1970 Barracuda 440 "Project Horsepower"

(Cam, intake, heads, headers & valvetrain swap)

Old Part	New Part
Stock 906 heads w/valve job	Edelbrock 84cc Aluminum Heads
Stock valvetrain	Hughes aluminum adjustable roller rockers w/beefy rocker shafts, new springs, fat pushrods and billet hold-downs
MP 280 cam	Hughes 3038 (230/238 at .050, 276/286 advertised, .504/.515 lift)
Edelbrock Torker II	Edelbrock Performer (The RPM won't fit under my hood, dangit!)
HP Exhaust manifolds	TTI 1 7/8" ceramic coated headers
stock starter	MP lightweight starter
flex fan	MP viscous fan
stock style water pump	Milodon aluminum high volume water pump
stock style radiator	Summit aluminum radiator

	Sun 3/17/02 A perfectly good engine... At this point, the only thing I've done is to pull the air cleaner & plugs and do a compression check. (185, 185, 170, 184, 182, 170, 180, 190)
001 - 91 KB
	Sun 3/17/02 I've pulled the plug wires, distributor cap, throttle body, and tied the fuel lines and wiring harness back to the windshield wipers.
002 - 89 KB
	Sun 3/17/02 Next, I removed the intake manifold (Edelbrock Torker II) Check out that nasty, rusty valley pan! Of course, the bottom is still in excellent condition due to all the oil under there. This is why I'm planning to powdercoat the top of the new valley pan.
003 - 86 KB
	Sun 3/17/02 The valley pan is gone, and so are the valve covers.
004 - 90 KB
	Mon 3/18/02 I've unbolted the downtubes and removed the passenger side exhaust manifold.
005 - 89 KB
	Mon 3/18/02 The rocker shaft has been unbolted and removed, and I've removed the pushrods as well.
006 - 100 KB
	Mon 3/18/02 And there goes the head. (Note: This pic was actually taken after I had put the engine to bed for the night; I had to lift up the plastic cover to get a pic since the original one didn't turn out (darn $5 digital camera!), so that's what that plastic sheet is at the top of the pic...
007 - 88 KB
	Mon 3/18/02 The removed head. Just in case you're wondering... This head weighed 49lbs, assembled. I also weighed the Edelbrock aluminum heads using the same scale and they came in at 30lbs, assembled. So, the head swap will shave 38 lbs off the front of the car.
008 - 81 KB
	Mon 3/18/02 Another shot of the head (yeah, I know I didn't aim so well, but this one shows the valves better).
009 - 82 KB
	Wed 3/20/02 I found some modeling clay in the arts & crafts section of the local Wal-Mart; it was a few dollars for a package that had about 5 sticks in it. For each cylinder, I cut a stick in half and rolled it to approximately 4" long.
010 - 51 KB
	Wed 3/20/02 Then pounded it flat with a rubber mallet, until it was about 1/4" thick. (Some oil on the surface and the face of the mallet is helpful to prevent the clay from sticking.)
011 - 50 KB
	Wed 3/20/02 I trimmed the clay to fit inside the bore, and placed it over the top part of the cylinder (which is where the valves open)
012 - 93 KB
	Wed 3/20/02 A shot with all 4 bores ready to be checked. A light coating of oil on the piston, the clay, and the valves will help to keep the clay from sticking, and aid in removal. Next, the head is bolted on, the valvetrain re-assembled, and the engine turned over by hand twice. (To turn the engine over, put a 1 1/4" socket on the bolt at the end of the crank and turn it clockwise.)
013 - 88 KB
	Wed 3/20/02 Here is why its a good idea to test more than one bore at the same time. The clay inside the #6 cylinder got folded over on itself, the #8 clay got stuck to the head and dropped back into the cylinder when the head was removed, and the #4 clay stuck to the head. These "extracurricular activities" can make the measurements more inaccurate than they already are...
014 - 86 KB
	Wed 3/20/02 A somewhat blurry view of the cross section of clay. I have plenty of clearance (.18"-.20")
015 - 74 KB
	Wed 3/20/02 A comparison shot of the 906 head and the Edelbrock unit. Notice the chambers on the Edelbrock head - nonexistant up near the top of the bore! (These are the closed chamber 84cc heads.) This got me worrying about piston to head clearance since the forged TRW six pack pistons in my motor come right up flush with the deck of the block.
016 - 67 KB
	Wed 3/20/02 Time for another test! You'll notice I've made the clay in the #2 and #4 cylinders bigger, to check for piston to head clearance as well as piston to valve clearance.
017 - 89 KB
	Wed 3/20/02 The Edelbrock head is torqued down, and the pushrods are in place. Wow, that's pretty!
018 - 98 KB
	Wed 3/20/02 The stock valvetrain has been installed to check for clearance.
019 - 100 KB
	Wed 3/20/02 I turned the engine over twice and pulled the head. I discovered that the piston to valve clearance appears OK (.12-.13 or so), but I only have about .050 piston to head clearance. The Mopar engines book says .055 should be the minimum, contact happens at .045. They actually recommend .080 if using clay to check, to make up for the slop. Not good! However, the Edelbrock documentation says .035. Time for a call to the Edelbrock tech line and a post to the MML for ideas!
020 - 94 KB
	Wed 3/27/02 What now??? Well, this is my attempt to CC the heads. I need to check the head CCs to comapre them against the Edelbrocks, just to see what will happen with my compression ratio. (Yet another thing I should have done before I ordered the heads...) Its a jar of vaseline, a syringe, and a CD. (Yet another use for those free AOL CDs!) I discovered this method via a web search, lets see how it works...
021 - 58 KB
	Wed 3/27/02 First, I need to get the head level front to back and side to side. I have also installed the spark plugs.
022 - 75 KB
	Wed 3/27/02 Next, I spread some vaseline around the edge of the bore. The vaseline will act like a glue and a sealant, to hold the water in. You may be a bit sceptical about this - I know I was! Never fear, the vaseline does an excellent job of holding the CD in place and sealing up the head. If a picture is worth a thousand words, this video is probably worth 10,000: Click to view MPEG video of me pulling CD off of head - 563K
023 - 69 KB
	Wed 3/27/02 Put the CD on the head (fits perfectly!) and press down around the edges to seal it to the head.
024 - 71 KB
	Wed 3/27/02 Next, fill the cylinder head with water until it comes up even with the hole. Keep track of how many milliliters you pour into the head. One ml = one cc, for all practical purposes. About 20 drops to a cc. I'm actually using windshield washer fluid in this pic because I thought it would be easier to see, but then I switched to water; I wasn't sure if washer fluid has a different density than water or not. (The readings came out the same, so I guess it doesn't matter too much.) After doing all 4, I came up with an average cc of 72.6. I thought that sounded a bit low. I ran the numbers, and that would put my compression at around 11.6:1. On an engine that runs fine on 92 octane. Something is wrong with this picture! So I tried just filling the head without the CD on top - and just eyeballing where the water meets the top of the head. Using that method, I came up with 90cc, which would put my compression ratio at around 9.8:1. That's a whole lot more like it. I think the true number probably is somewhere in the middle though. I'm going to try to find a piece of lexan tomorrow to use instead of a flexible CD. I don't think the CD method is all that accurate. Well, it was worth a shot!
