Big Red 69

[TNIceWolf]

Well not much has been done enginewise as I had planned. Work and some online issues slowed me down. I am posting some shots here of the engine before tearing into it to keep the thread alive......If anyone needs or wants detailed shots let me know. I get an unexpected week off work at the end of July and will have nine whole days to get it done and still be done on time.







The time lost has not been wasted as I have been filling in gaps in the tools.......time will tell how well i did my prep.

[TNIceWolf]

Dang it................I cant get a break here............went out yesterday to get some work done and will be d****D if when i turned the air compressor on it didnt split the bottom of the resevoir tank!!! I just narrowly missed being seriously injured. Oh well........live learn and suffer I suppose. On a good note I did have enough stashed back to replace the compressor with a better vertical unit. Will be doing some fitting swaps and such tommorrow after work to get that working right again.................Sheesh

[rjewkes]

Hey man when it rains it poors. But atleast you know you will have enough compressor now.

[papabug71]

Looks great! Your really dropping some coin on that old ton rig.

Im looking forward to some updates.

PS. I have to agree with 71PA_Highboy, can the pro-flo air cleaner. I had on on my Duster & it never seen dirt roads or a pasture. It still fell apart in a matter of months. I hope you have better luck with it than I did.

Keep us posted!!

[TNIceWolf]

Just a quick shot here of my chief engineer and ear washer.......his name is Rio Diablo



Tomorrow I set in on nine days to get it done..........eight actually because of Miss Yvonnes family reunion..........hope I got it prepped right.

[drytoast]

Maybe you should have named him Captain Q-tip.

[TNIceWolf]

I finally after many delays got started digging into the engine today so I thought I would post a pic of the progress so far. What a gunked up mess.



Am curious about the signifigance if any of those yellow valve springs. Tomorrow i will be trying to get the exhaust manifolds......heads and timing chain and maybe the cam and lifters out. Its gonna take a ton of cleaning and I am more than a little concerned about what the cylinders will look like when I pop the heads off. No turning back tho........am going to finish it up one way or the other if i have to bend or flat out break every rule in the book.

[rjewkes]

Not sure on the significance, could be brand related or even strength related. My 302 had red ones, made me think my valve seals hadbeen liquidated all over the springs.

[TNIceWolf]

Well folks.... the project is officially stalled at the moment. I am going to have to make a call here on just a top end overhaul to get it up for the winter. I need a backup vehicle for work and am running out of decent weather fast. My one indecisive point is whether to do the timing chain and gears and the cam... lifters...... and new pushrods if I go that route? Any suggestions?

[TNIceWolf]

Well I finally got the heads and the exhaust manifolds off today and got a surprise . It makes me glad I went ahead and sprang for the replacement heads in advance. Here are a couple of pics of the heads showing the damage.



And a better one of the damaged valve.....



Those pesky exhaust leaks pretty much hid the burned valve on me. Looks to me like I have some ring issues as well just judging by the look of the chambers. In addition to the damaged exhaust valve I found on closer inspection a badly cracked intake valve. It is the intake valve in the other head in the cylinder directly below the damaged exhaust valve in the pics. The crack runs almost entirely across the face of the valve just skirting the stem. It is a wonder I didnt unwittingly detonate the engine just from occassional driving at an easy workout pace.

The cylinders on the other hand look like they will be OK once I get the engine out and get the block to my machine shop and get it squared away. I have decided to just replace the heads and manifolds and carb over the next few days and move the truck over to my cousins place where he has been kind enough to allow me to use his garage at no cost and more importantly help with the project. Nice to have family sometimes!!

Buck and I will be pulling the engine soon and going through it and doing our best to sort out some trans issues as well. Hopefully when we are done the entire running gear will be all but brand new or at the very least thoroughly checked and serviced where needed.

[basketcase0302]

TNIcewolf,

The cylinders on the other hand look like they will be OK once I get the engine out and get the block to my machine shop and get it squared away.

I just had to do this also. Believe me it's money well spent. Cool you'll have a place to work on it now also.

Are those "dually simulators" on your truck or Alcoa dually wheels?

[TNIceWolf]

Basketcase

Those are just stainless wheel simulators.
I agree on the money well spent part. It is actually my preferred way of doing things under normal conditions. I have been watching that frantic build of yours and I must say you make me feel very much a complete slacker at times. I had to spend most of the winter hunkered down and just buying a few choice bits here and there from other members on here. Now that it is getting warmer and I have some help I am hoping to get this mess back on track and have it ready to drive again by fall. I suspect that the head job is going to give me a much better feeling for what I will eventually have after the full rebuild when I get to drive it to the new workspace.

[TNIceWolf]

Thought I would throw in a few pics of the valve covers I worked on during the cold weather inside the house......

First..a trip through the parts washer and a good drying with the air compressor and blowgun....


Then some time spent with a small 3M pad on the die grinder to get the rust and the worst of the loose paint off........



Then some sanding and sprayed down an aluminum base coat with some high temp VHT paint



Then a quick scuffing with some sandpaper....a few coats of some black wrinkle finish VHT...a trip through the oven at 200 degrees for about an hour...( which Miss Yvonne was not thrilled about )....and here is the end product.......




There you have it. A little black to offset the bright manifold and carb.

[TNIceWolf]

My buddies Don and Jamey came over this last weekend to help me out some with the heavy stuff........I think we made some small progress!!!



Here is shot of the other side and the replacement exhaust manifold that gave some small problems. As I have mentioned the exhaust manifolds and whole top end save the carb all came off a late model 390 truck engine. Some things were a little different.The passenger side exhaust manifold came built with the heat tubes for an automatic choke....no big deal..just had the machine shop plug them with a weld. The drivers side was a little different than the original I was replacing as well.One of the big plus points in my view is that it was a much beefier casting with a ribbed design. My old cracked one showed a definate weak area. My machinist actually commented on the replacement when he saw it. His comment was that he knew a lot of Mercury car enthusiasts who would just love to get their hands on that particular manifold. I took a good look at the part number on it after I got it back and it does have a T in the casting numbers. It worked out great though except for two points. One was the attatching hardware to the heads. I knew I was going to need all new grade eight for that. I grabbed up an old exhaust bolt and headed out for 16 new ones with new washers.The passenger side worked out with no problems.The drivers side I quickly discovered needed longer bolts because of the increased thickness of the casting. So back to the bolt store. We get that all bolted down good and go to fit the exhaust pipe to the manifold. It fits just like it it should with one problem. The pipe to manifold connection bolt flange is different. The pipe diameter and angle are perfect. But the newer manifold has a different stud spacing. Fortunately when we pulled the junkyard parts we took a sawzall with us and just cut the exhaust to get the heads off. The correct flange i needed was over there in the scrap pile where I threw it when I prepped the heads for the machine work. So we grabbed the old sawzall again and cut my good exhaust in a straight area on that side.....and carried the pipe with us to get a new splice section and two new muffler clamps. Then we swapped out the flanges and bolted everything down. Simple problems to fix really.



And a front view.



Am getting closer to driving it anyway. If even for a short while.

[TheDarkOne]

Heavy stuff what heavy stuff? Let me know when your going to work on it some more and i'll try to come back up.