Block Party

The machine shop can't check or clean the block with the pistons or crank in - so today I removed the last of the rotating assembly.

I did a bit of Tetris in the garage to start off- all the stuff we ordered is now just laying around in the way. I used a bit of the bar area in the house to store boxes and parts (temporarily! temporarily!) so we have a bit of room to work. It's tight but we'll make it work.

Minimalism is about reducing the thing to its essence

Inspected and marked all of the connecting rod caps before disassembly.

Plowing ahead out of my comfort zone, I finished the disassembly of the Ford 289 by removing the pistons and crank this morning. The kid was asleep, and I felt slightly guilty about finishing this myself, but damn, there is totally no underestimating how crack-o-noon late a teenager can and will sleep in on a weekend morning! So sorry to the kid, I'll make sure he's conscious and caffeinated for the reassembly I guess.
 
The connecting rods were  stamped, but before I started, I dyed and numbered them again to be sure. I've assisted on a few motor rebuilds in the past, but since this is my first solo no-training-wheels run, I'm being pretty slow and deliberate. No hurry. I saw the neighbor glance across the driveway and into the garage bay, spying the engine internals arranged on a work table. I got a 'oh wow cool' look, which made me smile. What'd be even cooler is if I manage to put this thing back together and it runs. We'll see!

Bearings have some scoring, pistons look good

So I got all the pistons out. One of the books I'm working out of says that after I loosen the caps I need to tap on the pistons with a dead blow hammer and wooden dowel to get them out. Wooden dowel? Didn't really have one handy- I searched the house high and low, and ended up, er, appropriating a wooden rod my wife uses to hold the front door open, and used that. What do ya know, the ol' wooden dowel technique really works well! She shouldn't miss that thing until spring or thereabouts, so we're golden.

To do: I need to order new connecting rod bearings and rings. I will also need a piston ring pliers. 

Engine uber-experts, inspect away - bearings a little look burnt to me.

Next, I got the bearing caps off and the crankshaft out. I like that we've gone to the lengths we have at this point, because after the crank came out I did see some galling and scoring on some of the bearings, including the main thrust bearing. So if we had merely installed the new heads, valvetrain, and intake, there's no telling how long this engine would have run before encountering problems.

To do: I need to order main bearings, rear main seal, connecting rod bearings, camshaft bearings, main bearing cap hardware, and harmonic balancer.

How many man points you get for ordering up a magnaflux job?

So there it is, the essence, the bare block. I will send it, the timing cover, oil pan, and crankshaft to the machine shop. First thing I'll have them do is ensure the block is worth rebuilding by checking it for cracks or other game-ending imperfections. Second thing I'll ask them to do is to check the crank journals to make sure they're ok. They look ok to me, but I see what looks like it might be slight scoring, but what do I know? Machinist will let me know what's up. If everything is ok, I'll have them hot tank the block, pan, and timing cover and return it to us clean and ready to paint

Next, welding. Lots and lots of welding.

In the next installment, I will show you why it's stupid to buy a welding cart after you buy a welder. As in, we're going to make a welding cart! And we're going to make a wall rack to store rims and tires, and whatever other fab thoughts invade our brains because WELDER MUAHAHAHA. If you missed the announcement, yeah Christmas came early and my family who loves me bought me a wirefeed MIG welder. So we can patch the floors, fabricate brackets, and indoctrinate the kid Xavier into the "joins metal with fire" club, secret handshake and all!

More pictures from this weekend:

Happy Thanksgiving! Smoking a turkey and putzing around in der garage!

Yes, that's a snowblower in the background. Winter's coming! You know nothing, Jon Snow.

Easy, killer. Yeah, on tight.

I-L-L!

 

Crankpin and main journals - what do you think?

Cracking the code

So I've been trying to piece together the story of the car. I have some of the history in a great album full of photos, including a restoration performed in the late 1980's. There are however some inconsistencies that made me wonder if the narrative was accurate.

 

Where'd the driver's door come from? 

This sticker matches the VIN on the driver's door, but...

The first thing I wanted to research relates to the window sticker that came with the car. Sure enough, the details of the VIN and options in the window sticker match the VIN and trim codes on the door (5F07Dxxxxxx). It indicates a 1964-1/2 289 4V (4 barrel carb) coupe**. The trim codes matched the tuxedo interior, and 3-speed transmission, but the paint code is hinky - This is a Rangoon Red car, the trim code specifies "Wimbledon White".  Additionally, the VIN found on the inner fender (5F07Cxxxx) indicates a 1965 289 2V coupe (which this is) Conclusion: The driver's door must be a replacement, sourced from a (probably junkyard) 1964-1/2 GT coupe. Even though I have insurance papers from the former owner that show the car as a GT-optioned vehicle, the details in the Mustang Restoration Guide refute that as well. The only we have that one would find on a real GT is the rear valence and exhaust horns. The car is missing just about every other detail that would be standard on a GT, such as rallye gauges, rocker panel trim delete, and GT trim pieces.

