Tech: how to install a motor

I helped my friend install the replacement motor in his Camaro yesterday and today. There are only about 3 tricky parts I had to help him with. No pics today, you will just have to envision this...
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1. Get the motor into the engine bay and positioned properly. While still hanging from the hoist, you want to have the back face of the motor about 1" forward of the front of the transmission case. You need to get the rear of the motor tilted down about 5-10 degrees. Now make sure that the motor mounts are straddling the frame mounts so they will drop down on them. Get under the car and jack the front of the transmission up until it matches the motor's tilt. Now gently wrestle the motor back onto the trans case, inserting the 5/8" dowel pins on the motor into the mating holes in the trans case. Put the 6 trans to motor bolts in and tighten them up. If you have it right, this will be easy. If it's hard, something is wrong. Back it up and start over. Take the jack out from under the trans, and lower the motor onto the front mounts.
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2. Get under and attach the converter to the flywheel. Just sayin', so you don't forget this step. Make sure the converter is sitting on there square and nice.
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3. Install the distributor. Here's how to get the static timing close, so the engine will start. Turn the motor over until cylinder #1 is moving to TDC; top dead center. Turn the motor until the timing mark reaches 12* before TDC, and stop there. This gives us 12* static spark advance. The motor is in firing position. Make a mark on the distributor body where the #1 plug terminal fits onto the body. Remove the distributor cap. Install the distributor so that the rotor comes to point directly at the mark on the distributor when it is fully seated. The motor is now in firing position on the #1 cylinder, and the distributor is in firing position to the #1 cylinder. See how that works?
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Reinstall the other stuff.
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My friend's car fired up immediately and ran smoothly right away. The timing on my distributor install was pretty darn close for that to happen! Thank you, thank you.
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Anyway, he's happy, and I was happy to help. I apologize for no photos, especially since they might have helped my explanations to make more sense. Couldn't find our camera at the time.
Thanks for tuning in. I also have this for you, something I'm selling:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&_trksid=p3907.m32&_trkparms=tab%3DSelling&item=150334163068&viewitem=

Any guesses of how high this will go?

Tech: How to pull a motor (short version).

I helped a friend pull the motor out of his 1971 Chevy Camaro today. He had never done it before, and I have lost count of how many I have done, so I was official advisor. I let him do all the work so he'd have the pride of accomplishment. This is a very simplified version of what to do. It's actually not too difficult. My friend already had the motor ready to come out. Disconnect all the accessories, exhaust, intake, fuel line, radiator, belts, wiring (labelling all the wires), hood off, etc. Take out the front motor mount through bolts. It is not necessary to remove the intake manifold, as he has done here, but he will be swapping it to the new motor later anyway. If you're going to use a chain across the top, like we are, remove the valve covers. Drain as much coolant as you can.

Other side, you can see the exhaust headers are off and out of the car. Roomy in there now.

Get underneath, and disconnect the torque converter to flexplate bolts. There are three of them. This is kind of a tough part. It goes way easier if you remove the spark plugs and have the nice flexplate turning tool, which I gladly lent. Push the converter back into the transmission as far as it will go; about 3/8".

Support the transmission from underneath with a floor jack and a block of wood, like so. Nothing fancy here; block of wood.

Attach a hydraulic hoist, and begin lifting the motor up. You can see how we used a chain across the top of the motor. The motor will tilt up about 2" in the front, then pull it forward about 1" and it will pull free from the transmission. Boop!

I'd rather see this than a dead deer on a hook any day. The hot-rodder and his daughter pose with the removed motor. It is, in a sense, that easy.

Perhaps I'll do a follow up on the reinstallation, highlighting one or two things to watch out for. It's only marginally more difficult to put a motor back in.

Thanks for tuning in.

Tech: Alternator swap, part 2 (plus bonus features)

Here's the finishing up of the alternator install. I had to modify the existing generator lower bracket to mount the alternator on it. I welded a piece of metal on it, moving the lower pivot point farther away from the motor.

If you squint you can see the part in the blurry photo above. No, squint more. That is actually a good weld, it just looks like a little ploop-ploop in this photo.

I modified the top bracket as well (see the weld). I don't mind the welds showing. Again, the contour of the bracket is better than it looks, and someday I will grind the bracket and paint it nice, and it will look much better. Now is not that day. I just want to get this thing going for now.

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That's the existing belt on there for now. I'll get a new, shorter one that will put the alternator more in the middle of it's adjustment, and then a second one to keep in the trunk.

