I was telling my wife about Ferdinand last night and how he got his name and, even though she couldn't care less about the oily bits that we like, she loved the name and thought it was fitting.
I was telling my wife about Ferdinand last night and how he got his name and, even though she couldn't care less about the oily bits that we like, she loved the name and thought it was fitting.
mcbacon said:I was telling my wife about Ferdinand last night and how he got his name and, even though she couldn't care less about the oily bits that we like, she loved the name and thought it was fitting.
That makes me happy. 
Mixed up another batch of paint this morning and now all of the red bits are as red as they're going to get until I pull the cab far in the future. Mrs. Deuce was asking me why I was bothering and I explained about creeping corrosion and how I wanted the cab to be solid in another 10 years when it was time to properly do body work. "Wait, we're still going to own this in 1o years?" Well, I mean, someone is going to. Might be me, might be someone else, whoever it is will be happy about less rust.
There are three cross members. One for the cab, one at the front of the engine and one supporting the transmission. They were all abused with the wire brush and then wiped down with rust converter. They're ready to paint.
Tomorrow might be shenanigans, but the kids have all next week off school and that means less driving and more working. Yay?
Kudos on that intellectual logistical exchange........me thinks Ms.MzD wasn't buying any of that....
Today was one of those car guy days where it's more about the guy than the car.
About a week ago a member let me know that he was going to be in town for work. It took a bit more scheduling than usual to find a time when I wasn't running kids around, but we finally figured that we could hang out today. With only a few hours to fill we wandered around, looked at projects, fired up the R63 to go get tacos, and generally shot the bull. Rock climbing, mid 90's MotoGP riders, parenting, taxes, cars, and tropical islands, we pretty much covered the full range of topics. If you think my threads wander you should hang out with me in person.
It's hard to overstate how amazing the human side of the car hobby is.
I did manage to dunk the hone in some ATF to get it lubed up. Not sure if it's the "right" way, but it was recommended in several internet instructions on using them. Just about to see if we can smooth things out.
You had me at fire up the R63 for tacos..... and discuss 90's MotoGP? Sounds like a fantastic time!
As with most things, too much lube is better than not enough, and that's definitely more than enough. LOL
I always just used WD-40. Spraying the cylinder periodically to clean the swarf/paste so you can see when to stop. YMMV.
Anyone near Reno? If I could figure out how to move this from there to Houston it would solve 98 of my problems.
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
Maybe BoxheadTim could check it out for you?
I leave these for discussion. About 40 passes with the hone.
This is the bad cylinder. The other 7 (or 6.5 of them at least) are visually good. Machining this block and fitting new pistons isn't a cost effective option, so it either works, or it doesn't.
I'd love to give you some words of encouragement but that appears to be f-ed.
It'll probably smoke but it WILL run when you put it all back together.
Straight 50 wt is your friend and won't hurt it a bit.
Holy E36 M3 batman, that ones done for sure. But please, anything other than a 350 or ls swap, ferdinand deserves something cool under the hood
I know a guy with a fresh 440 mopar and 727 trans....
A Sleeve is 70.00 bucks size it to fit your needs.
Sleeve it or lose it. That be FUBAR.
I do not have the aversion that some do to dropping a LSx with the matching gearbox and electron distribution that some do.
If, not that, then some bull-hearted diesel is the answer. If roadkill can drop a diesel into a cadillac for 3-fiddy, you could do the same.
SethMazD don't even think about it............work on OLOA or the Astream, but not Ferd not now.....sorry
From what I remember, Caterpillar had a 2 part epoxy that worked for these problems. Belzona 1111 (Super Metal) is what made or makes it for Cat. Something like this may work. Don't know how transfer info to this page, may want to look it up on the Net. Can't hurt, that cylinder is... Before anyone asks about snake oil, I know for sure that NYC Sanitation used Cat 2 part epoxy for engines, gas and diesel.
Well, crap. That cylinder is definitely not good. What you should do about it comes down to what it is you're trying to accomplish.
It's my understanding that the immediate goal is to wrench on stuff for educational purposes and to give you something to write about, make it so you don't have to get out the pickup and a chain every time you want to move Ferdinand and to be able to drive Ferdinand a bit so that he can tell you what it is he'd like to be when you're done with him.
