After investigating what I thought could be a timing gear going bad, a valve adjustment gone crazy or a potential rod knock, I tore done the engine and have it all laying on the floor of the garage. My wife, God bless her, was out of town the week between Christmas and New Years, so I went at it.

A left a bit of history a month ago regarding my recent purchase but in the interest of trying to be brief, I will recap.

67-122S wagon w/B20 engine M40 trans and a J-od. AZ car that I got on E-Bay in November. Made a loud valve noise or rod noise at idle, went away under load.

Bought a new matching timing gear set with a fiber cam gear and went to replace the gears only to find that a steel gear had already been installed, changed the gear anyway since I was there. Re adjusted the valves, same noise. Pulled the head and noticed slop/play in # 1 cylinder so I thought that could be it. I rented a hoist and went at it.

Cylinder bore is 3.5". A bit of wear in the cylinder of # 1 but after getting the pistons out I don't think that it is that bad. The machine shop will confirm, all I have is a digital caliper and I wouldn't bet the block on it....

Crankshaft measured out as new. Crank # is: (1 418593 located in casting @ #4) Another #, (349 @ #1) & (192 @ # 3) No problem with the big end for the journals or the rods, measured them three times and they are all right at spec. The crank appears to have been balanced at some point. Minor drilling in the counterweights indicates that this may be the case unless the factory did the balancing this way??

Bearings in the rod ends are marked standard and read very easily. (STD 2741 7RP) All pistons measured out approximately 3.488" +/- .002 Pistons are Mahle w the # 71/9 on top with a small number 29 E 030. Rings are all in place and appear fine. Nothing missing. Rods are numbered & were positioned correctly. Rods indicate # 351 in the casting.

The cam...... I think the problem was in the cam! Cam has # C1 , VO4-1 , CWC on one side and D1 & L 13 on the other side. All of the lobes measured out ~ the same. Between 1.435 - 1.439 @ full lift.
Lobes # 2 & 3 , both intake valves, measured out at 1.387 & 1.410 respectively. Not sure what this means but I would expect all of the lobes to be the same at full lift? Another interesting discovery is that the headers that were mounted on the head were modified/adjusted by a hammer to enable the fitting of the intake manifold for the downdraft weber carb set up. Exhaust ports for # 2 & 3 were severely limited in size. The reduction was about 50% of the 1.5" tube. The carbon back up was also evidenced at the exhaust gasket. You couldn't see this distortion until you removed the carb w/intake manifold. There were also two copper exhaust gaskets in place on removal....

The head appears to have been redone as well but all of the valves do not match. # 2 intake valve is dished. All other intake valves are flat w/small circle in the center. Exhaust valves all appear the same. I haven't taken the head apart, I wanted the machine shop to examine it. I did remove the rocker assembly to clean up and inspect the rockers. All appear fine.

So here I sit... engine on the garage floor sitting on my cycle stand. Various parts soaking in chemicals and toxic solutions and now I'm looking for a recommendation.

The car is a BEAUTY! There is absolutely no rust and it's all there. It appears to have been well taken care of so I want to do this right. I'm not looking for a hot rod. I would like an engine that performs both on the road and in the city. I have the weber set up and would like to stay with it unless there is a better idea. I've had SU's and they can be work but I know them. I have to start with an exhaust system because the one in place is junk. So here is the deal. What do I do with the block, pistons, cam, exhaust and head?

I still can't figure out what the hell the sound was except that the cam was worn..... I'll just start out from the beginning and build it right.

All of your thoughts and recommendations would be appreciated. I have gone over all of the articles on the web but some of them are dated. Didn't know if there were any new thoughts or recommendations or data that confirms the best way to build a B20B.

If anyone knows what the numbers on the cam or the crank are that would be helpful to know for history. Also the head, not sure what the # matches. Head # was in one of my last strings. Thanks.

Happy New Year!

Bill