1.7 Rebuild First Start Up Advice, 1.7 Start Up on stand Options

[Robroe]

Have 73 1.7 bought in pieces. Engine has been rebuilt and ‘souped up’ however I don’t know what internals were installed. New crank, cam, pistons, rods and heads. but I don’t know which ones. Weber 44 idf carbs. Never had oil in it and been stored unstarted for 10 yrs in climate control. I’ve added oil by slow dripping 2 quarts through the oil pressure sensor hole. Oil dripped out of the rockers so I’m pretty sure it got some oil as pre lube. It’s on a home built test stand with the transmission mounted with the starter.

I’m trying to turn the engine over by hand with the plugs out. Have squirted oil in each plug hole. I’m able to turn the engine by hand about 45 degrees and it gets harder to spin so can’t go any further. Would it be a good idea to pull the rocker arms to see if the builder installed some wild cam without checking valve/piston clearance? It doesn’t feel like internals are hitting each other but who knows? Would hate to pull the heads if I don’t have to. Any thoughts before I break something?

Rob Roe
Newbie

[Superhawk996]

You need to know the stroke, then you can determine displacement.

You need to know the compression ratio.

You need to know the deck height.

Since it won’t turn over by hand with the rockers on it you need to determine what valve lifts you’re dealing with and whether you have adequate valve clearance to the piston. The pocketed pistons are a whole other story. Who’s pistons? How much material is left in the piston dome?

You need to figure out if it was put together with head gaskets and get rid of them if it was. Pay particular attention to Jake Raby’s posts to this link. I know this link refers to 2.0L but it pertains to all displacements.
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...70781&st=40

Be aware that rubber ages and hardens regardless of whether it was in climate control or not.

You should be checking crank end play.

There are literally dozens of things that should be verified rather than just hoping it was put together properly and won’t grenade when you run it.