Worden18

final pic for today

Despite being sick as hell I made it over to my friend's shop this morning. Dennis delivered the engine on a pallet. We hooked up the cherry picker and got the engine and transmission into the car today despite all the time we wasted bullsh*tting. Before dropping it in we did loosen up those bolts to get the clutch disc to free-float while we mated the tranny up. Once the engine was in we put the tranny on my friend's tranny jack/hoist and got it up there as close as we could. Slipped right in Tomorrow I hope to get the e-brake hardware back on first, and from there whatever I see from underneath that isn't hooked up I'll work on. Oil pan lost some paint the other day at Dennis'; I'll touch that up at the end of the day tomorrow. Also, I forgot to get a pic of the engine from ground level in the car. Hope to post that up tomorrow.

He's helped quite a bit at other times, just not that day Couple pics from last year when he helped pull the wheel off so we could work on the brakes. He also pulled out the wheel bearing (after I loosened the nut).

Thanks for all the suggestions fellas Today a friend of mine helped me pull the car out of storage. We towed it behind his truck to his shop (only about 3 blocks), then had to winch it up his driveway (no way to tow the car up there and get anywhere near the garage). He has a nice floor winch he installed which was to be used for exactly what we used it for today: moving cars that don't run. Tomorrow morning Dennis will deliver the engine to the shop and we will get cracking on it. Here's a pic of the car in my friend's shop again. Yeah!! (That's my 7 year old son; he loves this stuff too)

Okay thanks man; its nice to know these things. Getting the car out of storage today and into my friend's shop. Engine gets delivered tomorrow!!

New clutch disc; second pic: Fluid Drive coupling on along with new clutch assembly

Another pic...

Things are getting buttoned up at the rebuilder's. I stopped by today and helped put some things together. Got the oil canister and lines on, and finished up with the intake and exhaust manifolds. Dennis had the oil pump and distributor in. He also took off the old ring gear from the Fluid Drive coupling and put the new one on and welded it (that was fun to see). Putting the Fluid Drive coupling back on was interesting. Had I not been there it wouldn't have gotten back on! My fingers are small enough to get the nuts back on to the studs; there just isn't much room to play with. After that Dennis put in a whole new clutch assembly and new clutch disc. When putting the bell housing on, getting the dowel pins back into place was a little tricky, but we got it. Funny part is that Dennis had painted the engine the color I wanted (aluminum....yeah I know its not the original Mopar silver or whatever it is) and some of the other parts gloss black, while I painted other parts I had at home flat black (which included the oil canister assembly). Oh well, so they don't match. It'll just be something that we'll be able to talk about later. Not sure if the intake manifold and exhaust manifold are supposed to be the same color or not; is what it is. Its not like I'm going to have the car judged at a show. Its going to be an every day driver. Anyway, Dennis is going to put the engine on a pallet and deliver it to where I have the car on Monday. So things are going to get really busy for me next week. Pretty excited about it! IMPORTANT QUESTION: because the bell housing is lined up with those dowel pins and it ain't gonna move even the slightest bit, can I assume that when putting the transmission back in that it will line up perfectly and I can just bolt it on and go? I know you guys are familiar with this: the manual shows using a dial indicator to make sure the whole thing is within .005 otherwise there could be hard shifting and other problems, etc. My question is, how can a guy even indicate it in when those dowel pins are holding the bell housing in an EXACT place that cannot be moved? Any advice here is greatly appreciated. Also, do I absolutely NEED the gasket between the tranny and bell housing?

Wow what an awesome truck. It was fun reading through this thread

Lots of cleaning to do yet....

Anyone know what these numbers mean?

While the builder is putting together my engine, I've been working on cleaning the transmission. I didn't realize how small it was until we dropped it out; even I can lift it by myself. It was full of 66 years of road grime and caught a lot of leaking oil from the engine. I scraped it first and then used some degreaser on it. But now I've been getting into the little cracks and using a wire brush. I'm getting there, but I have quite a bit of cleaning to do yet. I uncovered the build date; looks like 7-16-51 followed by D42, the model number of the car. Not sure what the other casting numbers mean. I bought a brand new E-brake band which looks really nice compared to the old one, which still worked but hey, I'm not risking my car rolling away with an old worn out e-brake. Anyway, here's some pics:

Point noted. I might just try that on Monday. My friend says the lubriplate by itself would likely last 5 minutes on its own. We shall see.

dpollo: I actually talked to my friend about this very thing just a couple of hours ago. He said SAE 20 non-detergent is the way to go when first firing up the engine. He told me the exact same things you just posted. Thanks man

Thanks for the info and pics Don. I do appreciate everyone's opinions in my thread. What my builder did (and he's done this for 35 years he says) is smear lubriplate on the bearings, and he used chainsaw bar oil to slather up the pistons really good before installing them; I watched him do both of these things. I do believe my friend mentioned spinning it over on the bench like you mentioned here.

Didn't know this. I will talk to my friends about doing this. Thanks for your input

Noted....thanks man

Here's a video of the grinding machine in action.

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?

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.

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 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!

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

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.

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

Oil pick up on...