Piston assembly and installation.

Cam installation followed by crankshaft installation.
3.98" stroke crank and comp cams 280H-10.

Measuring bearing clearances for mains, and rods, and cam.  Clearance for piston to cylinder.  File fitting rings.  It time consuming but everything is within spec.

Engine Painted and ready for blue printing before assembly.

Back from the machine shop

So I got all my parts back from Aims... well most parts.  I brought them everything I had with plans of having them build up the short block.  After talking numerous times with them about options and feeling uneasy after every conversation, I decided to have them do the least amount of work possible.

So they hot tanked the block and cleaned basically everything but the heads (still not sure why they disassembled the heads and didn't hot tank them).  I told them what it was for and that I was looking for them to build up short block.  I asked about options and they ultimate gave me pricing for some really expensive pistons and a rebuilt crank and set of rods.

I did some research and found a complete Scat rotating assembly for 100 bucks more and they were concerned the 3.98" stroke would mean the block would have to be clearanced.  Meanwhile any bit of searching will tell you people are putting 4.25" stroke cranks in these things.

I told them I would end up purchasing the rotating assembly and they decided that they would bore it for me even though I had not received the pistons yet.  I asked if they wanted to wait until I had the rotating assembly and they said it wasn't necessary.

I went to pick it up and they had thrown out my old pistons and pins, and I had to ask to get the old crank back.

I measured one side of the engine and everything seems to have been bored accurately.  They installed freeze plugs and oil galley plugs and didn't charge me (hopefully they did a good job cleaning the oil galleys).  They also installed the cam bearings which seem to be good.

As for the heads that they disassembled I took them to another machine shop and they found that they were both cracked.  Surprised Aims didn't mention that especially when they disassembled them.  On to painting the block and tracking down some new heads...

Off to the machine shop

The engine is at the machine shop as of yesterday.  Although they couldn't supply estimates yet they gave me ball park figures...  $800 for complete head rebuilds.  They said generally there is some trouble with the FE heads.  If the engine needs a complete rebuild it could be around $3500.  I should hear in about a week and a half what the damage will be.

Build School

I got a chance to go to the Factory Five Build School that is offered at Mott College in Howell, MI.  About 15 of us built the car from the way it is received from Factory Five to running and driving automobile.  It was a really good class and I definitely took away some great tips for when the time comes.
Obviously, there are details that were skipped or fast forwarded, but all of the tasks you'll have to perform are basically done at least once during the class.
Thanks to my wife for gifting me the plane tickets and the class, and thanks to Todd and Jim for the education!

Found an Engine!

I finally found a possible engine.  Here's the Craigslist add (Phone number masked to protect the identity of the innocent).
Ford 390 engine $600. engine is rebuild able is all std crank and bore this engine is a good for a hot rod smog exempt in NV Block casting # C6ME-A eng. date code 7F1 (6/1/1967) Ross 775-424-xxxx

I went to take a look and the thing was mostly in pieces.
 
I did my best to measure the bore with a pair of calipers to verify it hadn't been bored already and I offered him 450. He was good with that and we loaded it up in the truck.  I'm finishing the tare down and things look OK.  Missing valley pan tray, oil filter adapter, and some miscellaneous hardware so far.  Next stop is AIMS Machine for machine work and a build plan.