Started to tear mine down yesterday.
Fun isn't it?
I started unwrapping all the parts from the machine shop and they did a really nice job for pretty cheap IMHO. They magnafluxed the head, ground the valves and seats, replaced valve seals, shotblasted and cleaned the head, bored+honed the block, replaced the cam bearings, cork polished the crank and measured it, replaced all the freeze plugs and cleaned the block, replaced the wrist pin pushers and honed to fit, then wrapped everything in shipping plastic. It was $300 which is quite a bit less than I expected.
I ended up buying a parts washer from TSC and that has been very useful. It's on casters and has a drying shelf and a lower shelf for $140. Same one as a lot of other places sell for $200+. It's really nice to give everything a rinse before coating in assembly lube and assembling. I also cleaned all the bolts and relubed so my torque settings are correct.
So far everything is going fairly smooth. My only real complaint is that the Deere manual is TERRIBLE for engine rebuilding. The engine section just skips around and addresses each individual component like that's the only thing you're replacing. No clean organization to the process like most manuals I have used. A real lack of diagrams too. Take plenty of pictures or notes when tearing down. There are three bolts that hold the front plate to the block and the manual only shows one. Don't forget to put the other two in, I almost did. Also, don't forget the two oil pump o-rings.
Also, be ready to assemble the timing cover, front plate, and rear hydraulic pump as quickly as you can. They are sealed with RTV and all of these components (including the idler, camshaft, and new front main seal) need to be installed and torqued before the RTV cures. If you have access to good seal drivers try to use them, especially the rear main. It's huge and really hard to get square.
The manual doesn't give a good procedure, but here is what I reccomend:
1) Crank (tap it back and forth to set thrust bearings. I plastigagued just to make sure and I had about 2.5 thou. I had about 4.5 thou of endplay. Well within spec.)
2) Pistons
3) Lifters ( I used a really long reach $3 harbor freight trash picker upper to put them on, no room to get your hand down there with the crank in. I don't think a magnet would be a good idea due to the risk of magnetizing the lifters so they start collecting particles.)
4) Oil pump o-rings
5) Front plate
6) Timing idler
7) Camshaft
8) Timing cover with new seal
9) Rear hydraulic pump
10) Oil pickup with new gasket
11) Oil pan
(this is how far I am so far)
12) Rear main seal plate with new seal (use long bolts and spacers for your engine stand to block so you have room to do this, otherwise it can be done while hanging from the hoist right before installing the engine)
13) Head
14) Pushrods
15) valve stem caps
16) Rocker shaft
As a last tip, I like to make a mark with a silver sharpie on the head of every bolt after torquing, helps to avoid forgetting to do a final torque on anything.
