Parts in – tool to put the harmonic balancer and lower timing gear in place, new oil pump shaft with a metal collar, a fail-safe 195 deg. thermostat, a set of plugs and a quadrajet base gasket.
I’m out of engine assembly lube so I gave the chain and sprockets a good coat of chain lube. It’s sticky and will provide lubrication when the engine is first started.
The sprockets and chain all need to go on at the same time. I needed a spacer on the installation tool reach over the crank snout so the lower sprocket can be pushed on. I previously set the crank so the lower sprocket timing mark was at the top.
All in place with the timing marks lined up. There is very little slack in the chain now.
I’m using a light coat of red gasket maker on the inside of the cover gasket – the smear of sealer is more even than appears in the photo.
The gasket fits over two lower pins and I have added two more at the upper end to keep it in place while I get the cover ready.
Another coat of sealant on the pan. I installed a new crank seal earlier that came with the timing cover gasket kit.
All ready except for the harmonic balancer. I’ll install that after the new oil pump and pan are in place.
Old oil pump. The plastic collar was split as was expected. I’ll order a new shaft with a metal collar.
Boring job of sanding the oil pan and timing cover. I don’t want to bead blast the pan as I’ll never get all the grit out from under the baffle. I sand by hand so I don’t make too much dust in the shop – it’s bad enough as it is trying to keep the dust off the cars! I think I’ll bead blast the timing cover as no grit can hide on the inside.
Just waiting for a warm day to get these parts painted. I have received the new timing chain and gears.
The old chain was definitely stretched. It would have caused the timing to be jumpy.
1/32″ (.030) hole drilled in the top oil gallery end plug. That should spray lots of oil onto the upper timing gear and keep the chain and lower gear well oiled.
Primed and two coats of satin black and the engine is gonna look real nice:-)
While I’m waiting for parts to put the donor engine together I decided to attack the steering wheel. It is one notch too far to the right. I need to take it off and set it one notch to the left which is off the factory setting. Seems that when it was aligned the steering wheel was not in the proper location. Not sure if this will move the steering box to its centre position or take is off slightly. Hopefully this won’t have a negative effect on the steering.
Replacing the horn contact parts can be a pain. This time I put in a couple of studs to line everything up. It made the install a whole lot easier:-)
Intake off and looking at a lot of carbon in the gallery. The carbon is coming from the heat riser outlets. Over the years they have heated the oil on the underside of the outlets to the point of forming carbon bits. Must have done damage to the old oil pump I’m thinking.
Handy little tool I picked up years ago from Princess Auto. It’s a series of tubes that attach to the shop vac. The tubes can be added or removed so you can get the right size to get in tight spots. This is working great to remove the carbon from the lifter valley and also in the heads.
Scraping away bits of the old intake gasket from the heads using a razor blade paint scraper tool. Very little engine sludge in the heads or valley surprisingly.
Timing cover off and the timing gear also looks a bit oil starved.
From what I read a .030 hole drilled in the oil gallery plug at the top (above the two lower plugs) provides extra oil to the timing gear. I’ll do that. The high volume oil pump should handle that OK. I’ve used a high volume pump on a high mileage Chryco 360 and it increased oil pressure overall over 5 lbs.
I’ve scraped away all the old gasket and then sanded the timing cover seal surface and water pump mounts with 150 grit to remove any leftover gasket material or corrosion. The pan is still in place
Pan off and the internals look nice with high mileage wear showing. Not a problem as long as it will start well, run smooth and not smoke!
Ditto cleaning the old gasket from the block. The rear seal surface was a bit of problem, but dental scrapers helped get all the old rubber out.
Not too much crud in the pan, but there was some of that carbon in the bottom that was washed down from the lifter gallery.
A paint remover wheel is doing a fine job clearing out all the old gasket material from the pan and the timing cover.
On to the boring job of scraping and washing away the accumulated crud from the block. I can’t get the block outside to use a pressure washer and I’m not sure that some of the water wouldn’t make it’s way into the engine.
I used an old paring knife and a razor scraper to get the main part of the grunge off and then using a toothbrush, parts solvent and rags, it cleaned up not too bad. I’m planning on painting the block, but before that I’ll have to go over it again with a small wire bush and parts solvent and then finally with paint thinner.
Ditto the opposite side. I’ll remove the ring gear and then do the back and then the front of the engine as well.
Valve covers off and a peek at the rockers. Fairly clean and oily on the right side.
Left side not so oily or clean. Lots of carbon. I’m thinking that after 100K+ miles the wear on the engine components is lowering the pressure and not enough oil is getting to the top of the engine.