Here's a quickie. A previous owner (henceforth; PO) used a too long, too big spring as a carb return spring, attaching it to the fan shroud. That was only a 50% infraction, but punching a hole in an otherwise unmolested 50-year-old fan shroud with a phillips screwdriver and hammer (I am pointing to the little cross mark) was easily another 50% infraction. Most PO bodges are benign, but this really steamed my vegetables. How cobby. I suppose we are lucky the spring was not longer, or it would be attached to the front bumper. Anyway, a replacement with a proper sized spring, attached to the top of the motor, closer by, solved this problem. No pic. I will undent and weld up the hole when I do the radiator.

Another worthwhile upgrade: New fuel line from pump to carb. The existing line was a kinked, rusty piece of incorrect size tube, with a big ol' length of hose. Using hose is not the worst thing you could do, but it lacks, shall we say, that certain elegance. I bent up a parts store length of straight tube to fit nicey-nice.

Here's how you do it, a tubing bender. I have also used old pulleys of various sizes very successfully. If you take your time, it's not so tough.

New fuel line, topside. Also, new fuel filter. Nothing fancy, a universal type, see-though plastic. If you go for a fancy glass one, it will break someday and spray fuel all over you hot engine, and your car will burn to the ground. That's why I like the plastic ones: cheaper, safer, better.

Fuel line, pump side. Notice the even, factory style bends. Lower radiator hose removed in this photo.

Last one for today. New battery. Advance Auto Parts actually had '58 Chevys in the computer application database, and they had the correct battery in stock. It was huge, so I'm taking a chance on a smaller, lighter one. Yes, yes, I know, no warranty for you! I later theorized that the huge stockers were necessary because the generators were not as efficient at charging, and since I now have a modern alternator, I can get by with this smaller one. We'll see. I made a sturdy mount, rods, and hold down myself. The rods are still long because I want to make a little non-conductive tray that will gang on top and cover the whole battery. That will be a handy tool tray, and cover the positive terminal of the battery, so wrenches and things don't fall on there and cause a massive short. The alternator feed wire is the red wire poking in from the top left there. Done.

Thanks for tuning in, see you soon.

I have to vent about PCV valves

I will be back with more of the exciting alternator swap later. I haven't finished it yet. But for now, a little diversion based on a question I had from the last post.

One of my readers asked in an email about the function of the odd, nubbin-looking thing on the left, that seems to be leaking oil in this photo:

If you look closely, in the silver and red ribbed cover, there is a protruberance. What this is, is the end of a PCV valve that the previous owner thoughtfully plugged with a vinyl protective cap. Unfortunately, this renders it useless, and crankcase pressure is forcing oil and air out from around it. I will try to give you a simplified lesson in crankcase venting and emission controls relating to them.

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When a combustion engine works, some combustion (power) pressure leaks into the bottom of the engine (the crankcase) where the crank spins around, the pistons go up and down, and all the oil sits, waiting to be pumped around to lubricate everything. This "blowby" is a normal, unavoidable condition, but the air pressure buildup must be relieved, or it will cause the oil gaskets to get pushed out, and you will have huge oil leaks.

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On early cars, up until the late 50's, the venting was done with a tube that came out of the motor, and hung down under the car, and was open to the atmosphere. The air passing beneath the car in motion would help suck the pressure out, and for this reason this is called a "road draft tube". This also left oil mist all over the underside of the car, good for inhibiting rust, but bad for the environment.

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By the 60's, the PCV (Positive Crankcase Ventilation) valve was in use. This is a one way valve that came from the engine crankcase and was plumbed back into the intake, where the pressurized air would be burned up, along with the incoming fuel and air. The name comes from the idea that instead of just letting the pressure force it's way out passively, the PCV system would apply vacuum to positively pull the air/oil vapor out. This was better than just venting it out, but it does have a slight detrimental effect in that it can lead to increased deposits in the combustion chamber and on the valves. We can not make one change to the exclusion of others.

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On modern cars, I believe this pressurized oil mist is probably run into a charcoal cannister first to filter it, then ingested into the intake, minimizing intake contamination.

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The bottom line is that your engine makes internal pressure, and you have to let it out somehow. The owner of my car probably didn't know that the proper thing to do is to run a tube from the PCV valve into the bottom of the air cleaner, and instead just capped it off. We'll tidy this, and more, up later. Now I have to get back to that alternator install.

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If you have any questions, please ask. I will try to explain the basics in a simple fashion.

