Here's some pics from the last few days..
Cleaned up all the ring grooves on all the pistons and fitted the new bearings, slugs 2 and 5 were a pain in the ass because they had broken rings when they were removed, the carbon deposits had built up inside the ring grooves too, took a while
Who paints a flywheel seriously?! Hehe this ones on show lol, well you can kind of see it so thought it would be best to paint it in a nice clean black engine enamel.
fitting the new bearings to the block
Since the dog clutch was on the font of the crank, we had to dial in the cam first and then drop in the crank after and then check with a dial gauge, a bit of an ass about way of doing it but it worked ok, since I'm running the straight cut gears it is possible to do it this way but with the helical cut gears I think you would struggle, the dog clutch would have had to come off and be put back on after the timing was done.
Bottom end assembled
cleaning up the YT head
ready for the head
Had the incorrect rocker studs so I chased some up from super pro in Dandy, very friendly and helpful there, I'd never been. But yea sorted that out and bolted up the valvetrain. Cleaned up the sideplates off the 186 too they came up alright. Also in between here I gave the block a lick of jam, looks good as chevy orange always does!!
Mad scoop! It's pretty funny how keen I am to see the scoop poking out the engine cover, hell yea!
When the dollar was at it's highest I was able to score a set of comp sbc roller rockers really cheap from the US. They seem like good equipment, it's a mild setup for what they could handle anyway, either way I've got 4 spares haha!
Next will be the sump, and drilling a hole in the dog clutch for the locking pin. Then the mounts can be bolted up and it's pretty much ready to drop in!