Graham’s Corvette Blog and Studebaker bits ‘n’ bobs

I was fortunate enough to get 5 of the 6 exhaust manifold studs/nuts off. One broke, but enough was left showing that it can be twisted out with some torch heat. I’ll also remove the other remaining studs and install a new set.

Meanwhile more boring work getting the brackets ready. I’ve just cleaned them all with paint thinners and will give them a coat of rust primer and two coats of gloss black.

Time to tackle the driveshaft u-joints. All very rusty.

A couple of the clips came out using a small set of vice grips, but two broke and needed a couple of small screwdrivers and a dental pick to tease them out.

Unfortunately my bench vice is too small and not rugged enough to press out the u-joints so I’ll have to call on a buddy with a proper press to get them out.

Meanwhile I’ll try and get the mufflers replaced. Here I used my saws-all to cut them free.

I then used a zip cut to take of the remains of the old muffler connection.

I slipped the new muffler band clamp over the pipe and then coated the tail pipe with lots of never-seize. With that and the band clamp I should be able to easily separate the tail pipe from the muffler when I put a set of true dual exhausts on the Chevy.

Muffler slipped on real easy. Now I just have to get the muffler hanger in place.

Next: muffler hangar and timing mark issues.

Lots of brackets and parts to clean an paint before the install of the donor engine. I won’t be using the pulley as I’ll need to use the three groove pulley that is on the original engine so I can run the AC belt.

New trans mount block and front trans seal. I’ll need to order one new u-joint bolt; the rest are OK.

The new seal in place. The front plate is still leaking out a bit of oil. There was a lot of oil and gunk in the trans lower front cover and so I can expect some leakage. It shouldn’t matter for the short time the engine/trans will be in use.

I’ve removed the four bottom bolts holding the bell housing to the engine and also the three flex plate bolts. I’m supporting the trans so I can remove the top two bolts that will leave the engine and trans connected only by the two alignment pins.

Only two bolts that need to be removed from the top so I can pull the engine separate from the trans. With this done I’m ready to pull the engine. Still waiting on an engine lift plate from Rock Auto

Starting with the removal of all the parts I can from the top.

I took a number of shots of the carb so that I can remember where every thing connects.

Rad, shroud, etc removed. Found out the hard way I had to remove the rad before I could get the shroud out. I’ll take the rad to a rad shop and have them pressure test it before I put it back in. It’s 46 years old so it may be weak and I don’t want to have to remove it with everything back in place.

Looking kinda bare without the hood. A couple of my coffee buddies came over and helped me take it off.

I’ve removed the Quick Jacks and set the car on jack stands. I need to do this to position the engine lift under the car. It also gives me more room to work under the car on the trans and driveshaft.

After 46 years the universal clamps and bolts came out very easily. The universals don’t appear to be loose at all which says a lot for the original metal and grease quality. I’ll clean and paint the driveshaft, and put in new greaseable universals before reinstalling it.

Next: engine swap #2

Took a moment and primed and painted the exhaust tips with shiny black Por 15.

Time to check over the donor TH350.

I hate working in dirt and crud so I took the time to clean the outside with parts solvent and a small wire brush. It won’t make it run any better, but I feel better working on it 🙂

All looks good inside, but I’m not trans mechanic so…

I missed a shot of the oil pan when it came off. There were metal filings in the pan as well as some grease deposits. Not to be unexpected in a high mileage car. Hopefully it will last for the short while I need it.

Metal filings in the filter as well. I used air pressure to gently blow out the filings.

Waiting for the new pan gasket to put the pan back on then it will be almost ready to go into the Chevy. The front and rear seals will be replaced before it is installed. I checked the spline and it is the same as the Chevy – 27 splines. I will have to swap the shifter arm. Unlike the Studebaker Flight-o-matics there are no band adjustments to be made.

Meanwhile I needed to clean up and finish painting the body panels on the ’66 Commander with satin black.

Finishing up the pin striping on the newly painted side trim.

All in black primer now. Side trim tends to lengthen the look of the car I think. I also have gravel guards to go on just in front of the back wheels and stainless trim for the rocker panels. I’ll get those on next winter when the car is up on jack stands and it will be easier to work on the lower sections.

Ncxt: time for the engine swap

there is some dist. shaft wear at the bottom, but It should be fine for the few thousand miles I expect to put on the donor engine.

The upper shaft is just nice and shiny. There is next to no play with it in the housing.