Tech: one-wire alternator swap, part 1

I want to upgrade the charging system in the '58 to an alternator. It came with a generator. A generator makes DC voltage, which is what the car runs on. An alternator makes AC, and then inverts it to DC. I don't know why this is more efficient (I am sure my friend EV-Steve could explain it in a snap) but nonetheless, cars have been using alternators almost exclusively for the last near 50 years, so that's what we're doing. This is a one-wire alternator, so called because it has an internal regulator, so it literally needs just one wire to go from the output lug to the battery positive terminal.
Here's the existing generator in place. I only had about an hour to dedicate to this upgrade, and after taking the generator out, I thought it would be easy to swap the alternator in it's place. I don't know why I thought that. I could see I would have to do some mild modifying of brackets and such, and so the upgrade would take more than one session.

Here's a sneak preview of the new alternator. Oooooh, shiny. More soon.

THE DAYTONA 500

It goes off this Sunday. For years I've hosted a Daytona 500 party, my version of a superbowl party. Fortunately my bro picked it up this year and is hosting, as there's no way I'd have the time to do it this year. Thanks KK! While there is much about NASCAR racing I'd change, no one in power has asked, so I'll skip my laments for now.
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While I'd prefer to see something like the photo above, I still like the competiveness of today's NASCAR, and the TV coverage is unbelieveable. A multitude of cameras shoot from viewpoints I only used to imagine. Much better than the grainy, long shot from the infield which is all I used to see watching Wide World of Sports. I admit I still get a bit of a rush watching a field of 40+ cars come zooming down the front stretch, bumper to bumper, past the green flag for the start. I hope most of you car enthusiasts feel the same, and I hope you all can spend some fun time with friends this Sunday watching.
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As a follow-up to the radiator follies, I will tell you right out my budget fix failed miserably. Or failed fantastically, I'm not sure which. Anyway, it didn't work. I bought a new radiator and put it in Thursday morning. Yes it was over $300, but it's brand new. Also, it's physically HUGE, so at least I got a lot of radiator for my money. No wonder the truck would never overheat, even with a cracked radiator; it holds so much water it could never get hot enough. It didn't take long to change it, and I had all the tools required. I would have had it done in about an hour, but a balky lower radiator hose really gave me a fight. I never feel bad about the cost of putting a new radiator in a vehicle. Instead I feel a sense of security, like, at least I never have to worry about this again for as long as I'll own it. I often drive the truck on long trips, towing a trailer, so reliability is a primary concern. Thank goodness that awful smell of hot coolant is gone!
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photo: Somewhere on the HAMB

Tech; radiator fix, maybe

So I've been driving the big white truck, and it's been going great. It actually has a very comfortable ride. I've been noticing a faint coolant smell from time to time though. Man I hate that smell. That is the worst car smell, in my opinion. Then I found the coolant leaking yesterday. I took the upper radiator hose off at the radiator end and inspected it. It looked ok, and the radiator didn't appear to be leaking, so I put the hose back on and suspected that the hose clamp had just not been on completely.
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Today I found the radiator leaking again, and a closer inspection in good light revealed that the plastic radiator tank was cracked. Not right at the hose outlet to tank junction like I expected, but right next to that on the tank proper. You see that little curving vertical black line to the right of the hose outlet? That's the crack. I could not get a new radiator same day, so I tried plan B: fix it myself.

I drained the radiator so the coolant level would be below the crack, so it might seal better. I have this siphon pump I use. Get one of these, it's way better than siphoning stuff with your mouth.

I had picked up this pack of epoxy one day at a store for possible future use. I don't remember how long it's been hanging on my garage wall. Today's your day, big guy. I am using the epoxy for 3 reasons: 1. A new radiator costs about $300, and I can't get it today anyway. 2. The coolant system only goes to about 16psi, not a very high pressure. 3. I already have the epoxy.

I sprayed the cracked area with brake cleaner, then sanded it lightly to give it some tooth, again to promote the epoxy adhesion. This is what sanding looks like, in case you somehow could never visualize it. Epoxy. Epoxy. Epoxy, epoxy, epoxy. What an odd word.

After nearly destroying the epoxy pack trying to get the 2 parts out, I finally squeezed some on to this lid and mixed it well with this craft stick. The epoxy had that great chemical smell I remember from when I was kid and my dad would mix up some epoxy for some repair job. Mixing the epoxy up made it look like that nice shiny, pearlescent salt water taffy you can see mixing at the store on the boardwalk.

I applied it liberally to the cracked area, and most of the area around it as well. Mmmm, smells nice. Why did I use so much? Because that's how much I mixed up. Actually, I used the old drag racer's motto: If some is good, more is better, and too much is just right.

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I'll put the hose on, refill the radiator, and give it a road test tonight. We'll see it it makes it to Newburgh and back, about a 20 mile round trip.