My Lump... Good News?

[John Moore]

When I first got my bugeye the 1275 was frozen. It did free up after a few weeks of marvel mystery oil in the bores.

Well finally I got to open it up, and things actually look ok!

Overall it was very clean on the inside. The bores have slight surface rust but will clean up easily with a scotch brite pad, also I couldn't feel any lip around the top of the bore.. I can't tell if the valves have hardened seats but there are little rings in the seat area. I pulled the #2 piston and there was little to no wear on the bearing, but also, I didn't see any marks that it was oversized. The pistons were flat topped (I figured on a smog engine they would have been dished) and when I cleaned off the little carbon that was there I saw the pistons were marked .020 so I figured it was recently rebuilt! I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet, but I just may have the head cleaned up and a valve job, hone the bores, new rings, bearings and put it back together.

I would rather spend my money on fixing the tub at this time... thoughts?

 

[John Moore]

more...

 

[John Moore]

more...

 

[John Moore]

more....

 

[John Moore]

more....

 

[JPSmit]

I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet, but I just may have the head cleaned up and a valve job, hone the bores, new rings, bearings and put it back together.

I would rather spend my money on fixing the tub at this time... thoughts?

get the whole block boiled and measured. Everything, including taking apart the last of the block cost me $250 here. Some of the best money I spent, partly because everything was clean to rebuild including the cooling holes. The other reason was that they checked all the dimensions. In my case, the pistons were standard, the crank and something else were not. I would likely have missed it. For sure do the bearings etc but for goodness sake it's not much money to start with something clean and ready.

 

[John Moore]

Good point JP.

I just know the engine "might as wells" can eat a budget very fast. But yes, at this point its very easy to disasseble and refresh.

 

[JPSmit]

not a lot more might as wells as what you are already doing - just means everything is checked and cleaned before you start

 

[Hap Waldrop]

John when you get everything cleaned up and looked at good, call me and we can talk about your motor, sounds like you may have a motor that only warrants a freshen up. Flat top piston in a 1275 can bring the compression ratio up to kinda unuseable levels on the street, measure you piston to deck height on the engine before you get all your piston out, and we can fiquire out what compression ratio you have. 1275 heads have the smallest of all combustion chambers of all the A-series heads, so most of the time you don't need flat tops to get the compression ratio up. I also give you some tips on what to do the cylnder bores to make them fresh when honing, easy and cheap.

 

[John Moore]

Excellent! I appreciate that Hap, will do.