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Old 05-10-2011, 10:48 AM
6x400gmc 6x400gmc is offline
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Progress looks good!

I wanted to comment on your transmission - you mentioned that the car had spent alot of time sitting. I recently installed a TH-375 in my truck. The Trans had been sitting for a while and unknown to me, had developed rust on the governor drive gear on the output shaft. The trans lasted a day before the rusted gear chewed up the plastic teeth on the governor. I had to crawl under the truck, pull the tail housing and clean the teeth as best I could with a steel wire brush. A new governor, case gasket, rear bushing and seal, and it works just fine.

Maybe something worth looking at since it's out of the car?

Britt

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Old 05-12-2011, 05:28 PM
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Installed the new calipers and hoses yesterday. Had quite a time getting the hoses to not leak at the calipers after bleeding the brakes. Every time I'd tighten down the banjo fittings with the supplied "allegedly" copper, crush washers, the damn things would seep brake fluid. I removed them and they had no crush marks like the originals, even though I was using a 1/2 drive ratchet to tighten the fittings to a "Jersey strength" rating. I finally reinstalled old crush washers and no leaks occurred.

This lead me to the obvious conclusion that the new copper crush washers that are manufactured today (no doubt, in China) are not the same as the originals. I have a funny feeling that they are either copper-plated steel or some type of alloy that is not crushable. A buddy of mine had the exact same problem trying to get a turbocharger coolant line to not leak...he solved it by reusing the old washers, also.

Does anybody have a way to test my theory? Don't they have some type of metal hardness test?

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Old 05-13-2011, 07:11 AM
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File into them to see if they're plated. then lightly whack them with a ball peen hammer to see how much force it takes to dent them. I'd suspect you're correct on where they're from and that they're made to "look" correct ....

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Old 05-13-2011, 09:20 PM
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Started the assembly process with the boy yesterday. Had him insert the main bearings, apply the Lubriplate and then we installed the crankshaft. Most entertaining to see a 50-pound kid try to pull 100 pounds on a torque wrench. :-) (I helped eventually).

He actually figured out that the decimal math he recently learned in school is actually useful in everyday life! I had him measure the main bearing oil clearence with Plastigage and compare it to the little paper chart. I then had him check the ring end gaps in the bores and crankshaft endplay with the feeler gauges. I had him compare the numbers to the specs in the book. He was quite impressed with his application of school math to engine building. He can't wait to tell his friends at school that decimals aren't a totally dumb thing.



We started with the piston/rods tonight, hopefully we'll get them all in tomorrow.


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Old 05-13-2011, 09:38 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by njsteve View Post
Installed the new calipers and hoses yesterday. Had quite a time getting the hoses to not leak at the calipers after bleeding the brakes. Every time I'd tighten down the banjo fittings with the supplied "allegedly" copper, crush washers, the damn things would seep brake fluid. I removed them and they had no crush marks like the originals, even though I was using a 1/2 drive ratchet to tighten the fittings to a "Jersey strength" rating. I finally reinstalled old crush washers and no leaks occurred.

This lead me to the obvious conclusion that the new copper crush washers that are manufactured today (no doubt, in China) are not the same as the originals. I have a funny feeling that they are either copper-plated steel or some type of alloy that is not crushable. A buddy of mine had the exact same problem trying to get a turbocharger coolant line to not leak...he solved it by reusing the old washers, also.

Does anybody have a way to test my theory? Don't they have some type of metal hardness test?
Same thing here had to use original washers a few times .

  #66  
Old 05-15-2011, 09:04 PM
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Yesterday, both the daughter and the son got involved in installing the rest of the pistons. They argued over who got to do more, so I let each one of them install two pistons, and torque the rod bolts.




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Old 05-15-2011, 09:05 PM
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We then spent the rest of the weekend buttoning up the engine. Installed the pan and timing cover to catch all the oil and assembly lube that was soon to be dripping down. I manhandled the cylinder heads onto the block and the boy did all the torqueing. He was definitely tired by the time he was done!



I think the part he enjoyed the most was gooping all the black moly and red assembly lube onto the lifters, rocker arms and pushrods. He then torqued all the rocker nuts into place and we added the oil. I had him rotate the engine while we ran the oil pump primer and pressured up the engine.

I also showed him how the cam/lifters and rocker arms activate the intake and exhaust valves in relation to the piston movement, building on what I showed him yesterday with the timing chain connecting the cam to the movement of the crankshaft. You could actually see the lightbulb go off over his head when he realized how everything was interconnected.

