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While the paint is curing on the valve covers, I prep'd the intake manifold today for its coating of satin clear powder. First I blasted it with walnut hulls to take off a few discolorations it had as well as to provide some texture to a couple of places where the factory used a die grinder. Then a trip to the oven for an hour at 450 degrees drove off anything hiding in the pores - which would out-gas and blow the powder off during the curing process. After that I used high-heat tape and aluminum foil to mask the gasket surfaces. Finally, I plugged all of the holes with silicone plugs to keep the powder out.
Here it is hanging in the powder coating booth. Hopefully tomorrow I can coat it and stick it in the oven.
Here's the finished product. It is a darker gray than I expected, and if I had it to do over again I'd use the "Blasted Aluminum" powder. But, it is really difficult to get powder off so I'm going to go with it.
He suggested making it strong in case they stack things on it, so:
The crate is a left-over from a jet engine manufacturer, and is made of 1x4" cedar, 3/8" ply, 3x3" crossmembers, and 4x4" skids
The engine is bolted in with 8 bolts through the bottom and into the pan bolt holes
The 2x4 across the top is shimmed so that it is in contact with the carb flange, and it is screwed tightly to the sides
Most things are shrink-wrapped and everything is bolted to the sides, inc the pan, pulleys, water pump and backing plate, carb, oil pump pickup, and dip stick
The crank is shrink-wrapped and held to the side with metal plumber's tape, and held down by a 3x3" crossmember
The pistons are shrink-wrapped and stuffed down the bores - and they are tight so there'll be no bouncing
Kyle - I can thing of a million things that can go wrong, and I've got too much money and time wrapped up in this engine to have it torn up. So, I took a page from your book and seriously over-engineered it.
I told Tim that I wanted residential pickup with lift-gate service. That's what I've gotten on several things that have been delivered and it only cost $35 more. But when Tim called back the shipping itself was $165 and residential pickup with lift-gate was $170 more. So, tomorrow I'll pick it up with my shop crane, load it in Big Blue, and take it to the shipper. Was going to use Rusty, but it is supposed to be well over 100 tomorrow and his A/C isn't charged.
Tim says it'll only take "a few weeks" to build the engine, but we'll go up to Minnesota in October for the dyno runs. Then he'll ship it back since we can take my wife's car and save about the cost of shipping over taking BB.
Gary, your parts are packaged very well and everything is secure and your crate looks very sturdy. I work for Fedex Freight and I've seen alot of items poorly secured to their pallets. Last week I saw a transmission on a pallet with nothing but a ratchet strap holding it on, I think it will make it just fine.
One ratchet strap? Silly! I used three of them to pick the crate up today - one heavy one in the middle that was more than capable of handling the whole load, and one on each end to keep it balanced and serve as safeties. Then I tied it down in the truck with the same three - two crisscrossed to keep it in place, and the heavy one across the back to ensure it couldn't flip in the event of an accident.
Looks like it should make it just fine. I don't work in a freight hub like 86Stepside does, but all the time we see packages in poor shape that make it just fine. In fact, I work for the rival company of his.
