Next SoCal tech day - top end engine refresh? Options

[Tdskip]

Good morning. The discussion/help that you're offering on a potential 1.7 L refresh has me wondering about doing that as a second tech day for the SoCal mafia.

Different sort of thing in all likelihood then what the good Doctor helped us with, but my guess is that there are a bunch of us that have engines hanging around that could either benefit from this or could be put back into use.

Would this be useful for a good number of our members here? If we had a good set of prerequisites do you think we could knock this out in a day? I'm thinking that if we got well organized maybe we could do a group buy sort of thing with one machine shop to do the work.

What do you think?

[marksteinhilber]

I may be interested in watching/attending. I'm not sure I'm ready to invest $$ in all the parts to assemble a third engine for myself. I have a used GA 2.0 shortblock with crank, rods, cam, and flywheel waiting to rebuild in storage along with some used 2.0 smog heads, and some 1.7 rockers with swivel feet adjusters... But I have a spare already rebuilt 2056 waiting to go in the car. I think all my third engine parts need to be fully torn down and checked by the machine shop before I consider building it back up (2258?). All this will add cost for line boring, oil pressure / relief, new oil pump, bearings, dowel pins, cam, lifters, and the balancing to really do this right. I think a 2258 will cost at least $3k in additional parts and shop costs.

Are you all are sure that all of you only need to address P&C and top ends? I guess you could all tear your engines down to that point beforehand. It will take some time for all the heads can be reconditioned at the machine shop, unless you are all buying new AMC 1.8 heads with valves and porting from AA or other sources (more $$). To have a group engine build day, you will each need to have your new P&Cs, deck heights figured out, gasket sets ready, and the parts for your valve trains. I'm not sure I'd try to do a group of engines in just a day. Maybe it's best to start this as group buy for machine shop services and some P&C kits. Then a couple weeks later, you could assemble one or two engines as a group so everyone learns and gets experience. A follow-on day could build a couple more or the remaining engines. Is EMW Jorge or other expert interested in helping the group? Colin?

TDskip, how skilled are you now with gearboxes and can you tell if a spare is in good condition without driving it? I need to have mine fixed as it sometimes pops out of third and is not a shift linkage problem or adjustment. I have a spare gearbox, but I don't know if it is worse, or any good at all.... Is your 914 driving? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/stirthepot.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/flag.gif) Mark