Re: Restoring Rusty
 

time to go to our Thinking Chair

(some of you with no kids may not get this)

Re: Restoring Rusty - Cylinder Head Pressure Test
 

so went and visited Nichols and Sons Machine Shop in Sacramento and the only person nicer than the guy I talked to was his dan Glenn and the only nicer person than him was his dad, Mr. Nichols I presume, these guys are wonderful

so got some quotes

$20 bucks to magnaflux cylinder heads (brought in assembled minus the rockers)

$80 bucks to pressure test them (this does not include the magnaflux and if they decide to pressure test them they do not magnaflux them)

I assume that's per set, and not per head

but that got me to a thinking, what will the Greg a learn if he just drops off the heads and the Nichols tell him they is cracked or leaking... nothing

but if he do it himself, he will be that much smarter

so far our materials are:

$10 bucks for the steel plate

$10 bucks for three pieces of 1/4 inch thick 3 inches wide by 20 inches long black rubber in the pic on the far left (safety first) ha ha

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

alright so first we gotta make some metal shavings

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

man that plate looks nice, I would totally tap that

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

so let's try it on for size

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

now lets add some rubber to this metal sandwich, I give you the Greg-Pro custom gasket

we start off by making rubber and wood shavings this time

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

and here is one metal plate and rubber gasket done, that's as far as I got tonight, tomorrow I hope to make the opposite plate and block off the water cross over ports on the intake manifold side

the plan is to put some fitting in the water temp sending unit hole and pump it up with air through that, stay tuned

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

and so we pressed on and worked on the intake manifold side block off plates

still don't know how to transfer holes to plates so I just use cardboard, I'm sure there is some pokey thing you screw in the threads and tap with a hammer to leave an indentation I imagine, maybe some fabricators/machinists can advise

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

I made the rubber pieces next for the intake block off plates

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

and so I made the matching other side, I labeled them L and R just in case there was the highly unlikely chance that my custom CNC machine was a gnats hair off and they end up side spcific - hee hee

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

then it was time to rip one of them long pieces for the other long 20" bracket

needless to say that consumed an entire 4" cut off wheel

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Gregski....digging your progress and long hours......in one of you photos I spotted your (what appears to be) OEM AM/FM radidio and said to myself....."self, ya won't know 'til you ask". Here it is, wood you wanna sell it? I'd love to have it for my 77 shorty.....thanks and keep up the great work. Its a fun read.
Mark, Portland, OR

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

oops.....almost duplicated...had to edit.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

finished up the pressure tester plates today

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

and that's the bottom plate or the skinny plate or the outside of the head plate what ever we want to call it

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

so that leaves us with the pesky little side holes

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

we need narrow metal strips to weld in here to keep these at bay

we even bevel the edges to give the weld bead a valley or a groove to fill

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Just throwing this out there but, could the 1.5 quarts you added be because some air worked it's way through the system and finally made it to the radiator? Then the 1/2 quart you added was just from the difference between a hot engine vs cold?


When you remove the heads this most recent time did you see any cylinder that was clean from ingesting water/coolant?

Did the engine over heat at all in those 200 miles? What was the operating temp?

I'm starting to wonder if you just like torturing yourself.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

we had the gas on for the other side, nothing to write home about but these beads are much better, hey The Greg is learning ok - it takes practice you know

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

you know what they say: "Never time to do it right, but always time to do it over!"

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

ok plates all done

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

You should add that to your signature lol.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Prior to taking the heads of this time to do the rings I have been adding water to the radiator on a regular basis, like top it off then dive 90 miles to go camping, then top it off to drive home a few days later after the truck has been sitting in a forest for example.

Cylinders #3 and #5 looked cleaner than the others, but I dismissed it as something to do with the bad/broken oil rings - see pics below

No, runs at a steady 190° F

Ha ha, stop. I am troubleshooting / fixing an old 42 year old truck, this comes with the territory

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

got lucky with a pipe threaded adapter and a 3/8th barb 90° fitting, this will serve as the air inlet

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

What pressure do you plan to pump them up to?
What do you plan to put under the plate to seal the head deck?

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

I don't own an air compressor so a bicycle pump was the next best thing

pumped it up to 40 PSI

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

black 1/4 inch thick rubber, see pics above

radiator caps are rated around 15 PSI so at least that maybe more, what ever my system will hold without blowing the hose off, ha ha

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Mix a small bottle of soapy water use it on all connections and leak paths. Check the whole thing so that way if its leaking through a seal you can explain why the gauge going down.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

then it was time to submerge the head in some water

I may do a hot water test as well by dumping in some boiling hot water, but if the heads leak in cold water then there will be no need to go to that extreme

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

so how is it? does it work?

Yes the system works great?

here you can see bubbles coming only from the inlet coupling, I did not put any white tape on the threads and need to tighten it some more, but it's a great example of what the leaks would look like

posted a video here: Small Block Chevy Cylinder Test DYI Poor Mans Water Pressure Test

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Did you ever figure out the coolant in this pic? Looks almost like a crack but I'm just speculating.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/a...1&d=1475354097

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

ha ha, not for long I got tired of the red gauge display making me think I am in the red sort of speak so I yanked it and sent it back to Summit for an exchange, I did buy a green one originally after all so I expect an exchange for a green one - is that too much to ask? ha ha

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Good morning everyone, just wanted to report that after 500 miles on the new rings and con rod bearings we are still shrapnel free, hee hee

also remember after 200 miles on the new rings I drained the break in oil to replace the rod bearings cause of a slight rattlin noise

so far no noises...

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

So far so good. Maybe you got away with it.

Looks like a late 1976-78 speedometer.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

The Man knows his clocks, ha ha!

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

so yanked the radiator to isolate it and pressure test it off the truck, I knew I had a pin hole leak by the inlet but I was wondering if there are other leaks as well, nope

picked up these 1 1/2" expansion plugs at NAPA they seem to do the job well

looks like the radiator cap lets go at 10 PSI, oh well that's good enuff I think

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

using some high tech equipment here folks, let me tell you that

rocket science this is not, don't be skierd, the overflow nipple worked well to hook up the bicycle pump and fill it with air

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

well with no glaring problems with the radiator we moved those expansion plugs over to the inlet and outlet rubber radiator hoses leading to and from the engine and plugged them up

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

just like we did with our test cylinder head, we are going in through the water temp sending unit hole to put air in the engine

we were gentle as to not blow up the water pump seals, so just to 10 PSI

I removed the valve covers so that I could see some bubbles if any or hear some hissing, but no, none of that

I also removed the spark plugs to see if I can hear anything in there, nothing, by the way all plugs look the same, so #5 is purdie now

I left the engine pressurised at 10 PSI while I write this up, we'll see if it drops or stays level