It was great to be done with all the things that had deadlines so I can work on my truck again. I feel good about the Cabana Attic and A/C. My wounds from surgery are rested enough and strong enough for me to walk around without damaging them. The pool still needs patching but I will probably give that a try tomorrow. This morning I was able to sleep in till 10 which was very pleasant, and then put on some grubby shorts and shirt and my sun sleeves and head down to the shop.
First thing to tackle, getting this heads cleaned up and put back together. One is already done, This one I am taking a little longer to do so I don’t mistakenly get the valves put back in the wrong order again. As far as getting them clean, the wire cup brush on the drill is very effective in cleaning out the actual ports. The scotch brights on the rolock on the drill is perfect for the flat surfaces. I am pretty happy with. how clean they came out.
Getting the valves cleaned, oiled inserted and wrestling with the spring compressor while inserting the retainers is a little tricky since I never made that head stand which would hold the heads with the valves vertical. It took me almost 5 minutes to get the first one done, I took a break to let my hands stop aching and I’m glad I did. When I moved my coffee I found the bag with the rest of the valve seals I had forgot to install. Doh! So I removed the spring, installed the seal using the back of a 3/8th drive deep socket and reinstalled the spring. I kept working on my install technique until I was able to get one done in 60 seconds. Granted it was the last one but at least I didn’t suck as bad as when I started. Once the head was done I looked around to see what was next.
I really need to be done with dismantling the block, but I broke off a tool in one of the freeze plug inserts for one of the three oil galleries that go from the rear to the front of the block. The other two are pretty much rounded out. These 1/4″ square head female threaded block plugs suck. So I ended up spending the next two hours drilling 3 progressively larger holes through them till I could fit an easy out in them.
Once they were out I was able to use a piece of steel rod to knock out the freeze plugs from the front.
So I am happy that the block is finally completely empty. I need to clean out some of the oil ports before I start putting it back together, but cleaning is the only thing left. Speaking of cleaning….
The pistons, rocker arms, pushrods and roller lifters also need some serious cleaning. The crankshaft is still to be determined. It almost looks like the one journal that the bearing stuck to didn’t get damaged. It looks like the bearing material tried to weld itself to it but I think with a scotch bright pad I may be able to remove it without removing any of the journal. I really hope so.
