Builds Project Bluebird and the tale of an engine rebuild (1 Viewer)

[g-man]

I scored the inside wall of the bearing retainer with a punch before installing the races. This to hold the race from spinning around there. Pretty sure it wasn't a method mentioned in the fsm but old school advice.

 

[maxbob002]

I scored the inside wall of the bearing retainer with a punch before installing the races. This to hold the race from spinning around there. Pretty sure it wasn't a method mentioned in the fsm but old school advice.

Thanks! Luckily it got a pretty good score from my punch and a bit hammer swing then. I was just hoping it would work out since it wasn't a bearing surface.

 

[maxbob002]

For not having a ton of pics to show today was super productive. First off thanks to Georg, @orangefj45 ,and Beno for making an awesome video. I would have had such a harder time without it. The fsm does not ramble to say to the least. I went with the spacer that was with my transfer case in the end and ditched the grooved collar and ball. First thing was to finish doing. The speedo seals. I used a needle nose to flip the inside seal and a small flathead to drag it out. Like every other rubber seal it was hard and no longer doing it's job. You can see how big the shaft hole had gotten and not sealing anymore. New one is on the left.

Also got to play with my new stubby impact. I also changed over to Milton high flow fittings. The fittings made this one and my old hf impact feel like a monster.

It's an onyx 3/8" stubby. I love it so far. Installation of everything was slow as I double checked stuff and followed the video and fsm as close together as possible. Torquing down things as I went.

The trans output gear was a bear to seat. In hindsight I should wirewheeled the splines and it probably would have helped. The high low shifter went on without issue. I just had to watch close to get it lined up. I used ultra black for all the sealing duties. I've read about what all people use and decided it should work ok.

The trans output bearing, similar to the gear, did not like going on. I used a punch and pipe piece to get it on the majority and then the nut and impact gun for the last bit. I would not do this job without an impact wrench and parts washer. Both were indispensable. The speed of assembling and disassembling is awesome. Clean components are a must as well.

Lastly, all buttoned up. I did have to add a .1 mm shim and I'm glad I ordered the pack with the kit. The preload before I started was way low and I hear RTV can mess with things as well. In the end I'm right at 17 lbs on the fish scale and 0.7 total shim. Next up is cleaning all the bolts and painting stuff. I should've done it long ago while waiting for the engine but it is what it is. Thanks for reading folks.

 

[orangefj45]

Glad the video helped. Thanks for the support!!!

Georg @ Valley Hybrids & Cruiser Brothers

 

[maxbob002]

I've been doing small jobs lately since I can't go the garage where my 60 is parked. First I made a gasket from remflex like wngrog. He had some sealing issues and this fixed his. It's cheap and easy enough that I went ahead. A 38spcl casing makes a great punch and is sized right for the bolts.

Next it was time to cut the glovebox to fit the ecu. It went ok. I planned to fiberglass this with the cardboard pieces in place but I can't test fit it right now. To fit the ecu required a fair amount of space so I think I'll go the duct tape method for now and fiberglass it later.

I painted the header a nice silver also. It looked great.

 

[maxbob002]

However I made a pretty big mistake. For some reason I got engine enamel rather than header paint. Of course I noticed about the time I finished. I couldn't decide if I wanted to go with it or remove it. In the end some spray citristripped gel did a great job and it's bare metal again. Just took some time and elbow grease. If that's the worst mistake that happens, things will be awesome.

 

[maxbob002]

I've been working the last few days. I still can't get over how heavy the trans is. I used the engine lift to get it on the jack. I spent some time getting things lined up but I swear I thought it would brazier. Took an hour to get it on. I can't imagine how people do this under the car. My crappy trans jack definitely didn't help compared to a nice one.

Here it is finally attached and some accessories started going on.

It took a good hour to get the tubes, pipes and clamps set out. It's all just part of the jigsaw puzzle.

I test fitted the intake and jt outfitter header. I wasn't impressed. Thickness of the flange was ok but several of the bolt holes were too large to fit the stock washers. I ended up getting some large washers. Between those and the remflex it should work ok.

 

[maxbob002]

A buddy has been helping and here he's about half done cleaning the fan. It came out really nice in the pics below.

An m6 x 1.0 dye recut the threads so that a stock breather nut can be used. I've got three brand new ones to use later.

A little black rtv should keep the stack held together but easily removable if needed later.

