Tonight was rather uneventful. LTR had the day off until he looked at his work schedule and found out that he was wrong. I was left to work on the engine myself, which is a rather funny site seeing that I have limited knowledge in what I'm doing. Factory manuals and a Chilton can help though.

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Well, it has been a long while hasn't it? With the winter being as bad as it has been for the past two years, nothing could really be done at all on the car. It sat in the yard with the engine on the stand and the parts all boxed up. But finally, a 65degree day broke through and a day off work at the same time arrived! How convenient.

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After getting the engine stand to work on, we managed to get some cleaning of the underside of the engine completed. To our dismay, one of the connecting rod end caps was missing. I have located and contacted someone online to help me with the replacement. I'm purchasing all four connecting rods and end caps instead of just finding one so that balancing is not an issue upon replacement.

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Finally got around to the engine after waiting to have the engine stand unoccupied by the 928 "Chevy" install blasphemy that my roomie is working with. I don't agree but I digress. We mounted the engine and started cleaning. It looks really nice. It's missing a connecting rod end cap, which just happens to be an impossible find. Still working on that though.

Finally got around to cleaning the engine block today. It's been a while because it's been raining every other day, and the field the car sits in can turn to mud. Can't do much until the crankshaft returns from its trip. I sent it out to have the mains machined, rewelding to .25mm. .50mm main bearings were impossible to find. A minor setback. Here are a few pics of the engine, pretty much sparkling. As you can see, there is a bunch that still has to be done. The amount of grease that was removed was astounding. The aluminum is no longer black.

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Spent some time with my baby today. Towed it up to the garage instead of leaving it in the driveway. Ended up pulling the sway bar out in the process. How and why that happened, I do not know. Rinse n' vac'ed the inside. There were a few small splotches on the rear passenger floor, along with some dirt marks here and there on the interior. Pollen is crazy though this time of year in Pennsylvania, so the newest photographs make the car look exceptionally dirty.

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Got my first look at the car today. The engine was in the passenger seat (it's true!) and the trunk and back seats were filled with dissected automotive organs. The new crankshaft was included (thank you Matt!), but I need to purchase a few new things before the vehicle will be operational -- main bearings, rod bearings, gasket set, timing belt. After that, the car should run just fine. It'll be a matter of tweakage and checking everything out to see if it's roadworthy.

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