[dosdovi]

the origional problem to be fixed

note that you can see through the piston onto the cement floor of my garage. The culprit: an untorqued head bolt by the mechanic who did it last (not myself). The piston fell apart and got little pieces all over the place, such as in here

Time to rebuild

So I bought a 351w rebuild kit from summit. Fastforeward to this past friday. I got this far

the engine wouldn't turn over. It took me forever and one embarassing post to figure out why (although the post did little to remedy the current situation, it did help me to aviod a future situation and I appreciate all the help from those who did, despite my retardedness). Turns out that summit sent me a 302 rebuild kit, and the bearings are much smaller. Went out and got some new ones, that luckily are the same brand. And got once again to that same point. Called it quits for the night.

Saturday I started at 1230 because thats when it came in. I finished rebuilding the engine. I have a picture of it, Ill post it tomorrow once I get my hands on it.

Sunday I got this far

and then I got this close

but it wouldn't go, so I gave up around 900 (note: the picture was not taken until this morning)

Monday I woke up and started working. I worked for a short while till I found that the torque converter was not going on all the way (I don't know why I didn't figure that out any sooner, theres been alot on my mind other than what I'm doing), I pulled it out and realized that when I pulled the engine back in october that I had stuffed a paper towel down the hole to soak the tranny fluid up. Well I quickly found that to be the problem, rid myself of the paper towel, and put it back on. After a while it finally went into place and I began to bolt it up. Then I bolted up the new motor mounts, and began connecting things until about 900 when I decided to quit because I didnt' have any oil(other than the quart that was already in there) or coolant so I stopped it here

Those of yall who were in north texas, or pretty much anywhere north of austin, know that it was really really cold and that it was snowing/icing well this was the only thing that kept me warm as I didn't have any thick jackets that I felt like ruining with oil stains. I got a propane heater that looks, sounds and feels like a jet engine.

I was nice and warm the entire time

ok supermotors is being mean so I'll update those pics asap


As for the rest of the story... I wont have time to work on it till thursday. By then I should have what I need to try to get it started, although I doubt it will

 

[Ubermich]

Awesome! Though it sounds like you might wind up with yet another bolt in there if you're not more careful!

Good luck, brotha!

 

[dosdovi]

yeah i suppose its possible, but I made sure I torqued every bolt twice. I was extremely careful assemlbling it, putting it in I was a little more reckless than usual.

 

[RAWPOWER]

wait i thought you had a 302?

 

[jopes]

after putting in the first bearing you shoudl have known something was wrong because how tight it was.

 

[broncoman92]

Isn't it marvelous how a 2 cent part can make a $2000 problem ?

 

[equin]

Way to go, Cameron! Looks like you did a bunch of work this weekend. Can't wait to see it when it's finally done.

 

[4sd4d]

I rented one of those "salamander" heaters last winter for a week while doing some work in my garage.

I have a very old and drafty garage that has cracks in the walls and such this heater kept it so hot in my garage that I was sweating so much that I had to take my sweatshirt off and work in my T-shirt.

 

[MyFullSize]

Awesome, glad you got your engine fixed!

 

[dosdovi]

after putting in the first bearing you shoudl have known something was wrong because how tight it was.

aye right you are, I should have but I haven't ever done an engine rebuild before, and didn't know how hard or easy it was supposed to be. But really I'm just that stupid :banghead

 

[81Bronk36]

[hijack]

Check out the heater in the corner of our garage. Takes it from 20* to 70* in no time flat. Drinks a ton of Kerosene though.

[/hijack]

Hijack..... See if you can run #2 deisel in yours, its usually a LOT cheaper. It said it on mine right on the sticker on the outside.

I sold mine since I have an insulated and attached garage that I can keep warm with 3 small electric heaters even with it being 0 outside.

 

[ruger1022]

Too cool dude, maybe you can gimme a ride in yours wheeling while mine will be broken down and getting fixed....Soon I hope...

 

[dosdovi]

Too cool dude, maybe you can gimme a ride in yours wheeling while mine will be broken down and getting fixed....Soon I hope...

Id be happy to, assuming mine does work. I did all the work myself, for the first time so well see. I can't wait till I can get the rest of it done. I need a new egr sensor (I believe thats what its called, although I haven't bother to look it up yet as I dont have much time at the moment) and I need some oil and anti freeze, then Ill crank it up and well see where it takes me after that.

Here are some more pics from this weekend

I decided to paint my engine so the lower intake, heads and valve covers are blue, the upper intake is white, and the block and oil pump are grey.

Thats just a pic of my two trucks, I like em, they looked good next to each other.

 

[85f150]

nice cherry picker....a heater in Texas, you should come up here and lay out in the parking lot to fix something in the winter if you think its cold there :beer

 

[dosdovi]

nice cherry picker....a heater in Texas, you should come up here and lay out in the parking lot to fix something in the winter if you think its cold there :beer

Look I'm used to 70 degree weather. It was 85 the day before I started. I started, and it went down to 20 with a wind chill of 11. I didn't have a jacket. Thats plenty cold for me.

come down to texas and lay out in the parking lot to fix something in the summer and youll be happy youre in michigan, you can always put clothes on when its cold, you can only take off so many layers when its hot :toothless

 

[81Bronk36]

Look I'm used to 70 degree weather. It was 85 the day before I started. I started, and it went down to 20 with a wind chill of 11. I didn't have a jacket. Thats plenty cold for me.

come down to texas and lay out in the parking lot to fix something in the summer and youll be happy youre in michigan, you can always put clothes on when its cold, you can only take off so many layers when its hot :toothless

Unless its -10 and your replacing a chebby starter on a truck that had been sitting in the same place all winter long... then you just about die.

all in all I wouldnt want to be doing that kinda work when its 20 out.

 

[85f150]

you're exactly right, i am a kind of person that would rather be freezing than hot. I hate 80's, its sooooooooooo hot

 

[2fastnaz]

Only bad thing about cold is by the time I get enough clothing on to be warm I can't move my arms to do anything. I'm glad I live in Phoenix (untill about May)

 

[sewiv]

come down to texas and lay out in the parking lot to fix something in the summer and youll be happy youre in michigan, you can always put clothes on when its cold, you can only take off so many layers when its hot :toothless

In Michigan we get the worst of both worlds. -20 sometimes in the winter, 100+ in the middle of the summer.

Try changing a fuel filter on fresh blacktop in 95 degree weather. Did you know that gasoline will turn blacktop back into tar? And then you stick to the pavement. I was scrubbing tar out of the skin on my back for weeks, it felt like.

(I don't know why I still live in Michigan. 36 years, you'd think I'd learn.)

 

[DcSkater602]

i finsihed my 351w swap in 12 inches of snow

nice work

dc