[oregonjoe]

After a week in the machine shop – finally got my block back.



Tests showed no cracks so that’s good. The head gasket had been leaking water for some time so there was a lot of pitting around the water ports. The shop had to plane the block surface to remove most of the defects and prepare for the new gasket.



Cylinders only needed a hone to bring them back into shape.



While it was in the shop – I cleaned up the pistons and timing cover parts. The Crank Shaft just needed a little polish to restore as new so now I’m ready to start the rebuild on the block.



Ran into a problem with the oil pump drive shaft. There are two bearings in the block for the shaft that were left in when the block was tanked which of course destroyed the bearings. The problem is that they are really almost impossible to replace with the crank and pistons in place so now I have to wait till Monday to get new bearings before I can proceed. In the meantime I will check the oil clearance on the crank and rods with plastigauge.

O well, lesson learned – remove everything from the block and be sure you have all the bearings before reassembly.