Hurricane fund, a V8 Morris Minor redeux

I went down to Eric's this morning to help pull the engine. I was official picture taker so I guess that means I have to do the update post. 

First we removed some little piddly stuff like the power steering pump and trans hookups. We got it to this point.  This is when I turned to Eric and asked where the hoist was.  This is when I also realized I had said I'd bring the hoist six weeks ago.  So Eric came up with a back up plan of borrowing one from a shop he knew.   Little behind but at least moving forward.

After fighting the torque converter on an engine that didn't want to turn we flipped it over and pulled the oil pan.

Nothing jumped out of us so we started pulling the pistons. Just about every rod cap fought us just to lift them out. All of the bearings were similar and I don't remember which ones these are but here's how they looked.

Nothing else really jumped out until we got to number six then we saw this.

Expecting that it has to score the cylinder we looked it and this is all we saw. You could fill it with your finger but couldn't catch a nail on it. Almost like the cylinder got polished. 

Then we pulled number seven and here's the bearings. 

There's a groove in the middle of that and the corresponding groove on the crank.

Number eight had some scoring on the crank also and then looking back we notice each one has at least some. Here's number eight. 

At that point I had to get back to Jacksonville so I helped Eric load up the hoist but felt bad because he still had a lot of clean up to do.

In reply to Stampie :

Since it's an SBC is the plan to do a light hone & polish, replace the broken rings, bearings, and send it?

In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :

That was discussed but I'll let Eric tell his plans.

I'm finally unwinding from the day. After a cursory cleanup and shower, the Mrs and I hit the grocery store. Lately that's what counts as going out. 
 
I'm so grateful for Stampie's help. He probably spent five hours on the road today, we got a ton of work done, and then he even updated the thread for me! We didn't even stop for lunch, which means I never offered to feed him. On top of that, he gave me the tires and wheels off of the Riviera! 

So, there's multiple choices for powering the Morris. As Pete said, ring and bearings, hone and send it is one option.
 

To that I would add that checking ring gaps and bearing clearances, as you should. I'm emphasizing that since I suspect that those steps might have been skipped in the original build. 
 

It could have been a good engine,  with a four bolt block and the rods and crankshaft are obviously balanced. 
 

I still have to pull the main caps to see how the bearings look.

Second option is to use the engine my friend has offered. It's a 1970 LT1 350 from a Nova SS. It's about 12.5:1 compression with a huge hydraulic flat tappet cam and some really good heads. He got it for $200 as part of a hoard that he bought. It has an intake and the Vortec headers would fit. It's supposed to be at least 450 HP, but I suspect that it might be lazy below 5000 RPM. 

Third choice is to pull a junkyard Vortec 350, swap in the cam and valve springs, intake and carb. I'd lose some compression but it would probably come pretty close to what the current engine could produce.

Moving downward on the level of likely choices, would be an LS. That raises several other choices such as whether to carb swap it or run fuel injection. I would have to buy headers, and that would entail a lot more re-engineering of the car. 
 

Finally, there's an option that would be really good for this car but far exceeds my skill level. There's very little room on the sides of the engine. There's lots of height and with the setback, practically unlimited length. A turbocharged Atlas six would be a great engine for this car. Not going to happen, but I love the idea. 
 

Next step is to pull the water pump, timing cover and chain, and see if the camshaft spins like it should. I also want to check the cylinders to see if they're round. I guess I would need a micrometer for that. 

I forgot to mention that the engine is still hard to turn.  Better than before but nothing like it should be.  It was a fun day.  Not often that someone let's me help tear their E36 M3 apart then walk away.

Stampie sent pictures to Andrew for assessment. A quick summary is that he thinks that the mains are shot. 
 

My current plan is to get the 50 year old LT one from my friend up in Crestview. It was a running engine, and when I last spoke to him it was his intention to get it on a test stand and run it. 
 

I don't think it will make comparable power to the Vortech engine with the big roller cam, but I need to do what's cheapest and buying an unknown junkyard engine may not be.