With those goals in mind I kind of think you should put that engine back together with the bad cylinder. Sure it's not right but how bad will it be? It'll certainly run and It'll almost certainly use oil but how much? It's more work than I'd be willing to put in to find out but in this case the work and not the end result is sort of the purpose for the project.
Is that the only bad cyl?
I'd try the epoxy that Dirtydog suggested.
What have you got to lose? It's not like you're going to make it worse.
GTXVette said:
A Sleeve is 70.00 bucks size it to fit your needs.
This. It's really not that expensive to sleeve a cylinder.
Eww, that sucks!
No way would I try to put that together. (And I've embraced being a hack)
That's bad enough to grind up your rings at best. Worst case scenario, they grab bad enough to break the rings and/or ring lands and put metal into the oil, and we know how that ends.
I'd get it accessed by a machine shop and go from there. But unless you want to swap it now, I'd plan on a full rebuild or finding a used motor. (Which I'm guessing was what the for sale ad was about.)
I'm out in the Grosh, standing here in my pajamas, drinking a cup of coffee. It's not quite 5:00 am on a Sunday.
I would be ok with my brain if it had woken me up to start serious planning on what to do about this big stupid lump of iron that goes inside the bigger stupider bit of Chicago assembled steel sitting in my yard. That would be productive.
That's not why my brain woke me up.
My brain woke me up to revisit old projects.
I've bought a lot of cars through the years. Of those, nearly all of them were purchased to be cars. To be driven, or fixed and driven, depending on how optimistic I was feeling. There are four, now five, that weren't bought with any real idea of them being practical transportation upon completion. I bought cars to be something other than cars.
The first was a 1955 Series I Land Rover Pickup that I bought in college. It ran, but the brakes were shot. So was the frame. And the box. It sucked gas from a fuel line shoved into a can in the corner of the bed. This happened because I had managed to scam a bit of office space on campus as an undergraduate, and that got me my own internet connected computer with no real limits as to how I explored. Of all the terrible inappropriate things I could have stumbled upon on the late 90's internet, I found Land Rovers. While the truck ran, and parts were available (mostly from England or Canada), I found myself with a very clear path forward paved with money that I didn't have. The truck had no purpose other than entertaining me and I was moving to Texas to start a new life with a beautiful woman. It ended up at my parents house and was eventually given to a local guy who broke apart or fixed old Land Rovers depending on what he had to work with. I hope he fixed it.
The next was a 1985 Omni G5 rally car. I bought this in my last days at work as sort of a last hurrah of employment. It arrived with everything forward of the firewall in boxes. The short block has been rebuilt and was in a bag. The head was in a bag. There were lots of things in bags. There was also a factory service manual. Real work on the car started after my first baby was born. I was 26, and my new job was taking care of a baby, a job to which I was woefully unprepared mentally. My wife would get home from work, and I would kiss her, tell her about my day, and head out to work on the Omni. From about 5:00 am to 5:00 pm my emotional strength drained like sand through an hour glass. Working on that car flipped the glass back over and prepared me for the next day. As the car moved from a pile of parts to a running rally car, I changed from a guy at home with his kid to a stay at home dad. The car was inspected and registered and driven around. $2500 and a tow vehicle would have gotten me to my first rally. The car was parked and eventually given to a friend for him to break apart. I have a picture of Mrs. Deuce sitting in this car. I think she always wanted to suit up and drive it on stage.
As the Omni sat I set my sights on the $2004 Challenge. I had traded a truck worth about $4k to my brother for a Daytona worth about $40 because he desperately needed something to get to work, and I needed another project. I picked up a K-car that drove for all of 200 yards before the transmission gave out. I merged the K-car shell with the spinny bits from the Daytona in what was a pretty tried and true formula for the Challenge at that time. I autocrossed that car twice and then took it back apart to paint it for the Challenge. It turns out that attending the Challenge that year would have meant leaving my wife, who was eight months pregnant, home with a one year old while I drove to Florida and played with cars. That's not the person I wanted to be. I never did put that car back together, and it was eventually scrapped.
Fergus was next. The 1968 Ford station wagon. Still in the yard. Still (probably) runs. Still doesn't have a purpose other than being beautiful in the way that only late 60's American iron can be. I wonder where I would be with that car if the R63 didn't break. It was sitting comfortably in the Grosh prior to that. When I needed to exercise my brain and get my hands greasy it was always there. I still wonder if maybe I shouldn't pull it back in and see if I can get the brakes to stop leaking.
