33 Chevy

[WaterH]

Really tough to decide. I guess I like the first better. I would like to see a few more.

 

[Wildcat]

I do think the higher position looks more proportional to the rest of the front end

light bars will be on the roof, 3 forward, and 2 backward facing

Good call.

 

[dnsfailure]

I am FINALLY having a bit of time off. I have the entire week off next week. I haven't even had many weekends off in the past few months. Anyway, I'll be spending part of next week with friends, and the rest with the 33 Chevy.


A/C bracket and pump bolted on. Had to grind some of the bracket and some of the overhanging intake manifold to get it to fit again. New. heads and intake manifold didn't line up the same with the bracket, but it all fits now.

Found out why the dipstick tube was loose. Cause it broke off at the block. LOL! My "what the hell, try it" first attempt of removing it with a thread chaser worked like a champ. Chucked it up into a drill and rammed it down in there. first thread bit in and pulled it right out. Aaand yet another part I need to order. Might just plug it up temporarily with a silicone plug for the breakin.


Hooked up the existing wires to the engine so I have gauges when I break in the motor. Just need to finish the fuel lines, finish bolting up the headers, fill everything with fluids, and then... uh... look around and make sure I haven't missed anything before firing it up.

Uh... I'm sure I did some other things. Oh yeah I trimmed the excess metal off of the transmission crossmember.


My goal for this week is to break the motor in, make mounts for the headlights (something I've been thinking about for a bit) and get started on the floor and pedals. I think floor and pedals is the next logical step, that way I can start on the seat mounts and the body structure. I don't know, we'll see where I end up next week. It's nice to have a full week off.

 

[dnsfailure]

Nothing really photo worthy today, but I got a decent amount of little things done.

Put gaskets on the headers, replaced all of the soft fuel line and both fuel filters. finished connecting a few wires, and primed the oil pump. Only took about a minute until oil was coming out of all the rockers. Found one small oil leak that the oil pressure sensor behind the intake manifold, snugged that up and it stopped. Also topped off the radiator coolant, after sitting for a few weeks it managed to burp out some air on it's own! :-)

Dipstick tube arrived today, but I'm not quite sure how to get it in there, I'll look that up tonight.

 

[dnsfailure]

First start! I put fuel down the carburetor, a quick squirt of starter fluid and it started up instantly. Yesterday I primed the oil system, but wasn't quite sure how to prime the fuel lines. The fuel lines were empty all the way back to the fuel tank. Was worried that it would take a while for the mechanical pump to draw the fuel, but it didn't take any time at all. Started up like it had been running all day.


Started breaking in the cam. Set the RPM as quickly as I could to 2500 for about 5 minutes with no problems, set the timing and started looking around for leaks. Then started seeing a bit of coolant leaking out of the external head studs. So I shut it down and called it a day.


After farther inspection, it appears that almost every head stud on the driver side has coolant seeping through the threads, both the external studs, and the studs under the valve covers. Passenger side is leaking through the head stud threads as well, but not quite as many of them. I can find no coolant seeping from the head gasket externally that I can tell. So my guess is that I didn't use enough thread sealant on the threads of the studs.

After some thinking, I've decided to drain the coolant and check for oil. I'm going to drain the oil as well, but I'm pretty sure I'll find coolant, because there was a bit of coolant seeping from the head studs under the rockers, mixing with the oil. Not very much, but more than zero.

Once the engine is empty, I'll pull each head stud and apply more sealant and re-torque, individually one by one.

I figure worst case, this doesn't work and I have to pull the heads and replace the gaskets. Hopefully this will at least get me by enough to finish breaking in the cam.

I'm new to building engines, but I'm not new to doubling down on a bad decision.

 

[dnsfailure]

So, I have to pull some of the rockers to get to all of the head studs. With only 5 minutes going on the engine, is there any need to keep them in the same order when I re-install them? I'm gonna get good at lashing the valves

And I guess same question for after the motor is broken in, I have to pull the rockers to re-install the inner valve springs, I guess I might as well keep them matched up, not a bad habit to get into I guess?

