Hot Rods AD_NAPCO's 39 GMC Rocket 324 Build

I figured it was an H, I was just not sure which corner Reverse would be in, but I'm thinking based on just having gotten the top bolted back on that it must be the top left leg of the H. I'll PM Tony and see if he knows. Thanks.

 

snap ring is good but there should be a ball and spring in each of the two holes above the detents in the shift rails

 

Yeah, the balls and springs are both there. I put them in before I reinstalled the top.

 

Cool, mine were.missing so I used the balls and chopped spring from a LaSalle

 

The flywheel bolts are special...sort of.. They have threads running not quite all the way to the head of the bolt. That unthreaded area acts like dowel pins, and keeps the P-plate locked in place. That's because each hole has a shallow counterbore to fit that unthreaded part. If you use fully threaded ones, it won't be as stable, but I am sure it was done many times.

The thread should be 5/16" NC. (coarse)

btw, if a flywheel gets severly machined down on the face, you need to run those bolts in without the pressure plate, to see if the non-threaded part bottoms out on the now shallower, counterbore in the flywheel. Takes a big cut to have it bottom out, but I took a ton off mine and they did.

I's a normal 3 speed floor pattern; R is over to you and forward, 1st is over to you and back, 2nd is away from you and forward, and 3rd in away and back.

 

BTW, those Olds pressure plate bolts looked awful familiar to me, maybe the same on older Chevy pressure plate bolts.

or, look at slightly longer sizes of standard replacement bolts to get a match on the length of the untreaded shoulder, but you'd need to cut to get the overall length right.


Torus bolts are not the same.

 

So, I found a tap that worked on the p-plate holes. 5/16-18. Tony said the flywheel bolts are ARP 100-2801, and from what I can see, the p-plate bolts would be ARP 150-2201, which has the unthreaded area at the top. I'll see what the machinist thinks of the fly wheel and pressure plate for surfacing. Gonna run those over there now.

 

So, no updates as of yet. The machinist now has all the parts ( I think ) that he needs to rebuild the motor so I'm kinda waiting on him for that part to be done. Once that's done, and I have the extra bread, I'm gonna take the new old 3 speed by the trans shop and have them inspect it for me.

In the mean time... I don't know if any of yous guys would be interested but I listed the Hydra-Matic column drop for sale here on the board. I think it's a pretty unique part and would save a H-M guy a lot of fab work...

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=711456

Feel free to email me directly... [email protected]

-Josh

 

I think this delivery from Dick's Hot Rod Carbs should motivate the 324 if the machinist ever gets done with it... I went to see him last week. The heads were done. Still hadn't gotten to the block. Patience... Must have patience.

Dual Stromberg 4A's (53 Buick 4BBL's) on the Offy manifold.

I'll make sure the wife-to-be doesn't catch me with car parts on the stove top!!

 

Liking the 2x4's. I maybe regret not buying an edmunds 2x4 on ebay years ago for 200 b.i.n. It was 303, though. I don't go on that site anymore, so I can't possibly see something I don't really need


That truck is going to really scoot, and should have piles of low end torque.

 

Well... It seems long silences are the pattern for me, but what the heck, life gets complicated sometimes!

Things accomplished recently:

1) Got married
2) Got a new gig. Seems pretty promising. Working on four or five different TV shows at any given time doing VFX work. The company is really busy so if I can keep'em happy, I'm optimistic I'll have steady work for a while.
3) Found out my wife is pregnant with our first kid... Honeymoon was productive, apparently...
4) Pulled stakes and moved about 95 miles south to San Pedro, to live in my father in law's old house, which he had rented out. Should save us a few hundred bucks a month in rent...

As far as the 39 goes, well, I finally had a chance to go pick up the motor from the machinist yesterday. I'll be assembling it. A little nervous about that since I've never done it, but I think I'll be okay...

Also picked up the rolling chassis from the shop that straightened the frame for me. Frame rails were staggered a bit and it was twisted in a couple spots as well.

So my plate is completely full!! Hoping to carve out some time to get that motor put back together in the next couple weeks...

 

Congrats on the marriage and on the new pending family! You have been busy for sure. Looking forward to the assembly. Post up those pics.

 

Well... I haven't posted a LONG time. Obviously. Life has been sort of all over the map. I'm finally getting around to getting back to my 39 after a REALLY long time. Inch by inch, I'll get there.

Right now, I'm in the process of rebuilding the distributor. I'm opting for a Pertronix Ignitor 2, and I'll keep my points and condensor, etc. in the glove box for backups.

I'm looking to replace the vacuum advance. It's looking pretty scuzzy. The original part number is 1116096 for this unit. I can't find the exact application. Was this one meant for a 2 BBL or 4 BBL? I'll be running a 2 x 4 with the Stromberg 4A's. Would that advance unit be sufficient?