I don’t have whatever it was that was stuffed in the openings that was used to lubricate the upper shaft. So I’m using some felt strips to fill the holes.

Once the felt strips were in place I soaked them with 10W30 oil and replaced the plastic oil cover – it is quite delicate and most of what I have read says they get destroyed on removal. I used a dental pick to pull it out and it remains OK for the most part.

There was a build up of corrosion where the steel vacuum advance unit fits on the aluminum dist. base. I used a bit of electrical DE-OX that electricians use on copper/aluminum connections to stop the galvanic corrosion between the differing metals.

A good coat of Silicone cooler paste to help the electronic module’s heat dissipate to the dist. housing.

I installed the dist. on the engine as it is a whole lot easier to position the unit properly with the engine out of the car. It was a bit fiddly getting the gears to mesh with the camshaft and with the oil pump at the same time and for the rotor to be pointing at #1 when it finally slipped into place.

Engine ready for the install (I’ll use the nice chrome valve covers that are now on the engine in the Chevy). I’ll need to do some prep work on the donor TH350 automatic before I can start the install.

Good bye to the ’83 Caprice. I got lots of good parts from the car and it’s not finished yet. Don, who has been kind enough to move it around for me, will take it home and remove the rear differential unit. He hopes to use it in his ’59 Studebaker Champ half ton.

Next: Prepping the TH350

Here I’m trying a small extension to an old TV cable mounting bracket to try and get the cable to work with the higher manifold.

In the end I happily found that the bracket was OK as is. The rod passing through the TV cable bracket has a clear path the the arm on the throttle linkage.

Another photo showing a rod resting on the carb throttle arm and passing through the TV cable bracket. the round thingy on attached to the TV cable bracket is the servo for the cruise control I’ll be adding to the car – many components come from the ’82 Caprice engine donor car. As it now sits it appears to be in a good position. The engine vacuum metered by the cruise transducer acts on the servo (the black part is a rubber diaphragm) which holds the throttle in position at the desired speed.

Got a couple of boxes of parts from Rock Auto. Included were these Walker Quiet Tone mufflers. The ones on the Chevy are not too bad, but they are generic mufflers that have been welded into place and don’t fit very well at all.

Now on to the “Dizzy” as the Australian’s call the distributor. I’m going to get the distributor in place properly before the engine goes in. A lot easier that way. Right now I’m going to take it apart, check it, lubricate and re-assemble.

This distributor was on the engine when I test started it awhile back. So it works. I’ll use all the components except for a new cap and rotor.

One problem with the ’83 engine is that it used a warning light for oil pressure and not a gauge. I ordered a new ’79 oil gauge, but it was too small for the block opening. Easy enough to get an adapter so it will now fit OK. It sticks out from the block some so I won’t install it until the engine is in place.

Next: Engine completion and good bye to the donor car.

Flywheel and ring gear need to be in place so I can rotate the engine with a pry bar. Bolts tightened to 60 ft lbs with blue Loctite.

Harmonic balancer bolt in place tightened to 60 ft lbs – i needed to use a pry bar to hold the crank in place so I could get the proper torque on the bolt.

I’ve marked the dampener at 90 deg. from the timing mark all around. I’ll use the marks to locate each piston at TDC to give the valves an initial setting.

Using the timing marks I adjusted each set of lifters following the firing order of 18436572. At TDC for #1 cylinder I tightened the lifters one complete turn from zero lash. I then rotated the engine 90 degrees and did #8 cylinder lifters, etc. Once the engine is running and hot I’ll redo then lifters with the engine running.

Some of the more boring work – cleaning threads and using a wire wheel to clean the 12 intake manifold bolts.

New gasket kit and an Edelbrock high rise for a Quadrajet.

The gasket set comes with a restrictor plate for the exhaust crossover that goes under the carb. I added a small piece of tin so that it virtually closes of the port on one side. The exhaust cross over helps to get the fuel vaporizing on cold temperature starts. That really isn’t going to happen with a collector car and the extra heat will only over-vaporize the newer fuels. Keeping the fuel a bit cooler I believe is best. I have done this on a Studebaker V8 and it seems OK.

For the opposite side I cut out a small filler plate out of thin tin that fitted nicely in the intake depression. There is a slight chance that it will cause air leaks in the intake runner on this side. Once the engine is running I’ll use a propane torch gas to check for leaks.

Recommended by the gasket manufacture that RTV sealant be used on the underside of the two end gaskets.

