Verde Engine Rebuild

Disclaimer: I only do this stuff for fun, you assume all risk to self and property.nbsp; I'm only documenting what worked for my situation, your mileage may vary! That said, let's get on with it...

Since I got the Verde in May '05 it has been burning about 1qt oil every 150 miles, of course I didn't find this out until I had driven from San Jose, CA to Seattle, WA for the '05 Alfa convention. During the trip up I made sure to keep an eye on things since this car was new to me and I had only one piece of documentation that came with it (brake fluid change, and some exhaust work). By the time I got to Seattle I knew I was going to have some work to do in the winter... After the convention, the drive from Seattle to New Hampshire had me making stops every night at the local Wal-Mart to pick up another couple 5 qt containers of oil for the next days driving, good thing it wasn't Mobil-1, would have put me in the poor house!

Two weekends ago I finally started prepping to pull the engine. I've never done any engine work at all so this is all new to me. I intend to keep a diary of sorts on the progress of the rebuild. My intent is to have it done by the spring thaw (April/May)...

Here's a shot of the engine before any work began:

Rather than put it all on one page I'll put week by week entries.

Week 1: Jan 21, 2006 - Preparing to remove the engine
Week 2: Jan 28, 2006 - Getting the engine out of the car
Week 3: Feb 04, 2006 - Removal of the heads and oil pan
Week 4: Feb 11, 2006 - Removal of the pistons and crankshaft
Week 5: Feb 13, 2006 - Mar 26, 2006 - Much time passes with little rebuild progress...but got other stuff done
Finishing Up: Jul 02, 2006 - Much more time passes but finally finished!