Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Test drive ....

Ok took the truck around the neighborhood twice ... about 2 and a half miles and I let it sit in the driveway for another 15 minutes or so. No water leak! But, the temp only got to about 135° and would not get any hotter. Good, bad ... I don't know, but at least the radiator is holding the water for now.

I did hear a lot of transmission whine, but I know there is an issue with the throw out bearing and or clutch adjustment (see older post). In short I can hear the bearing while in neutral and when I push in the clutch I hear a higher pitched whine. It seems to go through the gears ok, other than reverse grinds a bit on occasion. Problem for another day!

Radiator problem

Well I got the engine back together and I still had water gushing from the radiator! Crap ... so as you see from below I went on to do a little metal work to get away from the engine for a while.

I spent most of the holidays working on the tail gate. It is getting better with heat and hammer but still has a long ways to go ... the good news is this is the worst of the body work as far as dents go. I do not plan on getting it perfect but better. The pictures may look like its getting worse but really it's not, I promise LOL.

Yesterday I thought I would try out my fiber sanding wheel on the drill ...it works great! I went back over the passenger side bed panel and removed most of the major rust right behind the tire. I also revisited the top rail and the side panel parts I had already done. I brought one short section of the running board to bare metal as well. The wheel still has some material left but I will be getting a couple more of these.


The camera picks up rust I can hardly see LOL


Ready for the sanding wheel


Now the engine ....  OK, no water in the oil so far after a lot of run time, does not overheat (stays right at 180°), not seeing any unusual smoke from the exhaust ... so what the hell?

I know it needs a water pump, it is leaking from the weep hole. That will be sometime in the next week or so.

Then I thought, maybe the Flathead radiator has some weird construction property that wont allow me to get cross flow the way I have it hooked up. When I got the truck both hoses where on the passenger side of the radiator. So I made a diagram and asked on the trusty HAMB site:






Well they confirmed I should not have an issue with this configuration and I thought that would be the case. So this morning I took the thermostat out and top off the fluid at that location and put the hose back on. I then filled the radiator up and started her up. I could see the water circulating and everything seems to be fine. The truck never got up to temp, so I really wont know until I take it outside and run it enough to heat up to see what happens. I will probably do that after this post.

I also boiled the thermostat with a thermometer and it appears to open between 180° and 200° ... closer to 200° I think. I will have to do it again to confirm. Closer to 200 would probably not be ideal for this truck since it never seems to go over 180°. I think what is happening is a combination of the thermostat and the water pump, but I can not be sure just yet.

I am posting a picture of the water pump for my own use, but enjoy LOL

You can see where it has been leaking (brown area)




After looking online it seems I will just be getting the pump part  that the fan bolts onto and no the whole assembly ... I tried to remove this when the truck was in VA to replace the gasket without any luck. I did not try too hard because I did not want to break a bolt. Maybe with it mounted on the engine I will be able to get more leverage on it to break them loose. Crossing my fingers ... don't want to have to hunt down the whole thing!

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Tuesday, December 21, 2011

Spent the morning cleaning up the garage. Then I connected the throttle linkage, and connected the gas pedal back up.

Then I stripped the paint off of the crappy looking steering column. I took a before picture but it did not show up :O( So here are the after.






Once I cleaned it all up I put it back in the truck, but I have not tightened anything up yet.

Monday, December 20, 2010

Monday Madness ....

Well not really .... Got the intake manifold gaskets made and installed the intake. Made a new carburetor gasket and installed the carb, alternator bracket, alternator, belt and carb springs. I also connected the driver side exhaust, got the solenoid bolted back down and connected the plug wires.

I still need to connect the passenger side exhaust and drain the old contaminated oil. Then I have to run the throttle shaft back out the fire wall and connect it and put the steering back together. Add a little water and she will be ready to fire!

I took a little time and worked on the tailgate some more. Nowhere near done but a big improvement.

Before today

After today

Before

After
As you can see there is a big difference, but lots more metal work to be done! This is fun stuff compared to the engine work!!

More pictures of the engine just for fun. Taken today after getting everything back together.


Sunday......

Got the driver side head off and back on.

Today I have to get some more gasket material for the intake gaskets and pick up fresh oil.

The hardest part of this is bolting the exhaust back to the exhaust manifold. Hard to get to and since the muffler shop built them on the truck they spring away from the manifold once they are unbolted making it hard to line them back up. I may wait until all else is done and then pull it up on ramps to allow me better access. I may even unbolt the exhaust from the mufflers so it will move a bit easier.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Saturday

Saturday I pulled the head on the passenger side and cleaned off the copper spray from the previous install. I decided not to use it on this install.

Put the new gasket on, installed the head, push rods and the rocker assembly. I still need to torque the rocker bolts and hook the exhaust back up this morning and then I will move to the other side.

I have a new rocker stud, for the driver side, on the way from a fellow HAMBer (Thank You, Thank You!! Pete).

Took my recycle oil to the auto parts store yesterday as well, so I would have empty containers for draining the contaminated oil from the 35.

Back to the garage!

Friday, December 17, 2010

Back in town.... Back to work!

I received the gaskets while I was away, now to get them on the truck!

Drained the water and removed the alternator, belt and bottom radiator hose. Also removed the accelerator rod and the intake manifold.

This weekend I will hopefully remove the heads.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

This weeks problems.....

