327 - First Attempt to Roll the Motor

Ty and I decided to roll the motor for the first time with the starter today. Before using the starter we wanted to turn the motor by hand to make sure it turned freely through all 4 strokes. We were not able to do that by hand so we removed all the pulleys to gain access to the harmonic balance. We applied leverage to the harmonic balance and successfully turned the motor over several times.

As a note, previous pictures of the idler pulley were shown with it mounted incorrectly. This picture is correct.

A new bell housing inspection cover was installed along with...

a new starter. It only required one shim.

All the spark plugs were removed and oil was added to the cylinders. This video captures the first roll of the motor. This is a video so be sure to push the play button (triangle).

This is the first step in many before we actually start the motor. This was fun and it was successful.

Not photographed was the removal and re-installation of the oil pan. Because the pick-up tube is susceptible to falling off the oil pump, several publications recommend tack welding the pick-up tube to the pump. We took their advice.

Did You Know?

The day after Cool Desert Nights the body was removed from the frame and put back on the tall body dolly. This dolly will allow us to work inside the fender wells, the drive shaft tunnel, and inside the engine compartment. Tedious alignment is required where the body meets the headlight assemblies and the front of the hood. The tall dolly will be very helpful when we do this work. The 340 and 360 hp solid lifter engines red line so high that the engineers had to design a special large diameter pulley to keep the alternator from over revving. The large pulley is crazy huge and heavy.

The same 2 solid lifter engines also had an exclusive idler arm as shown. Most of these idler arms were removed by owners when the bearings failed from either high rev's or over tightening of the belt. Original idler arms are rare. Ours is original.

In 1963 327 solid lifter engines were not offered with air conditioning. Consequently, the exhaust manifold with the front AC bracket (the one I am holding) is not correct for our engine. A correct manifold was recently found on E-bay and is now installed.

Gerri and I head for Wisconsin soon, followed by a trip to Sturgis with Max H. and his wife Reva. This is a forewarning that work on the Corvette will be slow for the next month or so. Keep checking back and, yes, I'll post some Sturgis pictures when we return.