I figured it would be manageable. Good to know. I'd imagine the transmission is pretty heavy itself.

John

 

Is it that you still haven't conclusively found the problem?

 

No, I've had two lifters fail. Now the lifter problem seems good but I have a new problem that may have been caused by the lifter failure or simply something that happened when I put it all together again. I did a leakdown test and the rear cylinder failed big time. My thought was a bent valve as I was getting tons of air out the exhaust valve but realized later it was coming out where the spring is not the exhaust port so it is not the valve. There is an oil return to the case that comes up right there next to the valve spring so air was either making its way to that passage through the head gasket or getting past the rings and pressurizing the case. I tore it down again and the heads are fine and the rear cylinder looks fine as well but I have not checked the rings yet. Not sure what is going on but it is a seperate issue from the lifters.

 

Well. @#$&. I put the rear cylinder on to do the leak down test again and it is leaking a ton past the rings. Also, one of the rear cylinder studs is pulling out of the case, similar to the issue I had on the front cylinder. Basically as far as I am concerned the bottom end needs to be replaced for a variety of reasons. The good news is the heads seem fine so at least in the end I am not really out any money on my previous rebuild of the motor. I'm going to pull the bottom end on the new, to me, motor and check the runout and what not and hope everything checks out.

If everything looks good, I'll paint the case black. Next, send the cam cover out to Hammer to have it cut down, then powdercoat it black. I'm going to order a 1250 or 1275 kit. Not sure which way to go there yet. Finally, I'll swap over all the other goodies, such as cams, stator, clutch, starter, etc. My understanding is the cam/pinion tooth pattern is different between the 1996 and 2003, but I should be able to swap pinions and use the N2 cams I have in the 2003.

 

Since the bottom end is dead to me I will end this thread as well. R.I.P motor.

 

It's dead, Jim.

John

 

Well the new motor is starting to look like a motor again. So far everything looks pretty darn good inside and the outside is starting to look good as well. It's no doubt going to get shipped off to Hammer to get rebuilt and have the anti rotation pins drilled and updated.

 

Well just found out why there was no primary drain plug. It's cross threaded. #$%&!

 

One of the easiest of things to put in by hand and some moron has to gorilla because it was a bit tight gong in. Idiots.

No idea how you fix that reliably? I have seen posts though of folk admitting fitting the drain plug cross threaded.

 

That’s a bummer. Not sure on tapping it, I hit a snag with the oring. Used one from my ring kit and it tore and leaked, admittedly it was a bit off but not that much. An HD ring was the cure.

I’m sure many have been down this road before there’s got to be a fairly easy solution.