Full Rebuild - Part 1 Getting Started

So this has been "Rebuild66.blogspot.org" and all this time no actual rebuild? Well, to be fair we've done pieces of it getting the car on the road. All that is about to change.....

So, the progressive oil leak of the Mustang got to the point where there was a solid trail out of the garage one night in September. It was time to do another set of gaskets, and a rear main seal, and while we were at it, we ended up doing a full rebuild of the engine.

Shopping RockAuto, we quickly found a whole list of supplies that were needed, and that crank bearings, and headgaskets (ours was seeping out the sides a little) valve seals and a whole list of stuff would get us all the parts needed to get started.

The main problem was we needed to do the tear down, before we could order the parts because we did not know exactly what was in the engine.

 Here we are with the head off.

 And here's one of the critical pieces of information. Our cylinders are overbored at 0.040. Very Nice!

 Purchased a set of calipers, cheap. Now I use them for everything. It's one of those tools you can live without until you have a set. Then you need them for everything.

 Getting dimensions of the valves

Hey Stinky!

So getting to the bottom of why it smells of exhaust in the car most of the time, we figured out that the exhaust manifold gasket was completely shot. This and the exhaust pipe was also in bad shape. We replaced these two, and took the opportunity to paint the exhaust manifold.

Keeping the rusty bolts in order so they go back in right. We put a good coat of Anti-seize on them so we don't have issues next time the manifold needs to come out.

The Accelerator return spring attaches to the exhaust doughnut flange. It's was time for a replacement, this one rusted through as we were taking it off. Replaced with a nice shiny stainless steel replica that should last forever.

Here you can see the leakage, exhaust gasses, and is that oil?

Nice results with high temp paint.