025 - 71 KB
	Wed 3/27/02 I need to find out if I have a 1 or 3 bolt cam, and I also want to see what sort of timing chain I have, so its time to take apart the front of the engine. In this pic, I've unbolted the power steering pump and its resting on the lower radiator hose.
030 - 75 KB
	Wed 3/27/02 I've removed the thermostat housing. Look at that nasty brown coolant! Yuk! Time for a flush, methinks.
031 - 73 KB
	Wed 3/27/02 The thermostat housing is gone, so is the coolant temp sensor, and I've disconnected the heater hoses.
032 - 68 KB
	Wed 3/27/02 4 bolts, and the water pump comes off.
033 - 74 KB
	Wed 3/27/02 This heater hose fitting needs to be removed to get at one of the bolts holding the water pump housing on. A screwdriver in the top like so did the trick for me.
034 - 66 KB
	Wed 3/27/02 The water pump housing is gone, and the lower radiator hose along with it.
035 - 75 KB
	Wed 3/27/02 Rotating the 1.25" bolt counterclockwise while holding onto the pulley backed it out.
036 - 64 KB
	Wed 3/27/02 I've removed the crank pulley.
037 - 75 KB
	Wed 3/27/02 Time to remove the dampener. Yes, I probably should be using a dampener puller instead of a gear puller, but I misplaced my set! (I have replaced the bolt in the center loosely, to give the puller something to push against.)
038 - 68 KB
	Wed 3/27/02 The dampener is off.
039 - 70 KB
	Wed 3/27/02 There are several bolts to remove and the timing chain cover comes off. I tried to pull the cover off, but the bottom was stuck... Then I noticed that the front two oil pan bolts are actually threaded into the timing chain cover. The clearance was tight, but a small ratchet and socket got those out and the timing cover came right off. Yep, its a double roller, and a single bolt cam. Appears to be a Cloyes timing set. I might be replacing it with a 3 bolt, haven't decided yet...
040 - 71 KB
	Sun 3/31/02 Ok, lets try this CC thing again. I got a piece of scrap lexan from Teft Glass in Dunkirk, NY. Thanks, guys! Here, I've put the nice clean aluminum head on it to mark the bolt holes.
041 - 63 KB
	Sun 3/31/02 The lexan drilled very easily, and the bolt pattern came out perfectly, except for one hole which I had to enlarge a bit.
042 - 57 KB
	Sun 3/31/02 A pic of the lexan bolted onto the head.
043 - 85 KB
	Sun 3/31/02 Once again, I spread vaseline around the bores for a seal. I drilled a hole in the cylinder part of the lexan to allow the fluid to be injected, but I discovered that its almost impossible to get the bubbles out. So, I drilled a couple of more holes up near the spark plug, which helped a lot. Oh, I discovered the reason why the CD was giving me inaccurate readings... The water wasn't flowing into the quench area of the head! It took a bit of jiggling, but I was able to get all the bubbles out. Its much easier when you can actually *see* the bubbles. I came up with 88, 88, 87.5, and 87 on this head, for an average of about 87.6 CCs. That would put my current compression ratio just a hair over 10:1. The Edelbrock heads (assuming they are actually the 84 CCs they are advertised at) would raise that to almost 10.4:1. Hopefully that will be enough... Seeing as how I have this piece of lexan already, I plan to bolt it onto the Edelbrock heads just to see what CC readings I get there.
044 - 79 KB
	Tue 4/02/02 I've bolted the dirty, vaseline covered piece of lexan onto my nice clean aluminum head. I wanted to CC these heads too, just to compare them to the other heads, and also test my CC'ing method. All cylinders came out to 84cc. Considering that these heads are supposed to be 84cc, I guess this method is fairly accurate.
045 - 60 KB
	Thu 4/18/02 Hughes was a bit concerned about my piston to valve clearance. So, I decided to try the "dial method", using the checking springs and dial from my recently aquired Summit cam kit. Autozone's "loan a tool" program came in handy - producing a valve spring compressor. The shop cloth I was going to roll up and put under the valves to support them like I had to do with the stock heads, but it turned out not to be nescessary on the nice clean Edelbrocks. You will want to wear eye protection when doing this - there's a lot of potential energy involved, as well as little things that can go "SPROING!"
046 - 45 KB
	Thu 4/18/02 Place the compressor on a valve like so, grabbing as low on the spring as is possible.
047 - 41 KB
	Thu 4/18/02 Then, turn the handle to compress the spring. This will allow you to push the spring down, exposing the top part of the valve and the keepers. Remove the keepers (a magnet worked great for this!), and the spring will come right off the valve. It might be nescessary to support the valve from underneath (with a wad of shop towels for example) and tap the top of the spring compressor with your hand or a hammer to free up the spring.
048 - 49 KB
	Thu 4/18/02 here's a shot of the removed spring still in the compressor. Those little pieces to the right of the spring are the keepers. They lock into a groove in the valve stem and hold the spring in place, via the retainer.
049 - 45 KB
	Thu 4/18/02 "Wimpy, wimpy, wimpy!" "Hefty, hefty, hefty!" I wonder what sort of cam I would need to run for a spring this light? I didn't bother using the valve spring compressor to install the checking spring - it was fairly easy to just do it by hand. The retainer goes on top of the spring, and the keepers on top of that.
050 - 47 KB
	Thu 4/18/02 A pic of the dial indicator set up on a retainer. Obviously, I have bolted the head onto the engine, after installing a checking spring on the other valve as well. My first realization that this might not be as easy as I thought came when I remembered that aluminum is not magnetic. ;-) Fortunately I was able to attach the dial's base to the fender well. (I just had to be careful not to lean on the engine while checknig as that moved the needle a few thousanths.)
051 - 75 KB
	Thu 4/18/02 As I was checking the clearance, I realized that the hydraulic lifters were, ummm... "hydraulic-ing" To prevent this, I pulled a lifter out, took it apart, and replaced the spring with little washers, then re-assembled it, effectively creating a solid lifter. This allowed me to continue checking the clearance without the lifters deflecting. Fortunately, I was able to pull the pushrods and lifters out without removing the rockers. As far as the actual clearance goes, I am getting about .042-.043" on the intake and .044-.046 on the exhaust. That's less than half the recommended amount. A few MMLers have told me that a cam with less duration could fix the problem though, so I'm going to remain somewhat optomistic, for now, but these heads aren't exactly the bolt-on they are cracked up to be. Well, on my engine anyway... I think my block was milled to increase compression at some point, which might be the cause of these clearance issues.
