half
Then I rinsed it out with some gas and let it dry
When I was filling it up I used rubber gloves and rubber bands to seal up the holes in the intake

You would be surprised at what comes out

I had cleaned it out as best I could when I had it off a few years ago. Being a one-piece design on the Job 2 engines it's even harder to clean than the older 2-piece intakes. I may pour some Seafoam in it and let it soak. I'll have to see how dirty it is. The last time I tried to clean it was mainly because it had a lot of oil in it (I think because the PCV valve had never been chained and was clogged). Honestly, the engine ran the same (which is to say very well) before and after cleaning the intake and its has never used any oil between oil changes since I've had it.

 

[CDW6212R]

LOL, I figured that would get a rise out of someone, but honestly I have 1.5 cans of VHT Chevy orange spray paint, 2 cans of a VHT plumb purple and about a 1/2 can of VHT 60's Pontiac blue. If I was to buy a can of engine paint I'm thinking either gloss black or something close to a Ford blue. I just can't see repainting the block in light grey again. Maybe a darker metallic grey?

I'd like to see a metallic grey, the OEM is drab and finding the good old blue is tough(there were three shades). I like a gloss black, or the old medium blue, but a medium grey is okay too for a stock look.

I tried a non high heat metallic grey on my transmission case and 4WD transfer case, it looks much better than the typical silver. This may survive on a trans or TC a while, an engine has to have a high heat paint.

This is a hair darker in real life, the picture flash adds a silver tone to it.

 

[koda2000]

I'd like to see a metallic grey, the OEM is drab and finding the good old blue is tough(there were three shades). I like a gloss black, or the old medium blue, but a medium grey is okay too for a stock look.

I tried a non high heat metallic grey on my transmission case and 4WD transfer case, it looks much better than the typical silver. This may survive on a trans or TC a while, an engine has to have a high heat paint.

This is a hair darker in real life, the picture flash adds a silver tone to it.

The T-case looks good in the aluminum-silver, but I wouldn't paint the engine block that color, plus in my experience silver paint does not hold up very well to oil, gasoline or even strong cleaners. I'm leaning toward the darker metallic gray VHT (Very High Temperature).

This one is good says it's good to 250 degrees F. PN SP189 Graphite Gray

This one is good to 360 degrees F and it says "Duplicates Original FORD Color" Ooooo.

 

[koda2000]

Every day's like Christmas...

FedEx just left me some goodies.

 

[CDW6212R]

The T-case looks good in the aluminum-silver, but I wouldn't paint the engine block that color, plus in my experience silver paint does not hold up very well to oil, gasoline or even strong cleaners. I'm leaning toward the darker metallic gray VHT (Very High Temperature).

This one is good says it's good to 250 degrees F. PN SP189 Graphite Gray

View attachment 179519

View attachment 179520
This one is good to 360 degrees F and it says "Duplicates Original FORD Color" Ooooo.

Nice, those will work. That top one is very close to what I painted my TC, the can cap looks that dark. It just wasn't a high heat paint, but on hand to try on the TC. I liked it, and then did my bare trans case that I had just cleaned. I too have lots of spare paint etc, it's time to use it up if possible.

 

[koda2000]

Head Prep:
Although the place that provided my reman'd heads assembled them, I wanted to remove the cams and put assembly lube on the cam bearings, roller tappets, cam lobes and lifter tips. I also wanted to re-torque the cam bearings to spec and check that the sprayer holes were clear. With all that done I installed my new fuel injector adapters.

Does anyone think it might be a good idea to put some assembly lube in the new oil pump before installing it? Before starting the engine for the first time I do plan to crank the engine w/out allowing it to start until I see oil pressure on the gauge.

 

[donalds]

Head Prep:
Although the place that provided my reman'd heads assembled them, I wanted to remove the cams and put assembly lube on the cam bearings, roller tappets, cam lobes and lifter tips. I also wanted to re-torque the cam bearings to spec and check that the sprayer holes were clear. With all that done I installed my new fuel injector adapters.

Does anyone think it might be a good idea to put some assembly lube in the new oil pump before installing it? Before starting the engine for the first time I do plan to crank the engine w/out allowing it to start until I see oil pressure on the gauge.

Yes I would put some oil in the pump just a few drops for the crank no start procedure
I wouldn't use assembly lube because it's like grease and it won't go through the oil passages as well
But use it on your cam lobes and journals

How were your spray bars mine were clogged all the way with sludge

 

[koda2000]

Yes I would put some oil in the pump just a few drops for the crank no start procedure
I wouldn't use assembly lube because it's like grease and it won't go through the oil passages as well
But use it on your cam lobes and journals

How were your spray bars mine were clogged all the way with sludge

I thought about at least putting a little oil in the oil pump to avoid a dry-start of the pump impeller. I think that's what I'll do. I don't know if the manufacturer put any oil/lube in the pump during assembly, but I don't want to take it apart to find out.

The spray bars on the reman'd head were clean. I blew them out with my air compressor just to make sure that all the holes were clear (and they were). I did not test my old spray bars, I just turned them in with my junk cores.

 

[donalds]

don't want to take it apart to find out.

I don't blame you

 

[koda2000]

I had turned in my old heads forgetting to retrieve the 00M12 oil restricter straw I'd installed from the left head. I have a extra restricter, but I didn't know if my reman'd head had the restricter in it. It was a bit of a battle to get the galley plug out to check, but I got it out and there is a restricter in my reman'd head. For those who don't know, the 00M12 kit was something Ford installed to try to stop oil from draining back out of the front chain tensioner. IDK if it actually does anything, but I figured it might as well be there. If I get any chain rattle in the future I'll most likely install the Polaris manual chain tensioners.

 

[CDW6212R]

The plastic "straw" thing is just to reduce the volume of the cavity, speeding up the filling and pressurizing the tensioner.

 

[koda2000]

Today's thoughts:
Now that my cylinder heads are completely ready to get reinstalled I decided to start getting my fuel injectors and rails ready to reinstall. I'm thinking I might as well leave the heads off until I've got the timing chain cassettes installed, because it's easier to do while the heads are off. I also see no reason I can't install my new oil pump, balance shaft and jack shaft, though I may wait on the oil pump until I'm ready to install the engine cradle and lower oil pan. I planning to order my OEM timing chain set early next month. Then engine reassembly should start going quickly.

 

[koda2000]

Minor Update:
I had 3 days of great weather over the past weekend and today. I spend much of my time cleaning greasy/grimy parts. There's not too much stuff left to clean at this point. I even cleaned nuts and bolts, put them into Ziploc bags and clearly labeled the bags. I decided to wait for my Fed stimulus check before ordering my OE timing chain set, so I'm trying to have everything else clean and ready to go before then. That should speed up the reassembly process, not that I'm in a huge rush, I just hate having to stop to clean stuff.

 

[donalds]

Cleaning parts sux but boy when it's back together it's a sight to see you will be happy

 

[koda2000]

@boominXplorer - Okay, I opened the box you sent me and according to the pic of the tool (see image below) there's supposed to be 2 short Allen head bolts that screw into the end of the crankshaft to hold the smaller inner part of the tool in place on the crankshaft. I see where you included the longer center bolt, in a separate zip-lock bag, that when tightened pushes the seal into place, but I don't have the 2 shorter Allen screws. Am I missing something? I tried using 2 of my flexplate bolts, but they're too long.

Also I don't think I need to use the thin inner plastic seal protector piece as my seal gets installed with the repair sleeve.