So, I got my engine running!!!!!!

A friend came over, and we played with it for a while. Discovered that the jumper cables that I was using to provide power to the starter were shitty (they would drop so much power that a new, fully charged, battery could not drive the starter to turn over the engine with the plugs in). Got new better wires, and it spins like a mad man.

But my timing was off. And Ross had to go home. And I had to feed the baby. So, I walked away for it for a few hours. After dinner I had a window to play. Off to the garage I go. Reset the timing. Take out the plugs and run it or 30 seconds to build oil pressure. Put the plugs back in, turn on the power, and IT CAME TO LIFE!

Accriding to the tach I wired up, the carbs idle is set too high, as it was idling at 2000 rpm. Also, with the eurorace header and the turbo muffler it was loud as hell. I called Dr.Evil, and let him hear it. Then I shut it down, as I did not want to piss off my neighbors by running it 20 minutes to break it in as they are eating dinner.

I go in to find the video camera, that my wife then admits that she has lost. Brand new (got it so she could take vids and pics of the baby). My luck was starting to turn for the worse. I realize that I am starting to get mad at her, so I go back out the garage to start the engine again, as I feel that will make me happy.

It starts. Sounds good. Suddenly it is all wobbly and loping, and I shut off the power with a quickness. The damn squirrel fan has come loose, and impacted the top of the engine surround.

Okay. So I torque it down, and start the engine again. Loping and wobbly so I quickly turn it back off. Take off the front tin, and take of the fan. turns out that I have broken the centering pin. Sheared it off right at the hub. Lovely. until replaced, I have no way to get it centered.

I pulled off the spark plugs to lower compression, and ran the starter. It purred. The pistons did not make any scraping, tapping, or clunking noises that would lead me to believe that they (or their new rings) broke somehow.

At this point, my baby was screaming. I mean this in the figurative sense (my soul and my engine) and in the literal sense (my 13 day old infant.) I cleaned up and went back into the house, defeated.

I do not know if I forgot to torque down the bolts to the squirrel fan, or if they came loose on their own. Either way, it has put a serious bummer to what was shaping up to be and EXCELLENT evening.

Zach

Look at the positive side of it. The engine is running again, it isn't pissing oil all over rods shop, it doesn't have a head leaking any more, you are down to some minor issues right now. I always locktight the fan nuts and torque them Hug the wife....hug the kid....play with the kid....play with the wife and go to bed happy




Oh and remember you only have one car to deal with................................for now MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA !

I don't know. Might be going to look at a 69 Jeep Kaiser m715 Sunday.


Zach

SWEEEET we will need pics Wanna AMC 360 and 727 trans for it ? Might even still have a t-case

Zach - That sucks. Congrats on the baby. You're so close on the car. Buy the parts you need at Hershey tomorrow.

What do you have to be bummed about? Sounds like you're almost there.



...on both counts. Thanks for the reminder. I'll be reinstalling my fan tomorrow afternoon.

Screw the Jeep, think Unimooooooooooog.

It just goes to show you, if it's not one thing, it's another. Tomorrow you'll feel better. It's way better than screwing up the cam timing on a 6 and hearing rockers breaking as it first fires up.

I got a couple of shots of a really cool Commando the other night. One of these days I'll download it from my phone. Maybe I'll post it later. It might cheer you up.

Yes that would be very bad...

Look at the glass 1/2 full buddy you've got it made.

i agree, play with kid and wife, car later.....

"I don't know. Might be going to look at a 69 Jeep Kaiser m715 Sunday."

They are a cool truck, but the ride is harsher than driving a tank & they don't go over 45mph. We used to tool an old one around when I was in the Gaurd. THey are fun & will crawl thru anything, but the ride....

Believe me, you would not want to drive one of these for more than an hour at a time.

If you are serious, check all of the body mounts, especially the rear cab mounts & front bed mounts.

I really liked this...

Click to view attachment

This is what I am looking at:


Will depend on how rusty it is. I am intending to re-engine and re-gear it if I get it.

do you need a pin?

mike

With that baby? Actually, you can. My kids used to sit in the bouncy seat in the garage many years ago. The only problem was trying to eat tools.

Like I said if you want a 360 - th400 combo I've got it here. All Jeep pieces all you MAY need is a transfer case. Dana 300 would be ideal but I think may require an outptu shaft change. Engine is good, carb is pretty ragged but I have been driving it ocassionally. I have my old engine on the stand to re-build so this one will need to go sonner or most likely later Oh and the T176 ( manual ) trans in my CJ will probably go too. I will most likely be putting in a 727

Thanks. I scavenged a pin out of another hub I had on hand and got everthing re-installed. I am going to go weld up and exhaust leak ( ) and run it and see if it is still out of balance. Hopefully, everything is cool.

Zach

Okay.

I fixed the leaky exhaust, and put the cooling fan back on. without plugs, I got no wobble when running the starter. So, I put a little oil in the cylinders, and ran the starter to build pressure, put in the plugs and started it.

It ran smoothly for about 5 minutes at 2100 rpm. Then idle dropped, and I could tell there was a miss somewhere.

I shut it down. I started it again, and it was running a little rough. I put a synchro on the carbs, and #2 was not drawing at all. Crap.

Then I started hearing a tap from #2, and I shut it down with a quickness.