I knew I should not have used those old gaskets ... but what the hell, it did not cost me anything but time to try it out ..... water in the oil ....ordered the new gaskets tonight. I wont bore you with the same ole same ole so I will post with results!

I did learn from a MOPAR guy on the H.A.M.B that I should blow out all of the bolt holes on the block and wet the bolts before installing the heads. Your not suppose to install the bolts "dry".

I also confirmed that the bolt torque should be done in a outward spiral and start with 45 lbs then 65 lbs and finally 85 lbs. Run it a bit then recheck them. This is how I did mine, so no issue there.

Also gasket material for a normal application is optional, but I did go with the metal sandwich type that is on there now. 26. each from an eBay seller N.O.S.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Engine Assembly

Today was a busy day! All in all it went fairly smooth, but not without problems.

Started the day cleaning up the intake manifold. Scrapping old gasket and making new ones and a little touch up paint.




After getting the paint on the manifold I made a water pump to head gasket and put some Perematex on it and stuck it to the water pump outlet.



Then I installed the head on the right (Drivers) side no issue. I then put the rocker assembly on and proceeded to break on of the 2 studs that not only help hold the rockers on but the right side of the valve cover (first pic below) .... grrrr Fortunately, there was enough thread left to still work. I will be looking for a replacement! These are hollow and have a hole about half way up, I assume to let oil in.








After installing the head I put the radiator hoses back on and tightened the clamps, installed the alternator bracket, alternator and belt.

Then I put the intake on and the carburetor and hooked up the gas lines and heat and oil pressure sensors.

I then installed the new distributor cap and the plug wires.

I think that covers the engine .... now I hooked up the exhaust. I had a bit of trouble here. They came off easily but were a pain to get back on ..... I still do not have the passenger side tightened down!

Added some water and checked the oil. The I put the steering column back down and bolted it tight ...slapped on the steering wheel and was ready to go!

Hook the battery back up and disconnected the coil. Turned it over a few times to pump up some gas and listen for major noises .... nothing heard. Put the coil wire back and fired her up. Other than being a bit loud and needing to warm up, she pretty much fired right up.





That's about all I had time for today. I had to clean the garage up and move the truck back to the wall so I could get another car in there.

Monday, November 29, 2010

Drivers Side Valve Seals ...

More of the same today, got all of the seals in, cleaning, lapping, etc and cleaned off the old gaskets. I also cut out a new water pump to head gasket and repainted the exhaust manifold.

Tomorrow I should be able to get the head back on and button her up.

Crossing my fingers!!

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Valve Seals

I got one side completed today (Right).

After soaking the ends with PB Buster last night, a tap with the hammer loosened the retainers from the springs and that made things go a lot smoother today. I also managed to get the spring tool one twist lower on the spring and that allowed me to work with the retainers a lot better.

First here are the pictures I promised to clear up what I was trying to say in yesterdays post.

The one on the right is bottom up, note it is thinner on the bottom.

The grooves mate up to groves on the top of the valve.
Top of valve ... see groves for retainer.
The valve above would not slide out of the sleeve. It appears that it was hitting too hard on the top of the piston or someone hit it with a hammer! I had to grind down the side a bit to get it to slide out. this one definately should be replaced, we will see how it does.
Overlap preventing it from slidding out.
Another shot of the damaged valve
Ground down
After the grind
And her are some pics showing how the clip should be once it is installed. The first few pictures are showing one side too high, this is the issue I was having yesterday. Its hard to see in these pictures but one side of the retainer is right and the other is one groove off.

Wrong
Wrong
Wrong
The right way, about 1/8 inch of valve showing
Each valve I removed I cleaned up the tops and backsides and I lapped them with the lapping tool and compound. I also cleaned up the two flat washers under the springs and ran a wire brush through the ports.

Put the spring tool on ....

Remove the 2 retainer halves
When your ready to remove the retainer halves be sure and support the valve from underneath so that the stem is up as far as it will go so that the halves are exposed as much as possible and the stem doesn't move up and down while your trying to remove the retainer halves.


Remove the valve from the head
Once removed I cleaned the valve up with a fine wire wheel on my drill then I applied the grinding compound to the lip of the valve (see next picture)

 Once the compound is applied, put it back in the head and take the appropriate size lapping tool, which is basically a stick with suction cups of different sizes on each end, and stick it to the valve and roll it between your hands, like a boyscout would use a stick to start a fire.

Lapping tool
Finished valve
 After lapping the valves, clean off all of the compound from the valve and the seat on the head and install the valve back in the head.

Then I put the new seal on and installed the spring and retainers back on the valve ..... on to the next one ...............
New seal installed
Installed the spring
Looking good
 After replacing all of the seals in this head I removed the exhaust manifold and repainted it.
NOTE: I also removed all of the exhaust valves even though they do not have seals ...cleaned them up and lapped them as well.


Repainted the exhaust manifold.
I also sprayed the old head gaskets with copper spray and made a new water pump gasket and installed the head back on the block. After that I put the push rods back in and installed the rocker assembly.



This left me enough time to remove the other head. I see a problem but I will ignore it until I get to it! ........ Ok I got all but one head bolt out and the last one is behind the steering column and I can't get a socket on it ...... Off with the steering wheel so I can slide the shft cover out of the way!


Deja vu ... been here done that .... LOL

Made things easy though :O) Man I need to do some work on that cover ...UGLY!!
Bolts out and head off!!! WOOO
Ready for tomorrow!!