It was a bit of a puzzle to get everything to fit in the garage after I had stripped the car. Here you can see the block stripped down on the engine stand with rear axle and front subframe on the floor under the bench.
I eventually found a machine shop in Heemstede who knew what I was talking about when I told him that I wanted the block not only bored but align honed. He also individually honed each new piston to match each cylinder bore plus he had a contact who dynamically balanced the crank, rods and pistons. I took the heads with me when we went on a visit to friends and family in Northampton, England as one of my old mates worked at a good machine shop where the heads were skimmed, the valve seats equalised and a three angle valve job was machined. He also had an “old school” contact who specialised in head work and gasket matched the intake manifold and heads, and did some porting to improve the gas flow. Unfortunately no pictures of any of this early work, the following picture is of the block during assembly.
The next step was to fit the timing chain and degree the cam. I used a digital caliper to measure the lift at the cam lifters and a timing disk (the blue thing) on the crank nose. The cam was a 272 degree Crane Energizer, standard hydraulic lifters.
Again gaps in the photo story but the following shows the engine complete with an Accel dual point performance distributor, an Edelbrock manifold and a Holley 4-barrel carb. Keep it simple.
A set of Hooker headers took care of the exhaust gases. A new water pump, recon alternator and a set of Edelbrock valve covers. This was as close to a blueprint motor you could build on a budget back in 1990.
This is the engine bay ready to take the engine, the white rod is just supporting the transmission temporarily.
Another bad picture of the engine being installed in the body. I constructed a sort of gantry which ran between the steel girders supporting the patios of the maisonettes above the garages (see inset picture top right) plus the engine tilter. At least then I could lift the engine in and out without any help (always seem to be working alone). I hadn’t the cash or space for an engine hoist at the time so this was built from all sorts of stuff either lying around or scrounged. Same goes for the engine tilter which I still use today.
The engine installation is finished and I could concentrate on getting the car sprayed.
Another shot showing an uprated custom built triple row radiator, fitted with a high flow electrical fan to deal with the extra heat generated in a tuned motor.
