As mentioned before the Mustang's old engine and transmission needed to be dealt with before I start the actual work on the Mustang Chicken Coop. I thought I would get the engine prepared for rebuilding so I can maybe start working on the F150 after finishing up the Mustang. This of course will involve breaking down the engine so I can get it ready for the machine shop work that will need to be done as well as get the transmission staged in a safe spot until I can put it to use later. I continued from where I left off the day before by getting the old distributor removed then getting the intake off. I had to beat on the dizzy to get it to free itself from the hole in the block but at least I didn't destroy the thing. I had one odd bolt left to remove to get the intake off before turning my attention to the cylinder heads. Using the impact wrench I got all the bolts pulled and was able to get the heads pulled. After some inspection it turned out that the heads were in pretty good shape body wise, probably just needing a freshening up versus a complete overhaul. I also found out that the engine was still freed up and able to turn over rather easy. When I first played with this engine and found it was kind of seized up I filled the cylinders with WD40 and kept working the thing until the engine freed up. Apparently even after the initial free-up that WD40 and some other penetrating oils I sprayed in the cylinders had plenty of time to work its way through the rings and cylinder walls, lubing everything up so well that the engine couldn't help but turn over. I went ahead and removed the old starter, breaking a bolt off in the bell housing, which will need attention in the future when I do go to use the tranny again. The starter was completely trashed so it went on the outgoing scrap pile. I was able to turn the engine over to remove the torque converter bolts then went ahead pulled the bellhousing bolts in order to separate the tranny from the engine. With the engine by itself, I pulled the flywheel then flipped the block over and pulled the oil pan. Since the engine was able to be turned over, by hand, I was able to turn the crankshaft in order to remove the nuts for the connecting rods, along with the bolts for the main bearing caps. The bearings were showing a lot of copper, so this would be indicative of serious wear, probably part of the reason for the engine seizing up at some point, probably had low oil pressure or something, who knows. All it says is that the engine is going to be overhauled, fresh bearings, including cam bearings, and rings and all that other shit. I finished removing the pistons and laying them out in order so they are identified for the cylinder they came from. Each piston has a mark that identifies the forward point. The main bearing caps are also marked for which number they are as well. the last thing to do at this point is get the harmonic balancer removed so I can fully get the crank out, along with the old timing chain set and camshaft. With that I'll be able to take the block to the machine shop so it can be cleaned up and have the cam bearings replaced. The crankshaft will be sent off to be ground as well. I moved some parts around, taking the parts that were shitty and putting them on the scrap pile outbound. Some of the other parts were temporarily moved to the auto parts rack in the dog yard, staged until their potential use in the future. The exhaust manifolds, flywheel, plate, intake manifold were staged on or around the rack. Other parts I'm still deciding on what to do with em or where to put em but the main thing is getting that crank separated so I can finalize that disassembly and ultimately getting the block in a safe place until I can move on to the next phase with THAT project. As stated before, I'm moving pretty fast on these projects and will be continuing to find myself overlapping projects as the situation presents itself. The next move with the chicken coop is going to be the staging of all the scrap metal I plan on using to make the floors and other parts of the chicken coop in the Mustang body. The work continues.
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