052 - 55 KB
	Mon 4/22/02 In talking with some folks on the MML, the theory was advanced that my cam timing might be retarded, causing the clearance problem. So, its time to check the centerline... I had a degree kit from Summit, but it was too big to fit on the engine in the car. So, I got a 6" bolt and nut at the hardware store, in the same thread as the crank. (3/4-16) I also picked up some 3/4" aluminum tubing and cut it to hold the wheel out from the engine. What you're looking at is the assembled result. This gets the wheel out of the way of the crossmember and such. It does put it fairly close to the radiator, but it is still possible to read it using a mirror.
053 - 74 KB
	Mon 4/22/02 First, the piston must be brought up to TDC. I removed a checking spring from the intake valve and put a dial on it to find TDC. Once you find TDC, the degree wheel is set at zero, and the gauge is put on the intake lifter. (Before I did that, I put the checking spring back on. I also did the "solid lifter conversion" again to be sure there wasn't any slop introduced by lifter deflection.)
054 - 60 KB
	Mon 4/22/02 You turn the engine over until you find the point of max lift for the intake lifter, and zero the gauge at that point. Then, continue to rotate the engine. As you get back to TDC, and begin to go through it, watch the gauge, and stop at .025" before the point of max lift. Read the number of degrees on the wheel. Then, continue until you get to .025" after max lift, and read the number of degrees. Add the two numbers together and divide by two. This number is the installed centerline of your cam. The cam info I have shows that my cam is supposed to be installed at 108 degrees. I did it three times and it came out to 108.5 degrees each time. Close enough. So much for that theory. I think I'll place a call to Edelbrock's tech line and then give Hughes another call. Every other engine I have heard of which has gone with the Edelbrock heads has been a direct bolt-on! I can't figure out why I have such low piston to valve clearances!
055 - 78 KB
	Wed 4/24/02 Just for a reference, I wanted to check the piston to valve clearance on the other (stock) head which I have not yet removed from the engine. So, I pulled the exhaust manifold on that side and removed the rockers. I needed to transfer the checking springs over to the #1 cylinder, so I removed them from the aluminum head and held the valves in place with these clamps, just to be sure they wouldn't drop down into the head.
056 - 73 KB
	Wed 4/24/02 Now the tricky part - trying to get the stock springs off. The problem is that the valve wants to move down with the spring when you're trying to get the keepers released from the retainer. This idea of grabbing the valve with a pair of vise grips didn't work. (And this isn't something that I'd really recommend - I only did it here because I don't plan to re-use these valves.)
057 - 72 KB
	Wed 4/24/02 My next thought was to use compressed air to keep the valve in place. I hooked up the hose from my compression tester gauge, but no air went through. Duh - it has a check valve in it. This is a standard schraeder valve which can be removed with a valve stem removal tool like this.
058 - 44 KB
	Wed 4/24/02 Here's what it looks like when the valve has been removed. Isn't it exciting?
059 - 50 KB
	Wed 4/24/02 The valve has been compressed, and the air hose is installed. The air source can be seen to the right of the pic. I set it to about 120 psi, hooked it up, raised the valve into position, then hit the top of the spring compressor with a rubber mallet. It took a few hits, but the retainer finally did come down off the keepers.
060 - 77 KB
	Wed 4/24/02 Here, I've set up the dial indicator to record the exhaust valve to piston clearance. (I forgot to mention - I did the "solid lifter conversion for the #1 cylinder intake and exhaust lifters also...) The final results were .097" on the intake valve and .090 on the exhaust. That's as low as the Mopar engines book advises going, and only then with an auto tranny. I'm not quite sure what yet, but it would seem that something is causing the clearances to be smaller than they might ordinarily be. Just to completely arm myself, I checked the deck height again (.011) and the gasket thickness (about .043"). I tried to call the Edelbrock tech line, but didn't make it in time - they were closed. I plan to call them tomorrow along with Hughes.
061 - 73 KB
	Wed 5/15/02 After a bit of a hiatus, I'm back to work on the car. The cam, valvetrain, and timing set arrived from Hughes, so its time to finish tearing down the engine. Here, I've removed the other head along with the pushrods and lifters.
062 - 97 KB
	Wed 5/15/02 The radiator had to come out to make room to remove the cam. Fortunately, it wasn't too bad - just four bolts.
063 - 92 KB
	Wed 5/15/02 I've removed the distributor and the drive gear, and pulled the cam part way out of the engine.
064 - 98 KB
	Wed 5/15/02 Now its all the way out. You can't really tell from this picture, but the #3 intake lobe got ground down a bit - and the bottom of the corresponding lifter is concave! Ouch. I'm not sure what caused that but I guess its a good thing I decided to replace the cam after all.
065 - 60 KB
	Sun 5/19/02 You can't really see it in this pic, so I'm not sure why I bothered to post it, but the lifter on the bottom has been ground concave on the bottom...
066 - 65 KB
	Sun 5/19/02 Here's a pic of the corresponding cam lobe, which shows the wear, even in this pic.
067 - 85 KB
	Sun 5/19/02 Now is as good a time as any to replace the Edelbrock valve springs for the Hughes ones.
068 - 84 KB
	Sun 5/19/02 Time to clean up the block a little. This pic was taken just before I scraped the remnants of the old head gaskets off, along with the intake RTV, the timing chain cover gasket, etc. I also took some degreaser to the block to try to clean most of the grease off.
069 - 108 KB
	Sun 5/19/02 Heh... This is what I had to resort to when I dropped my work light and broke the bulb.
070 - 98 KB
	Mon 5/20/02 I've installed a new head gasket (Fel-Pro 1009), put the aluminum head in place, and torqued it down using an ARP bolt kit, which comes with hardened washers. As per the ARP instructions, I used a 30 weight motor oil as the lubricant. With the exception of the valves & retainers themselves, the valvetrain is all Hughes - springs, rocker shaft, billet hold-downs, and adjustable aluminum roller rockers. As you can tell, I haven't yet torqued down the rocker shaft.
071 - 122 KB
	Mon 5/20/02 I have used 30 weight motor oil on the cam journals and the first section of the cam, and put it in place. That's a Hughes adjustable pushrod and lifter installed in the #2 intake position. I need to use them to determine the proper pushrod length. I've set the adjustable lifter to have the same internal height as the new lifters, and set the pushrod in place in preparation for checking the alignment.
072 - 94 KB
	Fri 5/31/02 While I'm waiting for a reply from Hughes regarding the valvetrain setup, I decided to install my new MP lightweight starter. Here's what comes in the box. The main reason I am installing this starter is to give myself some more breathing room once the headers go in. The starter itself isn't a special MP piece or anything, its just a Nippondenso 128000-17811. The Chrysler P/N on it is 53005984 (the Mopar Performance P/N is P5249644). Based on some research, it appears that this starter was used on early '90s 3.9-5.2 liter truck motors. However, buying the Mopar Performance piece seemed to be less expensive, or at the very least, the same price as buying a "stock replacement" starter. You might find the same, but if not, the above info should give you enough ammo to search for the piece you need.
