57 Wagon Holiday Thrash

[milner351]

This wagon rules! I love the "use what ya got" engine build - any idea what the final compression ratio is? Did you bother with hardened seats in the 68 heads? I bet this thing will run really well for what it is. I'm not familiar with the bracket master cams - how much duration at .050"? Man this thing is coool!

Will the lighter 302 raise the front ride height much? I hope not.

Good luck on the headers - in that big platform with a little 302 - you should have lots of room to move a tube if you run into problems with frame, steering box, steering linkage.

[mrocketscience]

Compression ratio should be in the 9:1 range with those heads. I did not bother with hardened seats, since while this will be a daily driver, it's not really gonna get all that much milage. The camshaft specs are .284 dur at .050 and .488 lift. I have stock springs on the heads, so can't go crazy on the lift numbers. Ride height, well I hope it doesn't raise the car too much, but I'll address it if it does. Actually, I want to do the disc brake conversion with a kit from Drop it and Stop it, but that may need to wait a little bit.

I found this video on YouTube of a small block Ford and Bracketmaster cam. Sounds pretty good to me!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHMEYpTLVfM&feature=related

[SuperBuickGuy]

put 7 psi pressure in the tank and listen for hissing. Many older tanks (up to 1970) had vents on the front of the tank and once the hose rotted off the check-valve, the tank leaked.... don't ask me how I know this

I love the idea of filling a tank with argon, but how do you tell when the tank is full of argon? not enough and it'll ruin your whole day, and potentially a lot more than that. When I went on gas tanks, I fill them with water up to about 1" (or less if I can) from where I'm welding.... that said, if the tank is rusted - new, poly tanks are cheap.

[Caveman Tony]

USAF welders do the purge thing with argon, iirc. My Fabrication Flight guys repaired a cracked fuel drain trailer (basically a 200 gal tank on wheels) by TIG welding it.

Purged it for a couple hours with argon, and I think they first rinsed any fuel residue out with something that evaporated quickly. (Alcohol? Acetone?)

The purge concept isn't just to force all the oxygen out... its also to dry out any drips, little puddles, etc. Argon or Nitrogen straight from the bottle is super-dry, zero moisture.

[milner351]

vehicle exhaust running into a tank is another novel idea to remove oxygen and keep the tank filled with inert gas - that is from a newer engine warmed up and running well -a steady flow of that into the filler neck should rid the tank of any spent vapors.

I got a new tank and sender for the falcon for $132 shipped to my door.

That cam sounds great in that white mustang coupe.... should work well in the wagon with about a 2500 stall?

[STINEY]

We repair AG and industrial tanks all the time at work. We use those little air blowers, hooked directly to the fill tube, and let it run for a few hours, and weld away.

Think about how quickly gas evaporates, and then imagine what a few hours of strong airflow does to any remaining gas in the tank. You couldn't light one off if your life depended on it. (Is that a bad choice of words, considering the subject? Oh well...)

Here is one of the blowers we use, just use cardboard and duct tape to fashion a connection.

[Scott Liggett]

My buddy, Yannick, has three of those in his shop. He really hates the smell of grinding metal, chop saw smell, etc.

[Huskinhano]

How much can a new tank cost? I repaired a leaky gas tank on a 84 Ranger I had while still in the truck with gas. I soldered it with a soldering iron no flame. I also fixed the old tank in my Mustang by soldering it with a solder iron while out of the car and empty. I definately wouldn't have tried it without really evcuating all fumes with a torch.

[Impalarod]

Loooooove the wagon!! Hell, I am crazy about just about any long=roof. A guy around here has a 2 door version thats two tone green and white. I'll pop a pic next time I see it at a cruise in and post it for you. Would be great to have a daily driver that just oozes cool like yours does. I'm working on a 60 Bel Air 4 door to drive daily, but have a lot left to do. Don't think it will use any more gas than my truck does and will be much more fun.

[mrocketscience]

Thanks for all the comments. I won't know much about the gas tank until I get a chance to drop it and take a look. A new tank for a 57 wagon is in the $400 range, so I hope I can fix the old one. Impalarod, I've been watching your Bel Air thread, I really dig that car, one of my favorite GM body styles. My first car when I was 16 ( oh let's get out the calculator) in 1971 was a 63 Impala. Anyway, I hope to get a little work done on it this weekend....

[Impalarod]

Here ya go...

[DanStokes]

Both those '57 Wagons are pretty. I hooked up with a BSer a little south of Clearwater, FL (I'm drawing a blank on the town and the guy's name but he's mostly on the events thread). His is more customized that it initially appears and it's WAY cool too but different from these.

Dad had a '57 Ford 2 door sedan cheapie - rubber floor mats and all. Nowadays a racer would kill for it but we just thought Dad was cheap. Six cylinder, 3 on the tree - Dad WAS cheap! I did like the lines of the car, though. I was 10 at the time.

Dan

[mrocketscience]

Here ya go...

Wow!...Really nice wagon!

[mrocketscience]

Spent a little time on Sunday with the wagon. Put it up on jackstands and finished the transmission mount install, so everythings bolted in now. The used 68 Mustang headers my buddy gave me will clear everything, but the collectors sit about 1/4 inch right smack in front of the trans crossmenber, so can't attach any pipes or mufflers to it. So, looks like if I shorten the collectors all the way back to just in front of where the 4 pipes come together, it'll work. After they're cut, I'll get em sandblasted and painted so they'll look good...

[SuperBuickGuy]

cut a couple sections out of the cross member, use some flat metal pieces which are the width of the crossmember, and raise you some exhaust humps in the cross member? it'd be pretty easy to do.