 

[WaterH]

So, I have to pull some of the rockers to get to all of the head studs. With only 5 minutes going on the engine, is there any need to keep them in the same order when I re-install them? I'm gonna get good at lashing the valves

And I guess same question for after the motor is broken in, I have to pull the rockers to re-install the inner valve springs, I guess I might as well keep them matched up, not a bad habit to get into I guess?

Not an engine man, but probably doesn't matter now and possibly after break in too. I guess it doesn't hurt to keep track.

 

[dnsfailure]

Not an engine man, but probably doesn't matter now and possibly after break in too. I guess it doesn't hurt to keep track.

yeah, I'm going to keep them in order, might as well try to form a good habit while I can.


I have almost all of the coolant drained that I can get with gravity. A little over 2 gallons. (I put in almost 4). Might try a bit of compressed air down the radiator to see if I can force out any more.

I'll tell you what, this car is a lot easier to work on than any other vehicle I own. I have good access to just about everything. I can see why guys back in the day enjoyed tinkering on these.

 

[xr-nut]

I'm new to building engines, but I'm not new to doubling down on a bad decision.

Quoting for the good laugh this morning. You should be fine not putting the rockers back in the same spot, but as easy as it is to toss them all on the cart willie-nillie, its just as easy to lay them out in order! Im with you hoping pulling the studs one at a time and sealing them up works.

 

[dnsfailure]

Pulled all the head studs (only one at a time), cleaned them, thread sealer worked into the threads, ARP ultra lube on the washers and nuts again, and retorqued.

Out of all the studs, I'd say only 3 or 4 came out dry, all the rest were soaked in coolant. So clearly I did something wrong when installing, as only the lucky few actually held water tight.


My guess is there's probably 1 (or more) of 3 things I might have done wrong.

#1, not cleaned the threads well enough on the studs and block (they come with oil on them from ARP). I used brake cleaner and a rag on the studs, and thread chasers then brake cleaner and round brush on the block threads, maybe I should have soaked the studs them for a while submerged?

#2, either not the correct thread sealant, or not enough. I've used various types on pipe threads all the time, and rarely have one leak. For the head studs I used Permatex 80632, which I think should have been fine? I worked the sealant into the threads, then wiped it off flush with the OD of the threads.

#3, ARP instructions were to thread down the studs hand tight. Maybe I took that too literally? Maybe they should have been snugged slightly with an allen wrench? I just got them snug with my fingers.


Any other ideas what I might have done wrong? I'm positive I got the torquing sequence and torque staging correct, that was pretty straight forward and I have a good Precision Instruments torque wrench. As far as I can tell, this isn't a head gasket problem, but I could be wrong. The block only had about 7,000 miles on it, I cleaned the mating surface well, and checked it as best I could with a straight edge.




In any case, I don't have high hopes that re-sealing the threads is going to work. But, I figure it can't make the situation any worse, so might as well try. So, now that they are all done, I'll lash the valves again, bolt on the headers, fill it with fluids, prime the oil again, drop the distributor and wires on, time it, and see how it goes.

If it doesn't work this time, I think I'll probably throw in the towel and find an engine shop and bring the engine to them re-assemble it and break it in. I'd let them decide if they want to re-use the cam and valve train or not. (My guess is they would NOT want to, for liability).

 

[dnsfailure]

lashed all the valves, bolted up the headers, filled the radiator up and burped out most of the air I could. Just waiting on new break-in oil to arrive so I can fill the oil, prime it, then drop the distributor in and fire it again.

Still not really confident this will work. But I have to try it. :)

 

[WaterH]

Like I said, I'm not an engine man. Are the back side of those studs in the water jacket? If so, I can see your problem. I don't have an answer. I've been having a similar problem sealing pipe threads.

 

[dnsfailure]

Yeah, on small blocks all of the head studs go through to the waterjackets. I believe aftermarket blocks don't do this, but GM ones do. Seems like an odd design, haha

I've actually never had problems sealing pipe threads, maybe because they are tapered. Even on this engine, all the tapered plugs in the block and intake hold just fine.

 

[dnsfailure]

Woohoo! Finished the cam breakin proceedure. I see 2 external head studs that seeped a little bit of coolant (way less than last time), so that gives me high hopes that the studs under the valve covers faired better than last time as well. Last time damn near every single one of them leaked, and leaked a lot more.

