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Brian, thanks! She drives a lot nicer now that I replaced a bad front shock and adjusted the steering!

Do you have pictures of how you mounted your seat belts? I've held off because I haven't wanted to drill a bunch of holes in my 83 year old car!

Well, it has been a while since I've posted, but life has been in the way a little bit too.

Pulled the engine, painted it. Found I needed a new throw out bearing, so that held me up a little bit, but mostly, things have just been hectic.

New throw out bearing is installed, new fuel pump, rebuilt water pump, new flex hose, and the engine is back in. I also installed a fuel pump heat shield. With any luck, I'll have it running this weekend!

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Man, I love a freshly painted engine. Looks so good.

-Kevin

Thanks!

And now it runs! Valves are a lot quieter now!

It was dark, and I still don't have the front clip on, so I'll have to wait to drive it around and get it up to temp, but encouraging nonetheless.

Well, two steps forward and one back.

Several years ago I bought a supposedly brand new, NOS water pump on eBay as a spare. I decided to install it, as the one on my car was aftermarket and pretty cruddy on the inside.

Imagine my surprise when on the test drive, I started getting a loud growl at about 20 mph in second gear! Brought the car home, at a low enough rpm to preclude growling, and took the belt off. Growling went away. Pulled the water pump tonight, and my "brand new" water pump doesn't have enough clearance between the impeller and the housing. So, it wasn't brand new, or something else was wrong...

I think I'll clean out the old one and put it back together while the new one is out for a rebuild, so I can keep sorting.

Always something.

Set the timing and adjusted the carb some. I set the valves cold when the engine was apart at 0.009 and 0.012. They still seem pretty noisy. Now that I have the growling noise fixed (fingers crossed) I'm going to drive it a bit more, then I'll pull the valve covers and check the lash with the car warm and idling.

Timing was crazy off - I set it roughly by eye for startup. When I checked it with the light, it was REALLY advanced - 14 degrees BTDC, instead of the 4 degrees BTDC the book shows. That being said, painting the needle and the timing mark makes it much easier to time - still haven't made a needle for the vibration dampener.

Speaking of dampeners - are there any checks to be made? My car does seem to vibrate quite a bit more at idle than I would expect- with ignition timing set, the carb leaned out, and idle speed set to about 450-475 RPM, the engine idles roughly. Certainly not going to balance a nickel on it, which was my goal. It seemed to idle smoother with the timing really really advanced!

Any thoughts on the vibration damper? Hope I'm ok, since the front clip is back on.

Put the splash guards back on. Did quite a bit of tin knocking on the drivers side; didn't on the passenger side because it had some rust and I'll replace it eventually.

Set the valves with the engine warm and idling. They were all loose. So much quieter. Lots of burns on the knuckles though! I also put plugs in the vacuum side of the fuel pump, so it would stop making noise. I don't have the wipers hooked up right now.

I also have didn't hook up the heater for now, and I installed a gano filter. I flushed the block, but if I see too much rust in the filter, I'll run evaporust for a few months. I had the radiator gone through, and I don't want to clog it!

Got the front clip in place. Need to put a few more bolts in, then get everything adjusted. Then DRIVE!!!!

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I'll need to learn how to adjust the valves on mine at some point. Not really looking forward to it.

Tell me about this gano filter. Never heard of it. And it's okay to use Evaporust in the cooling system? Might need to do that on mine too.

-Kevin

Well done, Ken. Yeah...burnt knuckles are part of the reward.

I too am curious about the use of Evaporust as a 'running treatment' to the internals of a cooling system. I use this stuff all the time on heavy parts as well as delicate speedometer parts, but never for this. Guess it makes sense, but was unaware of whether it could withstand engine temperatures and maintain its rust removal capability.

May consider this after next flush and fill. Keep us posted.

Again, great work.
Pat

Thanks guys!

Kevin - a gano filter is sold by Eckler and numerous other vendors. It is a straight piece of clear plastic tubing, sized to slide in your radiator hose. It is installed in your upper radiator hose, and prevents any gunk, rust flakes, etc, from getting into the radiator. It has a conical mesh filter.

EDIT: Apparently, Restoration Supply Company is the main vendor.forums.aaca.org/topic/253549-gano-filters-update/

I actually got mine on Amazon, because I forgot to order it, and was in a hurry.

The valves - I was a little scared of trying to do it with the engine running, but other than burnt knuckles and a lot of muttering, pretty straight forward. Steps:

1. Make a chart of all the valves so you can keep track of what you do.
2. Get the car all warmed up to normal temp
3. Take off whatever is in your way. I did it before I put on the front clip, so it was easy. With the front fender on, you have to pull the tire and the inner fender. I'm sure it's similar on your car.
4. I used two feeler gauges, one for exhaust, one for intake, so I didn't have to keep switching blades. I used three 9/16 wrenches. One was a tappet wrench (thinner cross-section) and the other two were normal. If you don't want to buy a set of tappet wrenches, you could just buy a cheap wrench and grind it thinner.
5. Hold the lifter, loosen the retaining nut, and turn the tappet screw incrementally until the feeler gage will just slide in. I found when I was getting them right, you could actually hear the engine bog down as the feeler gage went in.

On a few of the hard to reach valves (#8 exhaust, #5 exhaust), I adjusted them, turned off the engine, tightened the retainer, then started the engine and checked again.

Use the cardboard to mark off what you've done. I found it was easier to do all the intakes, and then all the exhausts.

If I had to do it again, I would make a set of fingerless mechanics gloves to protect my hands. I needed the dexterity of my fingers, so I didn't wear full gloves.

On the Evaporust, I got onto the idea from a few guys on the AACA forum. A few guys have rigged up a pump and heater to cycle it through the engine with it off. Apparently, it works BETTER when it's warm. That stuff is magic.

EDIT: Here is one link about it:forums.aaca.org/topic/348445-the-phone-r ... rts/?do=findComment&comment=2095888

Since my car is operable, I'll just run it instead of coolant when there is no freeze danger. I can't find the link, but one guy on the AACA forums (EdInMass) ran it for eight months in his Pierce-Arrow, and said the internals looked shot blasted! Seems like it's worth trying, especially since I didn't tear it down enough to hot tank the block.