I didn’t want to take the pan off, but best laid plans… I have a new high volume Melling oil pump that I bought for another engine. I’ll get that in and it should get more oil up to the rockers.
A new screen for the case of the transducer solenoid. It draws air into the unit this way as needed.
The first paper gasket wasn’t thick enough to hold the solenoid cover firmly in place, One made from 1/8″ cork did the job nicely.
All painted up and ready to be stored for later installation 🙂
On to the exhaust manifold removal. One side came off with no problems. I used the impact wrench as I though it would shock the bolts loose better. My big concern was breaking a bolt off in the head. I really don’t want to remove the heads.
A stud on the other side didn’t want to come off. So I thought I’d cut off the head and then pull the manifold off. Once I did that I found that the stud was loose in the block, but stuck in the manifold.
I had to use two large chisels to get behind the manifold on either side of the stuck stud to force the manifold off. It took quite a bit of work to get it off as the stud was frozen tight onto the manifold.
Once the manifold was off the stud came out nicely. So both manifolds off without breaking any studs!
Good starter solenoid ruined! Starter came off OK, but between one thing and another the main solenoid contact post broke away. Still it’s a good running starter. The starter on the my Chevy is new so I shouldn’t need it, but I’ll clean it, check it out and keep it as a backup.
The cruise control system is totally mechanical. This part is the resume solenoid. I could have taken it apart, but it is a sealed unit and should be OK inside. I used my handy-dandy battery eliminator to test the solenoid and it clicked nicely and the vacuum could be detected going on and off.
I tested the main assembly with a drill and a stub end from a speedo cable. I was able to test the low speed cutoff switch this way. I tested the on switch (solenoid showing on the bottom of the unit) by grounding the unit and then putting 12 volts to the hold terminal on the top of the unit. All worked good. I used a bit of Jig-a-low lubricant on the solenoid shafts to make the solenoid shaft move smoothly without leaving a oily residue – the stuff is sold for lubricating vinyl windows.
Back to the motor. time to remove the front drive pulley and harmonic dampner. I used my impact wrench to get the crankshaft end nut and washer off – using hand tools is hard as you need to hold the engine from turning. I also used the air tool to get the pulley off and again to spin the puller to take off the harmonic dampner.
Lots of red sealant around the crank so I expect there was an oil leakage problem. I’ll be replacing the timing chain and sprockets and putting in a new crank seal in the cover at the same time.
Next: engine cleanup and exhaust manifold removal.
Draining the last of the old antifreeze – both sides. I hate working around antifreeze. It always seems to get spilled and it’s hard to cleanup and is sticky.
I’ll give the exhaust manifold bolts at least three soakings with penetrating oil before trying to get them off. I don’t want to have to take the heads off to get broken studs out. If they won’t come easily I’ll have to borrow or rent a torch set to help remove them.
Pretty well stripped out now. Friend Don will take it home to see if he can use the rear end.
I am tackling the cruise control transducer to see if it has any life left or is it all corroded inside.
First step is to bead blast the unit and get all the exterior corrosion off. Looks a whole lot better. Now to check the internals.
Happy day! The internals for the most part are excellent. I’ll need to take it all apart and clean off any corrosion. The circled part is the most corroded with a very tiny screw that is probably seized in the pot metal body.
Came apart fairly easily with only one screw breaking off. I cleaned up the contacts and started the re-assembly. The electric connector’s gasket on the top – right side in the photo – wouldn’t come off easily so I used a light coat of red gasket maker to do the job.
The cover on the bottom of the unit needed a replacement gasket which I made from a sheet of general purpose paper gasket I have on hand.
A little rig I set up some time ago to hold transmissions to ease withdrawal and installs. There is a pin on the bottom of the plate that fits in the jack’s mounting pad pin hole once the pad is removed. I’ll also put a sheet of rubber on the place to reduce the metal to meta contact which would be slippery – especially if it gets oily.
I’ll use this to support the trans while I remove the engine. The engine and trans are only supported by the front engine mounts and one at the rear of the trans.
The engine is set back away from the front of the car. In the end I had to remove the bumper so the engine hoist could be positioned over the centre of the engine – it just made it, whew!
I’ve removed the grille, headlight surrounds, etc for the former owner in case he wishes to do up a wall display.
The last part of the prep was to remove the four remaining blots securing the trans to the engine block.
I took the weight off the engine and removed both front mount bolts. I then raised the engine until it cleared the engine brackets on the frame – raising the trans supporting jack at the same time. I wiggled the engine a bit and a crack appeared between the trans and the engine. I then used a long pry bar to gently separate the trans from the block.
