Gramma's Car: the new project!

[njsteve]

We then spent the rest of the weekend buttoning up the engine. Installed the pan and timing cover to catch all the oil and assembly lube that was soon to be dripping down. I manhandled the cylinder heads onto the block and the boy did all the torqueing. He was definitely tired by the time he was done!



I think the part he enjoyed the most was gooping all the black moly and red assembly lube onto the lifters, rocker arms and pushrods. He then torqued all the rocker nuts into place and we added the oil. I had him rotate the engine while we ran the oil pump primer and pressured up the engine.

I also showed him how the cam/lifters and rocker arms activate the intake and exhaust valves in relation to the piston movement, building on what I showed him yesterday with the timing chain connecting the cam to the movement of the crankshaft. You could actually see the lightbulb go off over his head when he realized how everything was interconnected. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/shocked.gif[/img]

Of course we ran into an interesting problem while priming the engine. All the lifters/pushrods/rockers oiled up fine except for one. Nothing was coming out. They were new Sealed Power rockers, too. I thought maybe something was wrong with that lifter so I swapped it with one from another lifter position. The previously non-oiling lifter worked fine in the new lifter bore and the previously functioning lifter didn't oil in the suspect bore. So that ruled out the lifters. Checked the pushrod and it was clean with no blockage. I finally swapped the rocker with an original one and it oiled up fine. Here's what I found:



New rocker on the left, original on the right. The new rockers have the oil holes in a different position than the original ones, which, depending upon the pushrod, can restrict the oil supply to the oiling hole. The original rockers have the oil holes directly over the pushrod oil hole opening, the new ones have them in a spot that barely connects with the pushrod oil hole.

Glad we caught that now.

[njsteve]

Here's how the engine looked by this afternoon:

[Norwood]

steve are all the rockers like that? did you replace all of them?

[njsteve]

That rocker had the hole a fraction of an inch lower than the rest. So I just swapped out that one with the best original rocker I could find. (My machinist had examined the original rockers and noticed that most of them were a bit too scuffed up in the pocket area, so he recommended getting a new set.)

(Oh, and by the way Craig, if you know anyone with a nice 73 SD, my son would be happy to consider trading the '72 T/A for his future project [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img])

[Norwood]

I will forward this message. I know a few....but those SD guys think thier cars are worth way more than our &quot;striped cars&quot; [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/smile.gif[/img]

[njsteve]

Everything is bolted up and, remarkably, there were no nuts, bolts or parts left over!

I need to get my hoist back so I can join the engine and tranny together and throw the drivetrain back in the car. Hopefully it will finally stop raining this weekend.

[SuperNovaSS]

Steve,


What's with the piece of wood under the front of the engine? Didn't trust the bolts?


Jason

[njsteve]

It's a speciially designed device that took years of testing and innovation to create. It supports the front of the engine under the pan flange and mounts against the front brace of the engine stand. It takes some of the stress of all that weight off the four mounting bolts in the rear of the block.

It only remotely resembles a long 2X4. It's actually a bioengineered, organic laminate support fixture, (a.k.a. wood)
[img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img]

[Xplantdad]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: njsteve</div><div class="ubbcode-body">It's a speciially designed device that took years of testing and innovation to create. It supports the front of the engine under the pan flange, and takes some of the stress off the mounting bolts in the rear of the block.

It only resembles a 2x4 piece of wood. It's actually a bioengineered, organic laminate. (a.k.a. wood)
[img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img] </div></div>

Steve...you crack me up... [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/smile.gif[/img]

[Verne_Frantz]

Steve, You are a very fortunate man to have your kids involved like this. That makes it more than a project; it makes it a really good memory.

Verne [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img]