Engine Short Block Built

Aside from a couple of big weekends finishing the floor, we have been working on the engine. One long Sunday we started building the engine progressing only as far as getting the case assembled. You could say we took our time - 8 hours or so to this point. Some would call this the shortblock.



We used Harry Pellow's (aka The Maestro) "Secrets of the Inner Circle" and our Exploded View Parts Diagrams from Charles DerWhite. Spending most of my adult life around cars and instruction manuals, I would suggest this as the best combination for building your 356 engine. There are many other books for the 356 available with not even half of the detail that Harry puts into his. While Harry's book is no longer available in print (unless you shell out $150 on eBay for a used one) you can buy it from their website on disk. It comes in Word format which you can take to Kinko's to print for about $20 (double sided) and you don't have to worry about greasy finger prints.

I received the heads back from Houston Engine and Balancing . They look good and cost less than expected (about $120 for both heads). I took in the two old heads, one replacement from GG Tyler and Sons and the new valve guides from Zims. They inspected for cracks, installed new guides and seals, cut new seats on the valves and valve seats, and checked spring compression. No flycuts were required. Between them, I have two nice heads.

For rods, I received four good 912 rods from Jim at EASY and we received four good Super pistons, a replacement cylinder, and a Super cam from Tyler. Many of you may be shaking your head right now thinking that I should have bought a matched set of pistons and cylinder. I miced out all of the parts out and everything was within spec. I'm confident that for a weekend driver, I'll have a good engine.

One of the local 356ers had an old Zenith carb on the shelf he could supply to replace the bad one. In the mean time, we received the engine tins from Tyler and have been sandblasting and painting them in prep for installation.

Floor Pans Complete

After I bought more gas for the welder, I was able to finish the floor pan installation. I found that my rivet idea was not so brilliant afterall. I found that the pan did not sit completely flat on ledge in some areas. I then went around with the sheet metal screws in place of the rivets. This worked much better. Through my plug weld hole in the floorpan, I drilled a small pilot hole in the ledge (about 1/8"). I then ran the sheet metal screw into it which in turn sucked the floor pan flush onto the ledge. I did this every 12" or so and I am quite please with the results.

I used the same method when installing new angle material along the tunnel. In this area, I used the screws horizontally to hold the material flush to the tunnel and then vertically to hold the material flush to the floor.

After installing new brackets for the kick board, the pedal support, and finishing the a-frame, I found that I was missing the outer seat rails. Without them I could not install the seat mounts. In calling around, I only found one supplier with a set who wanted $150 each!! As luck would have it, I found a set on eBay for about $50. They should be here this week and I can finish the job.



In the mean time, I POR15-ed the entire interior compartment and exterior of the floor pans. I then went back into the seams and filled in the water-catching areas with sealant. With this being an open car, there's no telling if I would ever get rain water in the interior. I'd rather be safe than sorry. After all, I do plan to drive the car in Texas where the weather can be unpredictable.



We started running out of room in the garage so I spent one rainy afternoon cleaning up. Now that most all of the replacement steel is installed, I elected to throw out the scraps. I think that this is less than half of what I installed.

Left Longitudinal and Floor Pans

We finished the left longitudinal earlier in the week. This side took us less than half the time required of the right side. I'm sure it was more due to the fact that we knew what we were doing this time. At the same time, it was in much better shape to start out with. The inner wall on this side was in good shape and needed very little work. All I really had to do was attach a new ledge for the floor to attach and patch one small area of the heater tube.

I bought a new bulkhead replacement piece from Stoddard this week. On Sunday morning I cut out the old one and tacked the new one into place. This was tough and I'm not real happy with the fit. This is a complex shaped part and would have been much easier if I had a rotisserie to work on. Once the front floor pan is welded in at the paremeter I'll finish fitting the bulkhead.

With the longitudinal in, new floor pan ledges installed, and the old floor cut out, we spent more than 8 hours on Saturday fitting the floor pans. When you get the new pans, they are about 2" wider and 2" longer than you need. They do this so that you have plenty of material to cut the floor to fit. Without a picture, it's hard to describe how to set the floor in place and trim. This is not a one man job. We are fortunate that we have an open top car. I can't imagine how difficult this would have been in a coupe having to slide the floors in through the doors.

Once we had the floors cut to size, we set them into place. With a jack under the floor where the tunnel meets the overlapping floors and Theresa standing on the ledge, I used 1/8" rivets every 6" or so to hold the floors in place. This is temporary and the rivets can be pulled out much more easily than spot welds if I don't like the fit. I have alse heard of people using sheet metal screws for the same purpose. With the floors and bulkhead in place, I started the plug welding on the parameter. Remember to keep the heat low so the body doesn't start to twist. This means I did three or so spot welds and then skipped about 12" for the next three or so spots. At this point I ran out of gas in my welder.

Over the next week I'll be finishing the floor pans up by installing new ledges around the tunnel, seat mounts, toe board mounts, and peddle mount.

The best instruction that I found on this process comes from the "Technical and Restoration Guide" published by the 356 Registry. The article I referenced the most was by Ron Roland on page 312. Jim Kellogg's book "Guide to Do-it-Yourself Restoration" is also a good resource. Pictures should be posted soon in the photo page.

Engine Work, The Texas Two Step

Some times you spend all day working only to find at the end of the day that you accomplished very little. Last Saturday was one of those days. With the long holiday weekend and cooler weather, we had plans to work on the car as much as possible.

On Friday I took the crankshaft to Theresa's service shop and we pressed off the timing and cam drive gears from the crankshaft. This is not a gear that you want to pull with a 3-arm puller. You are sure to nick the brass gears and you'll end up spending hours with a jewelry file cleaning it up. The press made this job easy. Sure enough, the #4 bearing was completely wiped out but fortunately the crank looked really good after a little cleanup with the scotchbright.

I received the head, pistons, cylinder, and various other parts from Parker Tyler. The parts came in from Zim's but I was short one valve guide so I couldn't get the heads over to Houston Engine and Balancing until today. Okay, so I figured we should at least build the short block. In inspecting the rods, I found that the #4 rod that we had to cut from the stuck piston was damaged in the process. Now I need another rod. So that job now comes to a halt.

Okay, so we moved on to the fuel pump. Theresa handled this like a pro. I buffed the parts on the bench grinder with a brush wheel and it looks almost new.

Zenith carbs next. We got the left carb completely apart and clean and found that there was a severe casting void. Not only that, but the butterfly shaft was broken. After over an hour of work, we pronounced this carb dead. The right carb looked really good so we proceeded to rebuild it. A soaking in carb cleaner, new gaskets, and a little work with the wire wheel again and it looks new. I'll be looking to source another carb in the near term to replace the left carb.