Build The Clustertruck Rides Again - Refurbishing a 1975 Chevota

[RWBeringer4x4]

Yeah I have a bunch of people telling me this is fine but the angles and the length of the bolts all just scream "force multiplier" to me...

I'm not really interested in dropping the engine on myself or on my truck, so I'll probably pull the intake in the morning, then go buy some shorter bolts, and torque them directly to the heads with the intake out of the way.

Would really love to be able to move this engine around with the intake and dizzy installed - but with these L brackets on the load leveler, and no accessory bolts in the front of the head, I don't really see a viable option...

8000 pictures on the Internet of 350's being lifted by the front and read accessory bolt holes, not a single useful shot for lifting a 283...guess I should have bought a leveler with hooks instead of brackets.

 

[RWBeringer4x4]

Well, the good news is - no lifter valley sludge!

The bad news: my buddy backed out on me so the engine isn't coming out today...

 

[Jdc1]

Well, the good news is - no lifter valley sludge!

View attachment 1374403

The bad news: my buddy backed out on me so the engine isn't coming out today...

Its doable by yourself. Let your wife know what you are doing and don't get under anything that can fall. Go slow and use your load leveler.

 

[RWBeringer4x4]

Well the good news is, my father in-law came down to help out. He's only got one arm due to recent shoulder surgery but we got it out!

A little janky but it worked - had to let all the air out of the front tires for the bellhousing to clear the crossmember

THE BAD NEWS (besides antifreeze everywhere) is that I've paid the price for buying the cheapo harbor freight crane. Minutes after pulling the engine we lost hydraulics. Managed to save it using two-by-fours as pry bars and getting a dolly and Jack stand under it - but here's where we now stand:

Off to harbor freight to return the ram...hope the next one is better than the first - this was the first use...

To top it off, the engine trolley I bought folded under the weight of the engine coming down crooked, which means I'll now have to rely on the crane until I can pull the trans and transfer case and get it up on the big stand

There's also a broken engine mount bolt in the block (part of the reason the skid folded, so that will need to be dealt with...

One of those days...

Moral of this story - but quality tools, especially things that stand between you and 800lbs on your garage floor.

 

[waiting for time]

Just to explain.
You don't tighten a bolt, you pre load it. The more tension on a bolt the stronger the connection. You do have to stay below yield. Or the bolt breaks while tightening.

 

[rkymtnflyfisher]

If you think I'm about to drop an engine on myself now would be the time to speak up!

Nope, I am interested to see how far you go with the build! One thing leads to another........

 

[gator25]

Those 3/8" bolts will hold way more then you would think. Good to see it out, I have a HF ram in my cherry picker. The picker itself needed a ram, jack, cyl. whatever when an old man gave it to me, probably 20 yrs ago. When I built the shop, couple yrs. now put a 3000lbs. HF cyl. in it and its pulled 3 engines to date. When I go back in the chassis with the engine I have on the stand, it will have the tranny and transfer bolted to it also. Might end up buying the 6000lbs cyl., we'll see.

Like @rkymtnflyfisher says its hard to stick to the original plan lol.

 

[Cdaniel]

I'm late to the party, but all I could have added was maybe using some accessory mount hole in the head as anchor points. Unless that was already mentioned. Otherwise, congrats on an injury free extraction!

 

[RWBeringer4x4]

I'm late to the party, but all I could have added was maybe using some accessory mount hole in the head as anchor points. Unless that was already mentioned. Otherwise, congrats on an injury free extraction!

No worries - all's well that ends well! The issue was that the old power pak heads don't have accessory bolt holes in the heads.

When it comes time to reinstall, I may swap out the L brackets on the load leveler for hooks and install the lift-brackets over the intake, so I can have the intake and distributor on before it goes back in.

 

[handcannon]

Good to see you got it out, with almost no problems. I have bought Harbor Freight tools before. I don't like to, but finances usually dictate otherwise.

Also, good to see that you filled the intake and exhaust ports. That's using your head (pun intended).

Don

 

[RWBeringer4x4]

Impact tools and New Year's day hangovers do not belong together, and yet, here we all are...

Got the transmission separated from the engine this afternoon.

This finally gave me a glimpse into what the "chugging" noise I have been experiencing since I bought the truck. I was hoping it was clutch related, and not transmission input bearing related, and I am now starting to think I may have lucked out (Haven't inspected the trans yet).

The throw-out bearing is definitely shot - gritty, tons of play, etc. so I suspect that may have been the noise I was hearing. Interestingly, the clutch springs also took some damage - on both sides of the clutch...

Pressure plate side:

Flywheel side:

I'm pretty sure these are not flywheel bolts - my understanding is that the flywheel bolt heads are supposed to be fairly "flat" as to avoid exactly this situation - these appear to be pretty tall bolt heads to me...

The next challenge is going to be figuring out how to get the engine from the engine crane to the stand. While these foldable shop tools with nice wide bases are great, it doesn't really allow access to line the engine up with the stand. Any thoughts? I'm sure someone has run into this before.

Looks like it will be back to the hardware store for some 3.5" bolts to mount up the engine. Everything I have is either too long or too short but just a bit..

 

[Jdc1]

Impact tools and New Year's day hangovers do not belong together, and yet, here we all are...

Got the transmission separated from the engine this afternoon.

