13BTT-REW FD3S Rebuild -- Evaluation

07-10-2010


Costs:
$123.26 - Rotor Services
$126.22 - Paint Supplies
$249.48 Total

Time:
3h: Misc.
9.5h: Painting
12.5h Total

While cleaning the components, I made one mistake. I was using a wire brush, and decided to clean off the rotor bearings with it. DO NOT DO THIS! They're a lot softer than I had expected, and I scratched it to hell and back in seconds.

Bearings aren't very expensive, and I was prepared to replace them anyway (it's only a shame because mine actually turned out to be in excellent condition). But, making lemonade from lemons, I decided this was a good chance to get a professional opinion on my rotors. There was some very minor pitting and discoloration on the rotor faces, well within the tolerance called for in the rebuild manual. Still, since I needed the bearings replaced anyway, I shipped both rotors to the folks at Pineapple Racing. They assured me that my rotors are definitely in great shape (I REALLY got lucky with this core!), pressed in new bearings, and shipped the rotors back to me, all for less than I would have spent on the bearing tool. Very happy with their service.

06-29-2010
After a long hiatus, I'm finally resuming building. After working my butt off at basically three jobs, I managed to scrape together enough to buy the engine rebuild kit I've been waiting for, along with a few accessories (gaskets and the like). Hopefully next week I'll get to work reassembling the engine!

07-10-2010
Today I painted the engine - the first big step in the rebuild! After some hemming and hawing over colors, I finally went with a medium ("Pontiac", supposedly) blue for the housings and front cover, and silver for the irons. It took a LONG time to do - longer than I had expected. I thoroughly cleaned every part first with a wire brush (where appropriate) and razor blade, then ran it through an ultrasonic cleaner. (One of my best purchases.) I then did a final cleaning of each part in acetone. I carefully masked off all joining surfaces, screw holes, and other areas that shouldn't be painted, and used a razor blade to cut the tape to a perfect edge on each part.

3 coats of paint for each part finished the job. I set the parts up on my work table to let them cure for the next few days. Also, to protect them (once cleaned with acetone, the irons especially can rust pretty quickly) I coated all iron faces and critical areas with a light film of oil.

Usually, after I finish a job I think about ways I could have done it better or faster "next time". I'm not sure there's a faster way to do this one, though. Most of the work went into cleaning and masking the parts. It's a tedious job no matter how you do it. I probably could have saved a LITTLE time by not masking EVERY bolt hole. Some of them could be painted, because you're supposed to run a tap into them before assembly anyway, to clean them out. But why take the chance if you don't have to?

I'm VERY pleased with the results. It looks even better in person!