54 plymouth savoy flat 6, rebuild.

sandblasted the valve springs and spring seats. i still need to test the springs out though.

 

thats it for now, i still have a lot of greasy parts to clean and blast. ive been removing the valve guides, what a pain, got all but one. i made a homemade extracting tool for that. (low tech)
on the list is to have the camshaft polished and the piston rod pins polished. the valves are in rough shape , theyre getting replaced. oh and replace the cam bearings too.
other than that i just need to keep saving my dimes and nickles for a set of bearings and piston rings.

 

Looking Good!

Most shops don't like to take the time to spin the block around a couple of times while cleaning so there is often crud in places that should have washed away. Some of the newer 'cabinet' systems have issues cleaning internal passage ways. Your block looks pretty clean.

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Your block cleaned up pretty nicely but the bores still look a bit too smooth and shiny, at least the area below where you used the ridge reamer. It sounds like you used a hone with the three spring loaded straight stones. These work OK with a straight, round bore but maybe not as well on something with a bit of taper or a little out-of-round.

You might want to consider using a glaze-breaker hone to finish the cylinder walls. This is the kind that looks like an oversized wire brush covered with a bunch of small abrasive balls on the outside. Makes for better contact on slightly irregular surfaces. Sometimes you'll hear them called a "dingle-ball" hone.

Maybe it's just the photo, but if the bores are as smooth as they look it could take a long time for new rings to seat in. And make sure to give everything a good soap and water scrubbing and a spray down with WD-40 or something similar before you start reassembly.

 

running my original 6er in my 54 sayoy. its getting tired and i have plans to put in a sb 318 and auto when she goes, still drive it all the time though!

 

yeah, the bores are still too smooth, and the stone style hone tool doesent give you that crosshatch surface. im definitly gonna do it right and 'glaze-break' it. Thanks for the heads up.
Everyone who has one of these engines likes it, and im hoping to eventually be one of those people.
this is my only 50s car, and im glad its original (for now). its allowing me to get familiar with the 'flat' style engine.

 

You might wait till you get your rings and see if the manufacturer has a recommended cross hatch angle. You'll want a drill motor that you can run at slower speeds and you can control the angle by how fast you feed the hone up and down the bore. And I seem to recall using vegetable oil on the cylinder walls while honing as petroleum oils tended to soften and break down the abrasive stones.

Helped a gal get one of these engines running years ago in a '53 Dodge pick-up. If you get the valve lash set just right it'll idle smooth as silk at about 450 RPM and you can barely hear it run. At least with the stock exhaust hooked up!

 

If you can afford to keep the original engine ,do it.they are tough.I bet the engine wont need a full rebuild.Get it running and drive it.If you must use a chrysler engine assy,you will be glad you did.The diff in it may be a 350 or better.keep it.