[Fot] who builds their own engines?

[Steven Belfer]

I've been working on a TR3-4 engine this weekend, I've been chipping  
away at the build for a long time.  I take 3 steps forward, then 1  
step back but I'm making progress.  This is my spare motor and I  
thought it would be cool to have it all ready to go in the garage so  
when the time comes, I just pop it in.  Unfortunately, It doesn't have  
all the same trick parts as my current motor so when I do put it in, I  
can count on less power as it contains a milder cam.  Also P to W  
clearance is about maxed out.  The thing is, I still plan on improving  
my lap times because I'm still learning the car and the tracks.

This spare motor has a simple tray that gets sandwiched between the  
sump and a couple of sump gaskets and permatex black.  I was torquing  
all the sump bolts down evenly until one decided to break off in the  
block.  Now, I get to take the sump off again and attempt to extract  
the stupid broken bolt.  Of course I don't like flipping the fresh  
engine over on the stand and creating tiny pieces of metal that can  
easily fall in and stick to the assembly lube on the crank. I made a  
piece of cardboard that fits over the bottom of the block that I can  
tape down to keep out any fragments of the bolt.  I can't believe it  
broke, I was really tightening everything up carefully and it went  
from tight to rubber real fast.  I bought an 11" degree wheel from  
Summit and it really helps with accuracy when the wheel is big and  
easy to read.  It's fun assembling the engine but I don't expect it to  
be fun extracting  a broken bolt from the block.

~Steve