I need to remove the rocker arms to install the inner valve springs anyway, so at that time I'll inspect the headstuds under the valve covers as. good as I can to see if any of them leaked coolant (harder to tell on those), and I'll re-torque everything. IF it does still leak, I suppose I can pull the ones that leaked again and re-seal them, or possibly try some of the coolant sealer tabs. I don't really want to have to rely on them, but apparently it's common for folks to use them??

 

[dnsfailure]

Put in the inner valve springs, checked the torque on all the head studs (only a few of them barely turned), lashed the valves again, and fired it up. Since the break in is done now, I let it idle and was able to set the timing better. It starts up nicely, and idles best at just above 900rpm. A little higher than I was expecting, but doesn't matter.

There is still a very slight wetting around 2 of the external head bolts, but not enough to actually form a drip down the block (I could find no evidence of coolant under the valve covers, so I think they are all good). So, since it seems to be very minor now, I threw in a few crushed up AC Delco coolant tabs, and let it run for a good while. I'm not sure how quickly those are supposed to work, but I'll clean up the bolt heads real good once it cools down, change the oil, and tomorrow fire it up again and get it up to temperature and see if there's any more wetting around the threads.

 

[xr-nut]

I feel your frustration. All of the other hard parts of the project are done, this thing should be on the road and you have to deal with a dripping head bolt. UGH. Motor sounds great!

 

[dnsfailure]

I feel your frustration. All of the other hard parts of the project are done, this thing should be on the road and you have to deal with a dripping head bolt. UGH. Motor sounds great!

hah, I still need to get pedals, floor, seats, and the structure for the body finished. The structure for the body is going to be the hard part I think, haha!

 

[dnsfailure]

Made a pair of headlight mounts today. They are going to be a little lower that previous, and a little bit closer inward. Not as extreme as my photoshopped idea.

I may grind out the "hump" on the back of the plate, either that or put a few speed holes in there. It's probably way stronger than it needs to be. Will also consider putting a connecting bar in-between them, similar to how it was from the factory. We'll see. I'll probably mock it up at least.

 

[dnsfailure]

chasing away Charlie the cat from the 32 Ford, the next project.

Damnit Charlie, fuck off.




In other news, the transmission in my 46 Willys (T98) broke the output shaft and fucked up the 3-4 gear slider. Transmission shop around the corner is rebuilding it. I was hoping the Willys wouldn't give me any trouble while I work on other vehicles, but it keeps poking me in my side. :rolleyes:

 

[WaterH]

In other news, the transmission in my 46 Willys (T98) broke the output shaft and fucked up the 3-4 gear slider. Transmission shop around the corner is rebuilding it. I was hoping the Willys wouldn't give me any trouble while I work on other vehicles, but it keeps poking me in my side. :rolleyes:

Is the Willys your DD? That's my problem. My DD Bronco needs maintenance, slowing down my build. Of course, fifteen other things need work also.

 

[dnsfailure]

Is the Willys your DD? That's my problem. My DD Bronco needs maintenance, slowing down my build. Of course, fifteen other things need work also.

It's not my dedicated DD, but certainly when the weather is nice (spring, fall, and summer when it's not stoopid hot) I generally drive the Willys every day.

My plan for the 33 is to make it a nice road driving truck, and split most daily driving between the 33 and the Willys. I have a 7.3 F250 that's stupid reliable, so that's my winter truck, and my backup DD.


The Willys was the first vehicle I really did tons of work to, so I learned a lot while building it (and also learned a ton from the old site's Willys section members!!). Any time I have to go back in and work on it now, there's a lot of things I'd like to re-do differently. Not because it doesn't function, I just think it could be done better and cleaner, I'm a lot more comfortable working and building things now, and have alot more seat time with the tools and machines that I've picked up along the way. BUT, at least for now, I'm not really gonna work on it except when I have to, to keep it going. I'm trying to take what I learned on the Willys and apply it to the 33, try to do things cleaner, rather than just making it work. We'll see if I can keep that up... haha!

What needs done on the Bronco? Post some photos!

