Winter 2003/2004 Archives

11/xx/03- Distributor Rebuild.

Since I have no history on the car and the mechanical and vacuum advance was not to spec, I decided to pull it and rebuild it.

Took off the hold down and pulled the distributor off. You can see the oil pump shaft. Here's the band that identifies the distributor + the gasket. These weights were not stock and did not allow the weights to retract fully limiting the effective mechanical advance.
The slot and post is what governs mechanical advance. Here's the main shaft next to the housing. Here's the breaker plate. Vacuum advance moves this whole plate.
Here's the old grease caked in the oil well. It was completely dried out. Here's where the lower bearing contacts the main shaft. It was only .001" smaller in diameter. This is the main drive gear. It meshes with the camshaft. This one was in good shape.
This wear is common in tach drive distributors. The hardened cross-gear thrusts into the housing and creates a lot of wear. If left unchecked, the gear will travel too much and ruin the main shaft and cross-gear. Drilled a hole to install the bronze bushing - a bit off center.
Installed button Housing with advance Installed. Oil well empty/ Oil well packed with seal and felt washer.
Shim washers installed. End play should be .003 - .007". Reassembled and painted. Finished.

 

Plasticman from the Corvette Forum set up the distributor (thank you) to have 23 degrees mechanical advance. Stock should be 24 but as the rubber advance stop hardens and wears in it should move to 24. Total advance at WOT should be 35-36. I can't remember the vacuum advance can specs at the moment but B28 will work with the SHP cans. I'm using the LT-1 camshaft. Cross-gear endplay was set to .010. I cleaned the whole thing in lacquer thinner. The main shaft was lubed with 30wt oil and the oil well and cross gear were lubed with moly grease.

 

 

 

12/27/03 - Time for some catch-up

Here are some pictures of the lift. It works perfectly and has allowed us to keep three cars in a four car garage.

Lift was about 14 ft long and weighed 1500 lbs. We rented a box truck to bring it home It went together with an impact hammer and a few wrenches. IT WAS HEAVY. Plenty of room above and below.
There's 5'8" underneath the rails - plenty of room for a car underneath. A shot up through the opening towards the front of the garage.  

12/27/03 - Here are some parts I've gathered over the past few months. Also picked up a real nice SHP oil pan with the trap door. No pics though.

These are for a '66. All I have is the female ends. Decent original condition. A melling high vol. pump with the pickup. Pump gears look great. I'll use this pump.
LT1 Camshaft and solid lifter. Camshaft is federal mogul CS-1145R. Lifters are AT992. The purple paint serves as a guide for valve lash settings. 1964-1966 Steering wheel. Needs some work.
Here's the high RPM tach for 1965. This one was NOS and in the unopened package, The face seems a bit glossy but should be just fine. 3844461 Manifold. It's been bead blasted but is in excellent shape.

1/7/03 - A few more parts and pictures

Inside of the SHP trap door pan. The outside of the SHP pan. Lower radiator hose and spring. SHP windage tray and studs

1/11/03 - Drained the fuel, coolant, and oil. Sprayed manifold bolts, engine mounts and transmission mounts with penetrating oil.

 

1-18-04 - Pulled the Engine!

The lift makes everything easier EXCEPT an engine pull. This made the geometry difficult and brought the crane too close to the nose of the car. Purchased a nice level and attached it to the outer-most intake bolt holes in each cylinder head.
Despite some issues, my wife and I still got the engine and trans out. Took about 4 hours. I will not have the car on the lift when the set goes back in.  

1-25-04 - Separated the transmission from the bell housing, removed flywheel, oil pan.

Front view of a dirty engine, Side view of a dirty engine. The bellhousing had a large chunk missing and was cracked.

1-26-01 to 1-31-01- Started to pull the engine apart. Someone had done a ring and bearing rebuild at some point in time. There ridge ream measured ~4.010 and there was a small lip on the ridge implying that there were at least a few miles after the quickie rebuild. Pistons were still the original factory flat-tops, original gears, chain, and oil pumps. There was some sludge in the lifter valley but the engine was in good shape overall.

Used a puller to pull the damper. Someone had been inside this engine in the past and had marked the bearing caps. Engine still had the original nylon-faced cam gear
Stamp pad: V0922HC Marking "HC" on the side of the block - block has not been cleaned - Nasty intake and exhaust valve. oil caked = intake, white deposits= exhaust
Rockers removed - heads still have pressed-in studs Pulling lifters out of the lifter bore Second camshaft lobe (after fuel pump lobe) from the bottom was badly worn.

2-3-04 to 2-12-04 - The ridge was small enough that the cylinders popped out w/o a ride ream. I wrapped pieces of rag around each rod bolt and tapped the bottom of the piston with a wood pole. The piston skirt wear was even signifying straight rods but some of the rod bearings had wear. The cylinder heads had a lot of carbon and the back two exhaust valves on either side were white. Found out that the guides were knurled so the heads need a complete rebuild.

Short block Proof of uneven cylinder temperatures Bearing wear caused by dirty oil with the pistons and rods removed, the crank pulls right out (after main caps are removed)

2-22-04 - Transmission turned out to be a 1968 M21. The only real ways to determine whether or not the transmission is an M20 or and M21 are to 1. Measure the 1st gear ratio (input to output) or check the number of rings on the input shaft along with the date code. In 1968, one ring around the input shaft means M21 close ratio.

Old three finger style pressure plate. One ring on the input shaft. Clutch fork had some wear and needs replacement due to a bad throw out bearing, This transmission mount cushion was in SAD shape.

3-2-04 . Bead blasting rules. I cannot believe how well the old junk and paint was removed without damaging the surface finish.

Bead blasted exhaust manifold More bead blasted hardware TRW L2166N - 30. These are NOS forged aluminum domed pistons that were OE on the SHP engines. These are many years old but are still available. Picked these up on EBAY - good deal
Manifold after Eastwood's factory hi-temp exhaust manifold paint. It's a little to shiny at the moment but I'm sure it will dull after being baked by the exhaust.

3-6-04. Painted a few parts. I decided to strip the oil pan I purchased due to some rust that was showing through the paint.

Sprayed the aluminum intake with Eastwood's Alumi-blast. It looks awesome. Here's the oil pan after 5 hours of stripping and wire brushing - still traces of rust. Treated it with oxisolv. It turns any remaining rust into zinc-phosphate.
New direct fit replacement radiator from DeWitt's with the black epoxy finish. Ugly, beat-up, non-efficient, copper-brass radiator that was in the car. Oil pan after treatment with primer and Chevy Orange paint.

3-1x-04

Before After bead blasting, priming, and painting.  

3-20-04 - Decided to restore the radiator shroud. It didn't look look to bad but I'm glad I stripped it because there was a good amount of surface rust under the paint.

Un-restored radiator shroud - notice the rubber seal on the bottom. Stripped and wire brushed. Used heavy-duty stripper made by BIX. I brushed it on and wiped off with steel wool and elbow grease. Rust underneath the paint.

3-28-04 - Sprayed the shroud with some chemicals that turn the rust into zinc phosphate - took about two hours but seemed to work,

Chemical left runs that needed to be sanded down Looks much better than the picture above

3-31-04 - New bellhousing was painted with alumi-blast and the clutch fork stud was installed.

Clutch cover housing bolt snapped off - had to drill it out. The stud that came with the housing was very worn.