Re: Restoring Rusty
 

this was the least favorite part of the evening, wire wheelin the pourus intake manifold, but we got her shinin' and cleared it for good measure, maybe the shine will hold

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then it was time for the Main Event

here's how to paint an engine block the hard way, LOL

I swear I spent more time masking this thing than actually shootin it, when its all masked you realize there aint that much to paint after all

used high temp primer on this bad boy first, then the paint went on

that last pic of the can of primer refuses to get posted vertically, sorry fellas

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so first the primer, this is the primer for things like the headers, the guy at O'Reillys ordered the wrong one from another store for me, the one I wanted is for painting engines, but oh well this one withstands more heat, if it was the other way around I would not have used the engine primer on the headers, confused yet, good

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and the first coat of paint goes on the engine block

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and here it is the finished product, after two light coats and one medium coat as per the instructions

it has been a long time coming fellas, but I love how it turned out, I know it looks like bare metal, but I like that look, no orange, or blue engines for The Greg that's for sure

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well while we are still beating the break-in oil horse to death, I wanted to share that Summit still sells what I was hoping to find at the local parts houses, an old school 30 weight break-in motor oil, now I aint gonna order my oil, I am just gonna git some cheap 10W-30 and dump some Zinc additive to it, and call it good, it aint needed for more than about a 100 miles anyway

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100 miles?! The break oil is only required for the first 25 minute run @ 2,000rpm. Once you have done that you drop the oil and replace it with fresh oil.

Once you have fresh oil then you drive the truck like you stole it for 500 miles then drop the oil again and put fresh oil in and then stick to regular intervals.

You need to change the oil immediately after the break in to remove all the small pieces of metal that may come off from all the new parts or you can risk damage internally.

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Just like every paint job ever just last weekend I was working on a 65 chevelle I spent more time masking off the rear quarters and roof/inner doors and engine bay than I did shooting the rest of the car. That's something we always joke about in the shop how the painter gets payed the most to do the shortest job. Really though as you've learned the final result isn't in the skill of the painter as much as it is in the skill of the prep

Keep going Greg the end is in sight! :metal:

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This is why I said "don't look at it." The sparkling metalflake glimmer in the oil will make you think you just ruined your motor. Don't look at it. If the NEXT oil change looks like that, you have problems. But the first one - don't look.

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I'm curious since he didn't replace the bearings will he have as much metal flake in his oil from just the cam swap. I have no idea I'm just curious. Whenever we broke in a new cam we used cheap oil with GM additive(straight six for racing) and run it at 2500rpm for twenty minutes or so. Changed the oil. Went to VR oil and Lucas oil additive and never seemed to have a problem. Though this was on a racing engine.

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flakes will come from lots of areas... cam, timing chain, lifters, push rods etc.

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so I stopped by Pep Boys on the way home from work today and decided to pick up two of these valve cover breathers, I have some but they are chrome and I prefer the black ones, I was so tickled as they rode shot gun with me on the way home

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when I got home I was quickly reminded why I didn't buy the black ones in the first place, they don't fit in my valve covers, they is too big!

so on to Plan B, here's how you paint over Chrome, you don't you wire wheel it off, I tell you I never thought I would be thankful for poor chrome plating, but I was, and soon we were down to the nickel

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a quick spritz of primer and tomorrow we'll be ready to make them black

What do you mean you never night painted? It's great, everything you shoot, turns out great, well until daylight, ha ha

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my buddy Pontiac Mike loaned me these valve stem sleeves to protect the rubber seals while I slide them on, but these sleeves proved to be a bigger pain in the butt to remove (with oily paws) after the seals were installed than installing the seals without em, LOL

I just used a deep socket to press the seals into place

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make sure to put a small dab of Assembly lube on the tops of the valves for the rockers before you cinch that all up and make sure to use assembly lube on the bottoms of the lifters too.

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Nice Greg that is for sure a tedious job and I agree it is about a fun level 5

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Looks good ,and our good Pep Boys store one county below us closed and a new one opened nearby here that only does oil changes ,that sucks as they used to carry things our regular parts stores dont .
Keep at it and we will keep watching .

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Take your oil can and hit the inside of that guide with oil. Then take your hand and cup it and put oil in it, use that to oil the stem of the valve. Put the valve in and spin it as it goes in. I can not stress how important this is. The valves see most of the heat and will stick very easy. Trust me on this Greg they need to well lubricated and the start of the engine.

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got the tops of valves under the rocker arms part, but wouldn't the bottoms of the lifters get their lube from the lubbed up cam? just askin'

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I did put oil on the stem of the valves using a paint brush dipped in oil before sliding them into the guides, question

interesting, the thing is won't all that oil just run down in the time it takes me to clean up and paint the frame rails and motor mounts etc. I am thinking a month of sitting on the engine stand looking pretty

when its time to break her in, we plan on filling the engine with break-in oil from both valve covers, essentially take the covers off and poor the oil all over the valve train and watch it drizzle down in each glorious Vortec head, then we'll do the electric drill on the oil pump shaft trick while rotating the pistons 1/4 turn a couple times around as all the valves open and close, than a quick prayer and BAZINGA!

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While you would think it would, oil does not dissolve. They will stay libricated enough till you start. The idea is you want no dry area in that guide. Start up is the most crucial time for them.

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Copy that, thank you so much for looking out

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You will want to put assembly lube on the cam lobes AND the lifters as well.

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Can't have too much on that contact point.

The oil film on the valve stems should hang around for quite a while. If you're worried flip the head on its' top and squirt some motor oil on the stem where it comes out of the guide in the ports the night before you bolt em on.

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ASSEMBLY LUBE EVERYWHERE!

And then when your done.. prime that engine! Your not hurting a thing. Better to over lube than under lube.

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Great news ,now you can spend that on something else .

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Indeed. :metal:

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late night in the garage tonight, put in 5 solid hours

first painted the valve cover breathers black - and I'm happy with the results

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more importantly assembled the second Vortec cylinder head, the passenger side - I think these heads turned out great

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did some mundane cleaning, like this gross fule pump plate, and learned my fuel pump actually does need two gaskets, there's the 2 bolt hole fuel pump to spacer/plate and another four bolt hole one between this plate and the block, who knew

I'm showing you this kinda stuff, cause it's not all Groupies and Booze

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and started getting the workbench ready for re assembly this Saturday, finally!!!

Center stage we have the holy grail, No it's not a poster of Pamela Lee, goodness gracious Earl - focus! ha ha its the Camshaft, the heart of the beast, we have not even broken the seal yet as we do not want to unleash the dragon just yet

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I is tired so here are some random pics - push rods and lifters soaking in the Special Sauce!

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spent about 45 minutes per side chasing the threads in the 17 head bolts per side

since I didn't trust my cheapie tap or chaser what ever it is called, heck there may be even a difference, I just decided to clean an old bolt or two very well with a wire wheel and using mineral spirits so that I wouldn't go in dry I cleaned up all the holes until I could screw in a bolt by hand and unscrew it by hand

clean threads are important because these bad boys will be torques down to spec and we don't want the heads a warpin'

Fun level - 5.8

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Plug it

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This beats the hell out of basketball.