Up, up and away – the engine is out. the only hitches were the trans vacuum line which got snagged and also the trans lines which had a bracket on the block close to the pan and hidden behind the right engine mount. Fortunately I didn’t move the engine too much before realizing the problem so the lines didn’t get damaged.
Out and resting on t he floor. Tomorrow I’ll get it on the engine stand and start the trans removal.
A brace to keep the torque converter in place during removal. Only needed to disconnect the cooling lines, filler tube and shift mechanism to be ready for removal. I’ll jack the car up good and high, put it on jack stands and then pull the trans out the front.
Trans out and waiting for me to make a dolly for it so I can move it around easily. It is a TurboHydro 350. I was hoping for a 700R4 overdrive or even a 2004R – earlier overdrives that swap into a ’79 Corvette.
All ready to be tucked away. I may or may not use it. It is the same as in the my Chevy so I might have it rebuilt and then installed with the original engine after I have it rebuilt. But I may opt to put in an automatic overdrive unit like the GM 200 4R or the 700 R4. The 200 4R is the same size as the TH350 above and so is easy to install. The 700 R4 is a bit longer and the driveshaft will need to be shortened and the rear cross-member changed. Lots of fun to look forward to in the months to come:-)
Starting the engine removal prep. the rad, rad shroud, alternator and fan have been removed. I also detached the trans cooling lines.
Easy to see the hidden timing mark tab in this shot.
Some good reusable parts for later. Especially the cruise control bits 🙂
One reusable bit is the AC throttle kicker. They’re quite expensive so I’m trying to save this one. The very fine ground connections from the internal coil was broken off.
I was able to get it reattached in another location so now I have a good backup unit. Just need to give it a coat of satin black.
Engine pretty well free and clear for removal. I will now drop the exhaust pipes, remove the torque converter bolts, the two lower bell housing bolts and empty the trans oil.
Cleaned up carb in place and the distributor as well.
For some reason there wasn’t the usual timing mark tab attached to the timing gear cover. Fortunately I have one from the GM crate 350 I picked up last fall expecting to use it for my C3, but it’s bearings were badly spun so it was too expensive to repair the block. Still it is supplying heads, valves, lifters, etc for when I rebuild the original C3 engine.
I over tightened the alternator belt and was then able to turn the engine with a ratchet on the alternator pulley nut. I then set the engine on TDC. I made sure I was on the compression stoke by using a compression tester on #1 cylinder. Even though I was turning the engine over slowly it still showed some compression as #1 TDC was approached.
Plugs were all firing good when the engine was stopped 20 years ago so I just cleaned up the threads before putting them back in the engine.
Plugs are typically hidden under the exhaust manifolds. I found a short piece of hose that fits tight over the plug end helps to get them into the hole and started.
I’m using a 4′ length of 3/8″ hose to connect the fuel pump to a jug of new gas. The stuff in the tank must be really ugly, if there is anything left after 20 years.
I connected my engine bump switch to the starter and the + side of the battery and used it to spin the engine over (before I put the plugs in) to check that the fuel pump was working. It was 🙂
Wires in place and in the correct sequence 18436572.
Here I installed a timing tab from the parts off the 350 crate engine that fellow club member Tim gave me. I thought that maybe the timing chain had be replaced and the timing tab didn’t get put back on. I tried to start the engine a number of times but no luck except for a few weak fires on what seemed like three cylinders. I tried advancing and retarding the spark, but no luck. I then thought that maybe the compression is so low that there isn’t enough to ignite the fuel and maybe I should squirt some oil in each cylinder and try it again. Checking online for the proper timing of a ’83 305 I discovered that there actually is a timing tab on the original 305 cover only it is not in the usual place and is hidden.
The original tab is on the top and was virtually invisible with a thick coating of oily crud and it us under the water pump at the very top of the cover – the bottom tab is the one I was using. Retarding the spark is towards the bottom of the photo. So my setting was way too retarded. The fuel was being sparked as the piston was dropping down so very little in the way of punch, but not so much that it was popping through the exhaust. To set the timing I needed to peer down behind the water pump to see the timing marks.
Once I got the timing reset the car started although it still had a hard time. I had been adding fuel to the carb as the engine was dry and normally it takes a lot of fuel to get them started – like when a newly rebuilt engine is started. It took a number of tries where the engine would slowly fire then quit. After about five tries – all with the pedal to the floor – she caught. I ran it for about 20 minutes mostly at a nice idle and then for a few minutes at 2000 rpm. Running well and I don’t see why it won’t be a good temporary engine for the my Chevy. I’ll now start getting ready to remove the engine and all the other parts that may be of use.
Don, the friend who brought the Caprice home, will then take it to his place where he may remove the rear end.
