The beast goes in, what a great feeling

[jd52cranbrook]

Finally installed the engine yesterday, Saturday, June 30th. What a fantastic feeling after bolting it all down, hooking lines and wires up. About 6 pm put oil and water in. Cranked it without plugs to get oil through out. Put in the older plugs for now.

Crossed my fingers, said a short prayer, and turned the motor over.

1,2,3,4 seconds, no fire.

5 seconds, (after the fuel reached the carbs I am guessing) BRRROOOOOMMMMM

Car fired like a champ, no missing, no coughing, no sputter, Nada.

Ran the RPMS up like Tim suggested, (thanks for the advice Tim) for about 20 min, watching the oil and water, no problems.

Shut her down, reversed the amp meter wires for correct polarity, and fired right up again.

This is very sweet. Revs very quick.

I still have to put the tranny, dash and seat. Then get the AC charged, but its good to go...

Very Good Day here in Mountain View, CA.

Have tons of pics, but it may bore you, these are just a few

Edited May 30, 2010 by jd52cranbrook

[Brad Lustig]

That's one mean looking engine! Go ahead and bore us with those pictures!!!

[Don Coatney]

Looks excellent! How does your carburetor linkage work? Langdon setup? Post more pictures!

[jd52cranbrook]

Sorry, did it again, double post

[jd52cranbrook]

Don,

Yes I used the Langdon's set up from the carbs, accross the head, then hooked up to stock with a minor relocation of pivot point. (moved the head bolt with tapped hole for post to another location) I think I have a pic of that side.

My helpers,

She's in

I'm going to have to cut away at the shroud some for the AC compressor to have a tad more room.

Have more chrome and stainless to put on,, but she's fine lookin'

Edited May 30, 2010 by jd52cranbrook

[jd52cranbrook]

Still needs to be dressed up and adjusted, but this is the main path.

Edited May 30, 2010 by jd52cranbrook

[Dennis Hemingway]

That is one good looking engine.

Dennis:D

[Brad Lustig]

I found a problem with your engine already. Going to have to pull the whole thing back out! Sorry.

Your oil breather cap is on backwards:p

[Normspeed]

Very clean job. I'll be interested to hear how the AC works out.

[martybose]

A great looking motor; I hadn't seen one with this much chrome, looks nice!

I might be a little concerned with the fuel line, as it could crack from vibration; might want to change it to steel tubing sometime in the future. You can get chrome plated steel fuel tubing, so it would look right!

I'm interested that the carb spacing on the Offy manifold is apparently slightly larger than my Edmunds manifold. Using the same carbs on the Edmunds resulted in the front carb electric choke connector overlapping and in front of the rear carb accelerator pump housing; had to go through all sorts of fiddling to get them apart from one another!

Marty

[jd52cranbrook]

Just went out to start it again this am.

Starts right up. Butttttttttttt

I am afraid I have a weeping soft plug, IN THE FRONT

A bit of water dripping in the front. All hose connections are good. Water pump is dry all around it. (with the front engine mount chromed I can see the underside of the pump).

I am getting small drips from the bottom of the timing chain cover.

Say it ain't so.

I'm going to wait, say a few more prayers, and fire it up again later and see what happens.

When I released the pressure cap on the radiator I could hear the release into the recovery bottle, so it must be very small leak whatever it is.

Any advise on this would be appreciated if anyone has experience with this.

Not gonna ruin my day tho. I can fix it if need be.

I'm going to spend my day hooking up my amps, equalizer and sub wolfer to my NOS radio I had redone last year for 12 volts.

Norm, I had the AC hooked up and running great last year.

[jd52cranbrook]

Hey Marty,

Yes I am thinking of changing to what you suggest on the fuel line issue. I just used copper as it what I had at the time.

The choke set up has a 90 degree fitting for the front wire hook up. It is close, but does not touch.

I also ran these carbs and manifold set up last year. I tried to put all peripherals on the engine first before rebuild to avoid tracking down problems if it did not run after.

I also have to fab a rear bracket once again for the AC compressor to dampen any vibrations, then have it chromed.

This car is once again going to Detroit in August for Woodward Dream Cruise. A bit over 5,000 miles when all is said and done.

