[nuch_ss396]

Tim,

As an NCRS member, you may have already seen this post I did there a few months ago.
I thought it fitting to post it here as well in light of the current topic.

************************************************** ************************************************** *
This article was in the: 1966 Corvette News magazine Volume 9 No. 5

I am not claiming any credit for this information. I just thought I would post it here
for all to see as I'm sure some have not seen this information before. Here is a basic
run-down of the assembly steps on BBC engines per this article:

- After rough machining operations, block surfaces are broached, cylinders honed,
main & camshaft bores are line-bored.

- High pressure water cleaning and hot air drying of the blocks.

- Install camshaft

- Main bearings & crankshaft installation along with rough cap bolt tightening.
All cap bolts are then hand torqued.

- Timing gears & chain installation followed by hand torquing.

- Piston are installed, bearings & caps added, rod nuts are hand torqued.

- Flywheel & clutch are installed. Now, based on some of the pictures in this
article, the bell housing is also installed and appears to be unpainted.
BTW, the oil pan is not yet installed.

- Oil pump installation

- Oil pan installation ( all 20 pan bolts tightened at one time ).

- Assembled short block turned over to assemble heads.

- Cylinder head water coolant passages were filled with shaving cream
( yes, that's what it mentions ). This was evidently done to keep stray
core sand particles from falling into the assembled engine. I'll have to
try this one - one day. And no, the brand of shaving cream wasn't mentioned.
Remember the old Noxema Shaving Cream commercials with the blonde? My money
goes with Noxema - HA HA.

- Cylinder head bolts are hand touqued.

- Initial valve clearance set with feeler gauges.

- Manifolds, water pump, and temperature sending unit installed.
High pressure testing of cooling system is then performed.

- Engines then go to the testing area ( less carburetor(s) and engine
accessories ). Water & oil are added. A temporary exhaust system is
attached. Liquid petroleum gas in pumped into the intake manifold. Also,
a temporary starter is used to crank the engine.

- Once the engine passes this inspection phase, it goes off to painting.

- Preformed masks are placed on the engine to shield all components that
shouldn't be painted. With a wall of water behind and beneath the engines,
they are sprayed with a quick-drying enamel paint.

Steve
************************************************** ************************************************** *

So Tim, at what point would you expect the engine to fail a
test and the assembly side-lined for repair? This is the
question I think most relavent to this topic.

Steve