B-73 Restoration

[mowerman]

Excellent, glad  is coming together.. Bob

[mrsmackpaul]

In all honesty it has probably been all for the best to haveall these engine dramas, I know it probably doesnt feel that way but I think it will work out that way

It will be a brand new motor and if looked after will out last and give hundreds of thousands of trouble free miles 

To me that's a good result and the pain of doing all this extra work and expense will soon be forgotten 

 

Paul

[mowerman]

Been almost 50 years I almost completely forgot I used to turn brake drums and rotors myself in a gulf full service station … and like Paul says lots of dough, hopefully live long enough to enjoy it right now my wife is starting to complain about me putting another five grand into my DM. What am I going to do with that drunken dinosaur after you croak I’ll  never see your money.. I am hoping if and when that happens, she can at least get a quick eight gees out of it. Ha ha…. Bob

[tjc transport]

tell her that is the plan, that you want to die broke with a lot of toys. 😁

[mowerman]

Right?????

[Joey Mack]

Bob,,,  I think what TJC said,,  would go over like a Fart in Church !  

[mowerman]

Well it should be at least road ready partially restored, registered decent tires will be a little easier to move. Hopefully I last longer than that ha ha.

[mattb73lt]

Back to the original crank. Ran up to Boston yesterday to pick up the crank and rebuilt rods. The original crank was fully inspected, especially in the area of the #6 throw where it ground up the sleeve when it failed. The donor crank needed another cut on the mains to clean up the remaining corrosion. That would've been .030 on the mains and we didn't want to go that far. It's still serviceable and the shop said to hang on to it. The original was standard size and only took a .010 cut on all journals to clean up. I'll re-clean it and all the oil galleries before I put the plugs back in. The shop also asked that I bring them the rods to inspect and re-bush them. The other shop said they were fine as is and only cleaned and measured them. Another reason I'll never go there again or recommend them to anyone. The heads are still 2-3 weeks out as the shop is busy and backed up. But there's a lot of steps they'll do as a normal course of rebuilding that the other shop bypasses. This'll keep me busy getting the lower end cleaned and ready for assembly with Rocky as soon as he can give me a few days. Slowly creeping forward, still.

[carlotpilot]

I see some nice work there.

[mowerman]

Well from the photograph, it looks amazing. Great progress bud. Thanks for letting us know… Bob

[Vladislav]

As Bob said above. Not every step brings you closer to successfull result but only well done ones.

[mattb73lt]

Long day driving. Headed to Boston early this morning to get my heads from Hillside Machine, then continued up to Brentwood, NH to Mahoney & Sons before heading back home. They're letting me borrow their PT timing fixture and I received a short class from Dan Mahoney on setting it up and things to look for when timing the cam. Also met Tom Mahoney while I was there. It was great to finally meet them both after so many phone conversations.

Hillside did a remarkable job on bringing the heads back to life. Their work is spotless and they have great attention to detail. They replaced all the injector cups and the thermal fuses (Something the other wasn't going to do). We did have to swap out the #3 head from the donor, as it had some oversize valve guides that are no longer available. It was absolutely the right thing to do in leaving the other shop and going to Hillside. While it was costly and time consuming, I have no worries about this shop. 

Rocky should be at the shop this week and I’m thinking two days of his help should get all the big items done. The smaller stuff I'll do on my own. 

So, we'll start the assembly this coming week. It certainly took a lot of parts from both engines to make one complete one, as both had worn or deteriorated parts.

[mrsmackpaul]

Wow, thats some serious looking bling you have there 

Im glad your feeling much better about this machine shop

When I must send work out to be done, having that feeling of confidence in the ability of the people doing the job is so important to me

 

Paul

[mattb73lt]

I'm the same way. I knew better then to go to that first shop. But it's done right now and should be for a very long time!!

[mowerman]

My God those heads look amazing thanks for the post and yes I don’t know where to have anything done like that around here. Hopefully I will never need any High Tech stuff done other than rotors and drums ha ha thanks for letting us know…. Bob

[h67st]

Looks good! I remember when we learned how to jig time a Cummins, the instructor said there are three rules to it. 1) Read the gauges right. 2) Make sure you read the gauges right. 3) Make ****ing sure you read the gauges right!

[1961H67]

Yes , that picture of the “Jig” timing tool brings back a lot of memories, ours was a “Sweeney “.  I remember the fellow that showed me how to set it up ran a Bunch of 220s in Emeryvilles ( that’s where my Backdrop came from) . As he was turning the engine I was writing it down on a piece of notebook paper , kinda like a cheat sheet, so I could get it in my head  I still have it. Just like h67st said , he hammered me on watching those gauges! I’m sure  if you got a “ Timing Class “ from the Mahoney’s It will be perfect! 

[mattb73lt]

Just about ready to start the assembly and seeing a big pile of empty parts boxes!! Ran into some technical difficulties with the liner protrusions, necessitating locating shims that are .002" thinner than what we had to attain the proper deck height. I pre-assembled and organized everything I possibly could to cut down on time. If everything shows tomorrow, Wednesday should be the day we start. I used our warming oven in the basement to heat the pistons to allow the wrist pin assembly. Everything else is set to go. Using the next couple of days to clean and paint some parts that are being replaced on the exterior that came off the donor engine.

The engine has become quite the Frankenstein assembly. From the donor we used the block, two heads, rods, camshaft and various small parts. From the original engine we used the crankshaft, cam timing gear, one head, front timing cover and most of the exterior parts and accessories. One head had to be swapped due to it having oversized valve guides that we couldn't locate.

[doubleclutchinweasel]

Oh, that takes me back!!!

[Vladislav]

"Fresh coocked" pistons look awesome! Are they througly cleaned or NOS ones?

Oversized valve guides could be custom fabricated. But having a good spare head I'd go your way. 

Once again, good luck on smooth and speedy assembly.

[yarnall]

Only 3 weeks to get it ready for Macungie.  I have faith in you. 

[1961H67]

That’s the good part, installing all the new parts after all the cleaning, running around is done. Looking Good! 

[mowerman]

Right on man thanks for letting us know. Let’s get her done.

[doubleclutchinweasel]

You will soon have an engine worthy of the rest of that truck!

[mattb73lt]

4 minutes ago, doubleclutchinweasel said:

You will soon have an engine worthy of the rest of that truck!

Thanks!! This was a huge set back. Wasn’t trying to get away from doing the engine, just thought I had a good one to go with. Now, there’s not a single item on this truck that I haven’t been through thoroughly, which gives me a great piece of mind going forward.