The heads started out looking pretty ropey. Surface rust and flaking yellow paint really did nothing for them. The rocker assembly that I got in one of the bread crates was missing bits, and some of the pressed steel rockers had seen better days. One thing led to another and...........

I ended up buying new aluminium roller rockers. Hence the pic here is missing any sort of rocker assembly. All it has are the double valve springs and valves. Fortunately all the studs and bolts came out without a fight so no helicoiling required!

Hmm, the valves look pretty naff too.......so brand new oversize stainless ones were ordered, along with new competition springs and retainers. I also took the opportunity to get some guide plates, pushrods and rocker studs. This is getting expensive........really expensive!

OK, on to the nitty gritty.......first up I would like to thank Dave of Dave Rushton Engines in Stoke for the time and effort he put in for me. He even took some pics of the work in progress so that I could post them here for your enjoyment! Top chap! Anyway, here the crank journals are being ground, as I said the engine had spun a bearing.

Also the crank had some surface rust, remember it was in the back of my garage for 6 years, its previous 30 or so years are unknown! It certainly looks very shiny now!

The cylinders in general looked in reasonable shape. I opted not to go for an over bore as the block is already at +30 and pistons are really hard to find at a reasonable price for this 425ci engine.

So each of the cylinders was honed to ensure that they were round and give a nice workable finish ready for firing up.

More honing in progress. How cool is that machine.......the engine looks positively tiny, almost like a toy! Let me remind you though, this is no toy!!!!

OK almost done, reconditioning a V8 gets expensive.......everything has to be done 8 times! Doh! Still I would rather pay and have the work done now than have to strip the engine down after having it explode in the car!
(My wife still thinks this is a very likely outcome!)

Now on to the main bearing housings. Over the years I misplaced one of the main caps (number 4 if you are interested!) so I thought it prudent to have the block align honed. This process ensures that the crank is a snug fit right down the centre. Pretty important in my book!

Inevitably there was some wear on the main caps, Spinning the bearing saw to that. And to break in the new main cap this stage was essential. Otherwise it would be like fitting a round peg in a......well not quite round hole!!!

And from the side, again you get some feel for the heavy duty kit Dave has in his workshop. First Class!

OK the heads were looked after elsewhere. Firstly Terry and Shaun at QES in Ripley sorted the valve seat cutting, skimming, bronze guides and general cleanup. They did however find a problem........a crack in one of the exhaust ports. After much talk of scrapping them (not by me....seriously not an option!) They finally gave me a name.

Brian at Stitchweld in Burton Upon Trent was able to sticth the head. A cold process that does exactly what it says on the tin! You can see in the photo above a line of pins was inserted along the crack, with stitches every now and again to keep the crack closed, a true craft! I think Brian saved my project!

Also in to the bargain he advised a skim of the exhaust flanges as they were a bit pitted, and he popped some shiny new core plugs in for me as well. Now cast your mind back to the new rocker studs that I purchsed...........

they were competition Oldsmobile studs, with a 5/16" thread on them. At some point my heads had been modified to take 7/16" studs so my shiny new ones just flapped about!! Not good! Again Brian saved the day with 16 5/16" helicoils. Sorted! Remember Brian rules, if you think its scrap talk to the main man first! Contact me for details.

Dave at Dave Rushton Engines informed me that my rods didn't have round  big ends, he was of course right! This one is 5 thou oversize where the crank has beat it up and down in to a lovely oval shape!

You can see that across the other way the big end comes closer and closer to round. Apparently the solution is to split the big end and machine the mating faces to bring the big end 'under round' then machine the hole to be round again.....all clever stuff! So 5 of the 8 rods needed tweaking, which meant I save some cash because 3 were OK!! Whoopeee!

Here after machining the gauge reads 0 thou (or damn near anyway) this means that the big end hole is as round as its going to get and that the bearings (when they arrive) will fit snugly. I am learning all the time, so next time things will be a breeze.........I'll know to buy a crate motor!!!

Now there are better times to find that your block has a 5" crack in it than just after you apply 4 coats of paint. Equally however there are also much much worse times. I would be very unhappy to find a leaky block once I drop it in the car after assembly. Thankfully Brian came to the rescue again, this time he came to me.......Bonus! I'll be getting loyalty points next!