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Lord Gruntfuttock

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Everything posted by Lord Gruntfuttock

  1. Lord Gruntfuttock
    And chucked the lifters in, gave them a good coat of assembly lube. This stuff is sticky, got strings of red goo everywhere. That plus oily fingers gives these pics the soft focus look... And inserted pushrods/rocker arms with a dollop of goo on each end, and loosely fitted polylocks... And liked this ex-t shirt I pulled out of the rag bag, had to look it up but Dimmit is in Florida... And all done. Just used the EOIC method, and went through each bank in order, giving the nut a half turn after resistance was felt, and locking it down... Then went through each cylinder/valve in firing order and checked each rocker felt the same. Pretty sure it's all good, tis easy to set hydraulics as they are quite forgiving. Would have carried on but I'm going to use studs on the intake and Hardware store was shut today. Still, a good bit of progress, only let down by my rush job painting engine parts, got a few drips so will have to sort that out over the week...
  2. Lord Gruntfuttock
    Thought I'd better bang in the frost plugs before I forgot about them. gave the block a good clean up with scotchbrite and brakleen, then a light smear of permatex #1 (hardening) sealant on each surface, and knocked them in evenly with a socket... And yes they are aligned vertically cos that's how I roll...
  3. Lord Gruntfuttock
    Pushrods arrived and looks like I did the maths right... Chucked them in some solvent for a clean and soaked the new lifters in clean oil... And gave rockers and polylocks a clean too, I wasn't sure I had to do this but didn't know if they had a grease coat or not, certainly a lot of crud came off... And once blown out and dried I gave them a coating of fresh oil and all ready to go in. Would have done it this arvo but wife has gone to netball so I'm doing family duties. Heads are all torqued up and next step is installing rockers and setting valve lash... Might get some time tomorrow, we'll see how things go...
  4. Lord Gruntfuttock
    Was looking fwd to long weekend to sort out some painting, but forecast looks a bit shit, so took yesterday off as it was a cracker of a day and I'd rather be skinning my knuckles on something interesting than processing paperwork. Stripped and prepped the air cleaner base, rocker covers and misc brackets etc, and got a couple of coats of epoxy on them. Some I'll leave as-is, the others will get a top coat of colour... The shed of 1000 projects... I had intended to prime the front grille section too, but it was a bastard to strip, all angles and sharp edges, and couldn't get any tools inside the recesses, so all hand sanding. I thought I'd just rub it back and spray over, but found my half-arsed effort umpteen years ago just meant rust under the shoddily applied spray-bomb, so needed to come back to metal. Just ran out of time to get it done properly, another day of labour required unfortunately. I'm thinking of just applying aluminium silver wheel paint once it's primed, should be a fairly hardy paint, and easy to touch up when it gets chipped... So, a job frustratingly half-done, but still better than being at work...
  5. Lord Gruntfuttock
    I'm hoping the steel rockers I bought will fit ok under my stock covers, being smaller (and more expensive) than alloy rollers. There's not too much info on line unfortunately, most people chuck aftermarket (tall) covers on. The polylocks obviously hit the baffles on a test fit though, so I 'borrowed' some playdoh from my girls to see what the score was... No too bad really, decided to try knocking some holes in for clearance. Just used a 1" hole saw in the supercheap drill press... And cleaned them up a bit... And clearance looks ok. No idea if these holes will affect the purpose of the baffles, will see how it goes. I'll recheck clearances with more clay after the valve lash is set, while rotating the engine. If I had to I could rivet some stepped baffle plates in over these holes I guess... And stripped the covers for some fresh paint, hope it sticks as well as this stuff did, it was out of a rattle can and took a lot of effort to get off. Wish I could remember the brand it had cured really well.. Getting bummed about the short evenings now too, makes it harder to chuck paint around, so will be a weekend job...
  6. Lord Gruntfuttock
    With no engine cowling should do it like a model A rod...
  7. Lord Gruntfuttock
    Belt should be straightforward then, maybe it's shredding em cos the chassis is wonky. Don't know about huskys, but should have brakes, usually there's a foot pedal you can lock down so's you can get off with motor running.
