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n1gzd

Posted 2006-03-11 10:27 PM (#51837)
Subject: rambling on about my car work today

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Posts: 255
100

Location: Acton, MA

With spring coming soon, I am really trying to get my car drivable. It is currently registered and insured (need to get my money’s worth of fun).
Last weekend I removed the carburetor and intake manifold. I sent the intake manifold out to get resurfaced because it looked like there was some wear from the metal valley pan gasket. I got it back the next day. It was all cleaned up. I thought it looked good.
Yesterday I dropped the carburetor off at Hobbs Carburetor shop in Pelham, NH. I know that I could have overhauled it myself because it is a simple one but then I would have lost time waiting for parts. I was surprised when Hobbs called me later the same day and said it was ready to be picked up.
This week as you know I was fretting about whether I need to use fiber gaskets along with the valley pan or whether I need to use sealant. There is no valley pan/intake manifold installation instructions in the manual (no torques to use either). I asked a lot of people what they thought. I got a different answer from each person.
So finally today, I decided to just make it up as I go. I painted my cleaned up intake manifold silver then I removed the old valley pan. As expected, under it things were pretty black. I saw no bent pushrods. I did not see any scoring on any of the cams. Unfortunately, when I went to take a picture, I found that I forgot to plug the camera memory into the camera. Darn. Sorry about that. I wanted to post a picture. Anyway, I scraped out all of the blobs of sludge that I could before proceeding.
After pondering for a while I decided that I am not supposed to use any paper gaskets with the valley pan. I decided this because there were none apparent when I removed the old valley pan, and it did not really seem like the right thing to do anyway. I did notice one thing though. The head had the same valley pan pattern etched into it that I saw on the intake manifold. I am starting to think that this was put there at the factory and that I should not have had the intake manifold resurfaced.
In light of this I decided to use aviation form-a-gasket on the valley pan. I installed the valley pan onto the head. So far so good. I found that I first had to fasten it down at the aft and fore ends to get it so lie flat onto the heads. Next I lowered the intake manifold down onto the valley pan. This is where the fun began. Part of the problem is that I am only 5’5” and I only weight about 120 lbs. This means that it is difficult to lift the head and lower it down onto the valley pan because it is so far from my center of gravity. During the project I spend a lot of time standing on milk crates or kneeling on the front of the car and propping myself up with my hands on the valve covers, or leaning across the car from over the fenders. Precarious at best. I also had bad lighting.
Anyway, after I seated it down I thought that the resurfacing caused it to now have a slight gap between the valley pan and intake manifold. I decided to then insert one fiber gasket between the intake manifold and the valley pan. I put form-a-gasket on it too. With great precarious awkwardness I managed to stick these gaskets under the intake manifold. I wiped off the form-a-gasket that managed to end up in the wrong places (such as all over me, on the newly painted intake manifold, and on the valve covers). I tried for about an hour to thread the bolts through this misaligned sticky sandwich but failed miserably. During the process I smashed one of my fingers trying to sneak my fingers under the intake manifold to realign the gasket. I also got blood and form-a-gasket all over the place. I managed to clean most of it but now the newly painted intake manifold now pretty much matches the older less recently painted parts of my engine. ;).
Finally, I decided to remove the extra gaskets. I decided that with the form-a-gasket in there any possible gaps will be filled well enough. I still had to play around a little to get the bolts in but that was probably mostly because they were old (I did clean them up as well as I could – with more time I probably should have got new ones). After I finished torquing down the intake manifold I remembered that since I had just painted it the grounds that were attached to it were probably not making contact. I removed those bolts and sanded off the paint under them. After reinstalling them they appeared to have continuity. In the end I think that it is nice and tight and I had only imagined the gap from the machining. I won’t know until I can run the engine and see if it leaks.
I had no trouble re-installing the carburetor and associated other things. Unfortunately, I won’t be testing anything for a few weeks.
I also started working at removing the fuel lines today. The main reason for removing them is to remove it from an area near the front seat passenger’s feet where I need to do some welding. The fuel line is now disconnected at both ends and unfastened all along it. At the tank I had to cut the short rubber hose because it was too stiff for me to pull off. I have determined that it is not possible to remove the fuel line without cutting it. I think that it must have been installed when the body was off the frame. It seems to be in ok shape. If there was a way to just move it away from the area where I am welding, I would consider that. However, replacing it would not be a bad idea.
I looked for power steering vacuum hose at several auto stores but none of them carried the right stuff. I am going to have to mail order it I guess.
While I was doing all of this work, my husband arrived at my hangar just long enough to use my sand blaster for a few minutes and pop the circuit breaker so that I had no electricity for the rest of the day (breaker box is not in my unit). Minor inconvenience. Luckily it was unusually warm so I could work with the door open (daylight). My air compressor and shop vac are too much for one 20A circuit.
So, I guess that is it for my ramblings tonight.