MONZORA redux: ‘65 Corvair + ‘94 Corvette mashup for 2019 Challenge

hypothesis:  upon removal of lifters for cam swap, i noticed that most, but not all, lifter oil holes were facing front. i may have rotated those that were not when i reinstalled them, because i went to a military high school and goddamn it everything faces the same way! then again, i may have put them back exactly as they were. After 200k miles there was some thrust witnessing (polished, not scored) on the lifter bodies.

question: anyone think there could be some asymetric wear due to unidirectional thrust and the ones that show zero plunger movement might actually be installed backwards from their 200k orientation? because i'm an engineer, i'm thinking about pulling the lifters to investigate this.

Given that hydraulic lifters are supposed to move, I would not fire up until all can be adjusted correctly. A possibility is that the 4 are stuck from sitting. It is possible to disassemble the lifters and clean them up and reassemble.

I always enjoy LT1 content.

Years ago people said the LT4 hot cam kit springs were inadequate for the LT1 heads. The story was it was designed for the LT4 heads which use a lighter valve, and when used in conjunction with an LT1 valve it resulted in valve float at high RPM. I dont know if its true, Ive never used the cam, but I did see it from pretty credible sources. On the other hand it is probably the most commonly used cam kit for LT1s and Im sure most of them get installed with the supplied springs.

When I did my springs, I just put the piston at TDC. I didnt use rope or air. They wont actually drop into the cylinder.

In reply to zordak :

That's a much better answer than "just send it!" I will pull them apart one by one and document it here. Worst case, I have to grab replacements.

In reply to Opti :

This is my first LT1, I like to let things mature before I invest in them. 

Funny you're being particular about the direction of the lifter drain holes.  Corvairs occasionally clatter due to lifter drain holes eventually pointing down and draining the lifter.  

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

This is my first LT1, I like to let things mature before I invest in them. 

I hear you.  It’d be a shame to rush into this whole “LS thing” I’d let that marinate a bit longer lol.

In all seriousness though, the LT1 is just old school enough to fit with your theme of “what if the 60’s GM engineers decided to stuff a small block in a Corvair”  rather than “let’s go to LS Fest and roast the tires off of this pig!”

I approve.

They probably just stuck. Tap the rocker/pushrod with a rubber/rawhide mallet and they'll usually free up. If not, they'll usually free up pretty much immediately after startup making noise and causing panic. (Been there.) 

I thought you were supposed to keep them soaked in an oil bath to free them up.

I went through the adjustment procedure again to be sure which plungers weren't plunging, and gave each of those a squirt of Brakleen, then rotated the crank and gave each one about 15 minutes of dwell time at max lift to think about what they'd done. 100% repentance  was achieved, so I went through the adjustment procedure again and I'm gonna call initial settings "all good". Looking forward to more cleaning, painting, and assembly this weekend so I can get on with making powertrain mounts.

800 is about right for wet-sanding oil pan, yes?

In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :

Wet sanding a wha....?

Dude, you're sick. And not in a good way. 

In reply to Crackers :

You should hear what grit he uses when working on drywall...

40 grit on the inside.  Increases surface area of the pan for better heat transfer.  

Smooth outside of the pan let's your oil leaks shed off quicker.

[Forrest Gump]
And just like that, it was orange.
[/Forrest Gump]

JT said:

In reply to Crackers :

You should hear what grit he uses when working on drywall...

That was the old me.  New me uses a damp cloth and gets it close enough.

I want to hate the black valve cover but it's not as bad as I expected.

Now you'll be able to see where it leaks. 

Wrinkle finish those puppies!

In reply to OjaiM5 :

that would be my go-to on an aluminum cover where I had a finned highlight to sand to a satin finish.  I'm concerned that the black looks out of place against the orange and aluminum. Don't worry though, I've got something up my sleeve on this. ;-)

Yesterday I installed new seals in timing cover. Here's how I tackled a couple of them. First, the water pump drive shaft.

A bit of all-thread, a socket on the back, a bushing driver on the front, a couple of shock bushing washers, and a pair of nuts. Righty-tighty pushes it in square.

The Opti shaft seal has a rubber overmold, and it presses in with just thumb force, so no pix of that.

The crank snout seal took a little bit of jury-rigging but I'm pretty happy with what I came up with. I used my steering wheel puller on the back:

and my balancer puller on the front. the driver bolt of the SW puller passes thru the balancer puller and righty tighty drives it home square:

the crank seal is a "high mileage" style which moves the seal contact outboard 1/8" so it rides on a non-worn part of the snout. That's why the shell sits proud of the cover:

I also disassembled the intake for more thorough cleaning, tumbled a bunch more fasteners, retrieved a set of tires from storage, and knocked out a couple honey-do's. Overall a pretty nice little Saturday. I'm glad I was able to fit it all in.

Grrr, just spent 2 hours driving to buy a set of C5 wheels that were (1) replicas and (2) not as nice as described. I didn't even bother to lowball and he didn't offer any concession.

Silver lining: there was a Krispy Kreme shop about 1/2-mile away. Dessert before dinner makes Dad a hero!

In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :

Why is the box not opened and shouldn't it be Krispy Kreme for dinner?

Stampie (FS) said:

In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :

Why is the box not opened and shouldn't it be Krispy Kreme for dinner?

Because I'm also the meanest dad in the world.