Caveman's 'Anti-Rescue' rig '74 4x4

[yellomalibu]

Is that the same one?

I'm sure this will sound like I'm being captain obvious, but clearly there's something "not right" in there. Lots of new-lookin' stuff under the valve cover, not much oil to be seen...

[Caveman Tony]

Is that the same one?

I'm sure this will sound like I'm being captain obvious, but clearly there's something "not right" in there. Lots of new-lookin' stuff under the valve cover, not much oil to be seen...

Ya, same friggin' one. The guideplate ear broke off, allowing the pushrod to flop, and I'm guessing the mis-aligned rocker pushed down on the spring retainer, allowing escapee keepers to flee to freedom in the oil pan.

Hang on, I'll show some more pics...

[Caveman Tony]

Nice little mini Trinidad-steel drum of a lifter, eh?



I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that's what allowed the slop in the valvetrain, and that extra movement was too much for the old re-used valveguide. Stupid me for re-using the old ones. Never again.

[Caveman Tony]

I think it actually spit the lifter earlier in the morning, somewhere on the 20-min ride to the hotel. Note the discoloration of the rocker arm nut, it got pretty damn hot, probably from lack of oil.

That rocker was blued from heat, the rest looked fine. It was also the only one that the rocker-ball was scarred up pretty bad. All the others looked new, but that one that starved for oil was smoked.

[SuperBuickGuy]

I think by that time, I'd be looking for another truck to drive back.... pull the front axle and leave the rest in the desert... maybe even just put the axle on the hood like a trophy buck horns

[Caveman Tony]

Yeah, but then I wouldn't have vids like this:

Note my two nephews on the far right of the vid... occasionally dragging their entire body while the rest of the crew is *pushing*...

[Caveman Tony]

Once we saw that it was 4th-and-50 and there was minimal chance of success in the allotted time, we punted.

Dad had to get back to work in a certain number of days, and an engine rebuild wouldn't have allowed enough time to oh, yeah... um, drive across the country.

So we booked flights back to Boston, and I called a shipper. Complete fail on the Red Ball Express. I was so disappointed, pissed, frustrated, I was in shut down mode. I didn't come onto the site here for a while. If someone had referred me to a therapist, I would have used their skull as a beer mug. You get the picture.

But, I took a deep breath, and in the immortal words of somebody after Hurricane Sandy, I said "We shall rebuild."


Skip ahead to the arrival: once we got it home, I started the teardown.

I was a bit busy in the initial teardown, and my camera battery took a dumpola, so there's holes in the chain of events. Oh, well.

Here's a couple shots of my monkey nephews helping to bleed the cylinder in the hoist. They are also clandestine graffiti artists. Note the message on the fender.








Some of these shots are skipping around, but hey, whatever.

This pushrod was NEW. Apparently my valvesprings were a little too stiff, AND I had a bent valve.

[Caveman Tony]

And yes, the underside of the hood was sharp. Hence the blue tape on my thumb.

Tetanus shots are for wusses.

[SuperBuickGuy]

how much did it cost to ship? did it meet the standard of "running" or did they forklift onto a transport?

[Caveman Tony]

I got a bunch of spam quotes, all in the $900-1000 range. I called a few back, they said its an extra $150-200 for a non-running vehicle. Plus those were the cut-rate quotes from brokers who don't actually drive. Some were even "pick up, bring to terminal for transfer shipment", which is BS, because it would've just sat there.

I went with a direct quote for $1200 from an actual driver that we had used in the past, no extra fees for 'non-running' status. Door to door. He just winched it up onto his rig, and a week later dropped it off.

[SuperBuickGuy]

I got a bunch of spam quotes, all in the $900-1000 range. I called a few back, they said its an extra $150-200 for a non-running vehicle. Plus those were the cut-rate quotes from brokers who don't actually drive. Some were even "pick up, bring to terminal for transfer shipment", which is BS, because it would've just sat there.

I went with a direct quote for $1200 from an actual driver that we had used in the past, no extra fees for 'non-running' status. Door to door. He just winched it up onto his rig, and a week later dropped it off.

That's a really good price. It's what I paid to get a running car from NC to Seattle. The reason I asked about non-running, the guy who bought my Buick - they abused it. picked it up and also towed it with a forklift - screwed the radiator support, exhaust... etc.

It's also what he paid - of course, they had to pay him bucks because of the damage, so it worked out in the end, but oh the headaches until that point...

[Caveman Tony]

Here was my weak-ass attempt at prolonging the inevitable bearing-killing slurry of cam & lifter filings running through the motor.

A welding magnet and tripled-up auto-tranny magnets stuck onto the oil pan. Stayed put too.

[Caveman Tony]

I was pissed.

After yanking it out, I started the tear down.

I was curious about whether I had put in the rear cam plug the correct depth... After calling the Comp tech guys, I realized that somehow the front-to-back cam alignment was off, even though the cam plug wasn't in too deep. The plug showed very light evidence of touching the cam as it spun, but the lobes were still closer to center than they should've been.

This cam's lobes were too close to centered under the lifter bores. Probably (read DEFINITELY) contributed to the lifters not spinning in certain locations, and lifter/lobe death. Comp said they should be towards the rear under the lifter bores.




Hard to see in these pics, but there are some nice scratches in the bottom of the bores on #2 and #4 from flying pushrod parts and probably valvespring keepers too. Not deep enough to require a re-bore and new pistons, but enough to necessitate another hone job.

Also left a bunch of nicks in the pistons too, but my machinist said they weren't significant enough to need replacing. Since this rebuild is gonna be a low-rpm torquer, it's not as crucial. If it were gonna spin to 7-8k that'd be a different story!

[Caveman Tony]

Here was the biggest nick, in a spot that I was initially pretty concerned about, right below the pin bore. However, its not technically load-bearing, since its outside the pin, and is pretty superficial.



This one got nicked up too, more from pushrod debris ping-pong than anything else.




Here's the beginning of the remedy: mask it off so aluminum dust doesn't go everywhere...

[Caveman Tony]

With nicks in aluminum, within certain limits, you can just get rid of 'em to avoid any stress crack starting points.

Step one: Knock down the big high spots with a small stone in the Dremel, VERY lightly so as to avoid removing too much material.

Step two: 80 grit flap wheel in the Dremel. Also VERY lightly!



Cover up the rod and pin to keep 'em clean...



After the 80-grit flapwheel



After the first of the polishing attachments on the Dremel...



The Dremel attachments: a small rotary stone to knock down the sharp chunks, the 80 grit flap-wheel, and the progressively finer polishing attachments. Nice to have the right tool for the job!



I bought a dye-penetrant kit at Napa to check for cracks... Pistons all good! Also used it on my exhaust manifold which was... NO BUENO. Major crackage, like a skinny-jeans fashion show at a plumber's convention.








Finished up with the finest of the three polishing attachments on the Dremel... after this step, sanding scratches from the flap-wheel are entirely gone.






THOROUGH cleaning with Brakleen to get any aluminum dust out of the pin area.



And they came out pretty dang clean. If I hadn't told you these were the same pistons as in the photos from the previous post, would you have known?