More engine work.

Back from Japan now and finally getting this blog up to date.

With the chassis rolling I could move it out of the way and get the engine back up on the stand to finish it off.

First up was to sort out the dipstick tube and get that fitted. I trial fitted the ACG and found that the dipstick was trying to pass right through the center of the ACG, no good.

This is because the ACG is supposed to go low on the Ford 302, but due to the steering link bar location it has to go high.

So a fair bit of gentle bending was needed to get the dipstick tube to route another way. But its done and I managed to make a suitable spacer up from one of the ACG bracket spacer off cuts.

All that remains to do is paint it red to match the block and hide the marks on it where it slipped in the vice.

Ive also prepared the ACG bracket spacers for painting and will post up some pictures once they are on the engine.

Next up I figured it was time to set the valve train up so following Tom Monroes book I set the crank up at TDC with No.1 on the ignition stroke. (both valves closed piston at TDC).

In this position a number of the valves could be adjusted, this indexing method saves having to do each valve individually.

Then once the correct valves have been done you rotate the crank 180° and do some more valves and finally another 270° and adjust the final valves.

Here's No.5 inlet is being adjusted (I think it's the inlet!). Basically you tighten the nut down until the push rod just stops turning, then tighten 3/4 of a turn more and lock down the allen grub screw. The 3/4 of a turn puts the correct pre-load on the lifter.

With all valves adjusted the valve train looks like this.

Next job is to fit the ACG bracket and ACG, I cant fit the ACG March pulley as I need a new March fan. The Powermaster fan and pulley are of visibly poorer quality when compared to the March items, I had the March pulley as part of the kit so it felt bad leaving it off. Once I have the fan I can figure the belt length and order that. So more money needs to be spent!