Come hell or highwater.
That was the theme for the last few weeks. Ever since I committed myself to eliminating the distributor drive gear to run the internal oil pump, and thus, eliminating the internal oil pump in favor of an external one, I've been trying to get something done.
Last progress installment had me dropping the pan so that I could make the pick-up for that external pump, and that is done. While the pan was down, JRichker recommended that I replace the magnets that were in my pan w/ some neodyium pieces that were more tolerant of the internal engine temps, citing that standard magnets will lose their magnetism after a few heat cycles. So I bought some little dime sized dudes off the I-net, and put them in the bottom of the pan.
Those stupid little magnets came in a stack of three, and they were so stuck together I could barely get them to separate. I'm confident that they'll do the job of keeping any metal debris from entering that pick up tube.
Once that was done, I reinstalled the pan, and placed the k member back.
The engine cooling hoses have been a hurdle for me to jump for quite some time now. I decided to eliminate the stock, cast iron clunker of a water pump long ago, and intended to use an electric one in its place. On I-6's that have a front mounted water pump the #1 cylinder never gets up to temp as compared to the other 5 cylinders behind it, and wears significantly more than it's other brothers. To try and alleviate that, I plumbed in three water entrance points using three -12 hoses
The rear hose goes under the pan and comes off of an intersection that could only be described as a $100.00 Jug f**k. That intersection has a bulkhead fitting running through the tunnel floor feeding water to the heater, then back out along the inner fender where it runs into another bulkhead and tees into the upper radiator hose.
The hoses come around front to another $100.00 intersection that in turn is attached to one of the two outport ports of the SBC version of the electric water pump I had bracketed to the underside of my intake.
One the other side of the engine was another one of Jrichkers assists. In order to get all of the roller lifters in their respective holes and the pairs re-linked, I had to insert one in the hole w/ the link bar attached, and wiggle the other in and turn it sideways enough for the slots to align. Once that was done, I manipulated the pair until I got both lifters vertical, and slid them in their respective holes. Once down to the last pair, I ran out of room to stick the last lifter in the hole, so I had to modify things a bit. I had to surgically remove one of the fasteners that held the lug on the side of the lifter that the link bar rode on. It was originally thru-bolted w/ a nut fastened on the side that was peened on so as to lock it in place. I used a standard 5mm button head bolt (just like the one that came on the lifter) and nutted the thing back on. The problem arose when I went to the local nut/bolt house to try and find a 5mm all metal lock nut.
Seemed that the smallest one they had was for a 6mm. It was that way everywhere. Good ol' Jrichker forwarded me a link w/ part numbers so that I could take it to that local supplier, and have them order the damn thing. I had to order a stinkin' .28 nut.
But I got it. and it's on
Once that was done, I re-installed the Frank-N-Plate side cover that I've had made for a bazillion years, only this time for good. The next problem came as a result of the irregular shaped opening, and the surface area I had to try and seal the stupid thing. Attempt #1 was with some RTV called ultra-copper.
After it was bolted on, I looked down inside, where I noticed from inside that I had missed the true perimeter of the opening, and could plainly see a potential leak point. I was made painfully aware of that the next morning when I found traces of assy lube trickling down the side of the engine below the cover plate.
After prying that thing off, and thoroughly cleaning the mating surfaces, I reapplied a different silicone ( Ultra black) because of it's listed restsance to engine oil, and bolted that turd on. I guess I'll find out soon enough if that works.
Now that I had completely eliminated the distributor, I had a big gi-honkin hole to fill. I was gonna do something fancy w/ what was left of the old distributor base, but decided on the low road instead.
I stuck a rubber freeze plug in there, tightened it up, found a big thick washer, put it on top of the rubber freezeplug and used the stock hold down to lock all that junk in the hole.
I also bolted on the plate that holds the dual filter assy on.
Once that was beneath me, I got out the only intake gasket I had, trimmed it to fit the bigger intake ports (I opened up the port about .125 larger than stock) then applied more ultrablack to the one side of the gasket, and "the right stuff" to the other, and bolted it on (also permanently).
The oil pump came in this afternoon,...wrong. Setup for a different mounting setup than what I had originally planned.I called the guy at Aviaid and told him that I would look and see if I could make it work tomorrow, but if not, I wanted it picked up, and an expedited shipment of the correct piece ASAP. I'll work on that tomorrow.