  8. Lord Gruntfuttock
    Timed blades? i.e. a toothed belt so blades don't knock shit out of each other? Just replaced belt on my mower and buying belt from U.K. was about half the price of local.Had to download manual to see how to route it cos I pulled it out when it snapped without looking how it went first...
  9. Lord Gruntfuttock
    Very much a hobby. Spend most of the day in front of a puter so building stuff in the shed is my way of staying sane. It's nice to do something 'real' after a day of fannying about in the office...
  10. Lord Gruntfuttock
    # 1 daughter was sick today, and I kindly offered to stay home to care for her and let wifey go to work. Was awesome, got to sleep in, watch movies with a 6 yr old, score some Dad points, AND blag some bonus time in the shed. Having (slightly) sick kids is a great gig... Here's the temporary solid lifter I'd bodged up to check the pushrods, just washers and shims cut from a speights can to pack it out... And I pulled the head to refit the valve spring and new gasket, and gave the heads the first torque after lubing new head bolts and bushing/washers with ARP torque assembly goo. Never used this before, seems good stuff, it just 'felt' right torquing up the bolts... Also fitted water pump as the gasket had arrived... It's really starting to come together now, should probably do a lot of the remaining fiddly jobs while I'm waiting for those pushrods, though it'll seem tedious after playing with shiny engine bits...
  11. Lord Gruntfuttock
    Cheers for the pics link. I'm not usually a fan of the one-marque shows, but at least with Ford you get pommy, Aussie and US cars, plus trucks, vans and rods for a bit of variety...
  12. Lord Gruntfuttock
    Looked into pushrod sizes, and after seeing the price thought I'd better re-check things, so shot home at lunchtime and re-tested with the head torqued down (onto an old gasket) and took a bit more care measuring. The results are much the same, but I am more confident in spending some coin after measuring twice... With stock pushrod, got the same pattern indicating the rod was a little short (stock rod is 174.75mm... And setting adjustable rod to 177mm, got a nice neat pattern centred on the stem... Now, pushrods have theoretical, actual and gauge lengths (to account for oil holes and where the ball seats). Looking at the Comp Cams website, the actual length is approx 0.017" longer than gauge length, so I need a rod 177mm - 0.017". So maths... 177mm = 6.968" 6.968" - 0.017" = 6.951" And I see the 5/16" Magnum hardened rods come in 6.950" (as a check, 6.950 + 0.017 = 6.967, which = 176.96mm) Sorted, and ordered...
  13. Lord Gruntfuttock
    Anyone go/take pics?
  14. Lord Gruntfuttock
    Had to check pushrod length before I order hardened ones. Since I have a lightweight (ie cheap) adjustable pushrod and didn't want to break it, I tried fitting a spring from the old heads, but it was about the same weight as the new ones, so tried just the inner with some washers. Didn't work worth a damn. As soon as I screwed up the locknut, instead of the rocker tightening on the pushrod, the spring compressed, until the valve hit the piston. Failed bodge... So just decided to use what I had. I'd packed an old lifter with washers so it was effectively a solid one and wouldn't compress... With a stock pushrod (approx 174mm) the pattern the roller made on a bit of vivid maker was ok, but a little close to the intake side, indicating the rod is too short. This would probably be fine, but I wanted to experiment while I had the chance... Screwed the adjustable rod out to around 180mm and the mark was too far towards the exhaust side (blurry as shit sorry)... And at around 177mm it was spot on, perfect narrow pattern in the middle of the valve stem. Just got to order some hardened rods that are approximately this length and I can start properly assembling things... Yet to see what lengths are available, and what the imperial equivalents are. Bit of a bugger waiting for this but couldn't check things till I had it together...
  15. Lord Gruntfuttock
    Cleaned up the block in preparation for her new top end, while I could turn it upside down and not get shit in everything. Started chasing out the threads but I was concerned my cheap tap was going to screw up the threads (felt like it was cutting too much) so backed out, and cut down an old toothbrush to use instead. Worked well with a bit of solvent to flush out any bits... And the pistons had a good costing of carbon. I used a sharpened chopstick to scrape it off (soft wood so no scratches) and cleaned up with a bit of brakleen... Then an oily rag to clean up any debris. And loosely fitted the first head, just to see how she looked...
