I'm really late to this party, but do you still have a 3X shirt?
I'm really late to this party, but do you still have a 3X shirt?
I just finished dinner #2. Had to pack the turkey down with more turkey.
I got to spend the afternoon between dinners sitting next to Mrs. Deuce on the couch watching football and jumping on the trampoline with the kids. The motor needs more work that expected, but I'm starting to wonder what "expected" really means in relation to a project like this. Maybe 'hoped' is a better word? I hoped for a battery and gas solution. Then I hoped for a quick freshening of the 304. Then I hoped I could just drop the new motor in place. I've never thought of myself as a particularly optimistic guy, but I'm not sure you can drag home projects in the way we do without having an unusually sunny view of the world. We see cars not as they are, but as they could be. All it takes is time, money, hard work and imagination. How many of us grew up as "daydreamers who aren't applying themselves to their potential"? How many of us can walk out to the garage, look at the half disassembled car and say "yup, that's about right."
I hope everyone had a good day.
In reply to minivan_racer :
Drop me a message at ttwo.elm at gmail dot com. I might just have something sitting around. 
FWIW, I have now installed three and subsequently thrown in the garbage, four pertronix ignition systems.
The one in the Barracuda needed modification to install, the screw holes on the bracket were off. It eventually stopped working and was replaced by points.
The one in the Duster started dropping cylinders randomly as the engine warmed up, on break-in and caused valve guide issues (according to the engine shop that received the heads back). It was replaced with points.
One in the MGB that I didn't install stopped working so I replaced it with a new one which worked for about a month and started becoming intermittant as the engine warmed up. It was replaced with a whole new electronic distributor.
If I were you, I would either put the points and condenser system (which can be fixed at the side of the road with a matchbook and needs to be adjusted every oil change) back in OR put in an HEI (which can be fixed at the side of the road with parts that are available -literally- all over the world) from these guys: http://performancedistributors.com/product-category/distributors/international-distributors/
In reply to Trans_Maro :
Put a Pertronix with the matchng flamethower coil in my Opel GT when the coil went out. Haven't had a lick of issues with it once I got it setup right. Had to add a ballast resistor in the system. Best thing I did on my car.
I don't doubt it, lots of people seem to have no trouble with them.
Yes, I follow the instructions to the letter and use the parts that are recommended. For some reason I've had no luck with them.
Points are as reliable as gravity, based on my experiences, I see no reason to remove them from something that will only see occasional driving.
Regarding the fuel you found in the oil, you may want to check if the fuel pump diaphragm is leaking. I believe a leaking fuel pump diaphragm would put fuel in your oil pan. IMO it is cheap insurance to throw a new/rebuilt fuel pump at it anyway.
In reply to tgc328i :
Hadn't even thought about that, but thinking about how it's all routed.... yea, that would make sense. I'll add it to the list. Thanks.
Got out to the Grosh early and pulled the pistons. I wonder when this sort of thing will start to feel routine instead of kind of special and scary?
Bearings are....not bad? They all look scuffed for lack of a better word. The crank looks great. The rods themselves look good, but I'm not sure about these. Opinions?
Then I accidentally headed to Harbor Freight to buy a parts washer so I can properly clean the pistons and heads and get all of the sand off of them. I say accidentally because it was only after I got there that I realized that it was black Friday. That sucked.
When I built the overhang I put in an outlet specifically for this. Kind of a crappy picture, and I need to clean up around it, but now I have a parts washer outside. Pretty happy about that.
After that is was Christmas stuff. We've gone free form on the tree for this year. What does is mean to be "tree shaped" in the grand scheme of things. It took two of us to smash it through the door. The kids love it.
This shot is suitable for framing or perhaps Christmas cards and 'what we've been up to this past year'. I would buy a poster of this should the good Dr. be so inclined (your juxtaposing is perfect). 
Ahh, Minecraft. That's why they're confused about what shape the tree is supposed to be. :)
That posture hurts my back, start them early... if they're going to game, it has to be at a standing desk. Should help reduce screen time organically
edited to fix anatomy reference
There is so much awesomeness that is Seth in this photo. Living room with crown molding, kid playing games on 2 screens, Ferdinand through the left window, checkerboard garage deck flooring in a living space, the grosh through the other window, this seems like most of the Mazdeuce-Seth experience.
In reply to Sonic :
It's one of the best pictures I've seen all year. It's silly but in a wholesome and put together sort of way.
I didn't stage that tree picture at all. I just thought you guys would appreciate the weirdness of a two topped tree that is so bushy I had to cut branches off so that they weren't in front of deucekid#2's computer. Everything else is a consequence of the fact that I usually have to work really hard to not get something weird and distracting in the background of my photos. Those who have been to my house will understand.
I pulled a main cap this morning. This is what the bearing material looks like. It's actually not as bad in person as it looks in the pictures, and I suspect it would continue to run a good long while with 50w oil in it, but since I'm already in here I should probably replace the main and rod bearings at least. Crank is great. buttery smooth in all directions. No signs of heat at all.
Speaking of oil, here are the two pans I have. The double sump one is from the Scout, the big single from Ferdinand. Unless I want to experiment with self clearancing via the front axle, I kind of need to swap pans.
The pickups are different, which you would expect, but so are the pumps, which makes it not just a matter of using the 345 pump and swapping pickups.
And this is the top of the pickup for the 304. Something.......happened, and then was fixed. The bearings in the 304 were way better than the 345, so I'm tempted to say "it'll work" and roll with it, clearly it was delivering oil.
