I've done some cleaning items lately, waiting till after the holidays to get the torsion mount repair metal to start welding. I did cut out part of the driver's floor, though, so I could clean up the metal down there better with my wire brush attachments on my drill.
I continue to struggle with my 'free' air compressor. I finally figured out a way to use it, just having the regulator closed off and putting a port on the side of the regulator body rather than the plug on there. Problem is I've screwed up the little plastic fitting screw to close off the regulator so that won't stop air pouring out anymore. So now I need to try to find a screw that will fit in there to close that off. So... still no air tools fun.
I figured I'd break down the heads and get them cleaned up. It has to happen sometime anyway and they're a filthy eyesore on my shelf, so what the hell.
It took some work to break them down. The air tool to compress the springs would have been great, but of course, my air compressor's not useable. So I picked up this cheap lever thing at OReilly. When I used it, though, I just succeeded in lifting the head. I gave up for a couple of days and then had a thought... I screwed an extension onto my workbench and c-clamped the head down... THEN it worked... especially after breaking the 'seal' on the keepers with my dead-blow.
A tedious process but it worked. Also had to have the valve blocked in the combustion chamber... which I did with the brass end-cap that I hoped would fix my air compressor but didn't. It's underneath the green brillo pad there.
The exhaust valves are all really filthy... intakes aren't as bad. Also most of the exhaust valves are really loose... I think I'll need to sleeve the valves guides on the exhaust side. There were no valve seals on the exhaust, just the intake side.
Here's an exhaust valve... AFTER I cleaned it for a while... I think they need to be replaced:
I cleaned up that second head, too. I'd like to paint them, but... that's probably premature since I am going to need to have the exhaust guides sleeved anyway <shrug>.
So the tanking and inspection was 90 bucks... 8 new exhaust valves is probably 70 bucks, sleeving the exhaust guides should be about 80 bucks... new springs and keepers will set me back about another 70 bucks... and I want to get the home port and polish stones and whatnot to help with the flow (100 bucks)... which sets me back $410 total. OR.... replacement higher-performance iron heads can be had for $1000. <sigh> Building on a budget... besides, those heads might make it TOO powerful. ;-)
Taking a break, I poked around on the block a bit more, looked more closely at the cam bearings... they're pretty bad. The below shot is the 'worst' one, I think, but the rest (except the one in the back) were varying levels of burnt out also. I was planning on replacing them anyway when I get the block cleaned, inspected and machined (if necessary) anyway, but still... not good.
Finally, I took some brake cleaner and rags to the distributor last night to clean it up. Again, nice just to see clean parts on the shelf. The dist cap looks fine, but it's only like $20 anyway so maybe I'll replace it... hard to say at this point. It's electronic, not a points distributor.
That's all for now... hopefully back again before New Years... ;-)
