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51 Meadowbrook engine rebuild


Worden18

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With FluidDrive, the parking brake  is really important.  The shop manual will give you the procedure for setting it up. Also, while the engine is out of the car, check the cable which operates the brake.  It can get worn where it comes in contact with the left rear engine mount.  If the outer sheath is worn it can "birds nest" and release the brake.  Remember Mr Cunningham's Desoto on Happy Days ?  It ran away more than once .I think the best  look we got of that car ( which was the rare "Traveller")  was when its front had become part of Arnold's decor. One of the show's writers must have had this happen.

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2 minutes ago, dpollo said:

With FluidDrive, the parking brake  is really important.  The shop manual will give you the procedure for setting it up. Also, while the engine is out of the car, check the cable which operates the brake.  It can get worn where it comes in contact with the left rear engine mount.  If the outer sheath is worn it can "birds nest" and release the brake.  Remember Mr Cunningham's Desoto on Happy Days ?  It ran away more than once .I think the best  look we got of that car ( which was the rare "Traveller")  was when its front had become part of Arnold's decor. One of the show's writers must have had this happen.

I didn't realize how Fluid Drive actually worked until I read up on it in my shop manual.  Of course the previous owner warned me about the car rolling away even "in gear" if the brake wasn't set.  The engine builder has my shop manual right now for reassembly.  I should be able to take the brake assembly off without it, but I'll for sure need it when I put a rebuilt/new one back on :D.  I'll make sure I check the cable, too when I get that far.

We used to watch Happy Days all the time (and still catch an episode every now and then on ME-TV) but I won't lie and say I remember the Desoto.  I'll have to do a search on YouTube and see if it pops up.  You got me interested now :)

 

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Okay fellas, some updates.  I've become friends with the builder, so its been fun talking to him and he's invited me to his shop to help out with a few things.  Today was a great day.  I got to do the one thing I really wanted to: put pistons together with the rods.  I took apart the rods first and knocked out the old bearings with a brass hammer.  Then I lubed up the bushings and fit the wrist pins to them.  One was tight so my friend honed that one again.  Then I put the pistons, rods, and wrist pins together as one.  Then in went the little clips that keep the wrist pins in place.  

Next my friend (Dennis) put the rings on each piston and then put them into the block.  He lubed up each piston and also put Lubriplate on the rod bearings.  I hadn't previously seen the tool that is used to compress the rings when putting the pistons into the block.  Simple as it may be, you need to have it!  All the pistons slid in nicely.  Earlier in the week Dennis had already put the cam, valves, springs, crank, etc. in the engine block.  Wish I could've been there for that but I had other things to do at home.  At least I got to take part in the piston assembly.  Next we rotated the crank around by hand and torqued all the rod bolts down.  Dennis also put the oil pickup assembly in.  Tomorrow I'm gathering a bunch of parts that are in the trunk of the car and taking them to Dennis so he can continue the assembly.  He's going to sandblast the manifolds, we'll put the timing chain cover on, oil pump, distributor, etc.  He said he'll be able to bench test for spark so we know for sure the car will run before we even put the engine back in.  

 

piston assembly (5).jpg

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Is the little  oiling tube installed that's quirts oil on the timing chain? It's between the cam and crankshaft gears.

Wouldn't be good if it was missing!!:eek:

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4 minutes ago, Dodgeb4ya said:

Is the little  oiling tube installed that's quirts oil on the timing chain? It's between the cam and crankshaft gears.

Wouldn't be good if it was missing!!:eek:

I will ask tomorrow and make sure....thanks for looking out for me!

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It's always good to have a "little skin" in rebuilds. Makes the whole driving experience more personal and IMHO adds immensely to the enjoyment you will get driving the car. It won't be "just a car" anymore when you put it back on the road. It will be YOUR car..

This may sound silly to you,but trust me,you will understand it the first drive you take.

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Now you can consider  "breaking in" your new engine.  An old-timer once told me ,"Machinery has a long memory for abuse."

There is lots of good advice on breaking in a newly rebuilt engine. I have boiled it down to a few simple maxims.

