Engine parts organizer

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Princess Valiant

Princess Valiant

A.K.A. Rainy Day Auto
Joined
Dec 14, 2011
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So last time I took an engine apart, I tried to organize the parts to make sure everything went back where it should.

As careful as I tried to be, things rolled around, moved around and cardboard boxes got oil soaked and came apart and it was a mess.

I was looking at these parts trays, wondering if they are worth the money as problem solvers.

How do you all keep engine parts organized during a disassembly/rebuild??

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I am an idiot, so maybe my way isn't the best way - but it works for me. I use a LOT of masking tape, marking every bolt as to where it came from. I take photos of everything before dismantling. All the nuts, bolts, washers, etc once tagged go into their individual baggies, which are then labeled as to what they go to (water pump, starter, etc). If something has a lot of bolts like a rear end, I lay them out on a piece of tape in removal order so I know which one went where. Then I lay another piece of tape on top to hold them in place. If it's something like the rotating assembly, I mark each bolt for location, and each rod/main bearing cap with position and orientation (passenger or driver side). It's a lot of busy work, but I only get into an engine once every 20 years or so. This helps my feeble brain not implode when it's time to put it all back together.
 
I’m a fan of the parts trays. Put the pieces in them as you remove them. As long as you don’t knock it off a table they work great. Ziplock bags work good too, put the parts in a bag with a note saying what they are.
 
2 liter Pepsi tray for piston and rods, baggies with old business card for descriptions, and totes.
 
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I’m there with RRR. I replace most of my consumables. I do put stuff aside for reference, for instance, I would lay the water pump housing flat with the bolts in their respective holes until I inventory them. Other than that, a lot of plastic baggies, sharpies and gaff tape
 
I like the idea of the organized trays, but when I got one online the depressions molded in the plastic did not fit Mopar stuff. I found they were SB Chevrolet sized. I guess I should have guessed that would be the case.
 
Smaller parts go into a baggie which is labeled and then a egg carton or two is handy. Everything gets cleaned as it comes apart and inspected, when in doubt, toss it out and buy new. The reusable stuff gets wrapped in clean shop towels, labeled and wrapped up tight. All of it goes into as few totes or boxes as possible.
 
halfafish said:
I am an idiot, so maybe my way isn't the best way - but it works for me. I use a LOT of masking tape, marking every bolt as to where it came from.
Click to expand...

Careful with masking tape - Sharpie ink smears/disappears with handling off of masking tape. I had used it to mark about 150 wires on a power supply (weird one with 4 big Airborne 50 pin connectors) - the wise old tech showed me some labels he had with 1-100 on them that were on something like the old cloth adhesive tape (think medical) - those didn't smear, but I spent a LOT of time figuring out what went where (you can't 'buzz out' a circuit when the outputs are transistors that you can reverse-bias with the DMM)
 
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