Build Your First Engine

116-0407-First-3Now is the best time to clean all the nuts and bolts and other small parts that will be reused. Get yourself a tub, some solvent, a wire brush, and some heavy-duty rubber gloves and start scrubbing. You'll thank yourself later on if you invest in some freezer storage bags with labels to bag and tag everything now.

116-0407-First-4When preparing to take your parts to the machine shop, you should have a bare block with main caps bolted and marked in place, your crank should be wrapped in plastic or cloth to avoid damage to the journals (even if they will be turned), and the piston/rod assemblies should be kept together with the caps bolted together, also in their original locations and orientations.

116-0407-First-12Another pitfall of engine-building is proper seal installation. The rear main seal on most older-style V-8 engines uses two halves, which must be installed correctly prior to installing the crank, and facing the right direction for proper sealing. Screw this up and your engine will leak like a waterfall. The lip of a typical neoprene seal should face inward, toward the crankcase. This is so crankcase pressure will force it against the crank, sealing the joint between the two. Our 302 was a late-model type, using a one-piece seal that simply taps into place surrounding the crank flange.

116-0407-First-23Now the timing cover and oil pan can be installed. For the small-block Ford, make sure the factory dowel sleeves are in place-there should be one on each side in the lower holes for the cover. If yours are missing, you can get new ones either from Ford or from Pioneer's line of replacements. If you can, get one of the newer one-piece oil pan gaskets, like those offered by Fel-Pro for certain applications. They're easier to use, seal well, and can often be reused.

116-0407-First-25The intake is the cherry on top of your new engine-just make sure it seals properly. Many V-8 small-blocks use separate gaskets to seal the manifold to each head, and then end-seals for the block. Popular opinion dictates that the end seals be ditched in favor of a healthy bead of sealant. Quality intake gaskets claim to require no sealer, but a thin film around the water ports isn't a bad idea. Set the intake straight down to avoid moving the gaskets, and start all of the bolts before tightening any of them. Again, use a factory torque spec, and even more importantly, follow the torque sequence. This is another area where it's often best to go around the pattern a few times, tightening a little more with each pass.

By Ed Taylor

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