So this just occurred to me. I assembled the bushed rods and pistons before I started on the bottom end of the block - they went together with a light coating of oil/STP mix. When I put the rotating assembly together in the block, I used assembly lube on the big ends and the mains, and wasn't even thinking about the small ends. Should I have used assembly lube on the small end of the rod too? I've been searching high and low and haven't been able to find a definitive answer. I emailed Scat, and they told me to go ahead and use assembly lube, because it wouldn't hurt. I'm sure it wouldn't have hurt, but is it worth it to pull the bottom end back down to but assembly lube on the pins?
If it is on a engine stand, turn it mains up and fill the bottom of the piston to cover the wrist pins with Automatic Trans Fluid then let it soak in overnight. Usually do this to any engine that has not been run for a long time.
Thanks TB, hadn't thought about ATF. I've acutally had it upside down on the stand soaking in motor oil since last weekend, so I was close! It wouldn't be the end of the world to pull it apart again, but it would present more opportunities for me to screw something up...
Hey Guys, I finally got budget approval on a cam, so I went ahead and ordered a Howards, and a set of their direct lube lifters, along with a Cloyes true roller timing set. The Scat rods I'm using are supposedly 'clearanced for stroker applications' though I was still a little worried about a lobe contacting the rod shoulder, so I went conservative on the lift - .470/.470. I oiled up the cam and put it in for a test fit. For the first slow roll, something was hitting. The heat got to me, so I threw in the towel for the day. After a day of cursing myself for not going reduced base circle right out of the gate, I decided to go back out there yesterday after work just to double check everything. Turns out the heat did indeed get to me - I had the crank gear installed 2 degrees advanced. I pulled it off and put it back on straight up, and it rolls over fine. My question is now checking cam to rod clearance. Can you do the long zip tie method with everything assembled, or should it come apart so I can check one rod at a time? I'll admit I didn't spend any time yesterday evening looking that closely at it, once it turned over that was good enough for me for one day and I retreated to the air conditioning, so apologies if this is a dumb question and the answer should be blatantly obvious.
The joy of victory, the agony of defeat. I pulled it all back apart to check the rod clearance one by one. Via the zip tie method, they all clear fine. I think I felt one drag just a touch, but other than that everything was free and clear, so I'm good on that front. When I put it all back together, I pulled out my Scat rod bolt torque cheat sheet - I couldn't remember if they got torqued to 60 or 65 ft/lb. Turns out, it was neither. These rods have 3/8" bolts, not 7/16", which means they should be torqued to 45 ft/lbs. Which also means, I looked at the wrong bolt the first time around and royally screwed up the first time I torqued them, when I went all the way up to 65. So, a new set of rod bolts is in in my near future.
Neat project bro. I like the do it yourself approach. PM me on a rear bumper, I have 2 center sections. One wagon/ nomad and one sedan/hardtop. I used trim from a shoebox Ford after I pulled the front bumper off. I lost count of how many people asked me if I want to buy a front bumper, hahahaha Sent from my E6810 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Thanks wheeldog57, always liked your car too. Like a cooler/in better shape version of my pile. I didn't notice the piece of lower trim you added, but now that I see it I like it. I like the no bumper look, but it does look sorta funny for the grill to just end, with nothing at all under it. The trim you added tightens it all up nicely.
Thanks! I'm not sure how I feel about the rally's long term, but they were cheap and got her rolling. Definitely going to stick with steelies out back.
Been a while since I update the official build thread. Seems like I spent the whole summer working on details, but I did get some big things done. It might run before the snow flies. The clutch fork tripped me up, you're welcome to read all about it here: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/clutch-setup-4-speed-conversion-on-57-chevy.1157435/ Once I got that straightened out, the engine went in for the 3rd (or was it 4th?) and final time, and I could finalize where I was going to put the Z bar frame pivot ball. Funny how you neurotically measure something 48 times to try to get it as straight as possible, and it still ends up just a liiiiitle off. Oh well. Close enough for this heap. Cut out the floor for the shifter: Spent way too much time on my back under the dash getting the clutch and spring installed, and under the car getting the linkage installed, and now it has a third pedal (though I still need to figure out the gas pedal mounting): While I had the cut off wheel handy, I made room for the headers. I'll have to do something tricky for heat now, both air ducts had to get the heave-ho to make way. No loss on the passenger side, it was full of stuffing, nuts and mouse turds and was totally rotten: I think I'll have enough room in the wheel wells with these tires: Now that the headers are in, I thought it was time to drop in the distributor and route the plug wires: I had been sorta dreading doing the plug wires. I'm trying for a stock-ish look and wanted to use the stock wire looms, and wasn't sure how they'd play with the fenderwell headers. Turns out, it was pretty painless. Stock '57 used a 3 piece set of separators. I used two as is, one bolted to the back of the block on the passenger side and one bolted to intake on the driver's side to clear the throttle linkage. I modified the third one a bit and ended up bolting it to the firewall. Nice and clean, and nothing should get burned. I'm a fan of the flat-top Mallory: After that I moved back inside, and mounted these: Probably won't use the Amp gauge and will be looking for a volt meter, but it came in the set of 3 I picked up and fills up the hole for now. I debated about drilling holes in the dash, but then I remembered this is just a junky old 4 door parts car, and went at it. Rivnuts are my new favorite thing. Still on the near future to-do list: I have to find a place to mount the coil. I think on the firewall, more to the driver's side. There's a nice flat spot on the firewall on the passenger side, but it's just under where the hot water valve (if I ever have a need for one) mounts, and would interfere with heater hoses. So some more thinking on that. The harness I have for under the hood is for HEI - that's what was in the car when I picked it up and I was trying to get it running. I don't think it will be too difficult to adapt that back to a regular points distributor. If anyone has an easy thumbnail sketch of that, I'd be all ears. Other than that, I just need to get some wiring straightened out, and then its on to installing the radiator. Once that's in, I just need to add oil...