 

[WaterH]

It's not my dedicated DD, but certainly when the weather is nice (spring, fall, and summer when it's not stoopid hot) I generally drive the Willys every day.

My plan for the 33 is to make it a nice road driving truck, and split most daily driving between the 33 and the Willys. I have a 7.3 F250 that's stupid reliable, so that's my winter truck, and my backup DD.


The Willys was the first vehicle I really did tons of work to, so I learned a lot while building it (and also learned a ton from the old site's Willys section members!!). Any time I have to go back in and work on it now, there's a lot of things I'd like to re-do differently. Not because it doesn't function, I just think it could be done better and cleaner, I'm a lot more comfortable working and building things now, and have alot more seat time with the tools and machines that I've picked up along the way. BUT, at least for now, I'm not really gonna work on it except when I have to, to keep it going. I'm trying to take what I learned on the Willys and apply it to the 33, try to do things cleaner, rather than just making it work. We'll see if I can keep that up... haha!

What needs done on the Bronco? Post some photos!

That's kind of where I'm at. I have 4 vehicles road worthy with plates. The Vette is very reliable, but it's mainly my wife's. The PT cruiser is a POS that I can't stand being seen in. The old VW is cool and never needs work, but not very comfortable, especially when it's 90 outside. So the Bronco is it. It's pretty reliable also, but there's a few nagging things. The AC has a small leak that I can't find even though everything in the system is new. I had a intermittent headlight problem that I finally fixed by running a whole new switch and wires seperate from the stock switch. Rear wheel hubs leak oil and the list goes on.

And of course i have golf carts and lawn mowers to keep operational. I'm looking for an excavator. I must need my head examined.

 

[dnsfailure]

Small progress. Not much, but it's not nothing.

​

I dropped off the driveshaft that was in the truck to a local driveline shop a few days ago and picked it back up from them today.

They shortened it to be 34" center to center, and put on the splined end that I had for the TKO transmission. Their welds on the new end are really good looking. They must have a rotary setup for Mig, or something automated.



Oh and a few weeks ago I put in the speedometer sensor on the transmission. I had to grind a bit of the cast mounting surface that the crossmember bolts to on the transmission for the sensor to fit, seems like a design error there on the transmission mount casting, but either way, the sensor is in there now and I'll know how slow I'm driving.

 

[dnsfailure]

I did make a bit of progress today. Starting with a universal "under the floor" brake and clutch pedal assembly from TCI.

I put 2 opposite bends in each pedal arm to spread them farther apart, they were too close together feeling and if they need to straddle the steering column there wasn't enough distance between them.

After test fitting, I decided I wanted them forward even more, so cut out almost 2 inches of the forward part of the arms and weld them back together, giving me about 2 more inches that I can move them forward before they hit the firewall.

I also want to raise the pedals about 1 inch or so, and I don't want to weld the pedal assembly to the frame incase I want to move it around later. So, what I'm going to do is weld a thick plate to the frame that is tapped, and bolt the assembly to the plate. If at a later date I want to move the pedals around (Like when I have a floor and seats in there permanently) I can just re-drill the holes on the bracket, and mount it again.

The plate I'm using right now is 3/8" thick, with 3/8" 28 fine threads tapped. That is still not enough to center the pedals with the steering column, so I may go even thicker. I'm going to raise this bracket as high as I can until the reservoir cap is flush with the floor level, and might push it up a little bit more, and have the access panel have a raised hump in it for the cap to stick up slightly.

The photo if the assembly clamped to the frame does not have the thick mounting plate, but even with that plate it's still not quite centered with the steering column.


I'm not going to weld anything onto the frame just yet, I'm going to get it all very securely clamped up, and then start mocking up the seats. Once I have the seats, I will fine tune the position of the pedals.

 

[WaterH]

Pedals is one of the things in my project that were harder than they appear. Looks like you had the same experince.

 

[dnsfailure]

The last of the work I got done on the 33 Chevy this weekend.

I removed the last few pieces of wood (except for the wood that fits into the roof, which I will probably be leaving in there), the fat pieces were the floor rockers, and the thinner pieces were the B pillars (driver side I had already removed previously), the bolt was the door catch.

