Sitting on enough images of 'progress', so I figured I might as well post again.
The whole gear thing is still shafting me, but I think I have a solution for it. More on that later.
Anyway, I decided at one point that sitting around and moping over the gear whilst I wait for parts isn't very productive. I have maybe another month or so before the snow starts falling, which will mostly prevent me from working on the car. If I can get it to run before then, I'll be
very happy.
So I started assembling my engine for mockup purposes. Mostly to figure out what to do about the exhaust/intake fitment, where my exhaust is going, where the linkage should go etc.
First step was the installation of the tappets, which I made sure to dunk in some assembly lube first. Note that I already have the camshaft in the engine.
Next up, before mounting my tasty, machined cylinder head, I figured I should clean up the old head bolts a bit. None of them were super warped or stripped, so I figured I'd just reuse them. This isn't a mega-horsepower race engine, so I'm thinking it should be fine.
When putting the head on, I noticed a small oddity of the B20 and its gaskets. I'm sure anyone familiar with the pushrod engines would already know this, but I still find it to be an interesting difference.
This is the head gasket for the small-valve carb'd heads (B20B, etc). Notice the round rings.
And here is the gasket for the big-valve EFI heads... notice the (as described by a TB discord user "nipple-shaped") shape? Apparently that's to accommodate for the much larger valves. Interesting. To me, anyway.
Something feels so wrong about a mostly clean head and clean header on a crusty block with a crusty valvetrain...
The absolute
miracle of the new header is actually twofold; for one I can access the oil filter much easier, which is nice...
And also it looks like the header's collector is far enough back for me to just connect it to my existing exhaust, which I chopped last time to free the old cast manifold.
For now, at least, I'm going with a 2-barrel Weber 38/38 just for ease of tuning.
Ah yes, onto the subject of the timing gear...
With how long I've spent trying to get it off, I realize now that if I keep trying to chisel it, heat it, etc, not only is it going to take me forever to get it off, but also potentially gack the crankshaft. Can't have that.
And thus I've decided that the engine is coming out. I tend to have Sundays and Mondays off work, so I think my plan is to rent a hoist on a Saturday night, pull the engine Sunday morning, try and 'rebuild' (do what has to be done) same day, then reinstall the engine on Monday.
I also should take that opportunity to do a bunch of other ancillary stuff, like replacing the motor mounts, the clutch, maybe the flywheel...cleaning the engine would be nice too, and perhaps even painting it.
EDIT: It just occurred to me that considering I'm swapping my mounts and maybe my flywheel and clutch too, I could probably swap in a B230F or something like that. Someone talk me out of it.
My next post will probably be of the engine removal/rebuild/install, so be ready for that!
That's all for now.