Building the 347 for the Granada.

[richpet]

Disclaimer: I'm not an ASE mechanic. I'm not perfect. I'm 'normal' in many ways. Bizarre in others. Lol This is how I've done motors in the past and all has been well. With careful attention a back-yarder can do this, too. This isn't my first motor build, but again, not a professional.

So just for fun I'm gonna relate my building of the 347 for the Granada. Got a call from the machine shop today that my block is ready. Picking it up Monday. So... No pics yet. No news. Probably should have waited until next week to start this (lol). Block is a later model roller cam block.

Having a cam custom ground. Will share specs soon.

It will be a 28oz balance.

Current motor runs perfect, has 8k on it. But, it's an older (1970) block so hydraulic flat tappet and 2-piece rear main.

Here is the car and current motor.

Also planning to put the battery in the trunk and move all the relays there. To keep them cooler.

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[emerygt350]

Looks great. I would still go with sleeper wheels....

[slow84lx]

Looks nice! I'm going to enjoy following along with the new engine.

[richpet]

Thanks! Leaving those tri-bars on it though. They are somewhat subtle...
Other than motor, plan to install a tubular front subframe. Mainly for clearance and ease under car. Also be cutting the tunnel for the T5 hump kit, seats with high backs (got rear ended in September last year. Even at low speed it hurt!). Maybe a gauge trifecta on the a-pillar.
Hope is to get this done by fall or so. We'll see. Depends on budget mainly since I do have all the family stuff too. That and I don't have a garage - only an undersized carport and my little heated shop. Hopefully sooner!

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[richpet]

For today, just getting everything home was the goal.
Block will be painted red, probably Thursday as it's supposed to be dry and 62°.
Expensive box, but it makes me smile.

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[richpet]

Freshly machined block.
I painted it and the timing cover with VHT Bright Red. Why not?
About to wipe it all down with a super light coat of oil. This will get any left behind machining dust, etc. out of there, prevent rust, all that good jazz. Of course I will wipe bearing areas with degreaser before any of that part happens.
Second pic is a memento that somehow made it from work to home at some point in it's life. Oops.

Detail showing block clearancing for the added stroke.
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[richpet]

I like to install the cam prior to the crank and pistons as I can more easily get two hands on it during installation, which helps prevent me from nicking the bearings. That said, I ordered a custom cam so am stuck until it arrives in a few weeks (hopefully sooner). It should sound good in the 347 with these specs:

INTAKE 276 DURATION 224 @ .050" .542" LIFT

EXHAUST 282 DURATION 230 @ .050" .552" LIFT

110 LOBE CENTER



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[richpet]

It looks like the machine shop may not have fully seated the rear-most cam bearing. Gonna stop by tomorrow with these pics to be sure. If I need to square up that bearing I want to do it BEFORE I try to install the cam.

Thoughts?
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[Hans]

Following the thread. Like what you are doing. Curious to see what a hobbyist like me could pull off in the garage.
The bearing race sticking out seems weird. You are right to speak with the shop.



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[emerygt350]

Yeah, good on you for paying such close attention.

[richpet]

Stopped by the shop with the pictures. He said they typically test fit a cam blank to check and said the casting can be off.
So when my cam arrives I will see what happens. He said bring it in if I have an issue and they'll make it right.
Hopefully it's just all good and I over thought it since the shop is in town, I'm not... About a 50 mile round trip and I need a friend to help lift on and off my truck.


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[richpet]

For those curious about my cleaning process...
Machine shop said block is clean and ready to build. But...
I take it home and hit it with a bit of compressed air. Good news is no pieces flying out of the block or water passages.

Now the fun/slowly slice your hands up a bit part.

I cut a chunk of old t shirt and shake it off well so it won't leave cotton behind. Then I get it a bit oily and wipe down everything. Piston bores were pretty good, very little 'gray' residue on my oily cloth.
Then I do the lifter bores. That's where your hands get a bit punished. I stick my finger in the oily cloth and stick it in the hole (the sophomoric part of me likes saying that) I mean the lifter bores and wipe them all.
It took 4 new oily cloth rotations to get a cloth at the end with little or no 'gray' residue. That gray is very fine metal powder from machining process. Pic below is after doing all the lifter and piston bores so getting pretty darn clean! First oily cloth was close to black.

I will keep doing this once in a while just to be sure it stays clean.
Lifter valley and mains got a light spray of wd40 and a wipe down. Just don't want any rust particles in my oil.

I will continually wipe everything down once in a while to be sure it stays clean, get any small pieces of cotton/whatever that might get on there.

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[Bentley]

Hot soapy bucket of water. Scrub it down, run gun brushes through the oil passages, dry quickly with compressed air ( or maybe one of the hot air car/bike dryers) Them lube up the bores and any machined surfaces with WD-40....

I lived in Eugene and Springfield from 69-2012, South Eugene HIgh grad.... How long you been in the area?? What machine shop did you use.. Seems like huffmans was still there ten years ago......