073 - 69 KB
	Fri 5/31/02 Here's the old starter, mounted on the motor. It looks like it is supposed to be bolted up in two locations, but the upper one is missing. Hmmm...
074 - 112 KB
	Fri 5/31/02 Here's the only bolt holding the starter in place. Actually, its a nut on a stud. This pic is taken from underneath the car.
075 - 81 KB
	Fri 5/31/02 The old starter is gone.
076 - 101 KB
	Fri 5/31/02 Just a comparison between the two. They weren't kidding when they called it a "lightweight starter"! The old one is a BEAST. Using my highly scientific bathroom scale, I got 7.5 lbs for the lightweight and 14 lbs for the stocker.
077 - 72 KB
	Fri 5/31/02 When I tried to install the starter, the black plastic piece hit against the block and didn't let the starter fit. So, I removed this protective cap...
078 - 76 KB
	Fri 5/31/02 ...then removed that plastic piece altogether.
079 - 71 KB
	Fri 5/31/02 When I tried to install the starter again, it fit this time, but the positive starter wire post was a bit too close to the block for my comfort, so I decided to cut it down a bit. I put the nut on it, and stuck the starter in a vice to cut off the excess. (Putting the nut on first will make sure you don't cut off too much and also will clean the threads up as you back it off.) After searching for 5 minutes for the hacksaw, I gave up and used the sawzall. Not an easy task, let me tell you, but I got the job done.
080 - 85 KB
	Fri 5/31/02 Here's a shot of the starter installed on the engine. I re-used the nut on the stud at the bottom because the nut that came with the starter was the wrong thread, but I used the new lock washer. Up top, I used the bolt that came with the starter - fortunately it was the correct size and thread pitch. You can see in this pic how little clearance there is between the hot post and the engine block, and this is after I cut it down!
081 - 85 KB
	Fri 5/31/02 Nothing to do now but to hook up the wires.
082 - 81 KB
	Fri 5/31/02 And here's a shot from a higher altitude. Having the head off the engine made this R&R pretty simple - with the head and exhaust system in place, you'd probably have to do it all from underneath the car, and might even have to disconnect some exhaust components. I figured by doing the swap now I'd save myself some grief, and it looks like I was right - I did have to do some work from underneath, but I didn't even have to jack it up, there was plenty of room for me to slide under. Well, that's one less item to worry about I hope.
083 - 117 KB
	Sat 6/1/02 I wasn't completely sure that I had the adjustable lifter set correctly because the actual lifter contact area has a deeper "valley" than the adjustable lifter, so my gauge would go down further than a fat pushrod would. I did try to compensate for it, but wasn't 100% sure of the measurement. I thought of this last night and decided to give it a try. ("And the award for strangest use of a scroll saw goes to...") I have my gauge set up on the top arm of the saw and the lifter sitting down on the metal plate. I've put about 4 layers of electrical tape on the base, around the lifter so that I can swap lifters and locate it correctly every time. The pushrod is straight up, and the gauge is on top of the pushrod. Using this method I could be sure that I've got the adjustable lifter set to my correct running depth. As it turns out, I was only .010 off, which is still within the specs of the preload I am shooting for. I adjusted the lifter to the same internal height as the new lifters and shortened it by another .030 to compensate for the amount of preload I plan to run.
084 - 75 KB
	Wed 6/12/02 While checking the pushrod geometry, I discovered that I would have to raise the rocker shaft. These .040 and .020 shims came in from Hughes, two 40's and one 20 on each pedestal will give me the .100 I need to raise the shaft.
085 - 68 KB
	Wed 6/12/02 I've installed the new timing chain so that I can degree the cam and then check the piston to valve clearance. I've already re-checked the pushrod geometry, and it seems good. Its close enough to where its difficult to tell wether its straight or not so I guess that's close enough.
086 - 107 KB
	Wed 6/12/02 So much for that idea... When I mounted the degree wheel, it was very wobbly, and I noticed that the soft aluminum shims I was using had been compressed. I suppose I should have used some steel pipe instead. So, I've got to go get some pipe or a bunch of washers so that I can continue...
087 - 80 KB
	Sat 6/15/02 Ok, I got some steel pipe to replace the aluminum and re-mounted the wheel. I got the cam centerlined (supposed to be 107 degrees, I'm coming up with about 106.75 degrees), and then checked the piston to valve clearance. I am now coming up with about .185" on both the intake and the exhaust. This is PLENTY of clearance, and now has me wondering how I got it??? If you recall, when I first bolted on an Edelbrock head with a used head gasket to check the clearance, I was coming up with about .045". Where did the extra 140 thousandths come from??? Time for a post to the MML I guess. Anyway, whatever the reason, hopefully these readings are correct, and the cam is installed properly - because if so, I can order the pushrods and start the re-assembly!
088 - 111 KB
	Mon 6/17/02 After I had done all of the above checking, I was reading in my Summit cam kit and discovered what this little thingy was. Its a piston stop - you screw it into a spark plug hole far enough to make the piston stop before it gets to TDC. You look at the number before TDC on the degree wheel, then rotate the engine backwards until the piston hits the stop again. Again, you record the number on the degree wheel, but this time its after TDC. These numbers should be the same if you have your degree wheel correctly set up with zero at TDC. A decent way to get an accurate indication of TDC. The piston spends a little time "at TDC" so I wasn't exactly sure where it was - I just got as close as possible. In my case, I was 1.75 degrees off, so with a little adjustment to the pointer, I had the wheel properly zeroed in. I went through all of the checks again - cam centerline, intake and exhaust valve opening and closing points, intake and exhaust valve piston clearance. The numbers came out slightly different, but still acceptable. The centerline is at about 106.4 instead of the 106.75 I came up with before which is still within 1 degree of the 107 degree install centerline, the opening and closing events at .050 are within 2 degrees of the cam card and my piston to valve clearance is checking in at about .197@8.5 degrees ATDC (intake) and .191@6.5 BTDC (exhaust) which is about .010 off of my readings from yesterday, but the readings are probably just due to differences in the angle of the gauge, and general slop. Everything seems good! Next I plan to slap the driver's side head in place and do the checks on the #1 cylinder just to make sure everything is OK there, then I can order some pushrods!