Thanks! I'm a fan too. They sat in the garage for so long they started to get rusty, so it definitely felt good to get them bolted up. I wanted to leave as much of the inner fenders as I could, but I wasn't particularly discriminating with the cut off wheel.
Better not call it a freeze plug And thanks! I'm not trying super hard to make it look like it's something it's not, I just love the old school look, so I thought I'd apply it to this "free" block I've been dragging around for 20 years.
I guess it didn't really strike me because I've been looking at this car sitting in my driveway for 5 years, but now that I'm looking at the pics...yeesh. That's a LOT of "patina".
The obligatory Corvette part arrived over the weekend: I wasn't even looking for one, and its too small in the neck for a Holley, and too short for the Holley choke horn, so totally wrong for my application. Naturally I grabbed it anyway. For $39, I couldn't say no. I'll see what it looks like under that paint. Though, this might be a GTO air cleaner? I think I remember the genuine 61-62 Corvette ones were aluminum?
So, I was pleasantly surprised just now. Turns out, the base fits just fine, and there's room for the choke horn. Maybe it's a repro? After one round of aircraft remover: I think this level of patina fits just fine with this car and this air cleaner has found its forever home.
Finally fixed the rot hole in the floor where the gas pedal bolted down. Yes, as a matter of fact I DID rivet it down. But in my defense, I sprayed everything liberally with rust converter first, and smooshed some epoxy around the edges. Traditional crappy repair meets modern chemical technology, and now I have a gas pedal for the first time since I've owned this wreck. Starting to look awful car-like around here.
I was finally able to corral a second set of hands, to help me for the first fire up. My uncle, and the reason I'm a gearhead, had availability on Sunday, so I took Friday off so I could work on the car Friday and Saturday, to make sure everything was ready for Sunday. Thrashed for two days getting the driveshaft installed (had to remove the stock parking brake lever because the driveshaft is a little bigger than stock), wiring the choke and the tach, fighting with the gas filler tube (I'm still not sure how that design doesn't leak), running the hard fuel line, bending up a new section to connect the fuel pump to the carb, installing the starter, getting the battery cables hooked up, new ignition switch... Come Sunday morning, I *thought* I was all set. I was double checking that everything was tight, and when I tried to snug up the bolts on the water neck (after I filled it with coolant) one bolt tore the top two threads right out of the intake. Wonderful. It probably wasn't long enough, if it was only grabbing a couple threads. So I spent the morning helicoil-ing and sopping up coolant, and was smearing Permatex #2 on the gasket when my uncle showed up with his pre-luber. Poured in my bottle of ZDDP from Howard's, and we filled the crankcase, and had 60 lbs of pressure before I hit the key. I bought a brand new timing light that looked like it would launch the space shuttle just for this event, and of course we couldn't get it to work, so I dragged out my old Snap-On light and hoped it would work today (it did). Anxiety at an all time high, I hit the key and she cranked a little bit. No weird noises, no grinding or clattering. Little bit of gas in the carb, and she snapped right over. I almost fell out of the car. Conspicuously absent on the to-do list was any sort of exhaust, so she was loud. It ran for a minute, then we shut it down and unhooked the pre-luber and hooked the gauge back up, topped off the radiator and started it again. 65 lbs of pressure cold, so I was happy with that. Really, I was just happy to see the gauges moving at all, the tach included. It burped a bunch of coolant when the thermostat opened, so we shut it down to clean up and refill. He wanted to roll the engine over by hand to better mark the timing tape, the light in the old timing light isn't too bright anymore. Handed him a socket and ratchet to get that done, and we hit the key again. Neither of us remembered that the wrench was still on the balancer bolt... Unthreaded the bolt, and sent the ratchet through the bottom of the brand new radiator. Sigh. I still consider it a total, 100% success. No weird noises, so strange rods making their way through the block, seemed like all my prep work was up to snuff. Except for valve cover gaskets. I totally forgot old gaskets were still glued to them, so the driver side was leaking a good amount right onto the header. So that's on the to-do list. We ended the day with a triumphant trip down the street where I was able to shift into second! Started to get a little hot, so that was that for the day. What a feeling, actually driving this car.
Thats great Tim you are on your way. I for one are glad to see you used the short wp with radiator in stock V8 position. Looking good. Pat
Thanks Pat! Seemed like an easy choice to go with short over long, once I thought about all the work I'd need to do to put the radiator in the 6 cylinder position. This way worked for the general in '57, so it should work for me.
I started it when I got home, just to make sure I wasn't dreaming yesterday. Two pumps of the pedal and she started right up. Still seems kinda surreal.
The Jalopy Journal
