Jordan's glass engine block coffee table project

Well ladies and friends, I have taken on the project of building a glass top coffee table out of an old engine block. I picked up this full engine from a shop for $50, it's a 2V 4.6L V8 out of a wrecked 2005 Mercury Mountaineer. I pulled the heads, oil pan, piston/connecting rod assemblies, oil pump, water pump, crankshaft... basically everything, down to the bare block. Next step is to clean everything up, sort through the parts, and get a better game plan. I think I'm going to use all 8 pistons - 4 on the bottom of the block to lift it off the floor, and the other 4 to hold the glass up. My apologies for the lack of pictures, hands were dirty and it got dark quick.

Mid-teardown:

https://scontent-ord1-1.xx.fbcdn.net...60&oe=585130B9

Thought about same idea! Love the ones I see around every now and then.

Also, keep this idea in mind....
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...804bc12a78.jpg

That's a cool idea

That will look awesome in a lime green!

I thought the engine block was glass? :whistle::nana:

More progress - cleaning sucks. Picked up a bunch of wire wheels, brushes, and engine degreaser. Spent a few hours doing lots of hand brushing, and thought to myself... ya know, they make chemicals for this. So, I picked up a big plastic bin and a few gallons of purple power. Gonna let this bitch soak for a while.

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https://scontent-ord1-1.xx.fbcdn.net...66&oe=58402CFB

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The purple power is starting to be not-so-purple... I guess that means it's working!

https://scontent-ord1-1.xx.fbcdn.net...c8&oe=58591CEB

I have also decided to stick with bare aluminum finish - hoping to get it to a nice, shiny, polished look though.

The purple power wasn't quite halfway up the block when I flipped, so there is a stripe down the middle. SO, I picked up a few more gallons of purple power and added them to the pale. I then let it sit for 24 more hours, flipped again, and threw the pistons/connecting rods in too. This weekend I will be pressure washing the whole block, and hopefully finishing it! I think I'm going to use an epoxy of some sort to attach the pistons.

Well, I pulled it fully out of the soak today and pressure washed it. The purple power tarnished the aluminum, it's a gross dark grey. I did what I could to clean it off with a pressure washer, but I'm going to have it professionally sandblasted. That will get the finish I'm hoping for!

Got the block and crankshaft sandblasted today. I called 4 different places and they wanted anywhere from $25 to $150 to sandblast the block... so I went with the $25. He did a great job, and it got the finish I was expecting! Now to clean up the pistons/con rods and get them mounted to the block.

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2 cylinders cleaned up and mounted, 6 to go. It took about 3 hours to clean up 2 of them.

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How did you mount them?

I want to do something like this with a windowed (hole in the bock) LS engine.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BigAl205

How did you mount them?

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First tried clear RTV, not strong enough. Moved to a 2 part epoxy, waiting to see results.