Hot Rods Bringing my 39 back to life

Excellent progress, Jason. Everything looks great. Color on the wheels turned out nice!

 

Had to see how the wheels looked after getting home with my boys from camp. I'm really digging it.

 

Had to take the windsheild regulator back apart and make some Minor adjustments but got that straightened out and installed. Now I can finally mount the dash and get wires pulled where they need to go. Put the banjo on to see how it looks. Happy is an understatement.

 

Looking great, Jason.

 

Got just about all the under dash wiring done. Everything terminated at the fuse block. Wires pulled thru the firewall, and new speedo cable installed. I was gonna put the trans in but I cant find the dang speedo gear that drives the turtle. Any one got a gear for a #19 speedo turtle?

 

Trans is in! Had Doug at Walker Smith speed go through the trans for me awhile ago. All new ready to go!

 

Go easy on that box, I used to wipe them out with a stock flathead

 

I put the best stuff I could find for the trans, but yeah I'll be going easy on it. I have a Mustang T5 waiting in the wings for when I blow this one up. If I can get a year or so out of it I'll be happy..

 

After having the block, crank and rods in bags from the machine shop for over a year....its finally time to assemble the motor!! Got my parts out and staged for cleaning in the morning. After a good block and crank scrub I'll be ready to start putting stuff together!!

 

Got the block, the crank and all the rods and pistons scrubbed and cleaned good. Then got all the clearances checked and everything passed. Got the crank in the block and then the rings on the pistons. I'll get the pistons in the block tomorrow after work.
Hopefully I can get this all assembled so I can measure for push rods and get them ordered for the weekend.

 

Started scrubbing this thing at 11am. Scrubbed the snot out of it for about 2 hours. Its clean now!

 

And short block is assembled!!! After not being able to find my snap on ring compressor I had to fight with a a band compressor. But I got them in and rods torqued. I hate you only torque these little rod bolts to 35 pounds.

 

Got the long block wrapped up tonight. Tomorrow I'll get the pushrod measured and the oil pump on and maybe get it in primer.

 

Of you are building a 283, I highly recommend these head gaskets from SCE. They are actually sized right for the smaller bore. Unlike most small block gaskets that have a giant over 4 inch bore, these fit nice.

 

^^^^^^^^^^^ Good tip on the head gaskets, but I noticed the package label stated .015 thickness, so make sure your piston to head clearance is at least .035-.040. If your block deck has been resurfaced to a height intended for a thicker gasket you could have a problem.
On those "giant over 4" bore" 350s like I run, I like to set them up with a zero difference between piston deck and block deck,and then use a Felpro gasket with .039 compressed thickness. If someone ahead of you in the lifetime of use that 283 block has had, cut the block deck for that type of setup or similar, you could get the pistons and head surface clearance too tight.
Another little detail I only recently learned about is the clearance between oil pump driveshaft shoulder and the one on the distributor where they meet and the tongue and slot go together. If they butt together before the distributor seats itself all the way down on the intake mounting surface, it will push the gear inside the oil pump down against the bottom plate, potentially causing pump damage and excessive wear on distributor drive gears, both on the oil pump and the camshaft.
Best to install and torque down the heads and intake manifold, then trial fit the distributor with the oil pan off so you can check this little known, but often overlooked source of troubles later.
I learned this little detail from a friend who earns his living building engines for hot rods and race cars. He apprenticed with a guy that was a national record holder back in the '50-60s, and builds more engines, primarily sbc in a year than I've built in my whole hot rodding and racing lifetime.

 

You are absolutely right about the piston deck clearance. On this block I had the deck cut so the pistons are .025 down in the hole. These pistons are Sealed Power rebuilder pistons, so they already have the pin to piston top (pin Height) set down a bit to put the piston down in the bore some to compensate for a clean up decking. All said, I believe they cut .020 of the deck to get the pistons set .025 down in the hole. So adding the .025 deck clearance with the .015 compressed thickness of the gasket puts me right at .040 for an optimum quench height.

