So, not a lot done today... had to work on the rest of the fleet...
Wife's van was making a funny sound from the front of the engine... turned out to be a long odd shaped pebble stuck in the drive belt.
My 07 Silverado was not stopping well at low speeds (abs kicking in) so I ran it down to cleaning the VSS... hmmm we'll see. Also the AC was not always working... bad connection in the under hood fuse block.. again time will tell.
So for the vette... I can say it does now have one fully functional system. A parking brake. I finished the cable installs, installed the handle, and adjusted it.
It is nice to be working with all clean parts... :)
So the plan from here is to finish all of the stuff that I have everything on hand for.
The idea being that I can consolidate space and take more time to shop for the bits that are missing in the master plan.
(On that note, anyone have a set of D port Alluminum L98 heads ?)
I'm going to refresh the 6 speed to 5 speed specs (LOL) and freshen up the short block and new cam. that way I can plunk all of that into the roller and get some shop space back.
Along those lines, I was looking at the drive shaft and found this:
So it looks like the '85 had a '95 production drive shaft installed. I wonder why... oh well add it to the list of what happened to this poor car over the years ?!?!
I also started harvesting the good bits off of the gold parts car.
It will donate a lot of interior trim in the areas where I am going to keep OEM interior parts.
The wheel and column were nice, the rear view is serviceable and the top is preferred because it is solid and I think cooler than the see thru top. Also, the see thru top is worth more as it was refurbished inn the early 2000's I think.
The dash pad was also in really good shape for 33 years old... hopefully it will stay that way!
I'll be using the factory gages for the challenge, so I'll also be using the factory dash shell, with a lot of deletes added. No console though. Hopefully this will save time and budget $$. The goal here is to come away with a factory stocker interior look sort of like the 1960's factory lightweights.
Another thing that I can do with the partially built roller is to work out the new wiring. I want to simplify the wiring down to only what is needed, and make it modular too, so that for instance, the engine management stuff can be quickly and cleanly replaced as a whole, seperate from the instrumentation and other body wiring.
Cleaning out the garage, getting ready for the driveline build.
First thing, of course, UNFOLD and wash the aluminum sign I found on a job site yesterday.
I guess the advice is optional.
Or Not.
Your Choice.
Short block is in great shape.
Block cleaned up easily , but the water jackets were orange sludge city. Supposedly this car had cooling issues.
I don't know if the sludge was a volumetric issue, but I think that it was not helping with heat transfer. It was EVERYWHERE.
Also found these in the water jacket behind the water pump mount. I'll bet that they were occasionally blocking the water pump flow.
Anyone have a guess what these might be? I think it is too much material to be incidental leftovers from the sand casting.
Flat, VERY thin.
Pistons, rods, and rings are in the carb vat soaking.
Cam bearings WILL be replaced. Rods and mains likely.
I'm planning on using 1989 L98 d-port Aluminum heads, so no pics of the old cast iron heads. (which do happen to be VERY serviceable and clean if needed.) The 1985 L98 flat tops and the 1989 heads ought to have me in the 11:1 range.
Cleaned the tin, the drive shaft and the c-channel connector, so I think Im getting really close to having the nasty cleaning done for this build.
I think the chunks are casting flash. Found ut in the cooling system of a few old v8s.
Interesting thing about the driveshaft, it has another tube or large part INSIDE it. If you shake it, you feel it move. Vibration damper?
Also, as I mentioned earlier, the rod and main bearings look REALLY good.Imagine my surprise when I found this:
All of this was IN the pick up under the baffle. Out of sight. This is all RTV from the oil pan.
It's amazing what you find sometimes. This car had a weeping cam plug behind the flywheel, from new.
I think it leaked so slowly that people kept pulling and sealing the pan and RMS. To no avail.
And that is how we got to this....
Dusterbd13 said:
I think the chunks are casting flash. Found ut in the cooling system of a few old v8s.
Yes, I have found that stuff too, but this is not cast. It is super thin, flexible (like with your fingers), and ferrous. But not corroded.
Could be part of a casting tree or sprue. BUT, I just found this in the water jacket too:
I got nothing.
What the ever loving berk is THAT!?!?
In reply to Dusterbd13 :
The ONLY thing I have right now as a theory, is some sort of OEM water pump that had a different (thinner) impeller, and the thin pieces came from the impeller, and this is an old bearing/seal housing? IDK!?
I DO know that he lesson learned from here on out is to ALWAYS explore the water jacket in great detail!
Found more parts,
Looks like most of them fit together.
This last bit is all a testament to the SBC. I know the tinware was in the cooling system, but that RTV in the oil pickup would have wreaked havoc on most other engines. And I assume that "cooling issues" as stated by a previous owner means that it overheated, and probably more than once, and was still perfectly usable. People can rant all they want about low specific output, but there is something to be said about a design from the 50s that just works, gets abused, works some more, gets more abuse, overheats, and all the other things, and just shrugs it all off and keeps working. Great work. Part on.
Is it the foil from the top of an antifreeze jug?
In reply to Dusterbd13 :
No, thicker. About as thick as an aluminum can, but steel. The bits suggest a 4-5" diameter. Sort of looks like something that might have been mounted behind an impeller, on the pump body.
Could the big round piece actually be a part of an old failed block heater? This car was sold new in NJ. Being a_florida_man, I haven't seen very many down here.
I'm guessing the broken disc was an anti-cavitation plate on the impeller.
I saw some weird water pumps on the earlier reverse rotation setups. (Edit, this is an 85 though, probably not reverse rotation.)
You're probably on the right course with broken block heater for the other thing. Either that, or some kind of temporary freeze plug.
This is a high flow pump for a B.B. Chevy. I would assume that something similar exists for the SB.
So my best guess is that a chunk of the old block heater eventually made it to the water pump and wrecked a similar plate. The debris I found looks like it had a square internal rivet pattern.
Probably never know for sure but I think this is the simplest answer.
Exactly. I hadn't considered the two might be related though. The pieces would have to go through the rad before reaching the pump.
There's probably more pieces in the rear intake passage.
In reply to Crackers :
Good point about the radiator.
These events were probably not related.
Probably some other mode of water pump failure. I checked the present pump, it is ok.
I will be checking and reverse flushing the radiator just to be safe.
I've been busy this weekend...
By the way, every time I start to talk about how the bulk of the cleaning is over... just ignore me!
Block final clean done.
Pistons, rings, and connecting rods clean..
So that means, if you haven't guessed by now... its short block time!
Interesting thing about this motor... when I measured the bore for taper and out of round, Cylinders 6 and 8 were especially odd. Now mind you this is being checked without a torque plate but it was bugging me, UNTIL I looked in the water jacket between the two. The sand casting failed, and the two cylinders are joined together solid. Must have been a Monday.