Here it is assembled. I think should work great. I was a little worried if it would all work. It's secure and i think looks good.

This just test fitting at this point. Exhaust gasket still needs to go in.

 

[maxbob002]

Well glad didn't fiberglass the glovebox. Spent several hours cutting and test fitting this morning. To quote wngrog "the glovebox is more tape than cardboard". It's not pretty but gives the most space possible because of the heater boxes behind it.

All in all looks great and still holds the couple tools and books I keep in there.

 

[maxbob002]

Spent some time putting on hoses with cool oem clamps. Some of these clamps will be terrible to get too if needed in the future. I used as many oem hoses as available and then gates ones for the rest. There won't be an old hose left in the coolant system after this.

"Final" installed the header and intake manifold. The washers and remflex took up to much space to get the bolts started. I ended up going with the some split washers on the worst joints which seemed to work ok. Then realized there wasn't clearance when installing the engine. Turns out there is a heatshield over the driver frame that must go. So off they came during the install. The gasket sealed mostly when I took them but I'm definitely concerned about a few spots. I guess we will see when I get it cranked.

This is the most exciting pic in the thread. After an astounding 259 days bluebird is whole again. Running will take more time but this an awesome milestone that I couldn't have done without a lot of help from cottonland guys, ih8mud, and the buddy who helped put the engine today. Figured could do it alone but that would've been tough. It was tricky lining it up but finally got the motor mounts loosely bolted in.

So for those reading I've got a question. The hoses for the front heater core were like this previously. The ones in the parts diagram are swapped. I don't think it matters but I went with the diagram. Do I need to swap them back to the picture or keep as in the parts diagram?

 

[maxbob002]

Well I turned a lot of bolts over the course of last week. Not many were picture worthy. Engine and trans are fully mounted. Driveshafts are in. I wirewheeled all of my bolts like @wngrog. It was a pain and I continue to find more that got left in and need to be cleaned. However it's all worth it. They look awesome. The header took a few scrapes going in an out a few time so disregard those, ha.

So apparently the water pipe coming out the head can't go in as one piece. It had plenty of marks from where someone had wrestled with it before. Stubby impact took it off for the win. It scratched it up pretty good but we are in get it done phase. It can be repainted later.

This is where I left it. All accessories bolted on. I had thought the ac compressor was missing the two bottoms mounting bolts but some precious genius working on it had just threaded them into the non-mounting ears of the compressor. One worked ok after cleaning the threaded hole with a tap, 10x1.25 FYI. However one of the bolts was too short so luckily had a spare in the toolbox that worked.

So all in all it's getting so close but there's a ton left to do. Hoping to get it going next week. Can't work on it until then.

 

[maxbob002]

Back to work on Bluebird today. Pictures don’t the whole story this time. First went on the belts and tensioned th the alt-ps belt was super tight and took some effort to get on but eventually with a little pry bar it relented. Then came the shroud,radiator,and upper/lower radiator hoses.

Next was time for the tbi. It comes with straight fuel lines coming out. They need to be bent in the general direction of the firewall. This was a serious pain. They seem to be made of titanium. It took a while and several methods but they ended workable for now. The shadows make them look much worse in the pics. There’s obviously a tool made for this and suggest others find one for similar projects.

This was final mock-up before thing continued to be bolted together.

 

[maxbob002]

Here the tbi is in its new home. Thanks wngrog for the throttle cable adapter for the gas peddle. It will went together without a hitch. For the record I totally made vroom vroom sounds.

The rest of the evening was spent on the wiring loom. Length splices were needed for the coolant sensor, map suensor and o2 sensor. Given my hatred for wiring I tend to it in batches and am glad to closing in on the last. Left now is the power wire, cel, and distributor wires.

 

[maxbob002]

Today was a decent day. Didn’t take a lot of pics of each step though. Started with installing the shifter boots. Those things were terrible but finally got them in. Then wiring resumed. First installed the stainless tray. Plate went in great. However I realized then that I had ordered a driver side tray so I have ship back the diagonal arm for the correct one.

Next ran the tubing for the map, pcv, and charcoal canister without issue. Fuel line went in without issue as well. I bought just enough. This was the last piece routed.

Next came the distributor install. To be honest I had been dreading this part quite a bit. It went fine though. Found tdc of #1 then afteravlit ten tries I got the oil pump lined up. Then came cap, wires with dielectric grease and plugs. I gapped them at 0.05 per the directions but may revisit that if I have any running issues.