Also, the new motor came with the old Scout engine mounts attached. The cabover uses a front mount, so these need to go. I'm going to keep them around and maybe play with building a stand for starting engines out of the truck. I have the feeling that this isn't the last time I'll be inside a 345.
I also pulled the exhaust manifold off one of the heads so I could wash the sand out. The gasket was on it's last legs.
Then I got out this little guy here. One of you recognizes it because you were awesome and sent it to me after I struggled taking the 304 head apart. A gentleman never tells, but if you want to tell everyone the cool story behind the tool, please feel free. The people on this board are the best.
It works even better than you'd imagine. Literally 10 minutes from this picture I had the whole head apart. Life changing tool. Amazing.
I've got to run the head through the parts washer one more time before I put it back together, but dismantling it to replace valve seals just became so simple.
Last but not least, this is why the head gasket looks not round on the top of the block. The heads shaped weird to get everything to fit. I want to imagine it's to get massive valves for superior airflow at high RPM's but that's not exactly true.
Use the 304 pump in the 345, it will be fine.
Have you shopped headgaskets yet? OEM International headgaskets are stamped sheet steel. If you go with a multilayer style headgasket you will lose compression. Try to find the correct OEM style and be sure to spray them with a layer of copper sealant on both sides before installing them.
When you put the exhaust manifolds back on, don't use a gasket. Just a smear of Permatex copper silicone will do the job and you'll never have a leak.
We've done exhaust gaskets this way for the last five years at the shop and leaks have dropped to zero. Using a gasket is a sure way to get a blowout and a leak.
Notice how deep the skirt in the block is? That's how you build an engine that lasts a million miles.
Since you're in this far:
http://schneidercams.com/248-56HINThydraulicv8.aspx
Here's your aluminum 4-barrel intake so you can ditch that 70lb 2-barrel intake:
http://www.ihonly.com/ihonly_engine_parts_15.html#
In reply to Trans_Maro :
The gaskets in the set Oldopelguy sent me are multilayer. I'm not too concerned about losing compression as the plan is still a turbo. Still worth hunting them down? I'll follow your advice for exhaust.
Any recommendations for bearings or main seals? There are a couple of options out there and I have no idea what's what or if it matters.
I'm tempted by the cam just because it's kind of cheap, but again, it seems like it'll be a bit of a moot point once I start force feeding it air. The intake is on my Christmas list though. Probably not for this Christmas, but as soon as it's running and driving I'm shopping for turbo bits, and and that point I'll need more fuel.
Id reccomend efi. Fitech, msd, etc. Much better than any carb....
I can remember that valve spring compressor from when I was a kid. It was always in the same spot (sitting on the floor, leaning up against the front leg of the workbench) in Dad's basement workshop. Why was it always in the same spot? Because Dad never used it!
The last project Dad and I worked on together before he died was building the 383 SBC for my '72 Monte Carlo. That was summer of 1988. At that time, Dad gave me the valve spring compressor, figuring I'd have a long life of engine building ahead of me.
Since that day, my tools have occupied eight different garages between MD and MI. I have built only a few engines, and have never used that berkeleying valve spring compressor! It really only fit in one place in my toolbox, which was in the same space as my soldering equipment. So, whenever I needed to solder something, I had to move that stupid friggin' thing. I've wanted to get rid of it more than once, but the connection to Dad always made me keep it.
When Mazdeuce started tearing into Ferdinand's OE engine, it was like a light bulb lit up over my head. I got to thinking how much Dad would have admired the problem-solving creativity Mazdeuce has shown us all, as well as his selection of projects: the house, the Grosh, Fergus, the R63, the Airstream, and Ferdinand. I told Mazdeuce, "I've been moving this goddamn thing for nearly 30 years in my possession and tripped over it for 15 years in Dad's basement. My Dad would like what you do, so I think the best possible outcome is for it to find a permanent home in the Grosh."
And now you know the rest of the story. I'm AngryCorvair. Good day.
In reply to AngryCorvair :
It just got really dusty in here. I swear my eyes are just watering from the allergies!
I trust that you will lap the valves before you put the head together?
Seth,
If you've already got headgaskets, I wouldn't worry about it. Just a small thing in the grand scheme.
As for the bearings and whatnot, just a good, name brand will do. As long as they're not white box parts from "Good Luck Bearing Company" you're probably fine.
Dusterbd13 said:Id reccomend efi. Fitech, msd, etc. Much better than any carb....
If it were staying NA, then carb should be fine. If it's going turbo, I agree, EFI is the right answer.
I second the motion to replace the rod and main bearings with name brand products. A review of your engine photos shows a shiny, recently replaced fuel pump, making me think perhaps the old one failed (bad diaphragm?), dumped some fuel in the sump before it crapped out, and the owner replaced the fuel pump without changing the oil. The engine was run with diluted oil for some period, scuffing the rod and main bearings. Connecting a lot of dots here, but if it was run with diluted oil you may want to take a look at the cam lobes and cam bearings, as long as you're this far into the motor. Mission creep rears it's ugly head again!
NOHOME said:
I trust that you will lap the valves before you put the head together?
I probably should, shouldn't I?
As to the EFI suggestions, if I just wanted a truck to drive, I would drop in an LS or a 350 or something cheap that would work. This isn't necessarily about just ending up with a running truck, it's about playing a mental game.
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