  16. Lord Gruntfuttock
    Don't think I'll make it...
  17. Lord Gruntfuttock
    So looked at the oil slinger, apparently the issue is it fouling the chain, and as seal quality improved it isn't really needed anyway (Ford discontinued it some decades ago). I seemed to have heaps of clearance so debated leaving it in, but a trial fitting showed it was fairly close to the timing cover, so I pulled it... And someone (prob me) had gone overboard with the silicon last time it was put together. Dug giant bogies out of every sump bolt hole, which was oddly satisfying... And I fitted the new balancer with the timing cover and sump loosely fitted so the crank seal would be centred. Also painted the timing pointer silver for better contrast... And loosely torqued things up, starting to look good... And I'm really happy with the look of the sealing, using a light smear of Permatex #2 on timing cover and black RTV ultra on the sump. Much more elegant than the great globs of snot some meathead (still me) used last time... And I'll torque things up properly (and maybe add a few more bits) tomorrow...
  18. Lord Gruntfuttock
    Got the bump-stick in today... No dramas except when I went to torque up the thrust plate and a bolt snapped (at 9 ft-lbs)...? Hardly even felt any resistance so must have been something wrong with it. I just twisted the remnants out with long nose pliers... Was worried as it was supposedly grade 8 (according to online experts) and thought I'd have to order one or machine something, but shot into Southern Bolts and Fasteners and they gave me a free grade 5 off the shelf, and since the last one seemed to be made out of plastic I'm happy it'll be fine - rapt with that service, cheers SBF... And fitted the new double roller timing chain. It's a Rollmaster gold series, billet steel set with nitrided sprockets, flash eh... Bit of trouble determining if I needed the shim or not, as the instructions were pretty vague. Looked online and it is supposedly to give chain clearance from the block. You 'stick' it to the sprocket with oil while sliding the chain on so it locates in place - can just see it inside the sprocket here and I checked it was even all way round... And I was going to carry on fitting stuff till I looked at the water pump plate gasket, will either grab another or make one to suit so will be a couple of days before things happen... Also bit of debate on whether to flatten out the oil slinger at the crank sprocket or toss it. Apparently you can do either with a double-roller, but might be easier to go without, I'll do a bit of research...
  19. Lord Gruntfuttock
    Gotta get them into old school early...
  20. Lord Gruntfuttock
    Yeah was pleased I had enough bits to get 3 good solids together. I toyed with the idea of making another bike out of parts left over (new rims and going pneumatic) but realised I'd never get round to it, so sold the parts on tardme for 50 squid...
  21. Lord Gruntfuttock
    And assembly. As these things are so robust, it was really just a case of taking the best bits and putting them together with new bearings and grease, a couple of repairs, the odd replacement part and a bit of a polish up... And it was successfully used in the surf to city by my 4 yr old a couple of weeks ago (this was in the park afterwards, she did wear the lid during the event)... I've since found a period tool bag that straps on behind the seat, and some Winkie decals to attach. All the neighbourhood kids love riding 'speedy' the chain bike, and I've found if you lean it over you can do burnouts as the driving wheel skids it up. Win...
  22. Lord Gruntfuttock
    And stripdown/paint. Most tin parts beat out alright, even with my rudimentary panel skills. This was really an exercise to practice build skills on, dressed up as being a dutiful Dad...
  23. Lord Gruntfuttock
    Teardown, usual rust, bent bits and missing bearings...
  24. Lord Gruntfuttock
    Found some pics I took when I did up an old chain bike last year. I'd picked up a couple of wrecks on the tard in a job-lot of rust, and thought I'd have a go at building one good one for my girls. Unfortunately my eldest was riding a proper bike by the time I got started (oops) but the younger one has got some use out of it. As bought, came with a Triang Jeep pedal car and scooter (that are also in the project pile)... These things were built over decades, and are pretty well made... Yep, that is the gangly and slightly racist old Duke of Edinburgh leading Prince Charles on one...
  25. Lord Gruntfuttock
    Yeah pretty much. Should be a fire it up and drive job (all going well). I like the parts mountain myself...
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