Race Against the Clock: Real Time Engine Swap

Here's the story, we just got done rebuilding all the brakes on my dad's 1940 dodge and he was all ready for a test drive when, POP, no compression. There goes the timing belt. Now it is going under the knife and it will be a race against the clock to get her going again for the local cruise night. Now for the fun part, wish us luck! Regular updates from the iPhone to come!

 

Good luck. This should be fun to watch.

 

1:19 radiator out frontend loose. Tine for the big lift!

 

Front end off, oh gotta love those flathead 6 engines too bad you can't see it through the old man!

 

That shouldn't have a timing belt...unless there is something I don't know.

Btw nice looking truck.

 

Thanks, I don't know and he doesn't remember, maybe it's gears. Either was it is toast

 

1:52 sure puzzled, thought for sure it would be timing chain... But we can all see that ain't it... Any ideas??

 

Starter not engaging? Broken cam?

 

Bad distributor?

 

No the cam is fine unless it broke halfway back, we are now going on at least one valve in each cylinder being stuck open. He said it happened before in a willys motor but we shall see. The thing has zero compression or vacuum so it may be.

 

Side cover off, anyone see anything wrong here haha? Maybe sludge is the problem

 

Holy sludge batman. Could be valves stuck from all that!

 

2:26 with the side cover off it is plain as day that the valves sticking, it seems like we won't have to take the motor out after all. Anyone got any home remedies for getting valves to stop sticking?

 

Valve jobs on those engines used to be a normal part of a tune up at the garage back in the day.

I'd clean the crud out of it, take the valves out and clean them up and put it back together and adjust the valves and go. And tell your pops that there was a reason that they changed the oil every 1000 miles in those engines and that reason really hasn't changed.

 

3:00 nothing is broke but the engine is lousy with sludge, I guess the moral of the story is don't let your engine get this bad! The motor isn't coming out but with only 3 hours left who knows if we will make it...

 

pb blaster/wd 40 or something, and clean that sucker.

 

3:27 we have a break through! Cylinders 2 and 5 have the valves working and have compression. The front of the engine is back together and we are putting brake clean down into the cylinders and it appears to have an effect on the bad gas/ sludge combo.

 

tick-tick-tick.........

 

4.10

 

4:20 the manifolds are off cleaning out the last of the sludge out of the valve springs. Spraying brake cleaner directly at the valves from the top and bottom.

 

Hard to believe that this truck was driven into the garage around 3 days ago to have new brakes put on it. Dad is still convinced it was the stale gas that did this.

 

Wow, looks like a super fund site. Good luck with that.

 

4:45 well he finally called it quits, the head needed to come off and there was no end in sight. Looks like we will be taking the daily driver to the show. Thanks you guys, dad really got a kick out of some of the comments. Don't worry tomorrows another day.

 

Oh well, enjoy the show and start the weekend taking your time and doing it right.

 

You're most likely better off doing it right. It's been my experience that trying to clean sludge like that is bad news; Unless you essentially detail-strip the engine, you always wind up with loose crud still hiding in corners, that gets washed into the new oil.

And since the crud is basically chunks of carbon or carbon dust, you wind up scoring a bearing, wiping out a cam lobe, scarring a crank throw, or whatever.

Take your time, do it right, and give it a full overhaul.

Doc.

 

UPDATE: nope we didn't make it but after cleaning up the sludge and getting the valves unstuck yesterday. ITS ALIVE!! and it purrs like a kitten. But we did learn a valuable lesson, don't be cheap and try to run the old gas through the motor, just get new stuff! Thanks for looking! I wanted to put up a video of it running but I don't know how to from the iPhone.

 

Fun post. nice truck.

I love trucks.

 

Yep,old sour gas will stick valves up good. If it smells bad DON"T run it !!

 

Just looking at the color of the gas in that glass bowl tells the whole story.

A few weeks back I drained 10 gallons of 8 year old gas from a '49 chevy - I could see small black tar balls oozing from the tank within the stream of dark amber gas. I put a clear plastic inline filter in and put fresh gas in the tank - the filter started clear and eventually turned dark amber with more tarry crud coming through and then being dissolved.

Imagine that on your valve stems sticking them to the guides. With a Chevy you would have a half dozen bent pushrods.

 

Yeah I guess we just had to learn the hard way, that amber colored gas is some potent stuff. It makes your eyes water and skin burn from just getting it on you. Needless to say that is the last time we will try to save a buck and use the old stuff, in the end it just isn't worth taking the chance.
And there is the color of the bowl with fresh gas, for a comparison.