Next came time for the exhaust. As mentioned earlier the exhaust system is new and included a new header. The angle off of the header is not quite level so we fit everything and tacked it in place. Then pulled it out and began welding. I don’t often use my welder so it took some adjustment to get it going and keep it going well. I laid a few decent beads then it went to crap and I struggled to finish with any thing other than “booger welds”. Turns out at some point I shut off my shielding gas. Well it was done finally. Plan to install it tomorrow. Also a huge shout out to my dad who came into town to help. Also plan on adding fluids and firing the engine tomorrow!

 

[maxbob002]

The short of it is that it runs! The morning was spent hanging the exhaust and finishing the remaining small stuff like filling the trans and tcase with oil. My dad setup the no spill coolant funnel and filled the radiator with antifreeze and distilled water. I set the timing via the static method prior to firing. Turned the key and boom it fired up. The cam breakin happened without issue. There were some leaks though. A couple coolant hoses required tightening. The block coolant drain was dripping but was too hot to reach so that will have to be looked at later. The oil pan had a drip that worsened over the day today. I snugged a few bolts up so will watch that closely. After changing out the breakin oil I disconnected the distributor jump wire in the AFI harness to set the actual timing. It was fairly close. Then test drove it around. I put about 10miles on it today and it ran great. The ac still works so that’s fantastic seeing as I’m in Mississippi. Ac is a necessity. Heat front and rear now work great as well.

After the breakin, the engine wouldn’t come back to life. I traded it to a no fuel issue. I replaced the bad relay due a pin being movable on the relay box. When I installed the new relay it became clear something on the relay harness plug won’t let the relay fully seat. I pushed it on as far as I could and planned to revisit it. Well today I had to jiggle the relay to get the engine to fire again. Seems I’ll have to pull that wire from the relay plug and see what is going on. It’s workong still now but something on the to do list.

While test driving I was showing the new engine setup to a friend. The tbi began to whistle loudly. I traced it to the tbi and gave it a small amount of gas and it went away. This is an intake leak. So I’ll have to look at the tbi and adapter closely to determine where it’s coming from.

Issues left include the oil leak from pan, the block drain dripping coolant, the fuel relay, and checking closely for intake leaks due to the whistle. But all in all it cranks so much easier than when I had the carb and seems super responsive. I’m loving it.

 

[maxbob002]

Well Bluebird made the trip home today. I moved in the middle of this project and regrettably left it. It made the 109 mile trip on backroads and highways without an issue today. Tightening the oil pan bolts fixed the oil leak. I tightened the block drain this evening so we will see about that to over the next few days. There is a gear oil leak now as well. It seems to be coming from the top plate of the trans. I’m going to try and get a wrench on those bolts from underneath.

 

[maxbob002]

I adjusted to idle and it’s now right around 900rpm. Still above spec but it’s much better than the 14-1500 it was. I’ve got about 330 Miles so far and am loving the setup. It cranks every time and has plenty of throttle response and power. Filled up today and averaged 10.7 mpg.

As far as the leaks go. Coolant stopped after tightening the drain. I managed to get a 14mm open end wrench on the top trans plate bolts and tightened those as well this significantly decreased the gear oil leak. I think it’s coming from the split case now but it’s just a few drips per day so it may just be like that for a while. All in all I’m excited to continue the breakin to about 500mi then on a camping trip soon.

 

[maxbob002]

Now at 700 miles and a fresh oil change. I’m averaging 11mpg. Dare I say, it feels peppy! Bluebird hit 83mph last week and had more left in it. It feels like twice the power it had previously so obviously my engine was hurting. The efi is going great. It cranks every time hot or cold and runs great. Most of the leaks have been chased down. I still have a small slow oil leak from the bracket that holds the oil cooler to the engine and a slow gear oil leak but they are very tolerable to me. Anyone considering afi efi should do it in my opinion. Thanks for reading.

 

[wngrog]

Man. I can’t believe I missed this whole thread. All the attaboys and wows and you are crazy’s. I’ll just put them here.

Also, the oil cooler. Replace the O Rings. I did it on mine. They are one time use.

 

[maxbob002]

Man. I can’t believe I missed this whole thread. All the attaboys and wows and you are crazy’s. I’ll just put them here.

Also, the oil cooler. Replace the O Rings. I did it on mine. They are one time use.

Ha thanks! It’s been an adventure for sure.