Engine Rebuild

Beginning the Engine Rebuild...

By the way, YES - I, webmistress Laurel, am still in charge. I know that this is somewhat shocking, but apparently William never looks at the webpage (this is lucky for me, since we rarely agree on artistic endeavors).

tom's hanger.JPG (44989 bytes)
Here we are, back at the Lempicke ranch where the engine rebuild is taking place.

tom's shop.JPG (57549 bytes)
Before mechanical work can begin, cleaning is essential.

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Start of the engine rebuild.  This is the back of Dad's shop.		 engine teardown1.JPG (63108 bytes)
Beginning to tear down the engine - removing the intake.
 engine teardown2.JPG (35763 bytes)
Removing the rocker arms.
engine teardown3.JPG (63426 bytes)
William removing the rocker arms and sporting his stylish 80's Garfield work shirt. (I won't let him wear "Good" shirts to work on greasy stuff)

engine teardown4.JPG (71070 bytes)
Ready to remove lifters.  It took about 1 hour to get to this point.  It went pretty fast with 2 people working on it.

 engine teardown5.JPG (65013 bytes)
Side view of pistons 5 thru 8.  This side looks good.		 engine teardown6.JPG (65495 bytes)
Side view of pistons 4 thru 1.  Check out 2nd from the left which is #3 on the engine.  All of the cylinders had about 120 psi compression before teardown EXCEPT # 3.
 engine teardown8.JPG (59757 bytes) Getting ready to take out the crankshaft.  That's my Dad (Tom Lempicke) on the right.
heads1.JPG (67655 bytes)
Heads removed and on  the bench.		 heads.JPG (78212 bytes)
The heads look to be in good shape, and the main bearing caps seemed okay as well.		 about to remove crankshaft.JPG (70296 bytes)
Almost ready to remove the crankshaft.		 pulling crankshaft out.JPG (64328 bytes)
Pulling out the crankshaft.  Wow that looks heavy...I was pretty content just to take pictures.
 crankshaft closeup.JPG (51298 bytes) Close up of the crankshaft.  There was a little wear, but it looks pretty good.
bent rod.JPG (61378 bytes)
When we got out the #3 piston and rod, this is what we found.  What's wrong with this picture?

rod profile.JPG (61654 bytes)
Here's another view of our lucky rod # 3.  We found this on Friday the 13th by the way.

mickpic.jpg (56033 bytes)
William comes from a long line of insane racing people.  His brother used to race at Myrtle Beach.

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After the engine teardown we went to the Miller house.  We borrowed Jack's truck and Michaels trailer.		 jack's truck.JPG (75956 bytes) Jack's truck. Jack is my father-in-law and I love his truck.  I'd steal it if I thought it wouldn't cause a divorce.
trailer.JPG (77789 bytes)
Michael's trailer.  This used to be used for the race car shown above.  Ahhh those were the days... hauling the Nova on a Saturday night.		 mick and laurie's house.JPG (61657 bytes)
This is the back of Michael and Laurie's house.  We appreciate their willingness to loan us the trailer (to be used for picking up the Kit)		 m_and_l's house.jpg (37160 bytes)
This is M & L's house from William's parents' house.
Well, now we're ready to go pick up the Cobra Kit.  We are planning on going up later this week.  It should be exciting...		  

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