[superdutybob]

Originally Posted by njsteve

Take a look at the piston and tell me what is wrong with this picture....



Yeah, nice factory alignment of the ring gaps. All eight pistons had the gaps on every compression ring and every oil ring lined up with each other. It defies logic. Every kid learns in high school shop class that you have to stagger the ring gaps in different locations to avoid loss of compression and high oil consumption.

All I can think is this was some type of job action or purposeful sabotage by the guy at the engine assembly plant back in 1975.

No wonder the car never had any ooomph when you hit the gas.

(Original machine marks on the piston skirts look nice, though)

We removed the compression rings and checked the ring gaps:

Cyl 1: .032, .030
Cyl 2: .032, .032
Cyl 3: .030, .032
Cyl 4: .032, .035
Cyl 5: .035, .032
Cyl 6: .030. .035
Cyl 7: .028, .028
Cyl 8: .025, .030


I believe the spec is supposed to be .019 plus/minus .010.

I'm sure you know this but rings rotate while the engine is running. Believe it or not, they don't all rotate in a beautiful symphony of synchronicity. They end up where they end up. I would say it was a coincidence that they were all lined up.

[njsteve]

I understand the rotational effect but that's just too bizarro to have the gap on every ring, on all 8 pistons within a half inch of each other. If the universe has that much synchronicity i think i should go out and buy a powerball ticket (or 8 tickets) right now. :-)

[OVERULD]

Originally Posted by superdutybob

a beautiful symphony of synchronicity.

Dang Bob...you talk with them big words real nice like.


BJ

[njsteve]

Just dropped off the engine parts. He agreed the bores looked great...and then laughed and said "But the ridge (and the bore measurement) indicates it's time for bigger pistons." He said to blame Gramma for that: all those two mile trips to the beauty salon with the engine never fully warming up and the choke flushing all that extra gas down in the engine ends up washing the cylinder walls of oil.

So now I have to start shopping for some replacement pistons once he tells me what size we need.

Anyone have a Summit Racing coupon out there???

[njsteve]

Spent the day cleaning the turbo 350 tranny. Since the car sat for most of its life, all the seals needed attention. I replaced the torque converter seal, the tailshaft seal and the pan gasket and filter.

Here is the rather dirty trans wheeled out the driveway after I swapped the converter and driveshaft yoke seals. The old furniture moving cart came in handy, along with some old railroad tie sections.

[njsteve]

I then used a spray bottle full of Purple Stuff degreaser and some wooden sticks and vinyl/brass brushes to clean all the oil, tar, mud and sand that was encrusted on the sides. Took several "lather, rinse, repeat" iterations to get it comepletely clean. I stayed away from steel wire brushes as they tend to scratch the aluminum.

Sure is handy having the cherry picker to hang the thing on.





After hoisting the tranny up I was able to pull the pan and replace the filter. The pan looked great, no metal in there. I guess someone back in the 70's replaced the filter as there was some gasket goo on the pan gasket. The underside of the pan was pefect, flat, and scratch free, further evidence that the tranny had never been out of the car. (They usually get dragged across the floor when removed.) I was careful to not place it on the ground, in order to further preserve the pan's finish.



Here is the VIN stamp location on the turbo 350. Happily, this one matches the car and the engine.

[njsteve]

All done and headed back into the garage. Last thing left to do is the filler tube O-ring which doesn't arrive til tomorrow.

[njsteve]

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?

[ta man]

Originally Posted by njsteve

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 .

[njsteve]

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.