Friday, August 16, 2013

Quick update

Hi all!

Before I start with the update, I just want to give a shout out to valiantdan. He's getting an old '66 VC back on the road. He's going great guns at it too! If your a bit sick of waiting for my few and far between updates, valiantdans blog should definitely quench your thirst!
You can find him here: http://valiantdan.wordpress.com/

Now for the proceedings.

Motor is finally in and complete.
Tried firing it up, but with no success, just kept turning but not firing.
Turned it by hand to get it to TDC
Checked dizzy - back to front - DOH!!!!
Spun it around, still not firing. 
INSERT CREATIVE SWEAR WORDS HERE!!
Next step read the instructions
1. turn the engine over until you are at top dead centre.
2. Top dead centre is found like this:
a. line the timing mark on the harmonic balance up with "0" on the timing mark
b. Next - IMPORTANT - check the pushrods on cylinder one. You should be able to turn them freely by hand. This is Top Dead Centre.
I did this turned it over by hand until both pushrods were loose. Awesome, got that.
Checked the dizzy - back to front again - DOUBLE DOH!!
Spun it around again
Aligned the dizzy so the rotor lined up with the contact point of what would now be number 1 lead
Reset the leads according to the cast in firing order on the inlet manifold.
Turned the key

SUCCESS! 

Fired up first turn

Now the bad news :-(

The brand new oil pump is soooo good, it found a split in the remote oil filter line and pumped about  1/2 a litre of oil all over the garage floor! With the big fan running as well it sprayed it virtually to the back wheel. 3 bags of Coles kitty litter later and we had that all cleaned up.

STOPPED!

I took the oil lines off and whipped them down to Pirtek and they had the fixed and repaired within the week.
I now have them in the shed and will be putting them in this afternoon and then I can run the cam in!
Stay tuned tomorrow!

Monday, June 17, 2013

First Video Test


A Short little video of the motors life span thus far with me.
Shots taken from when the car was first purchased, swapping over a different 318, the realisation that the old motor I took out was the original factory fitted motor and the subsequent rebuild and reinstall of the original motor.

Oh, and credit where credit is due: 
Big Red Rocket of Love
The Reverend Horton Heat
Of the album: Holy Roller
 

Sunday, June 16, 2013

OOOps. Wrong photo!

Yes the motor is back again, and No, I wasn't trying to recycle some old post.

Here are the two shots I took with the motor now back in the car again:


 

Back in again

There was a few swear words, well actually a lot!.
The motor came out. All good. Tick!
Remote oil lines went back in. Tick!
Engine went back in again. Tick!
Oil filter line got caught between the block and the fire wall!. . . . . Tick!!!
Took a few hours to get the oil lines all sorted and in the right spot, but I finally got there and the filter was all set up correctly. Even has a new filter on.

The new water pump went on along with everything else that goes with it and am happy to say that the frog juice is staying on the inside of the motor and not the outside!

 

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Out she comes!

Engine ready to come out again.




Hopefully it will be a short disruption to finally getting to start it. Basically I have to lift the engine up to access the connection points for the remote oil filter attach the hoses and then slip the motor back in. I'll let you know if it was easy to do as it was to type it. . . . . . Probably won't be.

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Little Progess

Well it's been cold, wet and miserable. I've given up trying to get the oil filter lines on with the engine in the car and have decided to take the motor out again and install them with the motor hanging out of the engine bay. The reason the lines were fouling on the steering box was because the plate bolted to the block was 180deg in the wrong direction. Hopefully with that sorted the engine should slip straight back into place. . . . . .should!
On a lighter and more uplifting note, the water pump came back and looks a treat. Thanks to all the guys I spoke to at Pentastar Parts. They swapped the pulley wheel onto a new water pump and even painted the pulley black.




Just need to find some time on the weekend to put it all back together. Again

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Engine done. . . . . Well. . . . Not quite

The engines in and done!



The water pump went on, the air conditioner compressor and brackets went on, the alternator and brackets went on, the power steering pump and brackets went on, the radiator went in, all the hoses connected, the air conditioner radiator went in and pipes connected. That was a lot of work!

I started filling the radiator with coolant. I then started seeing coolant on the floor! 

The water pump is knackered! It was working when I had the motor running originally, but now I've green frog juice all over the floor in the shed! Now I have to take ALL the accessories off as the water pump was the first thing that went on!!!!!

ALSO! The oil lines from the bottom of the motor to the filter on top had to come off during the install as they were fouling on the steering box. After 2 hours of up and down trying to get the stupid things in the correct place as they go around the bracket for the auto dipstick, I got one tightened up on the top. AAAARGH!

