Hi everyone! Sorry to have been absent for so long; been busy with family, new baby, father in hospital, son getting married, and trying to do the Ghia engine with almost no money 
The family is doing well, the new baby is our first grandbaby and she's beautiful. Probably the best news is my son finally getting married to a girl that I adore so much that I'd adopt her in a heartbeat if they weren't getting married. And right up there in the good news department is... the Ghia is back on the road!
That's right, it's summer of having the back end up in the air is over, and it's a turn-key ride now. The over-all rebuild went well, the only glitches being a slight mis-match in cylinder height (about a thousandth, literally), and having to pull the rotating assembly apart to clean the assembly lube from the crank journals. Oh yeah, I also forgot the deflector tin and had to pull the heads. I fixed the cylinder height issue by hand lapping the case and all four cylinders sealed perfectly with no shims or head gaskets.
For startup, cranked it without plugs until I had full oil pressure, then cleared the fuel line and hooked everything up. The carb float was stuck open from sitting, so I had to fix that before it started, but once it did start, everything was fine. The break-in went well, and the oil was so clean that I used it to top off my wife's van.
I've been driving it like crazy and have close a thousand miles on it already. No problem except the flywheel seal which leaks. I pulled the engine and found that the lower drain slot below the thrust bearing was blocked with sealant. I cleared that, but the seal still leaks. I'll have to get a new seal and seat it completely against the block, as the pics I've seen just show it flush with the case surface, which is wrong. No leak anywhere else though, and you can lick the engine below the cylinders and pushrod tubes (if you have a really long tongue, lol).
Aside from that, the engine runs exceptional. It ran good before, but the higher CR and balancing have done their share to make it even better. I did pull back two degrees on the initial ignition timing, and it still likes the carb tuning and distributor mods I had before. It pulls clean and hard to 5k, and with the counterbalanced crank there's little worry about beating your case out. If I had gone with more cam and springs, it would pull higher, but I like the torque. Perhaps a webcam or cheater would have been a good alternative with decent torque. The Ghia can follow other cars down the ramp without even trying hard and passing is a breeze. Anyways, a few pics from the rebuild are below.
The oil return elbow was shortened and the block threads cut deeper until it was close as I felt comfortable with. Cutting the threads deeper would have thinned the sides and made it easier to split the opening. The final position was angled down slightly to reduce the tendency for the oil line weight to loosen the fitting.
Here’s a test fit after the crank balancing and flywheel lightening/balance. I went with a 14lb flywheel and am very happy with that weight for a street driver. Click on the image below and give the video a moment to open.
The original cam gear had the factory defect of being off-center! This is what caused the rivets to work loose in the first place. I grabbed a handful of replacement gears and picked the one that fit best. The cam was drilled and tapped, and the gear attached with grade 8 flanged bolts and red Loctite.
Here is the case all buttoned up. Fortunately I did not have to crack it back open for anything. The balanced rods were installed with Loctite blue and factory torque specs.
The counterbalanced crank was 8-doweled, but I had a machinist go oversize on every other dowel. The fit is so tight that you need a puller to get the flywheel off after removing the gland nut.
I made a bar out of angle iron to hold the flywheel. I was fortunate that one of my three torque wrenches went to 250lbs for torquing the gland nut.
Here’s the nearly complete longblock. At this point I carried it upstairs to the garage with the help of the kids, stopping halfway to switch kids so they all had a chance to participate.
After installing the tin, shroud, and other accessories like the intake and carb (lol), it was up and into the car. Break-in went well after fixing the stuck carb float. However, I only went above 2000 rpm for a few minutes instead of the usual 15 to 20 minutes because the cam and lifters already “knew” each other. Garage is a mess because we had to clear out a rented storage area, so the overflow went to the garage.
I took it on it’s maiden voyage the next day and after a few miles, took it on the freeway for several accel/decel cycles to help seat the rings. The Ghia seemed very happy…
Cold start is easy; one pump, turn key. For hot start it's the same, minus touching the pedal of course, and it usually catches instantly. Click the image below to watch the video.
Last edited by Altema (2011-12-05 17:39:35)