That was the theme for the last few weeks. Ever since I committed myself to eliminating the distributor drive gear to run the internal oil pump, and thus, eliminating the internal oil pump in favor of an external one, I've been trying to get something done.
Last progress installment had me dropping the pan so that I could make the pick-up for that external pump, and that is done. While the pan was down, JRichker recommended that I replace the magnets that were in my pan w/ some neodyium pieces that were more tolerant of the internal engine temps, citing that standard magnets will lose their magnetism after a few heat cycles. So I bought some little dime sized dudes off the I-net, and put them in the bottom of the pan.
Those stupid little magnets came in a stack of three, and they were so stuck together I could barely get them to separate. I'm confident that they'll do the job of keeping any metal debris from entering that pick up tube.
Once that was done, I reinstalled the pan, and placed the k member back.
The engine cooling hoses have been a hurdle for me to jump for quite some time now. I decided to eliminate the stock, cast iron clunker of a water pump long ago, and intended to use an electric one in its place. On I-6's that have a front mounted water pump the #1 cylinder never gets up to temp as compared to the other 5 cylinders behind it, and wears significantly more than it's other brothers. To try and alleviate that, I plumbed in three water entrance points using three -12 hoses
The rear hose goes under the pan and comes off of an intersection that could only be described as a $100.00 Jug f**k. That intersection has a bulkhead fitting running through the tunnel floor feeding water to the heater, then back out along the inner fender where it runs into another bulkhead and tees into the upper radiator hose.
The hoses come around front to another $100.00 intersection that in turn is attached to one of the two outport ports of the SBC version of the electric water pump I had bracketed to the underside of my intake.
One the other side of the engine was another one of Jrichkers assists. In order to get all of the roller lifters in their respective holes and the pairs re-linked, I had to insert one in the hole w/ the link bar attached, and wiggle the other in and turn it sideways enough for the slots to align. Once that was done, I manipulated the pair until I got both lifters vertical, and slid them in their respective holes. Once down to the last pair, I ran out of room to stick the last lifter in the hole, so I had to modify things a bit. I had to surgically remove one of the fasteners that held the lug on the side of the lifter that the link bar rode on. It was originally thru-bolted w/ a nut fastened on the side that was peened on so as to lock it in place. I used a standard 5mm button head bolt (just like the one that came on the lifter) and nutted the thing back on. The problem arose when I went to the local nut/bolt house to try and find a 5mm all metal lock nut.
Seemed that the smallest one they had was for a 6mm. It was that way everywhere. Good ol' Jrichker forwarded me a link w/ part numbers so that I could take it to that local supplier, and have them order the damn thing. I had to order a stinkin' .28 nut.
But I got it. and it's on
Once that was done, I re-installed the Frank-N-Plate side cover that I've had made for a bazillion years, only this time for good. The next problem came as a result of the irregular shaped opening, and the surface area I had to try and seal the stupid thing. Attempt #1 was with some RTV called ultra-copper.
After it was bolted on, I looked down inside, where I noticed from inside that I had missed the true perimeter of the opening, and could plainly see a potential leak point. I was made painfully aware of that the next morning when I found traces of assy lube trickling down the side of the engine below the cover plate.
After prying that thing off, and thoroughly cleaning the mating surfaces, I reapplied a different silicone ( Ultra black) because of it's listed restsance to engine oil, and bolted that turd on. I guess I'll find out soon enough if that works.
Now that I had completely eliminated the distributor, I had a big gi-honkin hole to fill. I was gonna do something fancy w/ what was left of the old distributor base, but decided on the low road instead.
I stuck a rubber freeze plug in there, tightened it up, found a big thick washer, put it on top of the rubber freezeplug and used the stock hold down to lock all that junk in the hole.
I also bolted on the plate that holds the dual filter assy on.
Once that was beneath me, I got out the only intake gasket I had, trimmed it to fit the bigger intake ports (I opened up the port about .125 larger than stock) then applied more ultrablack to the one side of the gasket, and "the right stuff" to the other, and bolted it on (also permanently).
The oil pump came in this afternoon,...wrong. Setup for a different mounting setup than what I had originally planned.I called the guy at Aviaid and told him that I would look and see if I could make it work tomorrow, but if not, I wanted it picked up, and an expedited shipment of the correct piece ASAP. I'll work on that tomorrow.
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