Episode 6 – Rick refreshes the Vortec heads with new head gaskets and bolts. After torquing them down and finishing up the valve train, he installs the new lifters, pushrods, and rocker arms. Now, complete with a new set of rings, rod bearings, and a brand new double roller timing chain – mixed in with a little sweat and elbow grease, the long block is finally put back together! So far, this project is rolling along smoothly.
Episode 6 – Video Transcript
Rick Drewry:
All right, Project COVID 1953. I’m going to bring you up-to-date on what I did on the engine. After the crank and the camshafts and were installed, I moved on to getting everything assembled, and to it being a full long block.
From there, I put all new rings on the pistons. So, a new ring set and installed the pistons as well as put new rod bearings in and torqued the rods, connecting rods down the spec. And then, I moved on to a new double roller timing chain. So, bolting that on, getting that all set up. So everything’s in sync.
And then after that, I went and got the Vortec heads that I went through and refreshed and installed them with new head gaskets, new head bolts, and torqued them down. After that was done, I decided to go ahead and finish up the valve train.
I put in the new lifters, the new pushrods, and new rocker arms. Then I set the valve lash on the rocker arms as well. Now, I have a full long block. It’s looking really good. I haven’t run into any problems. I’m glad I did what I did; freshening everything up. It’s not quite as good as a full rebuild. Taking it to the machine shop and going nuts on it. But with it being a budget build, I believe it’s going to end up being a quality engine for quite some time. So the long block is assembled, and we’re ready to move on to the next step.
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