My addiction is coming back together (not 56K friendly)

[JoshT]

My engine is coming back together (not 56K friendly)

Pics of my new engine pre and during paint. Sorry there all camera phone pics, couldn't find my digital camera. Posting the thumbnails here, click on them for larger image.

This is what my weekend consisted of:

These two are from Saturday




Sunday was extended family christmas dinner, so obviously no work.

Monday was spent masking every little nook and cranny I could find

Tuesday afternoon. (Christmas day)
(primer & first coat color)




(color & clear)







I'm beginning to think my goal of driving it on new years day could come to reality. All I got left is to resurface the flywheel, pick up a clutch, install a new output shaft seal in the transmission, get belts & hoses, make my braided fuel lines, get a distributor cap and rotor, the needed fluids, and reinstall all of it. Oh yeah also need a base gasket for the Holley, which should be the hardest part to find.

 

[skippy]

looking good josh!

 

[JoshT]

Wow! Just got done pulling the transmission off the old motor, and all I can say is that thing is much lighter than I expected. Considering it's weight it shouldn't be near as hard as I expected to reinstall it and align it with the motor. Well tomorrow will be a big day as I'll be putting the final preinstallation touches on the engine, rolling the truck into the bay, and possibly putting the transmission back in. Got to relocate the bolts for my transmission cross member, the got mixed up with some other stuff, but worse case scenario I'll get new ones. If I do get the transmission back in tomorrow, I may have it ready to run by the end of the day on Saturday. Clean parts sure make the work go easier don't they. Well wish me luck!

 

[JoshT]

Well I'm just about there, got the engine and transmission in and bolted up. All I got left is to install the Distributor, Intake manifold, Carburetor, radiator, power steering pump, starter. Pretty sure I can have it running today. Hit the bed here in a few minutes, wake up in about 5-6 hours and finish it up.

 

[JoshT]

So close to finishing but I hit one heck of a snag. The new radiator I bought is a 3 row, rather than 2 row like came out of it. I understood it to be a direct bolt in from a discussion that I believe was on the old board, and well it wasn't. One of the pass side coolant tank on the 2 row is smaller than the one on the 3 row. Shortly before that happened the tab on the dipstick tube (used to bolt to block) just up and fell off. I just said the heck with it for tonight, tomorrow I'll hit the junkyard try to find the pads and bracket, and try to find the spare dipstick I have lying around. Anyway once I come up with those parts, put on the starter, hook up the exhaust, it'll just be a matter of adjusting the valves and praying that it fires on up. Hope I don't have it 180 out of time.

 

[JoshT]

Score! Found my brackets this morning, gotta go back tomorrow and get the bottom as I accidentally grabbed the wrong side. Really got lucky as the truck I pulled the bracket off of also had a grille that I'm going to get. It's got the round tube grille insert like LMC truck used to sell for the first gens, it's similar to the one in the pic below. I'm going to go back and get the correct lower pad, the grille, and anything else I can think of.

 

[skippy]

varoom!gettin close huh?

 

[BigTirez]

Very nice looking truck there JoshT....how much lift and what size tires do you have on that thing? Your description in your signature doesn't seem to fit....

Also, how do you get the pictures to post? I have tried posting pics of my truck but can't seem to get it to work.

 

[JoshT]

Yeah that truck isn't mine, just using it to illustrate the grille I found in the junkyard. This is my truck:

For posting pics, whither in quick reply or advanced, click the little yellow box that looks like

and put in the picture location when prompted. If that doesn't work for you the tags you use when doing it manually are (img)image location goes here(/img) but you have to replace () with []. It's a bit more complicated to do it the way I did with the embedded link, first get used to doing the normal way then I might show you my way.

 

[JoshT]

Looking at that pics just makes me thing I need to get a new hood (well get the new one painted), I need to reinstall the window trim (after replacing window), and I need a wider rear axle, and I need to drop it about 3/3.

 

[JoshT]

Well I got it running, but...

It's hot to the extreme, water gushing out if the radiator, temp gauge is over the N in tow minutes or less. Not positive but I believe I got a bad head gasket in the gasket set. Going to hit it with a compression tester tomorrow, since I'm almost 100% positive that it's only one cylinder leaking it should should give a fairly indication if I have a leak. Engine runs to well for it to be more than one cylinder, but it does have a skip which leads me to believe that it might have low compression. The radiator is actually acting like it has a lot of air trapped in the system, but the only way I can see to have that much is if exhaust gasses are leaking into it.like I said I'm going to check compression first, but if I get no indication there I'll probably work it by hand watching for bubbles in the radiator. If I get no indication there it's draining the cooling system to check the thermostat.

 

[JoshT]

Compression test results were great so I don't believe it's a problem with the head or head gasket. Now on to the possibility. Dad thinks there might be a roblem with the intake gasket that could cause this ao I'll probably pull it and check, hell I gotta drain the coolant to check the T-stat anyway so I might as well.

 

[JoshT]

Help!!!

To any of the engine gurus out there any ideas? I'm going to pull the T-stat today and see what it does without, and if that don't work next step will be pulling the heads to visually inspect everything. If yall have any ideas please put them fourth before I have to start digging back into the motor.

 

[Forcus]

The intake is a possibility but there is a very lengthy air purging process for the 2.8 (I can't remember if it is in the book or on a sticker under hood - I want to say sticker underhood). I think you have trapped air.

I'll make a note to look at my truck and find the instructions if it would help you out.

 

[JoshT]

Almost anything would help at this point. Not going to have a chance to drain it today but hopefully tomorrow.