089 - 81 KB
	Wed 6/19/02 A narrowly averted disaster! As I was getting ready to set up the rockers and shaft on the second head, I realized that the oil holes in the shaft should probably be pointing in a particular direction. The "how to rebuild mopar big blocks" book stressed the importance of having the oiling holes located properly, but the description they gave was very confusing. It sounded as if the right and left assemblies were different! The Hughes instructions weren't terribly helpful since they just gave a rather ambiguous diagram with no specific instructions. Fortunately, the "Big Block Mopar Performance" book came to the rescue with a simple description - basically the oil holes should be on the same side of the shaft as the valves. (i.e. they should be on the bottom of the shaft, and to the "inside" of the engine) As far as I can tell, if they are set up that way, they are correctly oriented for either the left or the right head - which would seem to make sense since the heads are supposed to be interchangeable. I have no idea why the "how to rebuild mopar big blocks" book said to mark the shafts "left and right". Anyway, after I figured out the proper orientation, I discovered that the head I had already set up had the shaft reversed - oops. I set it up properly this time. I also got the rockers on the other shaft, so I should be ready to bolt the other head on finally...
090 - 98 KB
	Sat 6/22/02 I picked up this spring compressor at a local car show. Saw several nice Cudas there too - gave me some inspiration to get this thing back on the road! Anyway, it works OK I guess; I think I prefer the other one though because it keeps the spring compressed... Anyway, this is the driver's side head, and I'm swapping out the #1 springs for the checking springs. (Figured it'd be easier now than when it was on the engine.) I put the springs back on the passenger side head, got the rocker assembly back on and torqued down, so that side is all set.
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	Sat 6/22/02 This is one of the Hughes billet rocker shaft hold-downs. They generally need to be trimmed somewhat... By trimming them down, you give yourself additional room to then use well placed shims to cause the rockers to line up with the valves.
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	Sat 6/22/02 Here's an example of what I'm talking about. The little silver ring between the rocker on the right and the spacer is a shim. In this case, the rocker needed to move to the right in order to line up properly with the valve. This is accomplished by grinding down the left side of the billet hold down at the right, and then using the spacer. You also need to leave .005-.010 of side-to-side play for each pair of rockers. That's what I'm checking with the feeler gauge.
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	Sat 6/22/02 Just a picture showing the rocker shaft shims (.100 worth) on the passenger side head.
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	Sat 6/22/02 The driver's side head is torqued down, the rockers have been torqued down, and I've checked the alignment and end play - everything looks good. Next step is to verify the pushrod geometry on the driver's side head and run through the whole gamut of tests again (camshaft centerline, piston to valve clearance, etc.)
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	Sun 6/23/02 I've checked the cam centerline, valve open and close points, and piston to valve clearance using the driver's side head and the #1 cylinder and everything came out pretty much the same as the other side (there's bound to be a little slop and human error) Got a centerline of around 106.4, the opening and closing events are once again within a degree or two of the cam card, and my piston to valve clearance is about .190 or so for the intake and exhaust, so plenty of clearance there. Makes me wish I had the 1.6 rockers now! Oh well, probably wouldn't have made a huge difference and anyway, I'll be happy just to get the car back on the road again. Time to order the pushrods!
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	Sat 6/29/02 While waiting for the pushrods to arrive, I remembered that I had some clear in the powdercoating gun, so I figured I'd powdercoat the belly pan. The one that came off the engine was nasty - rusted up nicely. (See earlier in this report for a pic of it.) I decided that this was one item that was getting some protection. I thought about powdercoating it with a color, but the only one that I thought would look decent in my engine bay was black, but I thought that might hide any leaks that might occur. Plus, as I said I already had clear in the gun... This is a pic of the top of the belly pan - I only coated the top. You can't really tell its been coated except that the surface is a bit more smooth and the reflection is a bit more "satin like".
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	Sat 6/29/02 A pic of the bottom of the pan, just for comparison. I didn't bother to coat the bottom because it will be in a constant bath of oil. (The bottom side of the old belly pan was nice and clean.)
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	Thu 7/18/02 Time to pull the cam and lube it up... I've placed marks at several locations along the gears and chain so that I can just line them back up when I re-install the cam without having to go through the whole centerlining procedure again.
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	Thu 7/18/02 A pic of the cam with the Hughes supplied break in lube applied.
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	Thu 7/18/02 The cam is installed, and the timing chain has been installed using Hughes 12 point bolts, with red loctite, torqued to 20 lb-ft.
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	Thu 7/18/02 These are the new lifters, with break-in lube applied to the bottoms.
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	Thu 7/18/02 I used engine oil to lube the sides of each lifter, and dropped them into place. The next step is to re-install the springs on the #1 cylinder, and install the pushrods.
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	Thu 7/18/02 A little trick I thought of to keep the rockers from flopping all around when moving the shaft from the bench to the engine. I just put a standard oil priming shaft on the tops of the lifters, which I hold with my thumbs. Worked pretty well.
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	Thu 7/18/02 All the pushrods have been installed, and the rocker shafts have been torqued down to 25 lb-ft. As I was installing the pushrods, I also squirted a little oil into the top of each lifter and into the top of each pushrod.
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	Thu 7/18/02 Just a comparison of the size of the stock pushrod on the right and the Hughes custom length pushrod on the left. The new ones are quite a bit beefier. A couple have fairly close clearance to the heads on the sides, but I guess the valvetrain shouldn't be moving too much in that direction anyway, so hopefully it will be OK.
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	Sat 7/20/02 There's been a slight delay in assembling the front of the engine because I noticed that an oil slinger had not been installed. When I asked for an "oil slinger" at the local Autozone I got blank stares instead. Fortunately, Summit had them, but unfortunately I have to wait a couple of days to get it. Anyway, during the delay I decided to put a clear coat of powder on the intake so it wouldn't corrode. This is the result.
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	Sat 7/20/02 This is the timing cover - when I was at Autozone I picked up a "front main seal" or "timing cover seal". I'm not sure if its supposed to be re-used or not, but I figured better safe than sorry. Here's a pic of the old seal still in the cover and the new one at the bottom.
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	Sat 7/20/02 The seal was a bit of a pain to remove. This is the way I finally was able to do it; inserting a pry bar between the cover and the seal, and putting a screwdriver on the bar, then tapping that with a mallet. I just went around a little at a time and it dropped right out.
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	Sat 7/20/02 Told ya so.
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	Sat 7/20/02 I figured this is as good a time as any to clean up some of the other components. Shown here is the water pump housing, timing chain cover (with the seal removed), the harmonic balancer, the crank and water pump pullies, alternator bracket, distributor hold-down, and a spark plug wire bracket. I'll probably turn up a few more things that will need to be cleaned up as I dig through the piles of engine parts strewn across my workbenches, but this should be the bulk of them. Here are the pieces as I pulled them off the engine.
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	Sat 7/20/02 And here they are after I sandblasted them. Well, actually I used a wire wheel on the alternator bracket and distributor hold-down until I got impatient and broke out the blaster.
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	Sun 7/21/02 And finally, here they are all powdercoated, except for the harmonic balancer, which I spray painted.
