Engine Assembly

The first step in assembling the engine was to build an engine stand for it. When I rebuilt the engine on my 330 GT, I did it all on a small rolling cart. I was a lot younger then and it was easier to bend over. Now, it'll be nice to have the engine securely mounted at waist height as I work on it.

This engine has already had all of the machining done on it. So all I'm doing is to check all of the dimensions to verify that it was done properly.

Here's the engine flipped over ready to install the crank and main bearings.

I spent some time (most of an afternoon) getting some of the engine parts painted. Ferrari would paint the block, front cover, pan, etc. a metallic silver instead of leaving the aluminum bare. The block and pan were already painted, but several other parts hadn't been done. The painting time isn't too long, but masking off of the various openings for the front cover took over an hour.


With everything masked off	Now you can see all of the openings

Keep tuned in as I continue the assembly.

One of the things that I'll need during the assembly is a tool to tighten a special bolt in the oil system. The Ferrari tool is shown in the inside plug owner's manual.

That's overkill. A simpler version is to use a 3/16" woodruff key welded onto a 3/8" socket extension. I just cut a slot in the end of the extension (basically removing the little spring loaded ball), fit the woodruff key into it and had my neighbor use his MIG to weld everything together. Then I trimmed the ends to fit the width of the slot.