I'm standing here this morning trying to think about how the cabover fits in with my history of project cars. Cars that can be driven or raced or used get driven or raced or used. Project cars......don't. Historically anyway, and that's concerning.
When I stood in Oldopelguy's yard and shook his hand we both 100% believed that I was battery and gas away from making things work. I still would have had brakes and wiring and a bunch of other stuff to worry about, but the project was about learning systems and old engineering and writing about the adventure. Then the motor came out and I was looking at pulling it all apart and making it work again. Now I have bare frame rails and a motor that I'm struggling to see the logic in reassembling. If someone gave me that motor, I wouldn't put it back together, I'd use the pieces for art.
I don't like to wander just to wander. It may be about the journey, but without a destination you just wander about until you're too tired to go on and say "I guess this is where I wanted to be". I don't think I've ever ended up where I wanted to be with a project. I wander, I get lost, I sit down. It's not whether or not this motor can be put back together and run, it's about whether that process actually moves me toward a truck that I want to drive to school to pick up the kids.
It's now almost 7:00, and I've had my coffee and thought about and written it all down. Reassembling this engine means I end up with a wounded 304. I could sleeve the cylinder, but then I'd be one more good bore into a motor that I don't really want in the end. There is adventure in reassembling it as is and seeing if it will fire, and there is probably an interesting story in that, but there's also a new set of rings, repairing the bad spark plug threads, buying a new starter, plugs, wires, and whatever else I find wrong as I go along. All for a motor that I don't want.
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
It sounds like the path has laid its self out before you. Somewhat.
In the vein of "self improvement", critical feedback... and after having re-read the last two paragraphs again... I'd like to offer the following suggestion to consider:
mazdeuce - Seth said:I'm out in the Grosh, standing here in my pajamas, drinking a cup of coffee. It's not quite 5:00 am on a Sunday, and I've come to a realization.
[ ... ...]
I don't like to wander just to wander. It may be about the journey, but without a destination you just wander about until you're too tired to go on and say "I guess this is where I wanted to be". I don't think I've ever ended up where I wanted to be with a project. I wander, I get lost, I sit down. It's not whether or not this motor can be put back together and run, it's about whether that process actually moves me toward a truck that I want to drive to school to pick up the kids.
It's now almost 7:00, and I've had my coffee and thought about and written it all down. Reassembling this engine means I end up with a wounded 304. I could sleeve the cylinder, but then I'd be one more good bore into a motor that I don't really want in the end. There is adventure in reassembling it as is and seeing if it will fire, and there is probably an interesting story in that, but there's also a new set of rings, repairing the bad spark plug threads, buying a new starter, plugs, wires, and whatever else I find wrong as I go along. All for a motor that I don't want.
I realize that the process of writing this post... which is an awesome beautiful story that you've shared... is (maybe, probably) how you came to the revelation in those final two paragraphs. I enjoyed the journey, but I got stuck stewing about the history, and the realization is a little muted.
Foreshadowing, just a little bit at the front end... even if it means going back and adding it after writing the story, is (imho) an important directive device for something like this. It reduces the number of options that we considering while wandering through the forested trail of your words. So that when we meet the summit, we're not left considering: Maybe it's not this one, but just over the next hill?
Emphasizing the difference can help focus the tone of response you'll get.
Seth, using the late 90’s Internet to buy a Land Rover pickup is way better than using the AOL car chat rooms to pick up girls. Sure I had a blast at the time and there are many untold stories, but in the end my dad kicked my butt and got me back to cars for companionship. If he only knew what would come to his garage over the next several years maybe he would have been more understanding of having a couple long distance berkeley buddies
i’m coming to some similar revelations with my own relationships with cars. I would have been better off buying a clean stock impala ss because I just want to drive it. It’s on the trailer right now and got towed home the last time I took it for a ride. My projects anymore are challenge builds, which has pushed the chevelle aside. I loved the chevelle because it was a driver. Then it wiped a cam lobe and I decided to see how bad the roof was under the vinyl top. If i had just slapped another 350 in it we’d have been driving it the last 3 summers. Instead there’s a 454 on the stand in front of it, $2000 of suspension on the shelf, new sheetmetal sitting on the roof, and not much desire to put it all together. I will, but it’s for Carli’s sake. That’s always been her car. We bought it together before we bought our house or got married. If it were mine I probably would have sold it last year.
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