Projects What Was Your First Engine Build

Hard to remember, either a 351 or a 318.

 

Mine was a different engine than most, a 161 cu in F-head in my Dad's '53 Willys Aero Ace. I was 15, hoping that once finished, Dad would let me have the car. Changed out the rings (.010 oversize without boring or honing, but reamed away the ridge and roughed up the cylinders with 120 sandpaper) and bearings, re-lapped the valves and generally cleaned off all the carbon and crap. It ran well when finished, but my Mom insisted we sell it because it had no seatbelts and she was sure I would kill myself driving it. Subsequently my first car was a '29 Model A coupe, so rickety that it scared the hell out of Mom. Overhauled the banger in that and again didn't bore it, but reamed the ridges and honed the cylinders. Didn't smoke, ran like an expensive watch.

 

My first engine build was an 8HP flat head Cushman out of my '58 Highlander.
I was 14 yrs. old.

 

One of the ones I liked the most, was the 283, .030 over 13:6 to 1 gas ported BRC...and ALL the trimmings....

 

My first vehicle I hopped up at 14 was a 79 Vespa scooter that had a hole burnt into the piston.I got it cheap and I could fix bicylces so I figured I could repair this gem.I would get rid of that 80 cc cylinder and go all the way to 177 cc, which required to blow the engine and trans apart, change the crank for a longer stroke on, do some porting on the block and improving the transmission gearing. I must have done something wrong, because I only had 2nd gear and 4 neutrals when I was done. Blowing things apart again it showed I had all of the gears in backwards what made the shifter fork slide between the gears instead of locking them. From then on I learned all my lessons in trail and error mode, hahahaa

My first car egine that I had apart was the leaky 283 in my 62 Impala. At only 16000 original miles was brandnew inside, but the cork gasket had dried out so out she came and got a good cleaning and all new seals.
My first full rebuild was the 327 in my 56 chevy. It was burning oil and would bend pushrods or crack rockers from time to time... due to excessive slack in the timing chain. So I pulled it and took it apart, only to find it already had TRW 2166f030 pop ups, a healthy Sig Erson cam , worn valveseats and guides in the 2.02s camel humps. It cleaned up nicely at .040 and I got it zero decked and balanced. I put it back together with a polished steel crank and new L2166nf.040s...That was in 2001 or so. Still runs perfectly.

 

lawn mower engines, the dirt bike engines.... then started work at Mercedes place and did Mercedes engines (and BMW).............

 

Twin cam 2.0L Lotus engine. Bought the car in boxes against my dad's advice (though he did help me get a loan for it so he wasn't totally against the idea) I never knew how much of a motorhead my dad used to be until I started working on that.

Sure do wish he was still around to help with my latest, an 8BA flathead. Now THAT one he had experienc with...

 

H Farmall tractor. New bearings and piston rings. Actually the tractor didnt need the rings or bearings. It was the Cyl Head. That head was really carboned up from running Distillate fuel. IT had two fuel tanks. a small one held the starting gas.. the larger was for distillate. You started it on gas closed the radiator shutters and let it get very high temp. Then turned off the gas and opened the larger tank. You kept the temp very hot. So It got new valves ,new guides ,new springs and exhaust valve rotators. The rocker arms got new bushings. We never used distillate in it again. I still have the cyl head from that H.

 

First one I got apart, back together and running successfully was a Maytag washing machine engine when I was 13. The first car engines I built were all Y-blocks; Jahns pistons, Weber cams, and polished and ported '57 heads with Hedman Hedders.

 

I'm 15, going to school and at night, working for the neighbor who has a small fleet of Dump Trucks, washing, greasing, painting the wheels, what ever it took! One of the drivers had this kool little '46 Chevy Coupe that was his work beater, looked like a Million but ran like shit. I asked the boss what was wrong with Howies car? Needs a valve job was his reply. Is that a pretty big job, I asked? Nah, pull the head off, grind the valves and put her back together, piece of cake. Now owning a fleet of trucks, Don had all the tools and equipment needed to do most any kind of maintainance, including a valve grind machine. Hey Howie, wanna sell that Chevy?? Yeah, been thinking about gett'n rid of it. Now, I own a '46 Chevy Coupe that looks like a Million but runs like shit! Don tells me how to go about taking this thing apart, when you get the head off bring it over and I'll grind the valves. OK. After I get the head over to Don, who lives two houses down, I crawl under the hood and begin to degrease and scrub everything, it's now spotless you understand, I steel the Sunday Paper from the Ol' Man and mask off the engine compartment so I can paint the engine Chevy Orange, all of the other stuff gets a new coat of Black. Don is done with the head now so it's time to put things back together. My, ain't this Pretty! Better take it for a spin and check out my work!! I don't have my license yet, just a Permit so I call my Buddy Dave who is legal to drive, Wanna go for a spin in my Chevy?? I'll be right over, Kool. Dave shows up, one last look under the hood, Damn Rick, Ya done good, let's go. I back out of the Ol Man's garage and head on down the street, elbow out the window, nose in the air, I'm Kool! A few minuets later Dave says, what stinks?? Damned if I know, what's all that smoke, Oh shit!! I pull over to the curb and open the hood. My little Chevy is burnt to a crisp, in all my haste and wanting to go for a ride, I never put a drop of water in her! Needless to say, since that day, I tag stuff, If it needs any kind of fluid, it get's tagged. RIP Chevy Coupe!

 

A 53 Olds 303 punched to 324 with a J-2 tripower went into a 50 Ford

 

Very first one was a 3hp Briggs and contraption that went into a mini bike.Ground the valves and had to grind the stem tips for clearance, installed new rings,Dad showed me how to lap the head to the cylinder and copper-coat it to raise compression (no head gskt).First automotive was a 218 from a 50 plymouth,ground the valves,"honed" the cylinders ( with 220 sand paper) and put rings and rod bearings in it. It had smoked a LOT before.I remember when I pulled the first piston the 2 top rings fell off in pieces! Dad machined the ring grooves in the bad pistons and I used a new stock ring and a thinner used ring from Dads scrap pile to correct side clearance.Ran fine after that.

 

When I was in High School I convinced my Dad that we really needed that '65 formula S barracuda that was in the class ads. He didn't need all that much persuading.

Shortly after getting the car we found that it had a cracked block. I believe that had something to do with the low price of the car.

My Dad found another 273 and I rebuilt one engine out of the two in my High School auto mechanics class. I had the advantage of having access to all the correct tools and competent instruction. It was a real thrill when that thing started for the first time. I just stood there looking at it and being amazed that I had taken it all apart and now it was alive.

I'm still building engines and still get a thrill on the first start up.

 

1955 265 my dad bought from a junkyard instead of the visable V8 that I had asked for. I rebuilt it at age 14 and ran it on wood blocks with just exhaust manifolds in my dad's garage.
At age 19 I needed an engine to power a junker '57 Chevy I bought. Swapped in the 265 to use around town. It had a knock above 55 but the speed limit was only 50 tops in town. My dad told m years later that the junky had told him the engine had a problem.
A friend heard I needed an engine so he gave me the "takeout" 283 245 hp engine from his '61 Vette just before I was drafted. I put about 20,000 miles on the car in 9 months before going to Vietnam. The car was pretty quick with the Vette engine.
I had paid $55 for the shell of the car and had about $200 total in it when I sold it for $500 about 5 months after getting out of the army. It looked like crap but had a new interior and a vette engine and a Hurst shifter. The new owner was thrilled.