[richpet]

I asked if I needed to wash it and they said no, it was ready to go. Otherwise I would have done the soapy bit and all that. When I picked the block up it was wrapped in plastic wrap The oiled cloths/air blow out seems to uphold that in this case.
I grew up on Seavey Loop by Mt. Pisgah. Graduated from SHS in '87. We had a 20 acre farm. Raised rabbits commercially, beef cows, turkeys, hogs. Not to mention the huge (1 acre or so) garden. We didn't buy a lot of food.
Moved to Oregon in '77 and have been in this area the whole time.
Currently in Lowell (since '0 but looking to move in to Springfield or Eugene. I retired this last Aug 1st and would like to have stuff closer at hand. I need a garage. That kind of thing.
The only machine shop around anymore I think is Southworths.
The last motor I built was done by a guy with a full machine shop on his property on Jasper road in Springfield, as round 35th or so if I recall. That block got a good scrubbing when I got it home.

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[Bentley]

I have had every machine shop tell me that, but I always clean em up on my own, piece of mind.... They seem just a bit cleaner to me.. The machine shops have that oily " metal bits in the air" thing going on.....
I also like to take my crank to a clean solvent tank and clean it... Push a gun brush through the oiling holes on it... I always get some dirt out of those... Be really careful though, you can scratch a crank pretty quick... ALWAYS try to use a brush with a plastic or nylon rod, not a metal one.....

Born in Portland, moved to Eugene in 69... A great town to grow up in, but it has certainly changed... Too many newcomers...... Moved to Lakeland Florida ( job transfer) in 2012 " temporarily" but when I retired I stayed... You get used to warm weather and every time I went " home" to Eugene it was cold, wet and cloudy grey skies...... Built a home up on top of 73rd st, off of Main in Spfld in 96 after my divorce.... My EX and I had a home on Camp Creek road for 17 years.....

Southworths is the old Huffmans ( From WAY back in the day) There were 3 or 4 machine shops , back then, within blocks of each other....

[richpet]

I like that part of town. I get what you mean about gray. It snowed a bit last night.
I do plan to scrub the crank well for sure, same with the cam. And you are very right about not using a metal-rodded brush! I don't have a tank so have to do the drip/spray/dump/wipe/brush kind of cleaning, but should still get good results.


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[richpet]

One cleaned, slightly oiled, cast steel crankshaft. Going into a clean and fresh trash bag for storage.

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Purty...


Because the innermost cam bearing is a question in my mind, (shop says it's fine) I'm gonna wait and install cam for sure first. That way IF there is an issue I don't have to undo/redo stuff.
Crud. It just started hailing pretty good. Squirrel!

[Bentley]

90 here today in Central Florida.... Had to turn my AC on.....
That should be OK as the cam is the first thing to go into the block, at least thats how I was taught and do it.....

[richpet]

Figured I paint the oil pan the same red. Here it is primer coated. The wrinkles were the metal, not my spraying.
Paint will wait for a warmer day in a week or so I suppose.

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[richpet]

Painted the oil pan.

Figured since I have to wait on the cam to be created I would check bearing clearances. Theoretically all would be correct without checking. But it doesn't hurt to be sure just in case something got boxed wrong, etc.

With a new crank all clearances should be standard. The crank isn't used and ground to an undersize to reuse it. If you had a crank ground .010/.010, your bearings need to match. The bearings are stamped with this (std, .010, etc) so check that first.

Install the bearings. The grooved one goes in the block because it has the oil holes. Snap it in flush. Snap the solid one in to the cap in the same way.

Place a small strip of plastigage and install the cap to proper torque. Remove and measure. You can check them all, but if one is right it is VERY likely they are all good.

Then just clean off the plastigage.

Do the same to check rod bearing clearance.

The huge bearing is the thrust bearing. It goes on #3.

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[richpet]

Keep in mind:
Each main bearing cap is specific. Arrow on it points to front of motor, 1-5 front to rear.

Be careful removing/installing! They fit tight! Gentle taps with a rubber mallet while pulling up and rocking it to remove work well. Install it square! The rubber mallet, gently, helps you get it fully seated.

Do not use the bolts to pull it down! You can chip the block or cap and that is no good!

Torque the caps down only after you have them gently tapped all the way down.

Aaannnddd.... I should have taken a pic of the plastigage use. Doh! I will do it again and show that later.

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[teal95]

Look very closely at the bearings you take out. I had a 2.3t that I did a quicky rebuild on that had one 0.010 under bearing it it from the factory. (Engine showed no signs of being opened before and all bearings had Ford stampings. And when I used plastigauge on it during reassembly it needed that 1 bearing to be different to have the right clearances.)

steve

[richpet]

True - that is always a possibility on an unknown motor! By unknown I mean one that has not been taken apart by the owner, but *should all be the same.
In this case, my block was fully machined so should all be the same as they did all the work themselves at one time. Doubtful they did only 4 of the 5, or changed things part way through. And the crank is a brand new cast steel unit, so again, they should all be consistent. But it IS possible as they could have started Friday, finished Monday, ...
However, I will more than likely check them all. If for no other reason than I have the plastigage and it does not take much time.
Appreciate the comment and it is great advice!

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[richpet]

Couldn't do it. Bright red VHT paint is way too close to Chevy orange. I wouldn't want to confuse anybody. Lol

Now everything is Ford Light Blue.

Hopefully the cam will arrive soon and I can start the actual build.

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[85MUSTANGTGT]

I agree, it was looking a bit orangish in the pics above. Too bad, we were almost engine twinkies.

When I did my engine build, I wanted red too. The machine shop who painted my block advised and used Duplicolor "Red". It's definitely just red. I asked about "Ford Red" and was told it was too orange and I wouldn't want it. If you don't mind, here is a mid-assembly pic of what I ended up with.