I have a feeling that the carb needs a cleaning, and had jammed while I was running it in, blocking all fuel to #2. Which means I may have destroyed #2. Tomorrow I am going to get a compression tester and see - I am hopefull of a good result, but I bet I get nothing on #2. I compiared spark plugs of 1 & 2. No1 looks perfect, #2 was lean.

If I did trash it.... (grumble) I have three other 96 KB pistons, and another cylinder I can have bored out.

So, I am going to test compression, but I don't think I really need too.

Zach

I ran out and got a compression tester, but I am not going to turn the engine over any more. I am going to just pull the 1-2 head, the #2 cylinder and check out what I have got. I have the tin off now, but don't have the heart to deal with it any more right now.

I also have a leak where the oil pump lives that i am going to need to fix, and am leaking from 3 push rod tubes. I lubed the viton rings when I installed them, but they must have cut anyhow.

The 3-4 bank seems to be really tight. No leaks. the 1-2 bank just hates me, I think.

Zach

Arrgh.
I feel your pain. My just buttoned up rebuild developed a horrible KLANGKLANGKLANG yesterday that turned out to be a valve adjuster screw backing out. I guess I don't know how to use that torque wrench after all. So don't panic yet. You did not describe expensive -breaking crashing grinding- noises, so maybe, like me, you just need a few more re-dos. I fixed my PR tube leaks, but traded one bad exhaust stud for three and aded a massive oil cooler leak. But each "re-do" exposed an error or ommision that I needed to correct, so ultimately it will be for the best. The same willl hold true for your car i think.

Your getting it. Steady in jerks.

UPDATE!

AND GOOD NEWS!

I pulled the head, and there was NO DAMAGE.

What happened: The screw that hold the #2 intake rocker backed off. This closed the intake valve (which is why I got no reading on the sync tool when the cylinder when dead).
Question. I torqued these down to the value in the Haynes manual, and one backed off after 5 minutes of run time. Should I run thread locker on these bolts, or did I just make an error on assembly?

I pulled the cylinder, and the rings look good, and the cylinder is not scored.

The head looks good to me, but I am far from a pro. I'll post up pics in a bit.

Is there anything I need to look for before I button it up and run it again? I ordered a rebuild kit from the alfa carb guy on Ebay, so I am not going to run it again till I get those suckers rebuild. But I am excited about my prospects.

Zach

That's pretty good news considering...

Waiting to hear responses on this question. I should re-check the torque on mine after installing push rod tube orings. I got it running again but it's a tad rough and I've got spark on all four. That's where I stopped. I'm beat.

I've seen stripped threads on valve screws, might want to check it out.

Sounds like your making good progress though. I had a comedy of errors putting my 73 together and it all came down to the Tach wire on the wrong terminal of the coil.

You guys are making me weary about my rebuild.

Congrats, Zach...on the baby (and the motor)!

Zach, are you SURE that the adjuster backed out, or did the stud that the rocker assembly attatches to start pulling out? It is a semi common failuer to have the studs come out and cause what you described - constant loosening of the vavle adjusters.

Eh, I had all of an hour last night to play with my car (not complaining - its more then I have had the entire week prior). I did not check the stud. Now that I know I should, I will go out and look at it after work.

So, I should not need to use thread locker on the stud then?

Is the correct washer the wavey washer (what was on there), or should I be using a lock washer?

Zach

The wavy washer is correct. You do not need lock-tite, but see if the stud but can be tightened to torque again. That should be a clue. The adjusters should not come loose if you tightened the lock nuts correctly.

Lock nuts, you say. The nuts on it now are just standard nuts. I'll see if I can find some lock nuts for that size stud at HD after work. Any clue what the size and pitch is for those little guys? M6X?? sticks in my head, but I am unsure.

Zach

They are just thin jam nuts, when Mike said lock he just meant that they lock the threads of the adjuster to the rocker by tensioning the threads of the adjuster against the threads in the rocker. Using a nylock nut on there would make it a bitch to adjust. Check to see if the threads stripped out of the lock/jam nut too, I'd find it hard to believe that an adjuster would just come loose if the lock/jam was properly torqued.

-Chris

Well I suppose the adjuster is tensioned by the lock nut but the threads of the adjuster are compressing against the threads in the rocker but ehh, details.

It sounds like people are talking two different fasteners, here. One is the jam nut on the valve adjuster. The other is the nut on the stud that holds the rocker shaft onto the head.

I believe that the rocker shaft nuts are M7, one of few fasteners on the car that take an 11mm wrench. (If they take a 10, then they're M6.) I forget the pitch. The nuts are not self-locking fasteners, as far as I can tell.

Those should be torqued when the particular cylinder is at TDC and both rocker arms are slack. If you try torquing them with one valve open, the spring pressure won't even let the shaft seat against the head by the time you get to 10 lb-ft! (BTDT.)

--DD

Wow, thats good info, never thought of that and must have been lucky to have never run into that problem!

AH-fuching-HAH.

Thansk for that tip, I had not picked that one up yet, and would explain my problem. I wonder if #4 is backing off too? I'll have to check tonight.

Zach

And I can confirm that the rocker arm studs are indeed 7mm. BTDT just the week before least when I was trying to make a home made valve spring compressor.