I pulled the block apart and sent the heads and block to get boiled and cam bearings installed at a place in Kilkenny, MN. The Cylinder walls looked much better then I figured. After the sludge I found earlier....





The cam and crank were also in excellent condition.



But the pushrods... ohhhh the pushrods....



And the rockers...



So it looks like I will be getting new rockers and pushrods. I will have to do some research as to reusing the lifters. I haven't worked with roller lifters before. I am taking some of the engine parts like timing chain cover, LIM, and pistons to get glass bead blasted. I know the pistons are coated and I will tell my blaster to test a small spot to see if it takes the coating off. Some may disagree with blasting and materials used to blast. My dad did own a company called Blast Master... Specializing in automotive restorations.

When I get the pistons, engine and heads back I will bring all the moving parts to Engelke Maching, Inc in Lester Prairie to balance the crank and flywheel (from mid 90's F-Body). I still need to buy a flywheel and I heard that it's best to get it from a yard over parts stores. The "new" ones are much lower quality and have been known to have voids in the flywheel. That will pose a problem when I have to get it machined significantly down.

[This message has been edited by paulsobj (edited 12-04-2023).]

I picked up the F23 today. I have to say I was impressed. $427 and they swapped all the gears, a few new bearings and new seals. They also painted it for me. Here are a few pics. They had the input shaft already swapped.

all ready to unwrap an early xmas present







Here is the old case with the gears in a box.



I am going to mock up the whole assembly (block, flywheel, Clutch, Trans, cradle etc) and make a few decisions. I want to see CV axle clearances with the stock spindle locations vs bringing the whole assembly in about 1". I also want to look at not machining the flywheel down 1/4" to .840 thick and making a spacer for the trans. That may solve the Flywheel machining and the input shaft on the F23 is too long according to others that have done the FY1 gear swap. I need to look into the HTOB clearances with and without the spacer mod.

[This message has been edited by paulsobj (edited 12-04-2023).]

Here are a few pics I forgot to add.

This shows a little better the color they painted the F23.



This is a shot of set one of heads that were cracked. The second set was not nearly as bad, just a hairline crack.



I also received news that the machinist is done.
Head bolt set, engine gasket set, cam bearings, piston rings, grind valves, wash block and heads, hone block, Mag heads. Total $750
Lots of advice = priceless

[This message has been edited by paulsobj (edited 12-04-2023).]

Well I didn't get much done today. I had a friend come over to buy 6 Honeycombs I had sitting around.

I did go pick up the block and heads. It was roughly $400 for gasket set, head bolts, cam bearings, Piston Rings. $350 for machining work to include cleaning and mag heads x3, valve job, shim valve springs, wash block, hone block, install cam bearings.

Here is the block all cleaned and honed.



Here are the 3rd set of heads. They were not cracked! He said they were a little wavy and had to take a little off the underside. He even painted them for me gloss black. When you do a valve job you should shim the springs to compensate. Another note he tried to smooth the bridge between the valves. It had a small ridge made during the casting process. It could be contributing to those heads cracking in that spot.



We started to mock up the cradle with original lateral links and then start to play with different options. As of now we are thinking of cutting a 1/4" spacer between the F23 and the engine and brining in the uprights around 1"



Here is the reason we didnt get any work done haha. It was a good day of car talk and hanging out.

[This message has been edited by paulsobj (edited 12-04-2023).]

We got out to the shop today with almost a foot of snow!

The pistons have sat since Saturday in a bath of "piston kleen" and looks like the stuff works. This is immediately after pulling it out and not wiping it down or a little extra scrubbing with a tooth brush.



Here is the set.



We then started to mock up the block and trans to see how and where to mount it.



You can see the small gap we are thinking of doing. One thing we will have to do is make the pilot longer to bridge the gap. One was missing so we will have to make one anyway.



We had to get out the old pilot and they can be in tight. So you can try to get it out with a few tools by grabbing it and pulling it out. Or you can push it out.... With hydraulics. Put some grease in the hole and find a PERFECT fit piece of steel to press in.



Then once you get it started about 1/8" by gently tapping it in (this is delicate as the clearance it so tight). Once started tap/hit it with a hammer. We needed one hit with a 4Lb and the rest with a regular one. The grease will force out the pilot from the back side.



Some bearing lube the machinist gave me for free. He said this should be used for the CAM lobes.





For the rest of the engine he uses a 1/1 mix of these two.





And a few parts for reference

[This message has been edited by paulsobj (edited 12-04-2023).]