My 301 NA Refresh Build

[Nexus]

So I have decided to to freshen up my 301, and not do a full rebuild...at least for now. I will be making some well researched decisions that will definitely not be the best decision to make if you are doing a proper rebuild but it is the direction I'm going in. Also, I am experimenting with a few things that may turn out to be a poor decision but we shall see when I do a proper rebuild in a few years after I get it on the road. This will not make everyone happy but I'm not too concerned and if my decisions backfire (pun intended), I will have learned a lesson.

still with me?

So, I started out by pulling the engine that Ruby came with

20191114_120637 by Charles Marson, on Flickr

pulled it apart

20191126_155139 by Charles Marson, on Flickr

20191126_153616 by Charles Marson, on Flickr

20191126_154255 by Charles Marson, on Flickr

As you can see, there was a tremendous amount of rust everywhere.

I decided to pickle this engine and find a replacement

20200930_144036 by Charles Marson, on Flickr

20200930_151538 by Charles Marson, on Flickr

Bring in the replacement

2020-11-30_10-55-20 by Charles Marson, on Flickr

Got it running

20201215_202638_1 by Charles Marson, on Flickr

Yanked it out

20201223_103518 by Charles Marson, on Flickr

and pulled it apart

2021-02-03_11-32-40 by Charles Marson, on Flickr

2021-01-13_11-15-01 by Charles Marson, on Flickr

[Nexus]

Since the last pic, I have cleaned, sandblasted and painted parts while I made decisions on the block.

20210318_155837 by Charles Marson, on Flickr

20210318_155900 by Charles Marson, on Flickr

20210316_211240 by Charles Marson, on Flickr

20210316_211254 by Charles Marson, on Flickr

[Nexus]

The JB weld experiment:

So in an event to keep things low cost, the aluminum on my 301 has seen better days as you can see in the photo all the pitting the coolant neck has.

20210311_083308 by Charles Marson, on Flickr

20210311_083319 by Charles Marson, on Flickr

So, pull out the JB weld I had on hand and fill in the pitting.

20210316_191911 by Charles Marson, on Flickr

the final result is this

20210316_211254 by Charles Marson, on Flickr

The experiment comes in when the aluminum and the JB weld get heated up and being too different types of material. We shall see how it does when I pull the engine apart in a few years and give it a proper rebuild!!


funny thing is, the bare metal pics are of a different housing and the one I used looked very similar in condition but I forgot to take pics.