---set the idle speed up a bit and avoid long periods of idling

---- drive normally but avoid higher speeds for sustained periods of time

----vary the throttle position and take advantage of deceleration as this will pull oil up into the cylinders  ( a good thing)

----after initial warm up and again after 500 miles, retighten the cylinder head

Change  oil after about 500 miles  and since your engine  is as clean as it ever will be, use a good detergent oil I use 15/40 designed for diesels but there is lots of discussion around this.  It boils down to "use good oil  and keep it clean.

Knuckle Harley has it right.  It is now YOUR car.   enjoy it.

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21 hours ago, knuckleharley said:

It's always good to have a "little skin" in rebuilds. Makes the whole driving experience more personal and IMHO adds immensely to the enjoyment you will get driving the car. It won't be "just a car" anymore when you put it back on the road. It will be YOUR car..

This may sound silly to you,but trust me,you will understand it the first drive you take.

I do understand, and I couldn't agree more.  I've learned so much.  Feels good to get my hands dirty and do something positive.

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22 hours ago, Dodgeb4ya said:

Is the little  oiling tube installed that's quirts oil on the timing chain? It's between the cam and crankshaft gears.

Wouldn't be good if it was missing!!:eek:

First thing I asked Dennis this morning was if that little oil tube was there.  Yes!  He cleaned all of that out and put it back in right where it should be.  He showed me where it was. Whew!  

Don Coatney: thanks for the photo

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11 hours ago, dpollo said:

Now you can consider  "breaking in" your new engine.  An old-timer once told me ,"Machinery has a long memory for abuse."

There is lots of good advice on breaking in a newly rebuilt engine. I have boiled it down to a few simple maxims.

---set the idle speed up a bit and avoid long periods of idling

---- drive normally but avoid higher speeds for sustained periods of time

----vary the throttle position and take advantage of deceleration as this will pull oil up into the cylinders  ( a good thing)

----after initial warm up and again after 500 miles, retighten the cylinder head

Change  oil after about 500 miles  and since your engine  is as clean as it ever will be, use a good detergent oil I use 15/40 designed for diesels but there is lots of discussion around this.  It boils down to "use good oil  and keep it clean.

Knuckle Harley has it right.  It is now YOUR car.   enjoy it.

dpollo: thanks for taking the time to point out some things.  I wouldn't claim to know a lot of things, so its good to hear what people have to say.  I've followed quite a number of "oil" discussions.  I think there's a good argument for a lot of the different oils recommended.  I have thought of using 15/40; my rebuilder recommended a good 10w-30.  I'd like to maybe try Castrol GTX; I've heard a lot of good things about that.  I've also considered putting synthetic in it....not sure about that.  An old timer friend of mine who is helping me with the whole process is onboard for any of these oils, and he also said it wouldn't hurt to use SAE 30 that was originally put in the engine to begin with BITD.  I might have to flip a coin :D

I didn't know about retightening the head.  My friend would never let that slip by though, he always points out every darn thing step by step as we go.  I'm grateful for that!

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Today was another good day.  I gathered up some parts that Dennis needed for reassembly: the timing chain cover, valve covers and bolts, distributor and coil, old oil pump (for inspection...putting a new one on), intake to exhaust bolts, and a bunch of other things.

I spent most of the day sandblasting parts: the manifolds, valve covers, timing chain cover, oil pan, harmonic balancer, etc.  Dennis set up the head in the grinder to true it up.  It ran for a couple of hours.  He had to stop the machine at one point to resharpen the grinding stone/wheel.  It wasn't hardly taking anything off with each pass, but it was really cool to watch it work.  The head came out damn near looking like a mirror.  It was slightly warped and had low spots near the middle.

milling head.jpg

Edited by Worden18
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Here's a picture of the head post-grinding, fresh out of the machine that cleans it with some type of caustic solution.  I was very happy with it.

Dennis also showed me how to adjust the valves (we did them together); it wasn't quite as hard as I thought it would be, but I realize it would be much harder once the engine is back in the car.  He said I probably won't have to touch the valves for maybe 30K miles.  Does anyone disagree with this?  Thoughts?

ground head clean (1).jpg

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3 minutes ago, Young Ed said:

FWIW my old school engine guy always has us use non detergent straight 30 for the first run. After a few 100 miles change to whatever we want. 

Noted....thanks man :)

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