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So, finally pulled the rest of the big block 170 apart. REALLY surprised to find the pistons are in excellent shape. The rings are worn, the bumpstick has pitting, and it looks like cylinder 3 has some staining in the bore, from a possible head gasket failure. Conrod big end bearings are 10 under, as are the Mains. The rings are well worn at approx 0.027" gap. I had to physically pull the oil control rings off with a pick, as they were stuck solid to the pistons. Soaked the pistons in some 98 pulp and gave them a quick clean. Will give the bores a lick with the hone, and see what they come up like. There is still a little cross hatch visible.

Well, I'm farkin bored shirtless with the XP build, still haven't got rego, but, sat looking at the inline 6 doorstop on the pallet, and thought to myself, "...wonder what that looks like inside..." ..."wonder if it still runs.." ...... So, bit the bullet and started stripping it down. Should have taken more pics, but, wasn't planning to rebuild this thing, but, it may help with my rego (original style engine and all that). Seems like it's a 170 wide block, 3 freeze plugs, 4 mains, last oil change was done by Noah, after he finished servicing the Ark. The oil was so bad, that I actually picked up about 2 litres in my hand and placed it in the bin.! It was jelly. The oil pick up left a perfect imprint in it. ........and the smell was pure joy. The tower of power.. I KNOW...!!! Look at that single barrel throat size. Roughly the same diameter as a 20c coin. The valve train was absolutely disgusting. Thick, solid, burnt and dried out oil from the last century. I didn't get any photos, as I was just going to play with this little engine, and then use it to stop the door from banging in the wind. After spending approximately 3 hours with a stiff brush, some thinners, and 4 or 5 cold snacks, I got it resemble an engine again. Wish I had taken more pics of the gloop, it was the worst I've had to deal with. I've had stinky oil in a sump before, but never been able to pick it up in one piece... Pulled the timing cover off, nothing to see here, just a well worn Morse chain. Pulled the head off, they weigh a few kilos.! Checked all the cylinders after I dug the soot and carbon off the pistons. Stock cyl is 3.500" so, I reckon its a 60 thou overbore. Ooooh.....that piston doesn't look too good. Yeah, after a little Scotchbrite action, something has been having a game of pinball in there.... Pull the lifters out with a magnet they say, it'll be fine, they said....... 2 hours later, got 'em all out. Lots of Acetone to break the varnish, and some up and down workout, they slowly came free. Some of the jelly oil was wrapped around the centre section, but, thinners, Scotchy, numbered and set aside...... Where to now..??? Well, I'll pull the pistons, check for cyl scoring, ring condition, big end bearings, Mains etc and make a more informed decision on the refresh. It's not going to be a rebuild, as I'm not willing to buy pistons, lifters, pushrods etc... if it's junk, so be it. I'm going the Windsor route anyhows. If it's saveable, I'll give it a hone, new rings and bearings, and a set of gaskets, and see if it runs.! Might even stick it in the XP, and drive it around the block for sheets and giggles. Oh wait, got no wheels,....or suspension, or diff, or a single nut or bolt on the car. To be continued....

I know someone who can do those sort of things, but I'm probably a bit far away

I'm sounding like a broken record now but.... Twin strommies for the win! Sent from my CPH2197 using Tapatalk

You can mix and match the heads, but they did have different combustion chambers and valves for the different size engines, you couldn't put a 200 head on a 144 without notching the tops of the bore to clear if you were running a big cam etc, but when you get to xy-xb 200 and 250 they are slightly different animal to the earlier engines, they are both the same bore as each other and a taller deck height than the 144-221 engines, the xy-xb engines were all hydraulic cam and no adjustable rockers, all 144 and 170 up to xp were solid cam with adjustable rockers, most xp 200's were hydraulic cam but I have heard of the odd one having a solid cam, I'm not certain on the xr to xw engines as I haven't had much to do with them, xr still had 170 and 200 as engine options both were supposed to be hydraulic cam engines xt and xw the 170 grew to 188 cubes and the 200 grew to 221 these were the last engines that had the short water pump and they are the only true bolt in upgrade to an early falcon that doesn't require an engineer certificate, the xy and later engines (including crossflow) have a longer water pump and require the radiator to be moved forward, a deeper sump either requiring the engine to be spaced up or use xr/xt engine mounts that lift the engine so it doesn't hit the drag link on full lock, with the 200/250 xy-xb engines you can't use early falcon specific headers and the taller deck height makes the collector hit the floor, sorry i went on a bit of a tangent there

Hey I'm definitely NO expert on inline 6's, I've owned a couple, but, apart from pulling an iron head off an XD, (still have the hernia), was just told it was a wide block. Here's a couple more pics... got the "T" stamp on the breather tube boss, still haven't pulled the cam, or pistons out. The sludge and shite still needs cleaning off the bumpstick, before I pull it and damage the bearings.

A couple of more pics i found on the net

Offenhouser still makes this It bolts to the original carb location and you drill 2 more holes then clamp the ends down

Being above the water pump, there's not as much support under that part of the block, overe torquing can crack the block

One big thing just like a crossflow the head bolt over the water pump shouldn't be torqued up to the 3rd stage like the rest of the head bolts, otherwise if nothing is too worn out just throw some rings/bearings/gaskets and the biggest drama you'll have after that is sorting the carb out

Not really, just treat it like a 6 cylinder Windsor, bent push rods and burnt valves are some of the more common failures (due to people miss adjusting the rockers or people trying to start one that's been sitting without checking for stuck valves) broken rings aren't too uncommon over half of the pre xflows I've pulled apart have had at least 1 and that's probably the cause of your marks on the top of that piston, they usually don't seem to damage the bore or ring lands when they do it which is strange, one big thing replace the welc plugs on the exhaust side of the head they are about the only ones (other than the one in the bellhousing) that are next to impossible to change in the car, I like to turn them into a pcv engine rather than a road draft one, I turn the road draft tube upside down and shorten it then use a rubber grommet to hold a pcv in the former road draft tube then plumb it to the intake, they are no power house but a nice running one should have no problems sitting on 70-80mph all day long

Anything to REALLY watch out for with the 170.?? Remembering that this will be just refreshed enough to get driven into scrutineering/rubber glove station, and out again. Bent pushrods.?? Burnt valves?? or just throw new rings at it and bolt it together??

Not at all, this is all new to me... appreciate the input.

She's a narrow block, looking at your pics, but you have a hi comp head so that's a good start

LOL, was thinking the same thing about the run stand. .

What is the head casting no?, 170's had 2 heads the standard head had 170 behind the carb flange like this And the high comp 170 had 170h cast into the head like this Being a wide block I would have thought it would have 7 mains, at least that's what I'd always been told, wide blocks were first released in automatic xp 170's (the 200's were a narrow block with an adapter) and then all engines were wide block sometime in xr, your engine looks like it'll clean up OK, it'll give you an excuse to make a run stand