Two months and three weeks since the last update.

I had been getting requests to sell from an acquaintance and didn't see a way forward due to personal budget limitations, so I called Stampie for advice. Selling the car wasn't where the conversation went, of course.

It won't take much to get it going if I can find the funds for a junkyard vortec 350. 
 

Stampie visited today so we could dig through the stuff that came with the car and see what could possibly be sold to generate some money. I've got a pair of vintage Western turbo style wheels I don't need and they'll be listed tonight. I also have some Morris Minor stuff that may have value. We found some more of the nitrous stuff. I've got about 90% of a full system, but I'll hold off on offering that for sale until necessary. 

In addition, we're going to be going back to being a two income family soon. In the short term, that's not going to change our situation, but later in the year it could make a difference. 

Movement has resumed. Plan is evolving. 

Today was a fun day.  It was like Challenge Christmas going through tote after tote.  There were some treasures and some duds also.  I think this is a cool car that is so close to being Challenge ready.  Hopefully I was a bad influence and the build continues.

Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) said:

Two months and three weeks since the last update.

I had been getting requests to sell from an acquaintance and didn't see a way forward due to personal budget limitations, so I called Stampie for advice. Selling the car wasn't where the conversation went, of course.

It won't take much to get it going if I can find the funds for a junkyard vortec 350. 
 

Stampie visited today so we could dig through the stuff that came with the car and see what could possibly be sold to generate some money. I've got a pair of vintage Western turbo style wheels I don't need and they'll be listed tonight. I also have some Morris Minor stuff that may have value. We found some more of the nitrous stuff. I've got about 90% of a full system, but I'll hold off on offering that for sale until necessary. 

In addition, we're going to be going back to being a two income family soon. In the short term, that's not going to change our situation, but later in the year it could make a difference. 

Movement has resumed. Plan is evolving. 

Stampie is a solid enabler.  I applaud the plans and the forward movement.

I've got an engine lined up, coming a few weeks from now via the Stampie express. I've got to get the garage organized, get another engine stand, and it would be great to have my own hoist. 

I've also got four other vehicles that need work. 

And...

the engine that was intended for the Morris has water in it. 
 

Back to plan A, a trip to Jacksonville for a junkyard search with Stampie. 

Aaaaccckkk.  Was so excited to see an update but not what I was hoping for.  

In reply to jfryjfry :

Yeah I was bummed when I got the word also but there's always a way and what better than to spend a day in the junkyard with Eric.

I have another vortec 350. 

Half price day at the junkyard, happy Independence Day. Stampie got most of the pictures, which he'll be able to add. I've been having electrical problems with my truck, so I decided to leave it home and just take my little Ralliart wagon. It meant I wouldn't be able to bring a lot of the things home that I needed to pick up, including the engine and a hoist that I'm borrowing. I picked up four wheels and eight tires.
 

It was an adventure. We started by scouting the yard as soon as they opened, then got our tools.

First choice truck had slipped off it's welded steel wheel stand and after starting on it we quickly realized that we weren't going to be able to get under it. That one was abandoned for number two.

There were some advantages with the second truck, a big one being the the radiator and all of the heat exchangers, plus the core support were gone. We could pull the engine straight out the front. 
 
We started working on separating the engine from the truck, and Stampie determined that his sawsall needed a new blade. I worked at it while he picked up blades, and some more water and gatoraid.

It was brutally hot, with no breeze, we really had to work at staying hydrated, and pace ourselves.  
 

As we got further along, we ran into the usual glitches plus some other stuff, like when I tried to retrieve the engine crane by myself. All four wheels steer independently, so when I got on a slope, I could only control one end. It ended up with two wheels in a shallow drainage ditch. 
 

We had to pack up the tools and park the wheelbarrows where we could see them, eventually retrieving the crane with help from a couple of employees. 

We had trouble getting the transmission separated from the engine, so we pulled them together. Then we couldn't get them apart, so we decided to buy them both. The truck was a 2500 with a 4L80, which is always desirable. 
 