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	Sun 7/21/02 I decided to spray paint the balancer instead of powdercoat it because I noticed a layer or rubber in it, which I assumed wouldn't stand up very well to 400-450 degrees during the powdercoating process. I posted a message to the MML to check on that, and confirmed my suspicions. In order to paint it, I stuffed some paper towels in the middle to keep paint off of that surface, and I threaded some studs into the holes. This kept the paint out of the holes and also allowed me to stand it "upside down"; allowing me to paint both sides at the same time.
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	Sun 7/21/02 The back piece that mates with the front main seal I taped off to keep paint off of it too. You can see the rubber ring in this pic.
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	Sun 7/21/02 First I sprayed a couple coats of white into the timing grooves, and then I filled them with play-doh. Then I put a few coats of flat black on, and then a couple coats of clear. In retrospect, I wish I hadn't done the clear, because it turned the flat black into a gloss black - now it won't match the rest of the engine components. Oh well.
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	Sun 7/21/02 A pic of the front of the balancer.
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	Sun 7/21/02 A pic of the rear of the balancer.
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	Tue 7/23/02 To install the front main seal, I heated the timing chain cover to about 200 degrees, and set it face down on a bench, with a towel under it to protect the finish. I had to sort've hang part of it off the bench due to the timing tab on the front. I figured heating it might help a little by expanding the metal and making the seal easier to go in. I put a layer of sealer on the outside of the seal, and tapped it into place with a rubber mallet.
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	Tue 7/23/02 This is the oil slinger, which should go on after the crank gear.
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	Tue 7/23/02 Like so.
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	Tue 7/23/02 I pulled out a box of gaskets I had previously purchased to get out the timing cover gasket and discovered a front main seal in there! DOH! (I really hate when I do that!) Well, at least I've got a spare. (Sure, like I'm going to remember that...)
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	Tue 7/23/02 I was going to put the gasket on the timing cover first, but it didn't want to lay flat so I figured it would be easier to put it on the engine. I put a layer of sealant around the block surface, put the gasket in place, and held it down with the timing cover bolts.
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	Tue 7/23/02 Another layer of sealant went on the timing chain cover itself, and then I put the timing chain cover on the engine. That was a little tricky - it didn't want to fit into place very easily (over the locating pins). What I ended up doing was threading some bolts in and using them to "pull" the cover into place.
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	Tue 7/23/02 Next, I loosened up the timing chain cover bolts - a book I have said that would give me a little play to get the harmonic balancer centered in the front main seal, but it didn't move at all; I hope its centered... I put some oil on the front main seal and the mating surface on the harmonic balancer to prevent the seal from burning up when the engine first starts. I also squirted some oil into the timing chain, on the sprockets, etc. I put anti-sieze on the crank, and put the harmonic balancer in place, tapping it in with a rubber mallet. (Previously, I had hit both with some 400 grit sandpaper to make sure there wasn't any rust or anything that was going to hang them up.) I put the crank bolt in place, and now I'm supposed to tighten it to 135 lb-ft, both to draw the balancer fully in place and provide the final torque spec. I'm trying to figure out how to do that without having the engine spin... A book I have sticks a wooden hammer handle up into the crank, but I really don't want to have to drop the oil pan just yet if I don't have to...
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	Thu 7/25/02 The MML saves the day again. I posted there for suggestions, and got several answers. There are some folks who have used an impact wrench or a breaker bar with a hammer and just guessed, but there were some other ideas like jamming something into the starter gear, stuffing a cylinder with a nylon rope, and this one - using a chain on one of the harmonic balancer bolts. I used a grade 8 bolt threaded into one of the harmonic balancer holes, and slipped a chain over it (the other end of the chain I wrapped around part of the K member). I then torqued the crank bolt down to 135 lb-ft. It gave me a bit of a scare when, just as it reached 135 lb-ft, there was a loud SNAP! and the engine moved a bit. At first I thought, "I broke the bolt", then "I broke the balancer", then "I broke the crank", then "maybe it was just a motor mount". The bolt was fine though, the balancer seemed OK, and the other two didn't seem to make a lot of sense. What I am pretty sure happened is the chain slipped off the lip of the washer and snapped down onto the socket - this allowed the engine to spin just a bit and rock in the engine bay...
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	Thu 7/25/02 With the #1 piston at TDC on the compression stroke, its time to re-install the oil drive. I gave it a good coating of oil before dropping it into place. (To get to TDC, I used a wire to feel the piston coming up, verified that both valves were closed, and the top of the piston travel corresponded with the large mark on the harmonic balancer.)
127 - 93 KB
	Thu 7/25/02 When it is seated all the way down, the distributor groove is supposed to be in-line with the camshaft - like so.
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	Thu 7/25/02 A little vaseline on the distributor's rubber O-ring will help it to seal.
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	Thu 7/25/02 Standing at the passenger side of the motor, the vacuum cannister should point directly away from you, and the rotor should be pointing to approximately the 4 o'clock position. (An engine building book I have says 4:30...) The bottom of the distributor should engage with the slot in the oil drive shaft. When you install the distributor in this manner, the post that the rotor is pointing to is for the #1 cylinder.
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	Thu 7/25/02 I've installed the distributor hold-down, and I have also temporarily installed the distributor cap to check on the #1 plug wire position. The post the cap was pointing to was indeed the wire I had marked as being for the #1 cylinder when I disassembled the engine. That's got to be a good sign.
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	Thu 7/25/02 Time to set the lifter preload. The process for this is to start with the #1 cylinder at TDC on the compression stroke and adjust the #2 intake vale and #8 exhaust valve. Then, you rotate the engine 90 degrees (conveniently, my harmonic balancer has marks every 90 degrees) and adjust another intake valve and exhaust valve, and so on, according to the following chart: This piston is at TDC Intake valve to adjust Exhaust valve to adjust 1 2 8 8 1 4 4 8 3 3 4 6 6 3 5 5 6 7 7 5 2 2 7 1 The process I used to set the preload is to make sure the lock nut is loose, back off on the adjusting screw, then spin the pusrod between my fingers as I screw in the adjusting screw. When I started to feel some resistance to turning the pushrod, I turned the screw an additional turn (equates to .040"), then tighted up the lock nut with the 9/16" wrench. Unfortunately, this process pretty much wiped the lube off the cam and I've already used up the lube that Hughes sent with the cam and valvetrain. Guess I'll have to stop at the auto parts store to pick up some more and lube up the cam as best I can through the slots in the lifter valley.
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	Sat 7/27/02 Time to install the water pump housing. First, I spread sealer on the block, then put the gaskets in place. I used the bolts to align the gasket prior to pressing it against the block. (They also ensure that the gasket is installed correctly; if you install it upside down, two of the holes will line up but the third won't... )
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	Sat 7/27/02 I also spread some sealer on the water pump housing itself, and put it in position. It is held on by two bolts (the two bolts in the pic which are flush to the surface and have washers under them). I have the other bolts threaded partially in to be sure that the housing is lined up correctly and that all the bolts will go in once they need to. (You may notice the nice shiny bolts - I took my 30 year old, rusty, cruddy bolts to the hardware store and got new grade 8 equivalents.)