Doing my best calculations..... The block was bored .040 over making the bore now 3.915, and the heads are 305 #601 castings with 53CC chambers. So with the .025 deck height, and the compressed gasket height of .015, +5 CC for the valve reliefs in the piston tops, I should be right around 9.98 to 1 static compression. With the overlap of the 097 cam it should bleed some compression off to give it a lower dynamic compression and be able to run on Mid grade gas hopefully. We shall see.....

That's good thinking with the Distributor oil pump engagement. I have several copper oil pump gasket / seals that may be able to be used a s shim of sorts to compensate for any clearance issues with the distributor engagement. One more thing to check tonight when I measure for pushrods. Thanks for the Tip!!

 

Got my pushrods measured and stock ones will work fine, so i got those ordered. Got the rest of the little stuff wrapped up, oil pump, distributor clearence, and will get masked and painted in the morning.

 

Also scored these sweet old Cal Custom covers for it to match the NOS Cal Custom finned oil pan I have been dragging around for 10 years!!

 

Got the pushrods in and valves all adjusted today. Then cleaned the block and heads with thinner and started spraying away. Looks exactly how I wanted it to. The tri-power looks awesome, and I dig the script covers so much I may not use the Cals.. Gotta swap the oil pan out for the aluminum one I'm using, just used the old chrome one to mask the crank case. Hoping I can get it off the stand and the clutch put on it tomorrow and bolt it in the car!! Getting closer.

 

And I got my invite to The Old North State Invitational in the mail today.....gotta get cracking on this sum bitch!!
If you have not been to The Old North State Invitational I suggest you check it out. It is the one show I look forward too all year!! Great cars and great people, and killer tacos.

 

I just put the hurst mount, crank hub and pulleys on it and something seems off shouldn't the one of the pulleys be smaller so it turns the pump faster than the crank? These are the same size so it would be a 1 to 1 ratio. This would make the water pump spin the same speed as the crank. I'm gonna search for my original pulleys, these are just cheap chrome ones from speedway.

 

Coming in late on your build, Jason. Excited for you.
You don't want the water pump to be turning too fast. I believe you're good with your pulleys, although I have to save it from that view, they look kind of close to each other. Maybe it's full in my eyes somehow. But here's a picture of a stocker.



Sent from my VS835 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Thanks man!
The water pump pulley is not tight just loose on the pump. When its flush on the pump have about 7/16 inch between the pulleys. The crank pulley is 6 3/4 inch across and the water pump is 7 1/8 inch across. So, after a little math..I think this is right.... if the crank pulley is spinning at 1000 rpm the water pump should be turning at 947 rpm making it under driven....I think this is right...

Crank pulley 6.75 inches x 1000 rpm = 6,750
6,750 rpm ÷ water pump pulley 7.125 = 947.368 RPM

I remember the old pulleys were close but this crank pulley seems larger. I'll have to dig up the old ones, if I can find them.

 

Looking good

 

Nice color choice for the engine.

 

Major milestone achieved tonight. After over 2 years with the motor out for rebuild and crossmember repair / frame cleanup and paint.....the motor is back in!!! Relly living how it looks against the white firewall. Gotta order those u shaped spacers for the motor mounts as my aluminum pan hits the bolts and its gonna need them for the motor to be at the right angle with the rake that's got. But it's in!!!! Now it's just do everything else to make it run!!!

 

Got the wiring sorted to where it needs to go on the engine and put through the asphalt loom. Also got the exhaust manifolds ready to go and installed. Gonna work on building pipes so I can get this thing fired up.

 

Got the motor properly installed today and got the fuel pressure regulator and fuel block installed today. Even got some NOS Wittek clamps for the fuel lines to the carbs. Love this killer low pressure fuel pressure guage from Dicks Hot Rod carbs.

 

Great work Jason. Where did you find the u-shaped spacers for the Hurst mount?

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I got them from Speedway, they list them as 35 to 40 for adapter brackets for Hurst style mounts.