After having the 318 V8 in the Dodge show signs of being pretty much shot, I had to turn my attention to the extra 318 V8 that I picked up under the idea that it was a rebuilt short block only to find out it was a poorly rebuilt short block. They reassembled everything using oversized bearings despite having a standard sized crank and connecting rods. I ended up gathering parts over a few months, slowly but surely since I pretty much needed everything in order for me to assemble a complete engine, minus a few things here or there. With most of the main components gathered I started work on the engine. I had the engine stand that came with the engine, which would help greatly since I won't have to worry about suspending this thing under the engine crane while trying to work on it. With it on the engine stand the first thing I had to do was obviously disassemble the rest of the engine, which was the rest of the pistons and connecting rods and the crank itself. I had to borrow a piston and rod from this engine when I was trying to repair the other 318 a while back and had since replaced the borrowed piston/rod with the old rod from the other engine topped with a new piston. Of course it didn't take long to disassemble everything as I had already loosened up the main bearing caps and the connecting rod caps in the troubleshooting process. The main thing was keeping everything in order, making sure the main bearing caps were in order and the pistons were in order corresponding to the cylinders they came from. All of this stuff went in a box off to the side so they won't be disturbed. One of the things I did want to do was paint the engine just to make it look nice, since this was going to be a fresh rebuild. It would be nice to have a nicely painted engine ready to go as I have new valve covers, an oil pan and even a replacement timing cover. I had to de-grease the engine block to prep it for painting but the new panels, minus the timing cover, just needed to be cleaned of dirt prior to painting. I laid out the valve covers and oil pan and sprayed them down good, ensuring good even coverage over all of the metal. As for the timing cover I had to soak it in a parts cleaner to break up the collected deposits of grime and grease from whatever car engine this piece came from. After a good soaking and scrubbing to get as much dirt as possible from the metal piece I was finally able to paint the piece. I painted the piece with multiple coats to ensure a good even coverage with no thin spots or missed spots. To do the job right I had to mask off the area of the timing cover where the water pump would be mounted as that section of the cover would be behind the water pump and not need paint on it. Any paint on it would be in the path of the coolant being circulated through the engine and the last thing I need is paint chips getting into the cooling system. As with the other pieces, I blasted the engine block with enough coats of paint to ensure complete coverage all over every surface. I moved over the engine, then came back to where I started, going on the idea that the paint at the starting point had time to dry some before I started hitting it with the next coat. Apparently I did something right because I didn't have any runs on the surface of the engine. The engine block just like the rest of the pieces, will be left to sit a while so as to ensure that the thick layer of paint will be completely dried before I start reassembly. From there we will start getting our new powerplant ready to go.
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