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	Sat 7/27/02 The thermostat and thermostat housing is next. That's the Mopar Performance chrome water neck. The bottom surface was a bit rough, so I cleaned it up a bit on a belt sander. Unfortunately, the holes didn't line up with the water pump housing, so I had to elongate them quite a bit. I used a liberal quantity of sealer on top of the water pump housing, then put the gasket in place, and set the thermostat on top of that. Some more sealer went on the bottom of the thermostat housing before I set it into place and bolted it down.
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	Sat 7/27/02 This is the Mopar Performance viscous fan. You need to attach the blades to the clutch unit with the provided bolts. Be sure you put it on right though, or you will be trying to blow air through the radiator instead of sucking it through... There is a stamp that says "ENGINE SIDE" on the surface that should face the engine (visible at the 6 o'clock position of the fan in the pic at the left). Of course, the clutch unit goes on the radiator side of the engine. Visible to the right of the fan is a Milodon aluminum high volume water pump. I wrapped a paper towel around the shaft and bearing then shot it with a couple coats of clear spray paint to try and keep the corrosion at bay. (I didn't want to powdercoat it with that bearing in there...)
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	Sat 7/27/02 I've put the power steering pump back in place; the bolts are tight but not snugged down yet - that'll come later when I actaully put the belts on.
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	Sat 7/27/02 I've put the alternator in place also. I have also just realized that the top bolt needs a spacer between the head and the alternator. I knew I heard something puke out from under the car when the old alternator bolt snapped! I guess it was the spacer. I'll have to do something about that before I go any further with this. You may also have noticed that I threaded the gauge and EFI temp sensors into place, and I just screwed the old water pump fittings in a couple of threads. I definitely don't plan on re-using them, but the lame hardware store I went to today had barely any barb fittings, let alone the size I needed. I think maybe I'll take care of those before I put the alternator in place; the forward fitting looks like it could be a bit difficult to tighten the hose clamp with the alternator bracket in place.
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	Sat 7/27/02 I've got the crank pulley in place too. The original bolts looked OK, so I re-used them. It took a little convincing to get the pulley to seat down fully on the vibration dampener. What I did was to thread the bolts in and tighten them down to draw the pulley into place. (Some pursuading with a rubber mallet helped too...) Then I removed each bolt one at a time, put some red loctite on them and torqued them down. (I couldn't find a torque spec for them so I went to 35 lb-ft.)
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	Sun 7/28/02 Next, I wanted to try out the priming shaft - and prime the oiling system. The only problem was that the oil pressure gauge is inside the car, so I had no way of knowing wether it would work. I suppose I could have somebody watch the gauge, but being a bit of a loner and also wanting to do everything myself, an alternate method was required. I put a camcorder inside the car, aimed at the oil pressure gauge...
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	Sun 7/28/02 ...and ran the video out cable to a small monitor on the fender, placed where I can see it as I prime the oiling system.
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	Sun 7/28/02 A close up of the monitor.
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	Sun 7/28/02 Here's how you prime the oiling system - a Mopar Performance priming shaft in a drill, set on reverse. The shaft goes down into the oil pump. (Obviously the distributor and oil drive must be removed first.) You'll need a pretty heavy duty drill for this though. I have a 5 amp drill, which was able to get the pressure up to 65-70psi or so, but the drill really started to bog down - then it got really hot and started to smoke. So, I just did it in short bursts, giving the drill some time to cool down. At least now the oil is already in the cam bearings, and hopefully up into the rocker shafts too. (I couldn't tell about the shafts - I didn't see any oil coming out, but I'm not sure if it is supposed to though without the cam turning... ? Oh, one tip I found while surfing the 'net was to wrap the priming shaft in electrical tape. Apparently it likes to rub against the oil drive bushing, which can damage the bushing and get little metal shavings in your oil too. The tape helps to prevent that.
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	Sun 7/28/02 I figured it was about time to drop the radiator back in. Before doing so, I hit the top of it with some flat black spray paint. I masked off the fins because I didn't want the paint to affect their efficiency. At least it looks a bit better now - it was pretty scratched up.
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	Sun 7/28/02 And here it is back in the car.
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	Mon 7/29/02 Time to get the intake in place... Here I am, stupidly following the directions... I put sealant on one side of the gasket...
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	Mon 7/29/02 ...then put it on the head.
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	Mon 7/29/02 Some more sealant on the other side of the gasket...
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	Mon 7/29/02 ...then sealant on both sides of the third and fourth gaskets, which sit on top of the valley pan...
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	Mon 7/29/02 ...which then drops down on top of the engine. The front and rear of the pan are secured with 3 bolts each, through a retaining bar. Of coruse, you put sealant under that too, and some generous gobs at the corners. The bar bolts get torqued to 15 lb-ft.
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	Mon 7/29/02 Then, the intake gets plopped down on top of that. Unfortunately, it didn't line up right! The intake would have to drop down further before the bolts could go in. I tried everything I could think of, including getting into the engine bay and kneeling on the intake as I attempted to tap it into place with a rubber mallet. No dice. Time to run to the MML for help!
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	Tue 7/30/02 Ok, as it turns out, a lot of people have this problem, and my situation wasn't helped out much by the fact that the block was decked. The cheapest recommendation offered by the MML was to install the intake without gaskets, just use sealer on both sides of the valley pan. If that didn't create enough clearance, I would have to mill the intake. In this pic, I have dropped the intake onto the engine just to see where the holes line up. (After cleaning the dried sealant off the intake and heads - that was fun... not!) Fortunately, I appear to have plenty of clearance! This might just work. I need to go buy some more sealant first though. Oh, and one other thing that made this intake ordeal even more fun... You may notice that I have stuffed a paper towel into the distributor opening. The reason for this was because after I had torqued down the valley pan, had everything gooped up, etc. I dropped a washer down into the distributor opening and it fell down past the cam!!! That is enough to make a grown man cry, I'll tell ya! FORTUNATELY, it hadn't fallen down into the crank area and I was able to fish it out with a magnet. So, you can imagine my state of mind after all that, when the intake didn't fit.
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	Thu 8/01/02 In the meantime, I figured I'd button up some of the other items. These heater hose connections, for example. Here are the replacements I got for the rusty, cruddy stock units. (1/2" barb with 1/4 MPT, and 5/8" barb with 3/8 MPT)
153 - 88 KB
	Thu 8/01/02 A little paste on the threads and they're in the engine.
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	Thu 8/01/02 I had to remove the washer behind this bolt in order to leave enough room for the heater hose and clamp. It just wouldn't work otherwise. (I've got a nice gouge in my finger now to prove it. Note to self: hose clamps can be sharp!!)
