Workin on the Wagon and One thing leads to another!

Update #6

This weekend I ordered the valve stem seals and cover gasket. It's still pretty hot. Maybe this next weekend I'll get to work. Getting to them will be somewhat of a chore. I have to remove the cruise control mount and the air hoses for the smog pump.

Since it's the third car I can afford to lay it up for a bit. There's no need to sweat out getting the job done.

The parts should be in today.

I got the parts and started the work this last Saturday. The learning curve has been high. I had to buy an actual spring compressor. I had to modify it. I had to add a large washer for the spring compressor to press on. So I got one seal replaced on Saturday and three more on Sunday. I did find that there was absolutely no sludge build up at all. The top of the head looks like new. No slop in the valve guides and the rocker arm assembly looks like new as well. However, those stem seals are very hard, cracked and broken. Obviously this is the oil problem. Only eight more to go. It's been slow and fiddly but I'm in no hurry either. Sunday I only worked on it for an hour so the learning curve and tool modifications worked well.

 

We're getting your hot weather up here. I was watching how this stuff comes up from California, through the Rockies into Wyoming, Idaho, Montana and North Dakota, and it's hotter than Hades! We're hitting 35C but with Humidex to 45C.

We've got "Jungle Weather", according to the eggspurts:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2007/07/30/heat-continues.html

My canopy keeps me about 10F cooler, and there's a nice breeze, but if I step into the sunlight, holy smokes! It gets cooler on Wednesday, so I should get the primer on and away we go.

 

Today we're 108*(42*c) with 5% humidity. The heat index is 100*.

This is a lot better than the 45*c heat index that you've had. We can actually stand in the sun and not get wet!

 

Well, it was hot, but the wind came in like a Carribean seabreeze! Really nice, humid but nice.

 

Update #7

I edited #6 to let everyone know that I finally started the valve stem seal replacement.

Everything was going well until I tried to do cylinder #3. The exhaust valve pushrod was in the way so I just pulled it out. Bad, very bad. I should have been more careful. It lifted the lifter out of it's bore and now it's laying on it's side in a void above the camshaft.:banghead3:

I'll fiddle with it with a magnet to see if I can coax it back where it belongs. If not it's off with the head.

I also noticed a remanufacture tag on the block. TAM Engineering Corp. Tacoma, Washington and a serial number. I was able to find out that they are a Ford licensed remanufacturer of Ford engines. I have a phone number but they don't seem to have a web site. I was hoping to find out when the engine was sold so that I can estimate the milage. I see no wear at all on anything I look at. I know from the receipts I got when I bought the car that it had 99,000 miles in 1999. Interesting eh!

 

Ouch! If nothing fell in, you should be able to get the parts installed, no? It sounds like the car must have need a warranty job if a Licensed Reman was used. Sounds like you lucked out on that score.

I think there are suction pumps (fish tank or turkey baster?) that you could use to get the parts back down there. We use to use a special lifter tool to drop them into the racing hemi.

I always hated those generic valve spring compressors - they never come job-ready!

My bumpers will be done today, though.

 

It's just a thing. I really didn't want to pull the head but.....

That valve spring compressor was obviously made to compress dual springs. Minor adjustment with the dremel cut off wheel.

 

We're lucky you know. I subscribe to a newsletter about Canada's child-care system. I don't have any kids. But kids need their parents to learn from, and thanks to our busy lives, parents have little time to pass on their innate solution-skills. We grew up in a time when we made our own toys, and today, we have no fear that we can restore toys we didn't even build!

It's tough watching kids in my neighborhood walking aimlessly, joining gangs, setting fires, etc, instead of building go-karts or tree-houses or fixing the old man's old watches, and here I am, in my backyard, taking a car apart, all 10,000 nuts and bolts and washers and giggling pins, having a ball!

Here, busy parents want some third-party to raise their kids and Mama Government to pay for it or give them a tax-credit. The rub is, these centres are getting paid to promote some agency's charity or new clothes or toys, along with the hefty fees. Make us good consumers, and poor inventors, poor problem solvers.

We are lucky to know we can do for ourselves.

 

I know what you mean. My kids had a stay at home mom. We made it on my military income because we had to. It was her choice but in the end I'm glad she made that choice.

Everything seems to be throw away today. Marriage, kids, homes. Nothing seems to be worth the effort to preserve. I tried to get my son and daughter to learn more about cars but they didn't. They did learn self sufficiency. I'm proud of that.

 

Here! Here!

I served in our Forces too, but I was single then. My dad was my best friend. We ran businesses and race cars together. We graduated from Engineering and Business School together and we only got drunk once, when he had a bachelor party with our classmates. About the only thing we didn't do together was chase women. I guess he figured I could work that out for myself!

He passed on a few years ago, but he still rates as my best friend.

When I was about 9 or 10, he used to invite me (we were 5 kids, but I was the oldest) into his den to listen to the radio versions of Superman and The Shadow, and then we'd chat like old chums about Space travel, time travel, exploring. He was always a kid-at-heart, 6 foot, 250 lb. monster to anyone else, but my best bud!

No Fear, here! There's always a way through.

 

Update #8

This deserves it's own update. I was able to wiggle and prod that lifter back in to place with a good magnet and some patience. 20 minutes of persistance saved pulling off the cylinder head.

 

It took me a while so here are the pictures:

http://img514.imageshack.us/slideshow/player.php?id=img514/3848/1186583884ng7.smil

I don't know where those geese came from Ha Ha.

 

It works for me. I can't see photobucket so I miss out on a lot.

Starting the work:

Engine bay:

Dash dropped and A/C unit removed:

A/C unit out:

A/C unit:

Forward side of A/C unit:

Dash and A/C unit back in:

Interior work starts:



Floors after 25 years:

Parts storage:


The back end:


My Canadian Friends:

 

Nice Stainless Steel Bumpers...

I guess I'd need an entire front clip and the rear bumper.

Well done!