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Good news!!!! Yesterday I turned 6 of them maybe 1/8 turn at most. Two of them was for sure less if any at all. I soaked them all with Kroil after that. Today 6 of them come out fairly well. Still tight but did not hurt the threads. The other two that were the tightest from yesterday had no change at all. I heated the metal part of the plug up to where it was much hotter than a normal operating temperature but for sure not red hot. I sprayed them with oil till they cooled down. A real smoky mess. An hour later they turned about a half turn. I done it again and an hour later they come out. All 8 are out now with good threads left in the heads.
I took a half day off and pulled the front end out of the car. Tomorrow I plan to fire it up and do some testing on the engine. I want to do a compression test and a leak down test. At this time I still do not plan to rebuild it.
I was not sure if I could have this done by the end of April but it is looking like I can so far.
I was not going to pull the heads but one of the cylinders was at 40% on the leak down test. Turned out that the exhaust valve was slightly sticking on that cylinder. I am not doing anything to the rotating assembly, There is no compression grove at all. Very healthy! I will put a new timing set in it also.
I wish! This is where I work. My garage is nearly full right now. My 62 Jetfire is on the lift and Melissa's car under it and lots of other stuff packed in there for the winter. Also with the electric bill going higher and higher, I don't run the heat in there. At work, there is a crane and heat... Tomorrow I have to go back and clean up the mess so it is out of the way for Monday's work.
I'm surprised the bumper could take all that weight without damage. The '62 bumpers sure couldn't.
These could never take it if the engine and suspension were still attached. I seriously doubt the front is 600 lbs without the interior front end and transmission.
Pulled the heads apart and done a light cleaning of the heads. The valve guides are fantastic! I will clean up the valves tomorrow and reseal them. Hopefully they can just be lapped in. Without cleaning them up, so far they look perfectly fine and no wear.
Started cleaning the engine and pulled the cam. Sadly, the cam has more wear than I expected. Since I am replacing the cam and lifters and already resealed the valves, I think it would be silly to not re-ring it as well at this point. Tomorrow I will pull the pistons. Some of the parts are painted with more bead blasted tonight and ready to paint tomorrow.
Pulled more parts from under the hood. I need to remove as much as I can and will paint that area. I want it to look really nice under the hood. I am not considering this a restoration under the hood but it will look that way to most people.
I am getting to the point I really want to do a major restoration but it simply is not going to happen on this car.
Another fun project. Fixing an old car is such a rabbit hole to go down! You know you need to fix what needs it, but while I’m doing this I’ll just do this also, etc…. Where do you stop? Tough calls to make. As long as you dont do body and paint. That’s where the dollars start to add up quick in my opinion.
The more you show me about those jetfire’s the more I like them.
Going to use moly rings so I will take it to the machine shop to be honed proper. I am sure it would be fine if I done it but at this point, it is a full rebuild so no reason to not get it done by a shop. Will be standard bore and crank. The rings had nearly no wear on them. The bearings were also fine. I think this engine was in better shape than my 44.000 mile 62 engine was.
Well, All the machine shops are backlogged so decided to do it myself. Started with 220 grit till the compression groove was gone. It hardly had a compression groove at all but it is gone now. After that I finished with a 400 grit since it will be moly rings. I didn't get to a 45 degree crosshatch but it is going to be fine.
Block is cleaned up. Will wash with soap and water tonight and blow dry good. Parts are supposed to be here today. Would like to have it all together by the end of the day Saturday.
Just blessed with a very understanding wife. My oldest is 18 and about to graduate so I will have events and things coming up with her. My youngest just turned 16 and gets her permit today so I will be going out driving with her soon. Till then, it is full steam ahead on this project. Also helps that I know these cars now very well and know what needs to happen in what order. Want it done by May so I can drive it in my Cruising Brazil (Indiana) event.
Done the final cleaning of the block yesterday. Blew it as dry as I could and then set it on the wood stove to fully dry. Also have the rocker shafts cleaned up. It seams the shafts are always full of sludge no matter how well the engine was taken care of. I started cleaning the ring grooves in the pistons tonight and will finish that tomorrow and then do the final cleaning of the pistons and rods. Would like to install the rings tomorrow night as well. Not sure it will happen but I plan to have this engine done Saturday before I leave for a mens meeting at Church at 6 pm. I suppose I may have to finish Sunday after Church.
Got the heater control valve back and looks great. Hope it works as good as it looks.
Cleaned the ring grooves, washed the pistons, and installed the rings tonight. I should easily have the rotating assembly in and heads on tomorrow. Would like to have all of it together tomorrow and prime the oil.
Did not get as far as I wanted to but that is ok. Had something else come up that took some time today. The timing cover is ready to go on and the intake is not far behind.
Got the oil pump and oil pan on. Added oil and primed the pump till oil come out all the rockers. Working on the intake manifold and getting it ready. Bead blasted the intake bolts but need to Phosphate those before I install it. Hope to do that tomorrow on lunch and put the intake on when I get home. Still waiting on the balancer to come back.
The engine is done for the most part. Started painting the Turbo Rocket Fluid tank this morning before work. Hopefully I can have the engine and trans all back in it within a couple weeks and start moving on the brakes.
I picked up this turbo a couple years back. it had been rebuilt by a place in Canada in 1984. I have seen some really junk rebuilds on these things before but I chanced it anyway. I pulled it apart and to my surprise, it was fantastic inside! They must have rebuilt it when the seal was still available from TRW because it is new and not a cobbled together aftermarket one. I repainted it to look more original and put most of it back together. Still need to put a controller together for it. The carburetor and fluid injection I had already built and had on my 62 4 speed car before I took that car apart to restore it. This "was" going to be the new carburetor setup for that car but then decided to do another one that would look even better for the 62. So with this carburetor sitting around and this turbo sitting around, I made a full system out of it.
About to start of other parts of the car now that the engine is ready. Still waiting on the balancer to come back. I forgot to test the alternator when I had the engine running so I will take it to the parts store and put it on their tester. I may just bolt it on and see that way, it is easy to remove if it has a problem. If the weather will cooperate I will paint under the hood soon and then be ready to go back together.
Heater core and parts are ready to go back in but have to paint the firewall first. I also want to water test the car before I put to much together. Any leaks to the interior need fixed now.
Was not going to work on this today but our plans were canceled. With the weather pretty good I decided to paint. It is so difficult for me to decide what to restore/repaint and what not to. With it not being a full restoration I simply have to stop someplace but it drives me crazy. I hope the paint dries slightly less glossy. This was a semi gloss and I suspect I should have went with a little less gloss. To late now, I am running with it.
Finely got it on the lift and spent time under it. Pulled the tank and the floors look great! The tank looks fine on the outside, just hope the inside looks as good.
This is a really crude video but I show how to set dwell and ignition timing without starting the engine and then doing the cam break in. Don't laugh to hard at my terrible video skills. Now on to tuning it good with the cam now broke in.
Couldn't sleep so decided to go out early and install the car. I may not get to work on it again for a few days. I am hoping to tonight but not sure it will happen.