Of course we ran into an interesting problem while priming the engine. All the lifters/pushrods/rockers oiled up fine except for one. Nothing was coming out. They were new Sealed Power rockers, too. I thought maybe something was wrong with that lifter so I swapped it with one from another lifter position. The previously non-oiling lifter worked fine in the new lifter bore and the previously functioning lifter didn't oil in the suspect bore. So that ruled out the lifters. Checked the pushrod and it was clean with no blockage. I finally swapped the rocker with an original one and it oiled up fine. Here's what I found:



New rocker on the left, original on the right. The new rockers have the oil holes in a different position than the original ones, which, depending upon the pushrod, can restrict the oil supply to the oiling hole. The original rockers have the oil holes directly over the pushrod oil hole opening, the new ones have them in a spot that barely connects with the pushrod oil hole.

Glad we caught that now.

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Old 05-15-2011, 09:10 PM
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Here's how the engine looked by this afternoon:




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Old 05-15-2011, 09:19 PM
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Since it has been raining since saturday morning and it's supposed to rain all week, I figured I wouldn't be able to paint the engine until at least next week. Around 5:00 PM the sun came out for about an hour and I quickly rolled the engine out in the driveway to get her painted up.





I used the Bill Hirsch Engine Enamel. The stuff is amazing. The color match was exact. 1975-77 Pontiac engines have this weird, heavy metallic, royal blue color that is similar to the Oldsmobile blue and not available anywhere in spray can form. I used one of those Preval, do-it-yourself aerosol spray bottles, diluted the canned paint by 1/2 with lacquer thinner and sprayed away. I used about 1/3 of the quart can.






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Old 05-17-2011, 08:43 PM
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Everything is bolted up and, remarkably, there were no nuts, bolts or parts left over!

I need to get my hoist back so I can join the engine and tranny together and throw the drivetrain back in the car. Hopefully it will finally stop raining this weekend.








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Old 05-18-2011, 07:41 AM
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You make it look so easy, and fun!

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Old 05-18-2011, 08:24 AM
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By the looks of things you should have everything back together by Memorial Day?

Can I drop a car off for you to freshen up in your spare time over the summer???

Looks great Steve and cool that it's such a family project.

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Old 05-18-2011, 10:56 AM
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Steve, one of these days your son and daughter will be posting threads here showing their own rebuilds and talking about the way Dad used to build these old cars. My hat is off to you for including them in the hobby at such a young age and instilling in them an appreciation for these great cars. Well done!

BJ

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Old 05-18-2011, 05:05 PM
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I gave them both a cleaned up piston from the engine and labeled them "Offical Great Gramma Rose Engine Building Award, 2011". They both were quite thrilled to be honored so officially. :-)

My daughter took her first driving lesson in that car and if I can keep training the son on proper lawn mowing manuevering, he will get the same initial driving lesson as well, in a few years. (You should see the yard! Jeez, the kid just can't make a turn without missing about a foot of lawn between each lap.)

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Old 05-18-2011, 05:28 PM
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Good times and great memories are made in garages around old cars. Great idea with the old pistons.

I know the feeling on the lawn mowing - but one day you'll miss having him there to mow it for you.

BJ

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Old 05-22-2011, 10:24 PM
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Tried mowing the lawn today but the mower belt ripped halfway through the backyard from the weight of the still-wet grass from the full week of rain we had.

So I went ahead with installing the engine. Connected the tranny to the motor. Here's a shot of the original overspray on the flexplate as compared to the Bill Hirsch paint mix. Very good match for this hard-to-find paint color.



Everything hooked togather and ready for lifting:




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Old 05-22-2011, 10:34 PM
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We have liftoff!



Had the wife and kids assisting with the maneauvering. Quite an entertaining time had by all. Much yelling - mostly on safety issues like keeping hands out from underneath the whole contraption just in case the chain breaks, etc...

Got the engine in place rather quickly. The biggest P.I.T.A. were the damn motor mount bolts. They were new motor mounts, that I prefit and made sure the bolt ran through the bracketry beforehand. The '75 Firebirds used a weird mounting system where bracket attaches to the block but the actual rubber mount is bolted to the subframe. Very hard to get the exact angle right to get the bolt to find the threaded end on the other side. That part took two hours!

Touchdown!



Last edited by njsteve; 05-22-2011 at 10:41 PM.
  #78  
Old 05-22-2011, 10:36 PM
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Done for the night.




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Old 05-23-2011, 05:36 AM
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Looking very good as usual Steve!!!

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Old 05-23-2011, 03:34 PM
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I like the pulley and cable rig that lets you change the angle of the motor easily. That's very cunning! You've obviously done that a time or two.

BJ

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