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

[technicalninja]

Positives:
Heads- look like Raby heads with welding around the spark plug wells (Raby did this).
Proper retainers/springs.
Look like oversize rocker arm studs.

Negatives:
Raised numbers on piston crowns. I believe those would have been machined off if built by someone knowledgeable. I'd have removed them.
And then I'd have ceramic coated the tops...

I've NEVER seen raised numbers in forged stuff. The forging process would destroy them.
Someone else said "cast" and I'm prone to agree due to those numbers and the rough valve depressions.

Cast iron jugs.
Stock head studs and re-used head nuts.
Grey RTV on case studs.
If they used grey RTV, a master would use a x-acto knife during curing to trim the excess.
Possibility of internal clips in the lifters.

The value of the heads FAR exceeds the posibility of destroying said heads without a full tear down.

I'd take lots of pictures and check a bunch of stuff during the tear down but that would get reduced to individual componets before I'd put fire to it.

It's looking more like a kit build with RAT heads.

Still a KILLER deal IMO!