AC delete

I don't want to fool with air conditioning on this build, but I don't want to have it never possible ever agin.  The unit that holds the airconditioner and the heater core has some open lines that would protrude into the engine bay.  I made a couple plugs to close them up... for now.

I turned a peice on the lathe from an aluminum rod.  I stole one of the o rings from the original line:

about to go into it's new home:

 

 

Installed:

 

  It will be good to have this huge awkward thing back inside the car. Just have to make the other plug first



doll it up

Everything looks good in the engine.  Valve timing is right.  Oil filter was clean inside.  Starting o clean things up so the engine becomes like a finished unit
Valve covers had to be done.  They were rusty.  Rather than replace let's try to paint and see if it works.  Peter scrubbed off some of the loose rust for me.

Engine looked as though it was painted in the car.  all the tough to reach items were not painted.  While out, I decided to freshen it up:

 

Done.  I really like the dark blue.

 

tear down complete

To get the harmonic damper off, I don't know, but highly suspect I should not pull it by its perimeter.  My book says I need a special tool.  Luckily I have one that I had accidentally threw in my scrap heap.  Here it is: Special tool number FMC-smellytrash

 My book warned that some timing gears are nylon and don't hold up well.  Mine are not fortunately.  I checked the chain deflection and it was <.25 inch.  Book says replace if greater than .5 inch.

My friend, Bill, recommended that I cut open the oil filter to see if there is metal in it.  The tools to cut oil filters are wicked expensive for some reason.  I can hack saw it although but that will produce the effect I am looking for (metal inside my filter.  I briefly fantasized about the superfund site I would create by opening it on the lathe and decided to try my best to rip it open with a razor to avoid commercials shot in my driveway of people cleaning baby ducks with dish soap.

haiku

Hiding in my sump

You are my mystery bush

Where do you belong?

engine teardown part 1

It's funny when I started the last engine tear down, I mentioned it on the forums and there was no shortage of people telling me I was in over my head and to pay them take care of it for me.  I am going to tell you just the opposite.  If you have even a vague idea of what pistons and a camshaft are, then get a torque wrench and a good book for your engine and follow the directions.  Engines are not difficult to disassemble and rebuild.  Nothing is rusted together, everything comes apart with hand tools.  Logic prevails on the way everything goes together.  Other than that maybe my only other advice is don't start your journey of discovery with the motor from your 512BB. 

For now I am using Tom Monroe's book with the no nonsense title "how to rebuild small block ford engines"

In the book after the engine removal section it did say "I assume you won't have any difficulties with draining the oil, otherwise you wouldn't be this far along".  It was good to see the oil come out without any metal, water or congealed lumps.  So far so good.

Beauty. 

 

 

 The book mentioned that it can be quite hard to get the intake manifold off.  I just undid all the bolts then let the gasket fail to lift the engine:

 

 I expected a lot more oil in here.  I looks like this engine was never run after a rebuild.  Fortunately all the rocker arms were loose.  I think this must have been done when they mothballed this so that it didn't sit with a couple cylinders open to the atmosphere.  Also the distibutor gear was bone dry.  I am hopeful that there are no bottom end surprises waiting for me.

 

My goal is to just confirm a couple things while I am in here.  That the timing chain and gear are not shot, that the valve timing is right, that the bearings are not all scored up, Static time the distributor, check out the cylinder bores from below only for any damage.  I may do a leak down test, although I don't have a tester.

help

Sometimes the best help doesn't mean the fastest way.  My son helped me load the engine on the stand today.  He is crazy obsessed with the garage and what goes on out there.  I hope he stays interested.

I am still trying to decide carburettor, megasquirt, or TBI.  I will probably post one of my massive pros and cons threads soon as my research matures.  Any thoughts are welcome!  Sadly, my son has no opinion on this... yet.

This is glue. Stong stuff

Here is the tunnel after priming.  Note you can see the rivnut poking through that holds the clutch hose

 

 

Here is the insulation back in. Since the tunnel is wider I wanted a little more space for the gas pedal.  I removed the insulation and used the titular spray glue to stick the carpet to the tunnel

Here is the gas pedal fully depressed still showing clearance.

clutch line finish

I made another go at the clutch line today.  First straightened and cut more line:

This time I started at the other end, which gave more room for me to hold the line up to the car at various steps after making bends.  I also learned that you can always bend it more, but can't unbend.  Also, many places it is better to make a section a little too short instead of too long.  If it too short you can move out to a straight section after the bend and bend in closer to the wall you want to follow.  If it is too long you are stuck.

I flared this end after making the first bend so I could attach it early and often during fit up:

 That Eastwood tool makes great flares:

Here is the finished line:

 To attach it to the car I decided to use some rivnuts and adel clamps.  Knowing I would need to do this sort of thing, I had asked my mother for a rivnut tool for my birthday.  She didn't even ask what it was, just went on Aircraft Spruce and got it for me (best MIL ever).

 Tool works great

 Here is the line installed:

 Close up of the slave end.  You can see that I primered the tunnel.

Close up of the MC end:

This turned out well.  I am psyched with the fit.  Doesn't touch or rub anywhere  Always good to completely cross something off the list (pending bleeding and trying it out).

clutch line part 1

I cleaned up my engine subframe and put primer on all the bare steel.  I thought it was sort of a mottled white color turns out it is gray and the white was just overspray fromw when the car was repainted.

 As they say on "Roadkill", if you love something, gunk it.

Halfway cleaned

I also painted all the bare metal inside and under the car.  I will be able to put the carpet back in for good now!

I heard the trick with hard lines is to lay them out with a piece of welding wire first:

 I used the Eastwood bender to make the turns in the actual line.

 I used the Eastwood flare tool to flare the line.  Unbelievably quick and easy.

Things turned out pretty good.  I will remake this line to get it perfect.  I hope to show the finished flares in the next post...

School's out for summer

It's time to get moving again.

I have been printing some parts I can use.  There is a build a header kit that is sort of like lego bricks that let you make the primaries weave around everything and end up the same length.  The piecesar the same as common mandrel bends.  The kit is really expensive, like $400.  It is made from ABS... so I decided to print a set for cheap.  It took me a few tries to make ones that snap together easily, pull apart with effort, and turn with some resistance.  I had to tweak the design about 4 times and got to this:

The arrows are at every 10° and let me see quickly how these are clocked.

I also snagged a stereo microscope of craigslist.  Been looking for one of these for a while:

So while the engine is out, I am cleaning up the engine frame so that it can go in for good.  Tonight I closed up all the gaps with weld, and added a doubler to make sure the bolt doesn't tear through

 Here is what is left f the spring perch.  Dead weight now

I cut through the welds:

I am sort of clumsy after being off a while.  The other day when I tried to get going again I drilled my first hole in the wrong place, second hole way too big, then exploded a cutting disk trying to cut a new piece to drill.