The downside of that was the weight on the cart. Two of the tires were nearly flat, and it was a long walk to the front of the yard. By then it was getting late in the afternoon, and I think we had to stop and rest and cool down five or six times while pushing the cart with the engine and transmission.

I paid for my parts, including a radiator that might be a good fit, and we rolled the cart out side. We set up the engine hoist, so we could slide the engine and transmission into the back of Stampie's suburban.

We lifted the engine and transmission off the cart, and that's when the bracket we were using to lift the back of the engine and transmission broke, toppling the whole thing onto the pavement. 
 

Stampie left to go home to get his flatbed trailer, and I sat in my car for a while with the AC running. He called me when he was a few minutes away and I got out to start setting up the new lift points on the engine. Just then, someone walked by and asked me if I wanted to sell the transmission!

He had come to the lot to buy a 4L80, that one was probably the only one in the yard. I showed him my receipt, he paid me what I paid. I could've hit him up for more, after all that work, but I got my money back and he was happy. The other plus was that he separated the engine from the transmission, so we didn't have to deal with it.

By then it was 6 o'clock, the place was closing, and we were exhausted. What a day! I hope this thing runs!

We were among the first four customers to enter at 8:30am and among the last four customers to leave right after 6pm. That's how you do a day at the junkyard. 

Here's our donor. 

The "incident" with the engine crain. 

A picture of me standing back and letting Eric work. 

And the engine loaded up back at my driveway. 

Eric gave a good description of the days events. I'll point out some highlights. 

I did the under and Eric did the top side. At one point I put my hair up in a ponytail but looking at the ground I knew it was going to be bad with fluids from the vehicle. When I washed my hair last night the water flowed black with oil. 

The trans not separating was my fault. Main issue was I missed the bolt under the bracket that held the fuel lines. Lesson learned to check and double check especially if there's a bracket. 

That brings us to the Great Sawzall the Fuel Lines Debate of 2022. There's always the one thing you forget to disconnect and for us it was the fuel lines. At this point we had about 6 inches of space from the firewall. I wanted to cut them. Eric didn't. So I used a wrench to unhook them. Then that damn bracket held them in place. I couldn't get the right angle so finally I convinced Eric that I could sawzall them. He stood at a semi safe distance while I cut. No fire, everything was fine. Not saying try this at home just saying we didn't go up in flames. 

Lessons learned.

Bring more water.

Check your sawzall blade before you leave home. 

Shade and more shade. I might get the thing Mr_Asa recommended.

Never, ever pull a engine on 4th of July in Florida. 

Stampie's engine delivery service hard at work again. Parked in front of Eric's garage. 

And tucked in for the evening. 

Stampie said:

Stampie's engine delivery service hard at work again. Parked in front of Eric's garage. 

And tucked in for the evening. 

That's a good looking engine hoist!

In reply to dyintorace :

It is.  Eric being the very practical type put your name and number on it.  In his words that's so that if he kicks the bucket his family knows where it belongs.

Stampie said:

In reply to dyintorace :

It is.  Eric being the very practical type put your name and number on it.  In his words that's so that if he kicks the bucket his family knows where it belongs.

LOL. That's hilarious. 

Slow progress. Pretty wiped out this weekend from my covid booster, but the old engine is on a HF furniture dolly and I'm taking a break to cool off before getting the new engine onto the stand for cleaning and stripping the fuel injection stuff. 

In reply to Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) :

Shade ... you need shade.

Stampie said:

In reply to Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) :

Shade ... you need shade.

What he said.

Get you one of these.  Throw a couple ceiling hooks in over the garage door, tie it in to a tree in the front yard and a truck or post or something on the other side and don't die.

Seriously, anyone working in Florida needs something like this.

https://a.co/077jxtV

Good suggestions. Having a discussion about this while I cool off. Wondering about actually having a roof over the driveway (long term obviously), turn it into a carport.