More Engine Assembly Continued

New fuel pump and hardware.

New HV oil pump and screen.

I followed the directions and rotated the crank to make sure it clears the pump. I also opened the pump up, inspected for debris or other causes for concern, then greased with engine assembly lube. I washed out and air dried the pick up before installing it.

Head hardware and gaskets.

The Fel Pro 1020 head gasket is a much better gasket than the 8554PT. The crush on the 1020 is close to 0.040" whereas the 8554PT crush is over 0.050" That can be a significant problem with a high compression engine as it lowers the efficacy of the quench pad in the head. The 8554PT gasket probably wouldn't matter too much in a Y-390 but since this is a Z-390 and has a static CR of 10.5:1 little details like this can help.

Before I put the other head on I wanted to check the accuracy of the balancer and timing pointer. Glad I did.

That's actually TDC. It's 2˚ off. 2˚ seems to be a theme so far.

Other head and hardware.

New lifters.

I checked every lifter for any binding in the plunger and reasonable travel. Also I butted pairs of them to check each had a similar convex bottom. They should not be flat or concave.

Installed the lifters and the oil splash pans.

I had 6 rocker assemblies to chose from in order to make 2 decent sets. Good grief, it was close, so many of these were very worn. I made 2 sets and one spare and tossed the rest of the worn ones.

I had it narrowed down to these by inspection.

In order to clean the rocker rails properly you need to knock out the end plugs. These are the replacements.

It's funny after building the other two 390's with all newer aftermarket top ends, this looks so antiquated. It looks like a small model of an engine found on an old diesel U-Boat.

Engine room from Das Boot film. The best submarine movie ever made.