Back Home Again , I dove right in cleaning and scraping off the old paint and wire brushing the rust : I also grabbed a stock HEI Dizzy from a 1980 G/10 Van : It's pretty grimy inside and out but , everything was there and of good quality so I'll clean it all up like new : All in all I got the P.S. Pump and flex fan plus the HEI dizzy with cap & wires for just under $50 , no warrantee of course . The last time they wanted over $50 just for the dizzy , more if I wanted the cap and wires etc.... greedy bastids . The dizzy was full of grease and dirt and the wires were dead black but now of it was old and the wires are all silicone so I took it apart and began cleaning ~ it looks and works As-New again now , $aving me Some $erious $ .
Picture Weirdness I don't understand why some pictures open and others you have to click the blue hyper links but they're there , enjoy . The flex fan had really bad black crud on it but NO RUST / DENTS so I scrubbed it and scrubbed it , the blades are shiny stainless steel , this is a 35 year old AMERICAN MADE flex fan so I'll prolly paint the steel center part gloss black , not sure if I'll use it or not yet , I was lucky to find it before any yard apes bent it out of ignorance . All the paint is off , now to hand wire brush it an hour or three : A small leak was brazed up decades ago : I think it'll look fine , it had clean red ATF in it so I carefully washed it out inside .
Thanx Steve ; To answer your question on page 1 : no , your interest doesn't make you a Die hard , just interested in trying to do a good job . Let's see now , where were we ? . Oh yes , why I insist on BLISTERING HOT oil and filter changes ~ this is the oil pan as removed from my old 250 engine that burned oil , a quart every 150 ~ 200 miles (didn't leak a drop) and fouled the spark plugs every 150 miles until I added HEI : Here's the oil intake screen : And the crank & rods :
Cleaning & Prep. Cleaning off the old paint and rust takes time and diligence plus a $23 Harbor Freight variable speed drill motor and Lord alone remembers how many wire wheels , they're cheaper to buy when carded and occasionally on sale , then I buy two or three cars regardless of how many I may / may not have at home already . Notice the safety gear ! : View attachment 14116 Clean enough yet ? : Oh poo , apparently I can only add a few pictures at a time or they vanish... More to - morrow I hope .
Here I go again, talkin' about big trucks on a pickup forum... I practice your HOT oil change recommendations. Have for along time. When ever my Caterpillar is due, I put it in the shop, cool the turbo, and immediately pull the drain plug. Also, punch a hole in the spin-on filter, and let it drain overnight. It's so hot, I have to wear rubber chem gloves and keep out of the direct flow. It seems easier too, in the morning just finish the service, fill it up and done. Your engine is lookin' good, Nate. Glad you found your P.S. pump. Wonder how your paint sprayer guy is doing?
More Progress Good morning ! . I took off the tappet covers and found squeaky clean inside : Then I removed the rockerbox to find : View attachment 14119 Good supervision is a MUST ! : Well , I see it's not allowing me to load pictures again..... SIGH .
HOT Oil Changes Steve ; My Metropolitan Nash FHC has an inverted spin on typ oil filter and yes , poking a hole in it helps drain the oil but I'm usually in a rush so I drain it and stuff a towel under neath the filter and try to catch as much spilled oil as is possible... My main thrust here was to show that yes , you really can " DRIVE YOUR ENGINE CLEAN ! " and you don't need anything fancy nor expen$ive to do so . Before this , I was working on the manifolds , the old exhaust one had no heat risor flapper and broken off screws where the choke stove goes , the intake manifold has a bracket stupidly welded to it so I kept an eye out for a good used 194/230/250/292 exhaust manifold and bought one , carefully took them both apart and set to work . I refuse to ever bead blast anything that touches engine oil or faces internally so it's a lot of hard hand work to clean up the intake manifold , here it is ready to install , I ran taps through all the bold / screw holes in the exhaust manifold and lubricated the heat risor flapper with MOPAR graphite lube so it won't rust stuck : .
292 Parts Well ; I have TWO 292's taken apart and scattered about the place ~ back yard , kitchen , back porch , garage , back yard , two engine stands.... . it's a mess to be sure . Plus a buncha extra parts , exhaust manifolds etc. . I even have an original 61 Ampere Delcotron alternator I hope to use whenever I get the late model 292 overhauled and into my truck....
