I have made some more progress in the last few days. I examined the cylinder head and decided to take it to the machine shop to check for cracks, clean up the gasket surface and mill it flat if necessary. The valves looked better than I remembered and seemed have decent margins if it needs a valve job. I'm hoping just to be able to lap the valves since the engine did not have much run time since overhaul. I also took the cam to have it polished. I am cleaning up sheet metal parts and hardware. The sheet metal gets dipped in my 5-gallon bucket of carb cleaner for at least a day to remove paint and oil. Then it will get bead blasted. The hardware gets dipped to remove oil and grease and then I put it in my Eastwood tumbler to remove traces of corrosion. Everything will get bagged in clean bags until assembly. I have removed the piston rings from the pistons. Four of the pistons had frozen top and center rings due to corrosion. The engine must have sat with at least some water in the cylinders for some time. To remove the frozen rings I soaked the pistons with Kroil repeatedly and used a heat gun bring the temperature up and expand the ring lands a little. The rings all came off except I broke a middle ring land on one piston and had to order a new piston tonight. I have ordered bearings and piston rings and now one piston from Kanter Automotive products. I think Egge Machine also has these parts but Kanter now has an online catalog and ordering is a snap. The engine has double roller timing chain and later steel cam gear and it did not appear to have much slack so it will be reused. I hope to begin engine assembly some time next week. Pictures will follow. On another note, I picked up a 199 engine out of a 1969 Rambler yesterday and am considering installing it in the 65 Rambler. I need to modify the engine perches or exchange the front crossmember. I have located the proper crossmember but I still need the proper flex plate if anyone has one. 199/232 flexplate for pre 72 six cylinder is what I need. I will still continue building the 196 engine even if I do not use it in this Rambler. I have a 63 Classic wagon that can use it. Have a Merry Christmas. Joe Fulton _______________________________________________ Amc-list mailing list Amc-list@xxxxxxxxxxxx http://www.amc-list.com/mailman/listinfo/amc-list