Other question is... The original pin that was through the distributor drive gear was solid and staked on both sides. filed off both stakes and ended up having to drill the center of the pin out to get it to move out. Will a standard roll pin be sufficient to replace it?

Thanks in advance! Good to be back on the HAMB!

-Josh

 

Also, should there be an o-ring gasket on this distributor shaft, or just a flat gasket between the flange and the block?

 

Roll pin is fine must be snug enough to require driving in, use the thin paper gasket.

 

Don't know of any replacement for the vac. advance. I got a used one from Tony. Glad to see that time permits working on the project again. On the pan gasket when you get there don't forget the two small gaskets by the rear main. They will be in your OP set. And the oil singer on the front timing gear!

 

Thanks guys. I'll let you know how it works out. I'm pretty nervous about trying to fire it for the first time... We'll see.

 

Just check all your clearances and don't assume everything is all done. Check your end play and keep everything very clean. Get some good assembly lube......different for the cam journals and lobes than the other bearings typically. I ran Joe Gibbs break in oil in mine and then changed to Valvoline VR racing oil. Cut my filter apart and found nothing to be concerned with. I am no engine guy so if I can do it I believe that you can too.

 

Yeah, I am fairly sure I did all that, but the difficult thing is that I assembled the engine over a year ago and then had to stop what I was doing. I have not bolted the intake on and, obviously, from the previous posts I don't have a distributor in. Your mentioning the oil slinger on the front gear has me second guessing that component now.
I did, from what I remember, manage to complete the process of setting up the cam with a degree wheel before I had to put all the toys away.

Probably would be a good idea for me to plan on going over some of this stuff again before I bolt the intake on.

I was contemplating building a test stand for initial break in... It's a stressful thing when you don't have a bunch of money to cover all the money you already spent if something goes wrong!

 

Hmmm! did not realize that it was partially together.Probably good idea to revisit some things. I would see if you have that slinger hanging around or pull the cover off which is a pain I know.
I would do the test stand for sure. Much easier to run and test and fix on the stand than in the vehicle.
Here is my 345 on the stand I fabbed up to run it in.

 

You can see the slinger by looking in the fuel pump hole

 

Do you happen to have any pictures of your stand? Thanks Tony. When I get back out there and get the motor back off the truck frame, I'll check that. I had to halfway reassemble the truck to move it and it's been sitting in the garage all wrapped up for about a year.

Amazing what having a baby can do to your hot rod hobbies!

 

You should also be able to see the cam button.

 

HA! That Tony is always looking in odd places!

I will have to look and see if I have a pic of the stand. Made it out of 2x2 with a detachable instrument stand/bell housing mount so that I can take it apart easily and stand it up out of the way.

 

this might do.

made uprights for the engine mounts that are universal and by flipping them I can mount up a flathead or a sbc. There is a flat piece of stock plate welded to the rear uprights that has been predrilled for GM bell and the Ford bells. I am using a Transdapt Olds to GM Muncie adapter at the moment on the stand. The Southwind is one I converted to water to see if it would throw enough heat to take the chill off on a fall morning. It appears it will but it is difficult to determine with it not in the car. Hope this is clear enough. Walt

 

Thanks for posting that, Walt! I appreciate it. Gives me an idea of what I need to do now. If you happen to run across any more pics like that of other angles I'd be interested. Shoot me a PM if you want to email anything and I can give you my address there. Thanks! -Josh

 

I'm back. Again. I'm nothing if not predictably unpredictable. Only thing is, I seem to jinx myself by posting here, suggesting that I'm going to get back to working on my truck. So, I'll say this... It's my sincere hope that I do in fact make forward progress on this project in the near future. I'll be posting with pics soon.

 

welcome back Josh! been looking for you.................

 

Thanks, Walt! good to be back. Okay, so the major things that have happened with the truck since last I was active here... I found a much much nicer cab a few hours south of here. Bought that for far less than it would have cost in time and money to rehab what I had. Just sold off the old cab and doors, and got the new one mounted up.
So the next step I'm going t undertake is solving the issue of the motor mounts and how that changed after I ditched the Hydra-Matic and switched to the 37 Buick 3 speed trans. So something has changed between the rear motor mounts and the cross member. The feet on the motor mounts seem to bee at a different angle than the mount points on the cross member. You'll see in the pictures, I think, what the bind is. In the one picture you'll see that if I have both bolts in the motor mount, I can't bolt the cross member up. If I remove the bottom bolt from the motor mount I can get the cross member bolted up but I'm have a hole off on both sides. I think the solution is to take a very thin pie cut out of the cross member under each mounting surface and lay it down to open up the angle to match the motor mounts. Once I get those angles to match, I'll weld it up and call the cross member done. Anyone see a problem with that line of reasoning?

 

Only thing I can think of at the moment is that the AT cross member may be different than one for the std shift Olds. Seems I have run across that before if memory serves me right. F&J would know for sure as he has had much more hands on than I with the Olds trannies and such. Either way you will have to adapt for sure.