  

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Home At Last

It's taken a while, but finally the motor is back where it belongs. The water pump and fan are only on for the photo. I now have to fit all the accessories and then fingers crossed next week I can fire it up. If I have enough for thought, I'll try and record it so you guys can hear it as well as see it.






 

Brown V's Shiney!!!

As the motor went in it reminded me of the shot when the motor came out. So here they are side by side.


It's a good feeling seeing the motor up against what it looked like when it came out. And to think I was going to get rid of it and settle for just "some other" motor.

 

Ready to install the motor

Look. . . up in the sky. . . It's a bird. . . . It's a plane. . . Nah it's just a 318 with a 904 on its way home after a long holiday!

 

Fitting the auto

The next item was fitting the auto to the block. The 904 had been fully rebuilt and needed to be fitted before putting the motor back in.


Also, you can see the single exhaust fitted, wire wheeled and painted. This would prove to be a nightmare while fitting the engine and needed to come out as it kept hitting the torsion bar!

A little time to put the motor in

I haven't had much time to do any work on the car, but I decided this Saturday I would try and get the motor back in the car. At least that way I could potter about here and there fitting all the accessories back on while it was in the car. i.e. power steering, A/C, etc.

The first was to wire wheel the exhaust headers and paint in high temp paint.



 Once the car is on the road and driving, I'll take it in and get the extractors fitted and a nice dual exhaust. But for the meantime it's the stock standard exhaust pipe.



 

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Brake Re-Do Part 4

All finished and back on the car. Unfortunately they make everything else look a bit crap.



At least I'm confident the car will stop now.

Brake Re-Do Part 3

After a sweaty day in a hot tin shed garage, the calipers were rebuilt.
The shop had run out of black caliper paint so I guess the next best colour was a Hemi Orange. . . . . . Wouldn't you?


 

Brake Re-Do Part 2

All the internal working parts were replaced with new. New piston, rubbers, pins and of course the pads

 

Brake Re-Do

After fixing up the suspension in the front end, I was still thinking about the brake calipers. I'd been a bit unsure about them since buying the car. When I originally got the car home and went through all the bits and pieces, there was a new set of brake pads in an ice cream container. I tried to change them over but with no luck. When the new pads were in, the calipers wouldn't slide over the disc. I thought they were the wrong pads.

After fixing the front end, I had another go. I used a disc brake spreader to push the piston back as far as it would go. Calipers still wouldn't go on. I double checked the pads and they fitted perfectly in the calipers. They just wouldn't open up enough to go over the rotor.

Time for a brake rebuild.

The calipers came off with the intent of a full strip down, clean up and rebuild.



The calipers had definitely seen better days. Now it was time to strip them down.

This lovely mess appears to be the reason for the calipers not wanting to move back any further. This was cleaned out to reveal pretty good internals. I gave them a light sand with 400grit wet and dry with WD40 and they came up pretty good. I cleaned all the gunk and grease off the calipers, went over them the wire wheel and the hard to reach bits got the sand blaster.

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Weekend Success

The necessary tools arrived in the mail and it was off to finish the front end.
Yet again there were setbacks and hold ups. One of the main things that needed to be done was to replace the castor arm bush where it met the chassis, the old rubber had totally disintegrated and had left metal rubbing on metal.


In order to remove the castor bar it was necessary to remove the loser suspension bar. In order to remove the lower suspension arm, the torsion bar had to be removed. Thinking I was all set and had the right tools for the job, I started taking out the first torsion bar. . . DAMN! The steering box is in the way!





I then had to chain the steering box up so it wouldn't drop when I took the bolts out. Three bolts later the steering box was lifted up, the torsion bar removed, the lower control arm and castor bar removed. The castor bushes fitted into the chassis, the castor bar and lower arm refitted, the upper and lower bump stops replaced, torsion bars refitted, stubaxles fitted with new upper and lower ball joints, all other ball joints replaced, new shock absorbers fitted, 


discs and calipers refitted and wheels back on!


A busy, yet productive weekend.






