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]

Those have had the chambers worked far more than SuperHawks!

I LIKE your heads!

Please take pictures of the intake and exhaust ports.

I'd REALLY, REALLY like pictures of the ports directly below the valves.

You would have to take the valves out which, if you've not done that before, you shouldn't "learn how" on those heads.

I can't have everything I want...

Now, if it was me, I'd rip those apart to change the valve stem seals (or O-rings) and hand lap ALL of the valves.

If those have been sitting for years hand lapping should be done.

Yes, go ahead and take them apart! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/devil.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/devil.gif)

I will walk you through a hand lapping if you desire it.


A quick test to test valve sealing is to fill up the intake and exhaust port with a liquid and watch if the liquid seeps by the valve into the chamber.

I normally use mineral spirits as I'm planning tear down anyway.

A safer fluid (for using the heads without tear down if sealing is good) would be liquid WD40. You can buy this stuff in gallons.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/WD-40-1-Gal-Mul...mp;gclsrc=aw.ds

Wouldn't bother me at all to test heads with WD, drain, blow them out, and then run without pulling them down.

Stand the heads so the port face is horizontal at the top and fill the port up. Wait 5-10 minutes and see if the level has dropped.
A TINY amount of leakage may occur through the valve stem.
You will see that around the springs.
Active dripping will require attention.

Water or Mineral spirits I'd want to tear down to fully remove.

Tearing down is easy with the proper tools. You need a valve spring depressor.
You slightly compress each valve spring, remove the keepers, release the compressor and remove the springs and retainer.
Keep everything in order and mark the parts to allow replacement in the same port.

I could easily pull the valves in less than 5 minutes per head.