Engine Assembly Begins

This cleaning has been WAY more work than I expected.  Because it sat in a junk yard for so long, there was a HUGE amount of gunk to be cleaned out of it.  I went through every oil passage, every nook and cranny of the block, front cover, intake, crank, you name it.  I cleaned everything 2, 3, and even more times until I felt comfortable that I got everything out of it.  I spent cleaning and re-cleaning each fresh oil passage in the engine to ensure that on first start-up clean oil wouldn't be contaminated by stuff that was left in the passages.  Just a huge amount of tedious work.

Anyways, soft water jacket plugs are in now, along with the oil filter adapter.

So the front oil gallery plugs are an interesting subject.  Every engine rebuild book, states that there are  three 1/2" diameter oil gallery plugs on the front of the engine....And there are BUT, there is also, on some of these early 289s, a 1/4" plug to the right of the front cam bearing.  Here's a picture of the original plug.  So glad I removed this and got in here and cleaned, there was a ton of black gunk in behind here.  That was another afternoon of re-cleaning all of the front oil galleries connected to this plug hole.

Just look at all the stuff left behind this plug...and to think some people don't remove this when they do a rebuild.  Makes me wonder about all those "rebuilt" engines on Ebay and such...

Every 289 soft plug kit I've seen fails to include this plug and they are not easy to find.

In fact, if you do a compatibility search on most auto parts websites, this 1/4" plug will not come up as a compatible part for ANY 289 engine.  There are a couple of suppliers that make 1/4"diameter plugs, and I was able to obtain a few of them, (extras just in case I messed a couple of them up during install, they are tiny and are easy to get in crooked and or dropped).  There is a later version of the cam thrust plate that covers this and guides oil to the front surface of the cam, but on early cars like this, the thrust plate doesn't cover the hole.

Here the front oil gallery plugs after installation

As I mentioned the crank was also a bear to get clean.   Pic here before polishing and final cleaning showing remnants of orange paint on the counter weights.  Usually expect to see the orange paint on the rear counter weights, but was only able to see paint on front few.

 I wanted the oil holes to be as shiny/clean inside as the journals.  I micropolished the journals on top of what the shop did - turned out great! This thing is as clean or cleaner than the day it went in the motor.

Front cover after cleaning.  This thing spent a long time is 160 degree degreaser, but it came out looking great.  Casting date is April 1964.   No oil fill hole, and no oil fill plug, this was the latest casting design for the front cover at the time.

Inside is nice and shiny, just like when new.