This is from a really cool 64-1/2 GT, but not ours

Where'd this engine come from?

C8OE 6015 A - 1968 Fairlane block

Once I pulled the engine and flipped it over, I noticed some casting numbers:

0-C8OE-6015-A

Decoded, we find out that this block came from either a 1968 Ford Fairlane or a 1968 Torino.  

  C8 = 1968
  O  = Fairlane or Torino

C6OE - 1966 Fairlane heads

  E  = Engine

I went back for fun and checked the heads, which are stamped:

289/66 C6OE

which is a 1966 Fairlane or Torino.

C5AR 705D - 1965 Mustang manual trans

Transmission, intake manifold, timing cover, and water pump?
C5AR, C8AE, C5OE, and C8AE, respectively. So, looks like the trans might be original as well as the timing cover. The rest is a mixed bag of 1965, 1966, and 1968 Mustang and Fairlane parts.


Looks like I don't need to worry about the engine staying with the car, or even about the heads staying with the engine since it looks like it was all mix-and-matched sometime in the past.

Thanks to MustangTek for decoding aids! 

C8AE 8425 - 1968 Mustang intake

** Note interestingly enough that even though the window sticker VIN shows a 289 4V engine ("D" code), the option detail then contradicts the VIN (!) by specifying a 289 2V engine. I can't reconcile that- it makes me wonder if this window sticker is a reproduction or something.

C5OE - 5059 - 1965 Fairlane timing cover

C8AE - 1968 Mustang water pump

Captain curiosity changes the plan

Taking off the pan - this was not part of the original plan

The plan as conceived was to ditch the engine components that I didn't want to mess with (heads, cam, carb). I was simply going to throw the new heads and cam on and button it all back up. This of course was a fiction I told myself. I don't even know why I fool myself into believing I won't disassemble the engine down to the bare block. I mean, I am the same guy who in 4th grade, took a very nice wristwatch given to me by my grandmother and disassembled it during class in a fit of curiosity.**  This weekend I came clean and acknowledged that we're going all the way.

Don't ask the Internet how to do this

ZOMG Danger! (not really)

This all started when I decided the clean off the deck of the engine block - there was a lot of old gasket material on the one side. This stuff was more stuck than I've seen in the past, so I Googled "remove head gasket material", which produced a zillion forum posts and YouTube videos, most containing full-on flame wars about all the ways people go about this, followed up with posts by other people exclaiming that using any of the methods explained would somehow ruin the engine.*** After starting and stopping a couple of times, I decided that having the opportunity to go through everything shouldn't be ignored. And if I go down to the bare block, I can just hot tank all that crap off (I can keep making excuses - like I said, I gotta be honest about my predisposition towards just taking everything apart. I'm good with it)

 

Back to the teardown then

The kid, pulling the harmonic balancer.

Since we now need to remove the crank, thought I'd show Xavier how to use a puller to pull the harmonic balancer. We took the time to discuss what the balancer does, and about rotating assemblies, forces, and physics in general.

So here's the list of what we removed this weekend:

• Oil pan, oil pump
• Distributor
• Harmonic balancer
• Timing chain cover, timing chaing
• Lifters, cam, cam sprocket
• Flywheel

Only thing left is to remove the main bearing caps, pistons and connecting rods. We will then send the block out for cleaning.

 

Inadvisable color plan - let's do it!

This photo has nothing to do with the color - I just like it :)

 Xavier and I have been tossing final color plans around, but since we're going to be working on the engine bay and engine soon, we decided to nail down some colors. The color we're picking for the finished car is a 2013 BMW color called "Black Sapphire Metallic"++ which looks damn near black, sheens blue under the sun gun. To get the contrast we want, we decided to get crazy and paint the engine bay and the block Alpine White and Gunmetal Metallic, respectively. Yeah - white engine bay. Should be awesome looking, if we can keep after the "clean+detailed" part. And if the engine doesn't spew oil everywhere. The practical part of me cringes, but the artist in me loves this scheme.