[Don Coatney]

Thanks for the linkage pictures. I still have the factory pivot point on my head so I should be good to go with my setup. My manifold is setup on 7.5" centers and my mock up is the same.

[Don Coatney]

This car is once again going to Detroit in August for Woodward Dream Cruise. A bit over 5,000 miles when all is said and done.

Not sure where you are coming from but if your trip brings you through Tennessee give me a holler.

[Normspeed]

I had a coolant leak in the same spot when I put my fresh motor in. Thought it was a leaky front freeze plug. After a couple radiator and front mount removals I tracked it to two causes. Hope this might save you some work.

First, the timing cover bolts and washers are location specific. The shop that assembled my long block didn't realize that and they had some bolts/washers in the wrong spots. Some have special cupped sealing washers and need to go in water jacket hole locations. I had to borrow a couple from my spare motor because the shop either lost a couple or put them elsewhere on the motor. If you need a photo showing locations I can take one of my spare motor.

Second, the shop used no sealer on the bolt threads. I tried two types, the first one, Ace pipe thread compound, was a bit too runny and did not seal the coolant well. The second type, Permatex thread sealant with teflon, did the trick. If I did it again I would use my new favorite sealer, Hylomar Universal Blue.

Tips I learned the hard way: Use plenty of good thread sealer. Sealant works best on clean dry threads, difficult when you're working on a freshly drained coolant system. Also helps to not rush the job, let that sealant set up well before you refill and fire it up.

I really hope this saves you some unnecessary dismantling. On my 53 it was easy to work in the area with the radiator and motor mount removed. I just slightly lifted the motor with a cherry picker while the mount was out. No leaks at all (from that area anyway) in over 3,000 miles.

[eric wissing]

Looks like a work of art. I can see a three way race somewhere down the road. More pics of the rest of the car would be great. Eric

[Don Coatney]

I also had a water leak when I first ran my rebuilt engine. I ran my engine on a live test stand for about 10 hours prior to installing it in my car. My leak was a weeping water pump bolt. Like Norm I did a couple hits with some good dope and the problem went away.

[jd52cranbrook]

Hey Norm,

I think that could be the problem. It really seems to be leaking out of the bottom bolt surround only. Although it could be because it is at the bottom. But that would save me tons of time.

I had no idea they were location specified. I went ahead and used new bolts all around.

If you could provide a pic for locations I would be grateful.

Thanks, John

[PatS....]

Beautiful engine and car...UH...where do you park it at night?

Can you tell me about the front crank pulley? What is it and how did it go on?

[Normspeed]

John, here's my old motor, now a nuts and bolts donor. Starting with the missing bolt, then going clockwise, I had seven of the bolts with cupped washers. The remaining ones don't go into water or oil jackets so they can be regular bolts and washers. The ones with the permanent washers are marked with a raised circle on the head.

Mine looked like it was that bottom bolt too, but it was sneaking down from a higher bolt and dripping off the bottom bolt.

Also, I believe I went ahead and used a cupped washer bolt and sealer on that one above and right of the timing cover because it was also seeping coolant.

[jd52cranbrook]

Thanks a bunch Norm. It helps. I am going to try the bottom one first though. It's the easiest, and don't have to take anything off, ..But whats the chances of it turning out to be that one.

Pat, the pulley set up is two stock ones, with one on the outside gutted, and welded to the original one, to match timing marks. Goes on the same as before. The black cover you see is just a dirt and dust cover. It comes off when I need to take the pulley off the crank.

Thanks again Norm.

[Brad Lustig]

Just looked through the pictures and my eyes may have been playing a trick on me regarding the breather...

[jd52cranbrook]

Just looked through the pictures and my eyes may have been playing a trick on me regarding the breather...

Yep, ,, its on right.

Well I tried the bottom one bolt,, just put some tephlon tape in it to see a quick result. Nada.

Will do them all tomorrow when I am suppose to be working...

[jd52cranbrook]

I couldn't wait, I lifted the front of the motor a bit to pull off the mount, and bingo.

You can see the water track of two cover bolts, and the plate bolt, (for oil it smelled like).

Thanks people,,, great site.

Edited May 30, 2010 by jd52cranbrook

[Normspeed]

I got really good at r & r ing the radiator and the front motor mount while I was fixing these leaks:D