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1951 Pontiac Chieftain


PhilA

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This morning I went to Napa and bought a roll of 1/32" gasket.

 

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$25, not cheap but it's good stuff.

 

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Traced the old water pump gasket with a pencil.

 

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Gasket scraper also doubles as a knife.

 

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Tube of Renault RTV from when I did the GTA's engine.

 

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Thin layer applied to get the gasket to stick...

 

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And attached and tightened down.

 

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Cleaned the junk out of the threads- I do need to get another stud.

 

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Pulled the gasket off. This is where it was leaking from.

 

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Gently put my file to it- there's a couple raised pieces. This was leaking.

 

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Now there's only a low section, which isn't too low. The sections I took off were at least 1/64" raised.

 

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Cleaned up the head bolts. Wire brush, then run the die up the threads, then wire brush again on the threads.

 

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Then a gentle wipe down with an oily cloth to protect.

 

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Thirty of the blasted things later...

 

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Cleaned the deck down and applied the gasket.

 

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Head cleaned down and applied to the block.

 

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Head bolts in finger tight.

 

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And finally stuck the plugs in to stop anything from getting into the bores.

 

Ran out of time, gonna do a two-stage torque on the head bolts tomorrow (25, 60 lb/ft) and then turn it over to check compression.

 

Phil

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Pontiac Chieftain threads are for WINNARZ.

 

First a Renault, now a 50's car with a straight 8. PHWOAR!

Add to that some badass test equipment...and winding your own coils with a drill motor...

 

This thread is pure AUTOSHITE GOLD. 

Like a brick in the street I just tripped over. 

RESPECT.

 

MOAR!

 

...Other nixe tube voltmeters may also be available...

...as for the Renault, I would, but it's so far away...

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I'll give America this- there's still a fairly large number of people who like to work on engineering. As such there's a decent market for all the stuff you used to find in the dingy little shops full of dusty cardboard boxes run by an old boy who remembered his apprenticeship back in the day.

 

It's not seen as a bad thing to know and enjoy taking cars apart here. Somewhere along the line in the UK it seems to have become something to laugh at, ok haha look at that person there working on their car, they must be so poor not to take it to a garage oh haha

 

Psh. That skill is envied here. It's understood that garage work is expensive and it's a good skill to be able to do it yourself. The home garage hobbyist is quite the thing- there's TV shows about it, which makes Brewer over here look rather weak in comparison...

 

 

Phil

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I'll give America this- there's still a fairly large number of people who like to work on engineering. As such there's a decent market for all the stuff you used to find in the dingy little shops full of dusty cardboard boxes run by an old boy who remembered his apprenticeship back in the day.

 

It's not seen as a bad thing to know and enjoy taking cars apart here. Somewhere along the line in the UK it seems to have become something to laugh at, ok haha look at that person there working on their car, they must be so poor not to take it to a garage oh haha

 

Psh. That skill is envied here. It's understood that garage work is expensive and it's a good skill to be able to do it yourself. The home garage hobbyist is quite the thing- there's TV shows about it, which makes Brewer over here look rather weak in comparison...

 

 

Phil

 

I have two septic cousins about my age. They learned how to rebuild an engine at school. I wonder whether this is still being taught.

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I agree, I've been out doing what I'd consider light pottering on the zx on the road all weekend and the number of stares I've had stopped being funny yesterday! Luckily they were all visitors, our actual neighbors all like it and think it's good (and know where to come to ask for help themselves)

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I have two septic cousins about my age. They learned how to rebuild an engine at school. I wonder whether this is still being taught.

Sadly no. It has been migrated to the equivalent of the local polytechnic.

 

Phil

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After removing some wasps from the roof (hurrah) I started on the engine.

 

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Torqued everything up in order, first to 25lb/ft, then to 60lb/ft.

 

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They're wrong but I made up some gaskets for the manifolds. I need to order some replacements.

 

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Which allowed me to clean up the gasket faces and put the manifolds on.

 

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Carb on, pipes on, fuel pump on, plug wires on...

 

Phil

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My favourite thread on here. Fantastic work. When we visit the states Velocity channel now Motor Trend is my channel of choice, to my wife’s disgust especially All Girl Garage. Lol. Car maintenance seems to be much more a hobbyist pastime over there than the uk.

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