View attachment 1375250

This finally gave me a glimpse into what the "chugging" noise I have been experiencing since I bought the truck. I was hoping it was clutch related, and not transmission input bearing related, and I am now starting to think I may have lucked out (Haven't inspected the trans yet).

The throw-out bearing is definitely shot - gritty, tons of play, etc. so I suspect that may have been the noise I was hearing. Interestingly, the clutch springs also took some damage - on both sides of the clutch...

Pressure plate side:

View attachment 1375252

Flywheel side:

View attachment 1375251
I'm pretty sure these are not flywheel bolts - my understanding is that the flywheel bolt heads are supposed to be fairly "flat" as to avoid exactly this situation - these appear to be pretty tall bolt heads to me...

View attachment 1375284


The next challenge is going to be figuring out how to get the engine from the engine crane to the stand. While these foldable shop tools with nice wide bases are great, it doesn't really allow access to line the engine up with the stand. Any thoughts? I'm sure someone has run into this before.

View attachment 1375285

Looks like it will be back to the hardware store for some 3.5" bolts to mount up the engine. Everything I have is either too long or too short but just a bit..

When put my 2f on the stand, I lifted the stand up to the motor(motor and stand were hanging in the air) and then gently lowered it down.

 

[RWBeringer4x4]

When put my 2f on the stand, I lifted the stand up to the motor(motor and stand were hanging in the air) and then gently lowered it down.

Yeah in going to try doing that - just can't see a way yet that I won't be dropping it on the legs of the crane. We will see!

 

[Cdaniel]

Not OEM flywheel bolts. And split lock washers, NOT!
Get yourself some nice ARP bolts, $15-20 a set

 

[RWBeringer4x4]

Not OEM flywheel bolts. And split lock washers, NOT!
Get yourself some nice ARP bolts, $15-20 a set

Kind of what I figured! What is even more confusing is that both sides of the clutch had wear on the springs - but as far as I can tell there's no way the pressure plate would contact the springs...

 

[RWBeringer4x4]

Finally, we have an engine mounted safely to the stand. Time to start digging and see what needs doing...

Good signs so far - the lifter valley and valves are absolutely immaculate, although I'd love some advice on how "loose" or "tight" they should be. I'll have to go do some digging. But at first glance - at least there's no sludge!

Up next is pulling the harmonic balancer - this (or the pulley that was attached to it) had a strange wobble to it when the engine was running...there's no appreciable play or unevenness that I can see in either the balancer or the pulley...but this balancer does seem awfully thick for its mount. It's also got a hint of "Chevy Blue" which suggests to me it might be from a later model (late 70's) Chevy. I think they're all pretty interchangeable though. Any thoughts?

I'll also be (carefully) drilling the crank snout to install a balancer bolt - I don't like trusting thousands of RPM in rotation to a 60-year-old press fit...but I don't see it doing much good if the balancer doesn't sit flush with the end of the snout. Is this normal?

 

[RWBeringer4x4]

It's bitter cold but I'm still Plugging away - have most of the peripherals torn off the engine, and commenced degreasing. Not a lot of Chevy Orange left on this engine!

The engine is cleaning up better than the intake manifold. These stains are in deep. This is after degreaser and two coats of aluminum wheel cleaner I had laying around.

Yes...that's the kitchen sink...luckily my wife is very understanding. It's cleaner than it was...but definitely a long way from clean... If I can get the grease out of the pores I'll probably just paint it.

I got to try the parafin wax trick on the manifold. There was a water passage plug that had become one with the intake - no amount of penetrating oil or impact wrench would free it up. About 2 minutes with a MAP torche and some melted parafin down the threads, and the plug popped right out!

Up next - extracting all the broken bolts I've found:

Pretty important bolts...in places I'm not looking forward to drilling into...

Other questions still remain as to how far I want to tear this down and rebuild it...

For example - my over-driven water pump pulley is shot:

However, short water pump overdriven (smaller than crank) pulleys apparently don't exist anymore - the best I've been able to find is 1:1 or slightly under driven. Given the propensity for cooling issues I've seen on this forum for Chevotas - this is a bit concerning. My power steering bracket is also broken (but was functional)...

I also have a "long" (newer model) water pump sitting on the shelf...but that would mean all new brackets and pulleys...

There's also the matter of the freeze plugs - I really couldn't tell if any of them were leaking under the 1/4in of oil and grime on the engine, but several seem to be help in by a rubberized sealer. I'm thinking it might be smart to knock them out and replace them while the engine is out of the truck.

Decisions decisions...

 

[Honger]

There's also the matter of the freeze plugs - I really couldn't tell if any of them were leaking under the 1/4in of oil and grime on the engine, but several seem to be help in by a rubberized sealer. I'm thinking it might be smart to knock them out and replace them while the engine is out of the truck.

Decisions decisions...

I think you answered your own question on the freeze plugs... they aren't spendy and the engine is out.

I'm following along an enjoying your build bro. Love all the do-it-yourself going on.

 

[RWBeringer4x4]

I think you answered your own question on the freeze plugs... they aren't spendy and the engine is out.

I'm following along an enjoying your build bro. Love all the do-it-yourself going on.

Thanks for following along! I tend to ramble but I love feedback/opinions/comments - helps keep me pointed in the right direction. I've never done any of this before so I'm always happy to hear advice and ideas...

 

[mrboatman]

If you sand blast that intake manifold it will turn out looking like new. Well almost like new. I agree replace the freeze plugs now while the engine is out. your doing a good job.
Good Luck
JP