 

Camshaft Forensics

 

So last week, we were wondering why we found a valley full of bent pushrods. Since we pulled the cam this week, I wanted to explore one theory as to why the valvetrain was damaged: AKA the "crazy cam profile" theory, which posits that if the cam produced a valve opening greater than 0.5", it could bend something.  I took some time to measure the cam and see if we can't figure this out.

I measured the cam lobes as:
1.575" DIA
1.735" Eccentric
(intake and exhaust were identical)

The rocker arm ratio for the Ford 289 is 1.6, which gives us:

1.735" - 1.535" == 0.16" cam lobe height

0.16" x 1.6 == 0.256" valve opening height

Disproves the crazy cam theory. Maybe I'll go through the old heads later on to see if we have 7 stuck valves.


** For the record, I was using whatever "tools" available in my desk during my brief amateur horology stint. Think pen clips, safety scissors, and spiral notebook wire. After getting the bezel off the back to expose the jeweled escapement and fiddling with a miniscule screw, the main spring exploded out of its little nest and shot across the room, as the wide-eyed 10-year-old me watched in amazement. Gramma believed every young gentleman should have a smart wristwatch. I got sort of grounded. Despite the punishment, I am still trying to prove to myself that given the right attitude and tools, I could repair that damn watch, if I ever happened to locate that damn spring.

*** I read screeds about everything from "red ScotchBrite will rain aluminum oxide down into the bearings" to "the plastic Roloc discs will remove enough material from the engine deck to screw up the cylinder head mating surface". Mostly, I observed a whole lot of professional mechanics calling each other names. For the record, I found this guy to be the most reasonable.

++ Color codes: 
BMW-MINI-475 (Black Sapphire Metallic)
BMW-300 Alpinweiß III (White)
no paint/manufacturer picked yet for "Blue Gunmetal Metallic"

More pics from this weekend:

 

Engine, engine, number 9

Cars and Coffee

"Back on the scene, crispy and clean. You can try, but then why, cause you can't intervene."

I started my weekend with the guys from the Illini Automotive Club and the Legion Car Club at the last Cars and Coffee of the year - a little cold but there were some very nice folks and great cars. I showed the e46. An older gentleman told me my car was nice, but wondered what was special about it, and I told him it was a pile of parts spread across my garage floor last July, and discounting the minor performance and engineering mods I did on it that are largely unnoticeable unless you are driving, the biggest specialness was that it now it starts and runs. He seemed to be satisfied with that answer. I was glad to meet the Legion Club folks - very down to earth and genuine car nuts. I hope to roll with them again in the future.

Engine Pull Time

"I think you'll get with this, 'cause this is where it's at."

Xavier and I finally yanked the engine. So for all my bragging on my meticulous prep, I humbly present all the stuff I had forgotten to detach: speedometer cable, starter positive wire, clutch linkage. After we worked through it, the engine came out pretty nicely.

 

Victory!

The trans is stanky? Need to rethink that

The bag I zip-tied to the back of the transmission ruptured during the pull. Good thing actually- The trans fluid was brown and, oh gawd did it stink. Trans fluid is like your Avon lady; It's supposed to be sticky sweet, pink, and happy.  The sour mess that came out of the 3-speed makes me think I may just need to replace the trans with a T5 5-speed and call it a day. I don't even feel like figuring out what's up in there, or when I think it's going to let go. The trans is out of the car, and now would be the opportune time to make this change. I'll make sure it's awesome when we button it back up. Maybe I just needed an excuse (or permission).

Inspection surprises

"If my train goes off the track, Pick it up! Pick it up! Pick it up!" 

Eye test: Spot anything weird?

After reading the notes from the former owner's engine rebuild notes, I didn't think Xavier and I would
find any weirdness, but then again my buddy Jason, who sold me the car, complained that the cam selection might have bordered on the insane, and also mentioned that the car tended to overheat. In fact, he'd had many a mechanic scratch their heads trying to chase down tuning, cooling, and other problems to little success. We found out why.

Too bad the nine happy ones can't help the seven hammered ones.

16 pushrods, 7 bent?

When Xavier and I loosened the rocker arms, I saw that he had what looked to be like one or two bent pushrods. Uh Oh! When I pointed it out, he mentioned that he could see some on my side. WTF!?! After all was said and done, we removed seven bent-to-shit pushrods, which is the kind of thing that makes one remove the cylinder heads with their eyes closed, and then peeks to see if there's a hole in a piston. Even here there was a teachable moment- we pulled all the spark plugs on the cylinders with the trashed pushrods to see if the plugs had any signs we could use to diagnose a bent pushrod in the future. Turns out they did present as scorched with black carbon deposits on the garbage side, and normal tan-to-brown deposits on the undamaged side, which can be best described as a "Jekyll-and-Hyde" appearance. Noted. Also noted: for all the tuning and messing around, this engine would never had run right without a valvetrain rebuild. No wonder Jason was chasing weird performance and tuning problems all over the place. Bent pushrods screw up everything.