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	Thu 8/01/02 This hose is all set. I put a piece of duct tape over the other end and stuck it out of the way. Now that this hose is set I can get the alternator in place.
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	Thu 8/01/02 Which, if you will recall needed a spacer. I figured I'd use a bunch of washers, but it was a bit of a pain to try to install them all so, I put them all together on a bolt...
155 - 92 KB
	Thu 8/01/02 ...ran a few beads of weld down the sides...
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	Thu 8/01/02 ...and applied a concorse quality rattle-can paint job. Hey, didn't I see this on Dream Car Garage? Is it repro or NOS? Only my mechanic knows for sure! (Hey give me a break, its a driver! If I come across something nice for not too much money I'll consider it. For now this should do.)
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	Thu 8/01/02 Here's the alternator, in place and ready to go. (Except for the belts of course...) I was a bit squeamish about the bolt going into the aluminum head, and since Edelbrock didn't see fit to include any torque recommendations, I put some loctite on it and torqued it to 25 lb-ft.
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	Thu 8/01/02 I also took this opportunity to install the lower radiator hose. The hose that came off the engine had a spring sort of thing inside it, I assume to prevent suction from the water pump from collapsing it. Before installing the new hose, I stuck the spring inside.
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	Fri 8/02/02 Ok, lets try this intake thing again... I've put #2 non-hardening sealant on both sides of the valley pan.
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	Fri 8/02/02 And put blue RTV at the front and back of the block, with generous gobs at the corners...
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	Fri 8/02/02 ...then set the valley pan into place. I've threaded the bolts through the front and rear retaining bars just a few threads, but left them loose to give me some play for adjustment.
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	Fri 8/02/02 I set the intake in place, got all the bolts in hand tight (woohoo - it fit!) but as I was torquing down the middle front retaining bar bolt, there was a SNAP and I heard something hit the valley pan. I thought I had broken the bolt (at 15 lb-ft? yeah right...) but the bolt was fine. I had just about convinced myself that it was just the valley pan flexing, and snapping down into place, but I was just delaying the inevitable. I have too much time and money in this motor to not investigate an unknown like that. So... The intake and valley pan came off YET AGAIN. Good thing too, because look what I found in the lifter valley!
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	Fri 8/02/02 A close up - its a piece of the engine block!
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	Fri 8/02/02 Here's where it came from.
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	Fri 8/02/02 Another view...
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	Fri 8/02/02 I think this is the reason why... The holes were all clogged with old RTV; I ran a tap down them and in almost every hole, this is what it came up with!
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	Fri 8/02/02 Here's a shot of the block with that piece set in place. I was just checking to be sure there weren't any other chips that had come off and found their way into the engine.
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	Fri 8/02/02 Finally, the valley pan is back on, and so is the intake. Due to having aluminum heads, I used Edelbrock's recommended 25 lb-ft for the intake bolts instead of the usual 50 lb-ft. I torqued them in an X pattern, starting with the inside bolts, then the outside ones. In the same sequence, I tightened them down by hand, then torqued to 20 lb-ft, then 25 lb-ft.
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	Fri 8/02/02 Although I have purchased an actual overflow bottle because this one partially blocks the radiator, I have put it back in place for now - I don't need to be introducing new variables during the first engine start. Yes, that is in fact an antifreeze bottle crammed between the radiator and grille. The previous owner did that, and what can I say - its cheap, simple, and works! The KISS principle at its finest. I would leave it alone, but since it does partially block the radiator, I want to find an alternate mounting location.
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	Fri 8/02/02 Ok, lets figure out how to put together the rest of the cooling system...
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	Fri 8/02/02 First I put some sealant on the water pump housing.
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	Fri 8/02/02 I also put some sealant on one side of the water pump gasket, then placed it on the water pump housing.
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	Fri 8/02/02 Next, I installed the high flow water pump, using blue threadlocker on the threads and torquing them down to 30lb-ft. I didn't use washers under the bolt heads because during a "dry test-fit assembly" I discovered that the water pump pulley runs darn close to them - with washers under the bolts, it would be REALLY darn close.
176 - 96 KB
	Fri 8/02/02 Speaking of which, here's the water pump pulley which is just set into position over the water pump.
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	Fri 8/02/02 Then the fan is bolted on; the bolts go through the pulley and into the pump. I used red threadlocker on the fan bolts and secured them fairly tightly with a standard wrench. As you can see, I temporarily installed the alternator pulley in order to create some resistance to allow me to tighten down the bolts without the whole assembly rotating. I eventually plan to build a fan shroud, but this will do for now.
178 - 103 KB
	Sat 8/03/02 I disassembled the valve covers (removed the breather, PCV valve, oil baffles, etc) for degreasing and cleaning.
179 - 67 KB
	Sat 8/03/02 After reassembling the covers, I put a thin bead of the Right Stuff around them...
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	Sat 8/03/02 ...then put the valve cover gasket in place...
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	Sat 8/03/02 ...before bolting it into place. I did not use any sealant or anything between the head and the gasket because I expect to have the valve covers off a few times still to inspect the rocker arms and check the lifter preload.
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	Sat 8/03/02 I guess its about time to tackle these headers. This is not something I have been looking forward to. Lets just say I have heard horror stories... The first step is to get some air under the car. Ummm, you actually don't need this much air - some jack stands will work fine.
183 - 89 KB
	Sat 8/03/02 Here are the TTI E Body headers, ceramic coated. They come with a pair of collector reducers, all gaskets, and hardware.
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	Sat 8/03/02 The first step for me, since I am not doing an entire exhaust system at this point, is to figure out about where to cut my existing head pipes off. What I did was to measure the headers from the rear bolt hole to the collector (about 21"). Then, I hung a roll of duct tape from an electrical wire from the rear exhaust bolt, and measured back from there on the head pipes to find the place to cut.
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	Sat 8/03/02 Which I did...
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	Sat 8/03/02 This is the passenger side header - you put it up onto the engine from underneath the car. It is a tight fit! I had heard that the passenger side was the easiest (no steering shaft, steering box, or starter to get in the way), but this header was a real bear to get into place! If this was the easy side, I wasn't looking forward to the driver's side! I held the header in place with a couple of bolts, threaded in part way. I plan to slip the gasket in from the top later.
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	Sat 8/03/02 This is the driver's side. I thought I might be able to slip the header in there without removing the starter since I have the lightweight one. Not a chance! So, the starter came out.
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	Sat 8/03/02 After the starter was out, the driver's side header slipped into place as nicely as you please! Much easier than the passenger side. Unfortunately, now I had to figure out how to get the starter back in! As you can see in this pic, I have disconnected some of the steering components to try to get more clearance. I also tried dropping it in from the top. Still no dice. If I had manual steering, it might have worked. Anyway, what I ended up doing was to pull the header back out about halfway, and holding the header in one hand and the starter in the other, inserted them simultaneously. (Yeah, that's about as fun as it sounds...)
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