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DATE

PROCESS

HOURS

CATEGORY

10-22-03

Corvair - Cylinder/Piston assembly

3.0

engine

DETAIL:

Today I installed the piston rings and put the pistons in the cylinders.  It was easier than I thought to ring the pistons.  The key is to use the right tools.  I bought a ring expander at Sears last week and it makes quick work of opening the rings to slip over the piston.

Once the rings were on I put the rod bearings in place. After that was slipping the pistons in the freshly bored .020" cylinders.  I used a ring compressor heavily oiled and dropped the pistons in from the top without much effort.  They key is to really lube up the pistons... get them slopping wet with oil.

I have hit a minor snag.  I just found out the other night that 4 of my studs would not meet the minimum 10ft lb torque requirement.  I took them out and ordered a couple .003 and .006 oversize studs from Clarks. That solved the problem without having to helicoil the case.

The shot below shows the pistons/cylinders installed and temp held in place by some brass and galvanized tube pieces. 

If you look closely you will see that my top cover is held in place with stainless Allen head cap screws.  For most of the hardware for this engine I have purchased stainless Allen screws.  I'm doing my best to build a motor that is gonna run strong and look good doing it.