I was starting up my 72 one day after classes ended. Went to put it in drive and nothing happend. Had no reverse, no gears at all. I looked under the car and found my torque converter bolts with washers laying on the ground under the trans. It was amazing that they didn't fall out while driving and even more amazing they managed to stay under the car. I always wondered if someone else did it but it seems if someone did that they wouldn't have left the bolts behind. I used loctite after that...
They were red loctited in, but I'm guessing after snugging them down I didn't follow up "torquing" them down. I've never used a torque wrench on the pressure plate bolts, but after multiple folks on my facebook gave me crap for that maybe I will now p In any case, I pulled the engine this morning. Had it out by 9:30am, just in time to make a 10am haircut appointment. Finally took the leap and cut the upper section of the radiator core support out. I'll fab up some tabs to make it bolt back on. I have the engine and trans separated now and the engine up on an engine stand. Going to do some clean up on it, seal it up better to run a crankcase vacuum system and install the SRE oil pan.
Somebody did it. Those fasteners would have been all scattered down the highway behind you, and you would have heard it, believe me. I consider the odds to be infinitesimal that they would all fall out on the ground in one place. You have some real prankster friends, at best.
All the gaskets and seals are ordered as well as the tri-shield mpg cam. I'm cleaning the Firebird up to take on the Car Craft Anti-Tour next weekend, but then will be working on cleaning up this engine. I pulled the oil pan already for a peak and all looks well in there.
While I'm waiting for the new cam to come in I'm going to be cleaning up the engine and since I have to pull the intake anyways I figure I'd give it the MAG wheel spray cleaning treatment to make it look new again. Along with a general re-gasket'ing of the engine. I'm going to put a crankcase vacuum system on the engine like I have on the Firebird, as it has kept the oil leaks/seeps to a minimum on that engine. I was glad to see the intake ports looked uber clean. I'm going to try a different intake gasket this time around, I wasn't overly impressed with the one I used last time. The new one has a rubber lining around all the ports so hopefully I can get away with not using any sealant.
Ooff, where does the time go? I want to drive the car, but I just finished cleaning up the parts this week and started assembly yesterday. I'm still waiting on the cam, but hopefully by the end of the weekend I'll have the engine done, sans camshaft, and can get some of the upgrades on the car's fuel system completed. I want to drive the car Even if I had the cam though, I have other things to get done on the car so it's still going to be a bit.
As copied from the oil pressure equalization thread. Well what is done is done and I hope I haven't weakened any critical webbing. I ended up going through the starter mount webbing. I made sure the bevel the edges of the hole with a die grinder at least. Overall I'm pretty satisfied how it has turned out so far. That is the direction it was facing when it tightened up firm and I really was concerned about taking it another 180, so that got me looking. I put a small amount of Ultra black RTV on the last two threads going into the block to help prevent a leak. The tube goes right through the hole, doesn't touch the block at any point. Clears the starter. I put a section of tube there that I will slide down into the hole and above the starter and likely stick it in place with a dab of black RTV on the tube. I am seriously considering going to a gear reduction/compact starter which will help clearance too. And the lay of the land and clears the motor mount. I have a clamp holding it in place and just have to flare the other end and tie it into the oil pressure sending unit port. The only down side is the right cylinder head has to be removed in order to remove the line, so I need to make sure it's 100% good before I actually bolt the head down. I still have to clean up the heads, but sitting on the block is a good place to store them. The intake is as cleaned up as it'll get, and now stored on the block
I cleaned up the timing cover, water pump and oil pump today. Put a fresh coat of paint on the water pump and pulley. One thing is to make sure is to open up the oil pump gaskets holes to the sizes of the passages of the aftermarket timing cover and pump plate. The upper gasket had not been modified yet.
Still cleaning up various parts and pieces and re-painting a few things. Looking at the intake gasket, I'm going to trim a slight amount from the inside of the intake ports, but otherwise looks good.
I finished up running the external oil line. It clears the exhaust decently enough as well. I drilled out the 90 fitting so it wasn't as bottled necked as it originally came. Before installing it in the car I'll pour two or three quarts of oil in and pressure test it. It may of been noticed I am using two passenger side valve covers to seal the engine to hole crank case vacuum. So I could add oil, I punched a hole in in one of the flat spots and welded in a small steel tube and put an expansion plug in it to tightly seal it. I also modified a universal PVC grommet I found at NAPA to fit the stock location and installed the straight tube that had originally been installed in a Buick 455 valve cover for the hose to the air filter housing breather. I'm going to further baffle it underneath and run it to a catch can in the same fashion as my Firebird which uses manifold vacuum with a check valve and an exhaust evac system. Works pretty good at keeping ~4-8inHg of vacuum in the crankcase while driving. The hardware store was out of threaded balls, so I'll get one later.
Full engine assembly can begin now! The new roller cam showed up today as well as a new hi-torque starter that will hopefully keep heat soak at bay.
Installed the cam yesterday, degree'd it properly today, sticking it at 110 ICL. Piston to valve clearance is a non-issue. Bolted the heads down, as well as installed the timing cover and oil pan, then poured 3 quarts of oil in and primed the system until I had oil coming from all the roller rocker tips and to top it off the equalization line doesn't appear to leak :TU: Just a few more parts to clean up, paint and bolt on. I really need to get to work on the car itself now.
Thanks! And I feel the same way about being over the hill on getting it back up and running. I need to make a baffle/screen on the oil splash shield for under the PCV hole in the intake because I'm going to use it to pull the crankcase vacuum down from with either a vacuum pump, or the same setup as my Firebird with a combination of engine vacuum and exhaust evac's, then the intake can be bolted on. Then I can move on to the accessory stuff on the car and wiring. Oh, look a new hill p
This morning I re-torqued the heads after they've sat about a week so hopefully shouldn't see any head gasket issues. Also trimmed the oil dipstick and welded a slightly larger tube to the top of the oil dipstick tube so I could put a rubber stopper in it to make it air tight. Conveniently the stock dipstick still fits over the new tube.
Since I'm going to a full time crankcase evacuation system, I wanted to add a little more for oil control at the port to minimize the amount of oil reaching the port. So I bolted a baffle over the port that should work pretty well in conjunction with the valley pan. The valley pan will tuck up against the side of the new baffle when installed. The tin got a bit distorted during cleaning. I've already set it in the engine with the intake and all appears good.
Here is the baffle bolting from above. I have two all metal lock nuts making sure they don't ever rattle loose and drop. I've pretty much finished the engine assembly. The intake is bolted down, the exhaust manifolds are bolted up, and I was surprised at how loose some of the oil pan bolts had become, so I went over them and other bolts on the engine again to stave off leaks. I need to clean up the EFI wiring harness and re-wrap it then stick it on the engine and it'd pretty much be ready to be installed back into the car. I'm going to do some fuel system upgrades though while its apart, but I wanted the engine buttoned up before I opened the bay doors and exposed the area to the potential wind and dust that comes with it. I finally put a knob on the oil cap/plug as well. I am probably going to replace the fuel pressure gauge with a pressure transducer and wire it into the MegaSquirt. I've got the cam sensor/distributor timed properly as well.