Pistons and cylinder walls verdict

I called WWTD Tim to discuss how I could end up with bent pushrods if a piston hadn't whacked a valve. He indicated that if the cam had too much lift, or if the pushrods hadn't enough lubrication, they could seize or stick enough to bend that way. It's possible also that we had some lifters sticking or a valveguide/valve stick. Whatever the cause, looks like the pistons are OK as well as the cylinder walls, which is the best case scenario given the condition of the valvetrain.


"You best believe,We're sliding through it swiftly. Niftly"


The head gaskets looked all fine too, so at least from the first look the bottom end seems ok. This week we plan to remove the cam and flip the engine over and take a real close look at the crank, oil pump, and bearings. Hopefully we'll have no more surprises, eh? I'll start cleaning the block as well, since we want to paint it nice- this will be the belle of the ball and should sparkle like jewelry when we pop that hood!

That's all for this weekend folks! Thanks for singing along!

I think my murdered-out e46 looks great - the V12 Mercedes next door, also cool. No more car meets this year? Really? *sigh*

 

Unboxing Party!

I might be a little too excited about new aluminum heads, cam, intake manifold, and timing chain - I get points for enthusiasm, right?

Do a little dance

Make a little love

Get down tonight

Jerry was a race car driver...

Tired 289

... and Jerry may very well have had a bocephus sticker on his 442 but I think he never had to rebuild that car from the ground up, which brings me up to this week's decision:

Engine in or engine out?

I've been vascillating back and forth about whether to pull the engine and put it on a stand or to rebuild the top end while it's in the car. I have in the past few months solved this sort of thing by applying the WWTD approach, or What Would Tim Do? Tim, if you're wondering, is my brother in law, and an honest-to-goodness professional mechanic. Invariably, the answer to WWTD is "He would totally deconstruct absolutely every last thing in his way until he could see the truth of the matter". So that settles it, Tim would take it out, engine's coming out.

I've helped swap engines before, but this time we're going to solo. I'm positive there are things I know nothing about ahead of me here, which is another reason why this is an excellent idea!

A few things to take care of beforehand

Look ma, no hood!

The engine is, you know, attached.  And there is stuff in the way. First thing to do was remove the hood. Two-person job, so I cajoled my wife into helping (thanks baby)! Then I removed the shock tower bracing. Then:

• Drained the coolant from the block
• Removed the carburetor, pedal linkage, and fuel lines.
• Removed the fan, radiator, pulley, and puke tank
• Removed the alternator, belt, and bracket
• Removed various sensor and electrical connectors

Underneath, some (stubborn) things

 

Rrrrrusted steel exhaust bolts

I got down and dirty with the exhaust headers and driveshaft. Both had to be disconnected before pulling the motor.

Impact wrench! CHECKMATE BITCHES

Yoke at the rearend was caked up - Hey check out the glasspacks!

Exhaust separated, transmission tailshaft all wrapped up

The exhaust was pretty much as I would expect: rusted tight. I was entertained briefly as I noticed the installed exhaust included a set of straight-through mufflers, A.K.A "glass packs". I chortled. The 70's called, it wants its exhaust system back. If you have never had the pleasure, glass pack mufflers make your car sound as loud as an F-14 Tomcat at full throttle plus afterburners. Good grief. As I recall, installing that sort of thing on your car was a great way to meet the local constabulary in my lilac-flourished hometown, as they were always interested in vehicles of such character, and of course their equally colorful occupants! I think I am going to save the headers, but the rest of this exhaust is headed to the scrapper.

As far as removing the rusted bolts, I blasted them with the impact wrench. Nothing says "EFF YOU" to a bolt like an impact tool. I snapped three and loosened three. Solid. If loving a tool this much is wrong, I don't want to be right.

I removed the drive shaft without dropping it on my head, which is as good as I can expect.

All I have to do now is unbolt the trans from the crossmember, loosen the engine mounts, and lift-  should come right out? Heh, we shall see...

Since I started with a Primus reference, I'll part with "Tommy the Cat", because Tommy the freakin Cat is ace. That, and I hope to pump it out of the sound system and actually be able to hear it over the exhaust system. Say Baby.