I have read also that it is a good idea to use some RTV sealant around the water passages. Sounds like a good idea so I put some on the block and on the upside of the gaskets.

All bolts torqued down to 10 ft lbs. I’ll do a final torque the next day to the full 25 ft. lbs.

Next: Fitting the TV cable and cruise components.

I added enough oil to the engine to cover the oil pump intake – up to a bit over the add mark. Once again I used my drill to prime the filter and pump and get oil up to the rockers.

Oil came out of a number of the push rods and down onto the rocker arms.

Some of the rockers remained dry even though I could see oil coming out of the lifters.

I pulled a lifter from one of the dry rockers and found that the plunger inside the lifter was frozen in place.

I immersed the lifter in reducer to see if I could loosen the buildup of varnish. No real luck there. So I heated the lifter with a heat gun and used a large bolt extractor to twist and wiggle the inner plunger free. I then put all the parts in parts solvent and blew them dry. Reassembly with a little oil worked fine

This particular lifter wasn’t pretty. Deep pits and worn concave. The lifter edge is riding on the cam. It should have enough miles left to serve my purpose. I coated the lifter face with STP which should stick and give lubrication until the engine gets oil pressure.

I decided to do all the lifters. Turns out they were all stuck to some degree. Some separate with just the tapered bolt and vice grips – I ground off the bolt a bit so it fits inside the inner plunger and pull it out on an angle. Most come out this way and some need to be heated to get them out. On reassembly I sand the inner plunger to remove the varnish and then a bit on the inside of the lifter to be sure they are moving freely. A cleaning, re-assembly, and a good dab of STP on the lifter face and they’re ready to go back in the engine.

I’m wondering now if the miss in the Chevy is simply a badly stuck lifter. A 3/4 turn on a stuck lifter would likely cause the valve to stay open a bit even when closed. I will be interesting to see if that is the issue.

Next: Putting on a new intake, carb and linkage

Doing the final torque after the red sealant has had a time to firm up.

Got a response from Fel-Pro on why the gaskets weren’t fitting. Turns out these gaskets fit a ’79 350 (OS5197 C-5), but not an ’83 305 (OS30410-C). The blocks were changed a bit it seems. I had bought the gasket set to rebuild the original ’79 350 in the Chevy and that is why they don’t fit. I just assumed… Still hopefully it will seal OK for the short time I’ll need it.

All painted up with Tremclad metal rust satin black rust paint. It worked well on the motor in the Studebaker so hopefully it will here. Not sure if it will stand up around the exhaust ports, but we’ll see.

Time to fit the harmonic balancer back on. I’ve given the inside of the mounting surface a coat of oil and the outside where the seal will fit too. Also a bit on the lip of the seal in the cover to help the balancer slide past.

No need for spacers just the thrust bearing and washer that comes with the kit. Slipped in nice and smooth.

I painted the timing mark with silver paint to make it easier to see when setting the timing. I also outlined the timing tab on the timing cover.

I decided to pour some oil into the pan and spin the oil pump to be sure everything is getting oiled properly.

Next: the real reason why the rockers aren’t getting enough oil!

New high volume Melling oil pump with a new pump shaft (metal collar) in place.

Problems in La-la land. The FelPro pan gasket kit isn’t fitting properly. The other gaskets in the kit fit OK, but these don’t. They’re not Chinese, they were made in Portugal. Both gaskets have the same problem at the rear of the block.

According to the label this is the correct set for a GM 305 (5.0L)

I’ve sent a ‘problem form’ to FelPro. I don’t want to take a chance ordering another kit and I don’t want to wait around for it to arrive. So I’ve cut away as needed and I’ll add a bead of red gasket maker to make up for the lost gasket. Shouldn’t be a problem as some folks just use red sealant alone and don’t bother with gaskets.

Sealant on both sides of the gasket and extra at the back to make up for the missing gasket coverage.

Pan in place. I have snugged down the pan bolts just enough to put a bit of a squeeze on the gaskets and gasket sealant. I’ll let it set overnight and then give the bolts a final torque. It calls for about 8-10 ft. lbs. which is a fair twist using one hand and a short wrench or 1/4″ drive.

Out of curiosity I opened up the old oil pump. there was significant wear on the cover as well as on the walls. So the engine wasn’t getting its proper pressure or volume which might explain why the rockers on one side and the timing gears seemed to be lacking proper lubrication.

Next up is block painting and then on to the top end.