I've started re-making the wood structure out of metal. The body panels have holes every 8-12" or so that line up with the neighboring panels, and I've put the 1x2" tubing so that the 2" side is right in the center of where those holes meet. I'll later mark all the holes, drill and put threaded inserts in there, with some thin rubber pads and the panels will be bolted to the structure. Those holes are where the panels used to be screwed into the wood structure. So that's driving how I'm building this to start off with, getting the panels hung.

I hung the upper rear body panel in place just to double check everything, and it all lines up nicely. The body wasn't exactly square when I took it apart, I'm making it more square than it was, but also checking the panels as I go. I did a LOT of measuring and test fitting, and double checking today.

Yes, there's an overlap/notch at the bottom corners of the tubing, that's where the rocker panel tube will fit. And yes it getting welded directly to the frame.

Next step is the B pillars. I already have one made, I just need to make the 2nd, then get them fitted in, and getting the doors to close properly.

I'm not making a "roll cage" per say, but I will be adding some triangulation and braces here and there, and if I can find a way to do it without getting in the way, I will make a secondary A pillar that rides next to the existing one, for a bit more strength and rigidity. Someone before me replaced the A pillar with metal, and the door structures with metal, so I don't have to worry about doing that. But I think the A pillar could use some strength, while I'm at it.

***

OH! And there was some discussion about temporarily protecting metal from rust using GIBBS spray in another thread a while back. Since I won't be ready to paint this structure for a while, I'm going to give it a shot. I wiped down what I made today with GIBBS, and I'll report back on how it holds up. For reference, the transmission crossmember I modified has already started a light bit surface rust, after a few months. I will wire that down and paint it, since I don't need to modify it anymore.

 

[dnsfailure]

Trying to do something every day to keep me sane, and the project going (so that I can eventually drive this POS and move on to other projects )

In red is what I will be doing around the window. The window itself needs a frame to be mounted to, so I'll incorporate that into the structure. I'll use smaller tubing because it's just for the window structure. I tend to over build things by default, trying to not go too far.

This structure will be tied into the B pillar, and to the roof structure and the rest of the "cage". And I think I've decided that I'll put kicker bars that go from the roof structure angled back towards the rear of the frame.

And here's where the A pillar will roughly go. It's tight, but it should clear the A/C vents, the door window switches, and the front windshield brackets for when I want to tilt the windshield out for airflow. It's a straight shot down to the frame, so at least that part is easy.

 

[dnsfailure]

Here's the fitment of the driver side A pillar after bending. 1.75" .120 wall DOM. It's tight, but it works.

I goofed the lower part, had to cut it shorter, slug and plug weld it. I'm a pro

For leg room on the clutch pedal, I decided to have the tube intersect the frame on the side instead of the top. I'll add a short tube gusset to the top of the frame for additional support. Not sure if it's needed, but it's easy enough to do, so I'll do it.

When I make the passenger side, I'll probably make it the same way just to stay symmetrical, even though passenger wouldn't need leg room right there.

And here's how the rear down/kicker tubes will go. I'm slugging the two tubes together, both as a nice way to go through the rectangle tube, and also it will serve to help align the rear/kicker tubes, as I need to make these tubes removable so I can get the bed of the truck on and off.

Basically, there will be a 4 bolt flange on the outside of the body panel welded to the slug tube with just enough gap to get the body panel under it, and the 1.5" tube slug will extend out about 3+ inches, so the rear/kicker bars will slide over that slug and get bolted to the flange. In my head this seems like a good way to do this, the bolts don't take all of the load, the internal slug will help out since it's a pretty tight fit into the 1.75" DOM.

And I got the lower A pillar goof up slugged and ready. I will weld this to a 4x5" "fish plate" type plate on the bench, where I'll have better access. Then put the tube back onto the truck, and weld the larger "fish plate" to the frame. I did this on one of my other jeeps for the A pillar, and it worked out pretty nice.

 

[dnsfailure]

a bit more progress on the tube work.

Hard to believe it will fit 2 people in here, but it will.

 

[WaterH]

Seems kind of overbuilt for what you will be doing with this car. I guess I don't know what you will be doing with it. I'll revise that. It looks overbuilt for what I imagine you will be doing with this car.