We have a bare block we got back from the machine shop and I was curious since its been painted if we need to wash it and what with? Also we took an old clean t-shirt and put tranny fluid on it and wiped the bores down but it left a little lint behind will that harm anything like Im thinking it will?

 

Wash it extremely thoroughly with as hot as you can handle soapy water (favorite combination is half a cup of TIDE laundry detergent(dry) and a good healthy squirt of Dawn dish soap). Wash everything, and if you arent soaked when youre done keep going. Then dry everything as well as you can and use compressed air where you cant reach, just make sure nothing is around to get stirred up with the compressor.

Also, a new tip I learned that I never knew. Dont use oil to lube the pistons and rings when assembling, use ATF. ATF has a much higher flash point than oil, and when you first start it up the oil will actually catch on fire and leave a crappy residue on the rings and sometimes wont seal up. Make sure you coat the rings inside and out, the piston skirts, and the ring lands with the ATF, and obviously the cylinder walls.

 

AWESOME advice man, what should we dry it off with that wont lint? I assume lint will ruin bearings in large amounts correct? what about cleaning bearings and stuff when they are installed?

 

Oh yeah, forgot about that, if you can find lint free rags, and i mean LINT FREE! if not Bounty papertowels are about as close as you can come to leaving no lint, and what does get left is so small its negligable. But yes lint from say shop rags will ruin bearings.

Same thing with cleaning bearings, paper towel with some brakleen on it to clean the back, and if the bearing manufacturer recommends taking off the coating on the face do the same, a lot of bearings though have a coating to protect them during initial startup, but since you WILL be priming it you wont have to worry about that, so I would probably wipe face off as well, just dont touch them with your fingers.

Incase you dont know about indexing bearings Ill throw that in too. When you install the bearing halves in the main and rod bearings, be absolutely sure that the side of the bearing with the tab on it is dead nuts flush with the face of the journal, dont even worry about the other side. If you want, check the bearing clearance with some plastigage or with mics and bore gage. Coat the crap out of the faces of the bearings with some kind of assembly lube (Redline Synthetic is good). From what Im told, doing this alone can gain you a substantial amount of normally lost hp.

When you are completely done with the rotating assembly you should be able to put a 1/2" drive footlong ratchet to the snout of the crank, spin it backwards (opposite direction/clicking) and when it stops it will turn the crank by the weight of the ratchet alone.

 

where do you get brakleen? Also would microfiber shamee work for a no lint drier offer?

My friend was starting to put it together and I thought I would get some good advice about how to do it right since its his first motor build. Also where do I find the tool to prime the oil system and how is it done?

Thank you very much for the help so far

 

Brakleen, brake cleaner, carb cleaner, any kind of methanol based solvent. Anything thats not petrolium based basically, something that will cut grease and quickly evaporate.

As for the primer, summit sells them, or if you happen to have an old SBC distributor laying around, pull the shaft out of it, then cut the housing as high as you can with enough shaft to either get a drill on it, or thread a bolt on and use an impact to turn it. You "want" a primer with a housing around it, like a distributor, cuz if you know how it works, oil for the lifters actually flows around the distributor housing, and without it the oil just sprays back down into the block and wont prime the lifters/rockers.

Heres a good one in summit

Forgot to mention...when you torque the mains/rod bolts down, tighten them down gradually little by little trying to keep it parralel with the other side, and always torque the side down with the tab on the bearing. Heres some helpful notes on torquing:
>Every 6" of 1/2" drive extension= add 5lbs to the torque output
>add 2lbs for any 12pt socket, short or long
>use moly lube if possible, and make absolutely sure you find out what the torque reading is with moly lube, if you dont use it, make sure you find out the torque with regular oil

Never ever use antiseize inside and engine where oil can touch it.

Im not sure on the chamois, id just go with paper towels and compressed air to be sure.

 

Edit for one of the above posts. I accidentally typed that the weight of a 1/2" ratchet will turn the entire rotating assembly by the weight of itself alone. I meant to type it will turn the bare crank by the weight of the ratchet itself.

For the entire rotating assembly, use a beam type torque wrench...should not be over 30ft/lbs to turn over a complete assembly no heads. Normally around 20-22lbs.