 


 

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Halted. . . Again

Started pulling out the suspension. Released all the tension of the torsion bars and started the dismantle. First stop point. The lower bolt for the shock absorber was stuck the inner sleeve of the rubber piece. No matter how hard I hit it, the rubber just absorbed the impact and bounced back. The final solution (Thanks Roger) was to get some heat in there. Lots and lots of heat to burn the rubber out and fill the shed with smoke. (Thanks again Roger)
After about 20 mins of heating, banging and twisting the bolt final gave up its grip and let go.
Fortunately the other side let go without the heat.
Ok, off we go again.
Stub axles came out, lower ball joints removed. Tried to take the lower strut arms out. Can't get them out, the lower arm needs to come out. This is connected to the torsion bar that will need to come out as well. Damn!
Started on the upper ball joint, this stopped faster than it started! You need a special tool to get that one out! Crap.
It was off to the internet and order some more tools from Pentastar parts. I'm now waiting for a torsion bar removing tool and a socket to remove the upper ball joints. They should be here before the weekend. I'll let you know how the weekend transpired and if I've managed to get the front suspension back in.

 Left hand stub axle out
 
 Right hand stub axle out

Front Suspension

With the engine out, it seemed to be the best time to do the front suspension. Climbing under, around, in and over would be whole lot easier.
Here's a little group of photos showing the front ens as it is now. Old, greasy and very very worn.

 

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Looking Good

I took the chrome rocker covers off and put the newly painted ones on. I then got a bit carried away and put the carbie on so I could set the air cleaner up and put the new sticker on.
Although I have to take it all off again to fit the motor, it still looks better than the chrome rocker covers. A bit retro.


(You can see the touch up drying on the snorkel after the quick repair)
 

Air cleaner and rocker covers

I was trying to sand blast the rocker covers and air cleaner so I could spray them up, but unfortunately the compressor gave up the ghost again!.
I took them, along with the A/C and power steering bracketry down to the local bead blaster who did a fantastic job. 

(Insert photo I forgot to take here)

I was then able to try out my black "wrinkle" paint to try and achieve the factory finish.



I was a bit worried! The can said it was a wrinkle finish, but after spraying, it was a full gloss!!!
I checked the instructions and it said it would take at least 2 hours for the wrinkle finish to work. I was a bit relieved, but also a bit concerned I'd have to try and get the paint off and start again.


I went out the next morning and found this. It worked! It looked awesome, except it was at this point I noticed the small dent on the snorkel. A little panel beating and a quick touch up would have it fixed.

 

Friday, February 1, 2013

2 318's ready for there prospective homes

Both motors are on their trolleys ready for their next installment. As mentioned, the purple one is headed for the hotrod after a bit of a tidy up, AND to get rid of that purple paint.


Before the original motor goes back in, I'll take the opportunity to do a bit of welding required around the engine bay and under the sills.

Motor is out

After a few swear words and not as much transmission fluid on the floor as I thought there would be, the motor finally gave up its grip and left the engine bay.

 

Drinking too much?

When you need supplies for the hard work on the weekend, you end up with this sort of novelty thing.


"That's goin' straight to the pool room!"

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Out with the old. . . .

I shouldn't say the old. This motor's going into the hotrod after a bit of a check over and freshen up. I'm hoping just needs new rings and the heads checked over.

 

Motor Ready For Transplant

Another shot of the 318 motor ready to go back in the car.


Sunday, January 20, 2013

318 Ready to come off engine stand

The motors almost complete. It's now ready to come off the stand and to start taking the other motor out.
The rocker covers are temporary as I have to clean up the original covers and finished them off in the original black erinkle finish.





Monday, January 14, 2013

Sump

The sump is finally finished and ready to go on in a couple of days.

 

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Distributor

Did someone say "Mallory Twin Point Distributor"?

 

Harmonic Balancer and Pulleys

After reading my "How To" manual on rebuilding the motor, I realised that I should have fitted the harmonic balancer to ensure the timing case was centrally located on the hub. So off with the water pump, off with the timing cover.
The harmonic balance, which was balanced at REFLEX along with the rest of the motor was still in a poor state in a box on the floor. You can see it circled on the floor.


The next move was to dismantle all the pulleys of the Harmonic Balancer, separate all the aluminium spacers and clean everything up. I sand blasted the pulleys and the balancer and gave the aluminium spacers a run on the polishing wheel. The balancer and pulley wheels where painted in the red paint and for something different, I painted the the bolts in gloss black enamel.




Nice and clean. It almost looks a bit over the top as every harmonic balancer I've seen has been a crusty brown colour.

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Partial assembly

Well the heads are in place and I've sat the manifold in place as well to see how it looks.
I'm waiting for the lower head bolts to dry and then I can torque the head up and fit everything else off.


Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Inlet Manifold Part 7

Coat of paint on. Have given it a couple more coats since this photo, So should be ready tomorrow.

 

Inlet Manifold Part 6

All masked up and ready to be sprayed.