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D25 Engine Rebuild thread


bamfordsgarage

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Ralph, thanks for the offer of a carburetor gasket, however, I have one of the four-slots-for-vacuum-port gaskets sitting on top of the plywood spacer, so that should be good.

Plyroadking, Ralph explained the purpose of the (insulating) spacer but in case you were wondering why plywood instead of some other material, the reason is I like to use period materials as much as possible when doing any modifications or upgrades — the kind of work a handy guy who read Popular Science might do in the early '50s. The plywood in question is 1/2" Baltic Birch which has many more laminations that regular lumber yard spruce or fit ply (something close to 10 IIRC).

There has been progress — today we adjusted the brakes, got the timing much closer, and installed the lovely old accessory windshield washer I acquired from Tim Adams a couple months ago. The washer works great — light pressure on the foot pump will be fine at traffic lights and heavy pumps (Photo 2) should still hit the windshield as we rocket along at 50 mph.

Tonight I'm going to plumb the dual action wipers which from what I can tell involves simply running the vacuum line from the manifold through the fuel pump and then on to the wiper control.

The car is idling and pulling smoothly now — thank goodness — and tomorrow AM I'm taking it over to a buddy's place for final adjustment of timing and mixture etc. He's retired now but has some 40 years experience as a tune-up technician and shop manager. In Sept/10 he put the engine on his scope and helped with the final adjustments before we drove to Hershey and that worked out real well.

Joe, I can't tell if you're encouraging me to keep trying with the temperature gauge or hinting I maybe shouldn't bother! But I will give it one more try tomorrow and if unsuccessful I'll buy a third new one and just mount it underdash.

Our departure for the trip north is planned for Friday AM and the To-Do list is shrinking nicely.

Photos: Windshield washer underhood installation or is that really a moonshine jug in disguise; Every accessory should work as well as this!

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I just did one of these a couple of weeks ago . I used a bag of plain ice from the grocery store and lots of table salt . I let mine cool off for about 30 minutes and used a large electric soldering iron . My soldering iron took about half an hour to heat up enough . I was tempted to use a propane torch but ether is flammable . Dons picture of 0 degrees in rock salt looks ideal but my method worked fine .

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One of the skills my father thought would be good to teach me when I was a child was soldering wires. I guess that soldering is just one of those things that is second nature to me. Surprised to hear that others are having problems soldering a sleeve to repair the temperature gauge capillary since I never used more than average care when doing it.

Not cold enough. Need a mixture of rock salt and crushed ice. This will drop the temperature to something near zero.

If the story I heard was correct and if I am remembering it correctly, Mr. Fahrenheit tried to anchor the two points of his temperature scale to something that was reproducible in everyones laboratories. So he picked body temperature for 100°F (he apparently had a mild fever or above average body temperature) for the high calibration point. And he picked the coldest freezing point for a salt water solution for 0°F.

Your photo shows that he was not far off on that end of the scale.

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We took the Dodge to my tune-up wizard buddy's place this morning and the ignition checked out just fine on his scope. One more item off the list.

And I was successful on my second go at temperature gauge repair. Figuring nothing succeeds like excess I bought some dry ice (-110°F) to ensure the bulb remained plenty cool during the procedure.

The connection looks a little peculiar... from left is the Mopar capillary tube, a brass rod drilled 5/64" to butt-connect the Mopar tube and 1" of 5/64" brass sleeve, and the donor gauge capillary tube which extends 1" into the 5/64" sleeve. The brass rod is soldered at both ends and the donor capillary soldered to the sleeve. The ugly blobs of solder at this last joint is the result of second-guessing myself a few times and wanting to make sure the joint was solid.

Still on the list for this gauge is immobilizing the repair area to prevent accidental damage or kinking, then spraying the exposed length of tube a mottled rusty brown to blend in with everything else.

Thanks to everyone, especially TodF, for your suggestions.

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As the rebuild project and this thread wind down I thought it would be interesting — and probably scary — to look at the costs incurred thus far for the engine and related work. To the best of my bookkeeping they are as follows (items purchased from the US include freight/postage, and the 5% Canadian Goods and Services Tax is not included in any of these figures)...

Engine Parts Terrill Machine, Texas: main bearings $85, rod bearings $60, cam bearings $28, timing chain $45, timing gears $75, front seal $16, rear seal $27, postage $46, Terrill sub-total $382. PatS, Calgary: NOS pistons & rings, repro motor mounts... not one blessed penny, thank you very much!

Engine Machine Work Weldangrind, Edmonton: Bore cylinders 090 $194, ball hone main and lifter bores $88, polish cam $105, reface lifters both ends $102, shave head $106, grind valves & seats & pressure test $109, grind crank main & throws $211, fit cam bearings $88, shop supplies $92, Weldangrind subtotal $1,095.

Clutch Pilot bushing $5, throwout bearing $28?. Superior Industrial Friction, Edmonton: machine flywheel $41, machine clutch cover $86, new pressure plate $126.

Temperature Gauge Repair 1st gauge $22, 2nd gauge $43, dry ice $11

Fuel Pump Antique Auto Supply, Texas: NORS dual action pump $90. Then & Now, Mass: rebuild kit $86.

Gasket Set Napa: Felpro FS7256C $130

Miscellaneous Engine Bits Frost plugs, gas line, vacuum line & fittings, rad hose, hose clamps, head bolts, sealant, odds & ends, $125.

Radiator Cooling Systems Services, Edmonton: Flush, repair, test $100

Hand Brake Cable Young Ed: $40

Windshield Washer Tim Adams: $140

R-7 Overdrive Neil Riddle, Washington: Shipping damaged, seized housing, rusty inside, bad solenoid, a $635 doorstop.

Grand total $3,185 ($2,550 excluding overdrive)

——————————

This has been a very interesting project for me, and is by far the most modern engine I have had anything much to do with. Every supplier but one has been a pleasure to deal with and given good value for the money — I would not hesitate to recommend them to anyone here.

I really appreciate all the comments and suggestions from everyone involved in this thread. You have helped make this project go more smoothly and end more successfully. Thank you all.

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Your prices seem comparable to what I spent back in 2007 to rebuild mine. I had to have the harmonic damper rebuilt and the thrust surface on the crank welded and machined to factory specs. I got all of my parts from Terrell Machine including the oil pump and he rebuilt my vacuum advance for me also. I also replaced the fuel and water pumps at the same time and had my cam reground. So it seems that $2500.00 to $3000.00 is what it takes to do a complete rebuild on one of our flat head engines whether in Canada or Texas. For future reference when one asks the cost of a rebuild that would seem to be a fair price to quote.

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I recently had machine work on a 230 a friend gave me to put in my B2B. It was bored 60 over, new bearings, pistons, rings, timing chain, new mild grind cam, all gaskets, welch plugs, new oil pump, plus labor for tear-down and reassembly. Total cost: $2,000.:)

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