Push Rods O.K. , I took the lightly dented rockerbox off and discovered a bent push rod so off to my favorite Self Service Junk Yard I went to harvest one , when I got there and removed the rockerbox off the 1980 Chevy G/10 van I found this : Pretty nasty eh ? : The push rods were slightly different than the bent on in my engine and there's no way I'm having mis matched parts in my engine so I gabbed them all , you can see the slightly bent one here : Looks like it's allowing me to post pix to - day .
Obtw : Remember back in post # 9 I mentioned Steve lost a wheel ? : Steve like me , is an old car nutter , he's *very* fond of his old Triumph TR3 Roadster , it's actually better than it looks but he drives it very hard and doesn't worry about how it looks . We were blasting on down the freeway going 75 , me in my Metropolitan Nash Fixed head Sports Coupe , every so often his Trumpet would weave a bit , apparently he had loose lug nuts as he finally pulled off the freeway in Simi Valley and just as he pulled into the gas station this happened ~ I was right behind him when the wheel came vaulting out from underneath the car . Glad it wasn't when he was speeding ! .
Whew O.K. ; The ding-danged Mercedes radiator split yesterday and had badly clogged fuel filters from fungus too so that kinda screwed up my afternoon . I was able to get the push rods all nice and shiny , the black crud really was crud ~ I work in an open drain pan , soak the parts with de greaser , put on some gloves and grab solvent brush , paint brush and an old rag ~ this time I had to literally scrape the mung off ! then I was able to use the de greaser soaked rag to clean the rods shiny again , looks like I was polishing them . I also cleaned up the big chip bag full of hardware they gave me and the Power Glide flywheel cover too ~ amazingly , it's *perfect* ~ not a ding nor rust blemish on it . The sun went down before I could get more than this one picture :
Nate, You sure don't have anything against getting tight up against hard work. We have a hot tank, electrolysis de-rusting barrel, soda, sand, and media blasters along with a vibratory and tumbler and don't get them any better looking than your elbow grease approach. All the fancy stuff is faster which is necessary to keep the hours down the customer is paying for but no better. No wonder you head straight for the recliner at days end.
Thanx Evan ! Yes Evan ; You are correct , I love manual labor , it allows one to really bond with the project . If I had those wonderful fancy-schmancy tools I'd use 'em and get even more done but what the heck . Yesterday I spent hours with de greaser and various wire bushes plus an old toothbrush cleaning the TH350 tranny , it had some sort of old brown coating on it I finally got off , WHEW ! . I hope it's O.K. to have the alloy case clean and shiny ! . Here's the other side : This tranny was ' rebuilt ' in Texas before I bought the truck , does the yellow Torque Converted many anything ? maybe indicates a particular rebuilder ? :
NATE!!! That's a turbo 350 ya got there. Only 3 speeds! You know they started making 4 speed overdrive GM transmissions in, oh, I don't know, 1982ish? Keep the cool old 6 banger, but think how much more fun it would be in the canyons with about 3:73s and an extra high gear for the hiway. Anyway, carry on. Make sure the lump in the cushion isn't one of your supervisors.
Trannies & Supervision Thanx Steve ! Didn't I mention it was a TH350 before ? . oops . I did buy a rebuilt TH350C , this being the short lived TH350 with lock up torque converter ~ I have it stashed in a bix box and hope to install it when I build a 292 for this truck . The ' Supervisors ' are smart about not getting under the big sheet I keep draped over the recliner , so far I've not killed/maimed one by flopping on top . I really hurt something lifting that dang TH350 around a few times ~ first my back then my right arm then my right shoulder and now my left shoulder have been hurting so I have been taking it easy for now.... Getting old SUX ! I remember juggling these TH350 trannys when I was 35 Y.O.... Gravity is obviously increasing because I work too much to be getting any weaker.... Or maybe , just *maybe* all those kindly Old Men who tried so hard to warn me 50 years ago , were right and I have ruined my precious gift from God , my body . Oh well , too late to stop now but I can complain . . My Big Brother just shot me a message , he's working on his old Mercedes and soon to move onto his 5 years (longer ?) 1979 Dodge D300 and wants me to watch & Supervise , no dogs allowed over there .
