Picked up the rebuilt motor this morning from the machine shop. Had a bit of a scare when my buddy and I arrived. The shop owner was moving the engine by himself to get it closer to the rollup door when he caught a mat with one wheel and the engine toppled over. He had no choice but to drop it or it was going to crush him. Luckily, the motor survived the fall and we didn't see any exterior damage to it after the three of us lifted it upright. The fall did leave two nice gouges in the shop's concrete floor. I'm just glad that he wasn't hurt and the engine is ok. He's a nice guy and would have fixed whatever might have been broken. Accidents happen.

I'm in the process of touching up a few area and bolts with paint and painting other parts (pulleys, water pump, other covers, etc). Hope to install it next weekend.


Loaded for the short ride home.




At home ready to be put away inside the garage.

 

Looking good, Ilya. Painted too. Glad the manifolds weren't on it when it went over.

I hauled mine to the rebuilder this past Friday, so I'll be following your progress. I took just the short block too to make sure the manifolds wouldn't be at risk. Did you have the paint mixed to get the 52 Lincoln green, or did you go with something close? And are you doing the valve cover in the dark green? If so, what color are you using? I've never found a code for that. Stu

 

Close call! It looks gorgeous!

 

Wow...that looks great!!. How are you doing with the exhaust manifold??

Dan

 

Although I had taken the first exhaust manifold to him, he only had it to bead blast and then gave it back to me. I kept the original and OFFY intakes at home as he didn't need them either. Had they been on the engine block when it toppled, I would have had two broken parts, as well as possible damage to the block/head.

For the paint, I wanted to get something close to the original color. A few years ago, I bought a 52 215 that was still wearing its original colors after I pressure washed the grease off.



After having this engine for several years, along with a few other 215s, I decided to part it out and scrap the block because it was cracked/broken in two places at the rear transmission mount. I kept every part that I could, including the valve cover and the side inspection cover plate.

After doing some research, I purchased a can of Duplicolor Diesel Alpine Green engine paint from the local O'Reilly store. I also found the 52 Lincoln paint online, but it was something like $18/can. I didn't feel like paying that much just for a trial. I test sprayed the store bought Alpine Green paint onto the side cover that I had, which still had the original paint left. The original paint has been covered in grease for many years and thus, in my opinion, has stained/darkened the color. I also found that the clutch plate springs are also painted the similar green color and they closely matched the Diesel Alpine Green. Lastly, I placed the stock intake manifold, which is painted the stock green color, onto the newly painted engine and it appears to be a perfect match in color shades. This possibly proves my theory that the color of the inspection cover plate was stained/darkened over the years by the grease.






So, for the same $18 as the one can of 52 Lincoln green would have cost me, I was able to buy three cans of the Diesel Alpine Green. As for the valve cover, I have one that still has its original dark green paint. From what I remember, it may even have a little metal flake in it, but it's been a while since I looked at it. There's still enough paint on it to have a close match mixed. The good part is that it doesn't need to be engine paint since it won't get that hot. I have an OFFY valve cover, so I won't worry about getting the original re-painted. Plus, I just bought an NOS valve cover that has good dark green paint.


Got one purchased and sent to me by another Dan out in Vancouver, WA. I left it at the machine shop to be bead blasted. It has a small crack that I will take to a more reputable shop for their repair opinion. I then plan to get it ceramic coated in black.



I also did a quick tally of what the engine cost me to rebuild so far:


Machine/assembly work - $1319

• Mag & grind crank, mag & grind cam, bore & hone, resize rods, rebush rods, r/r pistons, valve grind, blast manifold, r/r cam bearings, reassemble motor

Parts - $954.33

• 3 cans of paint, crankshaft, oil pump, piston rings, water pump, pistons, main bearings, connecting rod bushings, tappets, cam bearings, rod bearings, oil filter, engine gasket set

Total so far: $2273.33

I planned to spend about $2k on the rebuild, so I'm not disappointed with going over. I shouldn't need much more to finish. Just need to figure out the exhaust manifold in terms of repair or not repair and ceramic coating.

I did spend a lot of hours calling vendors to locate the needed parts. Finding parts for a 215 motor is not as easy as I thought. I purchased majority of the rebuild parts from Green Sales Company (piston rings, water pump, pistons, main bearings, connecting rod bushings, tappets, cam bearings, rod bearings). Three pistons and main bearings came from EGGE. Oil pump from Kanter. It was hard to find the .060 pistons. I got two from Green Sales ($15 ea) and one from Miller's Obsolete ($10). EGGE's pistons were $83.69 each. Engine gasket kit came from a local vendor. The crankshaft (two of them) came from an eBay seller, RPM Motorsports. He seems to have the crankshafts pretty regularly or can get them. He will also magnaflux them before selling. I also highly recommend Green Sales Co. as they're fair with their prices and get the order out quick.

 

Glad to see it going back together. Can't wait to see it in the truck had purring along

Bobby

 

Are you going back to a single carb setup for the freshly rebuilt engine??? It looked pretty sweet before with the Offy manifold and dual carbs.

Dan

 

Plan is to put it back to how it was before the rebuild (with Offy items and dual carbs). However, I may just run one for one in order to get the vehicle over to Ace Fuel for them to set up and adjust the dual carbs.

 

For some reason I thought you weren't going back there????

Dan

 

I'm still contemplating on going back there. However, if I can find another shop that can work on the carbs and dial them in, then I'd switch. There's a hot rod shop next to the engine rebuilder that I might check out. I've seen some of the cars in their shop and they're high quality and $$. They might be too high in labor for me to afford.

 

Looking good. For some reason I think when I was searching for rings they were the same as the ch...vy 235.

Paul

 

Thanks for the detail on your parts sources. I'll be retracing your steps here shortly. Stu

 

Bill, NumberDummy, was a great resource. I sent him a list of parts that were needed as given to me by the machine shop and he provided me with the part numbers and list of vendors that had the parts in stock.

 

What's all that stuff on top of the block?
My new 52 F2 has one of those smooth top Flatmotor I6s

I will have to admit that is one fine looking motor

 

Picked up the manifold I received recently from being bead blasted. Found another crack at the top center of the manifold.




This crack is all the way through.



These ones do not appear to be all the way through.





I took it over to the more experienced and qualified welding shop and had the guy look it over. He seems confident that he can repair these cracks. He plans to also weld them from the inside to keep them from cracking further. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.