|
Post by blusmbl on Feb 26, 2012 22:17:38 GMT -5
Well, this will be the start of a long and picture filled thread, once I figure out how to do it correctly. This is the car I bought, some will remember when it was listed and say" Oh yeah I wondered what happened to that one". www.bluesbrotherscentral.com/forum/topic/6050-sold-usa-1974-monaco-bluesmobile-tennessee It fit what I was looking for, it was a 74 sedan, it had tan interior and was close enough to haul it back on a dolly in the same day. The guy in the red hat is who I bought the car from, it was only a few miles from Graceland. I rented a dolly from U-Haul in Memphis, the online reservation would not allow our truck and car combo so I kept changing the car until it was approved, so the car you see on the dolly is not a Dodge Monaco but a 1966 Plymouth Valiant. The car just barely fit on this, the tires don't go in the wheel pockets, they straddle them and the car just about clears the orange fenders. Fortunately the brackets for the fenders were broken in places and let the fenders flex past the car and moved a bit when turning. The journey wasn't bad coming home, but at some point we lost a rear window trim piece. We disconnected the driveshaft from the differential and tywrapped it out of the way before we set out. The car did not run so we had to push it up on the dolly with a Jeep and a tire set between them. During the trip home my friend that was driving got a call from his wife saying that people were calling and asking what we were going to do with the car and could they buy it, because his home number was on the back window for his wife's business. We thought that was pretty funny. Got it home late at night the same day, towed it to the car wash the next day and unloaded it at a storage yard. Due to our local rules I could not keep it in the driveway without it being insured and tagged and it would not fit in the back yard. I kept it a the storage facility for several months working on the motor......the story continues.
|
|
|
Post by spanks79 on Feb 26, 2012 22:44:00 GMT -5
Super cool.
I hope to have a picture like that this time next week.
How far did you tow it on the dolly?
|
|
|
Post by Mr Mercer on Feb 27, 2012 1:12:05 GMT -5
Yep , I remember it because of the 440 on the roof . Attachments:
|
|
|
Post by blusmbl on Feb 27, 2012 20:55:49 GMT -5
The car was towed 400 miles on the dolly, no issues although you have to plan your turns into gas stations and parking lots. It can't go much more than 45 degrees.
|
|
|
Post by blusmbl on Feb 27, 2012 21:34:07 GMT -5
I bought this car with the known engine issue which I was sure was a timing gear. The car had a 400 in it from the factory and it was the original engine. I thought I would clean it up, fix the timing chain and paint the engine and underhood area, install a dual snorkel 440 air cleaner and run with that. I bought a new battery and a timing chain, spark plugs and gasket set. A friend and I tried to start it and you could here the chain slipping as it cranked over. We got it to fire on one or two cylinders one time and gave up. Started gaining access to the chain by stripping off all the accessories. Took some close up shots of the 400 for reference. Once I gained access, the upper gear was absolutely shot. These gears are nylon coated aluminum cast gears made to reduce noise, as if you are going to here gear whine over the sound of the engine. Well after a while the nylon breaks down and winds up in the pan and the chain rides on the gear and wears it out. The problem this engine had was the timing gear but the PO thought he was having overheating issues. He was changing thermostats, hoses, water pump. It boiled over so many times he was just running water in the radiator, which caused problems I will learn of later. This gear and the problems it caused lead to the biggest amount of scope creep I have had on a project.
|
|
|
Post by blusmbl on Feb 28, 2012 21:02:43 GMT -5
With the cylinder heads on you really can't tell that the valves hit the pistons without boroscopeing it through the spark plug holes. In my case I was still cleaning this engine and blasting and painting the oil pan and valve covers. I changed out the motor and trans mounts for the poly ones from p.s.t. . I pulled out the spark plugs and #4 cyl plug had a rust spot on the ceramic, which gave me cause for concern. I had put the new timing chain kit on and was putting the engine back together and just before I installed the oil pan I looked up at the #4 piston and it had water droplets on the con rod and I thought, let's stop now and take the heads off and swap them out with rebuilt ones so that at least you know they will be good. I removed the intake, unbolted the valley pan and right then pronounced this engine a boat anchor! Since it was running on water in the cooling system you could see that the block had froze at one time as the lifter valley between #3 & #5 cylinders was bulged out at least an eighth of an inch and had that spider cracked stressed look to it, also it had rubber expanding freeze plugs in the side of the block. It showed no signs of leaking but it wasn't worth rebuilding. Taking the cylinder heads off, #4 cylinder was clearly blown as it was steam cleaned. This was actually good in a way because it forced me to put the 440 in it, which is what I really wanted to do in the first place. I bought the 440 from Advanced Auto and I told the manager that I was willing to pay the core charge because I didn't have a 440 core to trade in, he said bring me the 400 and I'll give you full credit(sweeet). I think I had three months to swap it until the deal was no longer valid, which of course I waited until the last week to trade in the 400. Here you can see #4 is burned, you can't quite make out the bulge in the lifter valley. Pay no attention to the sweaty man with engine lift! You can see the bulge between #3 & #5. Out she comes!
|
|
|
Post by blusmbl on Feb 28, 2012 21:37:13 GMT -5
Now begins the, you might as well as. Since the engine is out, you might as well as redo the engine bay, and if you're going to do that you should totally detail it and the new engine. If you do that under the hood you might as well as restore the rest of the car, but restore what you can't see to factory new and make the outside as close as movie used as you can. Let the out of control restoration spiral begin! The new 440, steel crank. Things that cross over: all the pulleys and accessories, oil pan and valve covers, engine mounts, exhaust manifolds. Things that don't : intake (not wide enough) distributor and hold down bracket (not long enough) harmonic balancer (400 cast crank is externally balanced) and torque converter also had an external balance weight on it so it had to be swapped with a new one that did not have a weight on it. The water pump that you see on it is an aluminum one from 440 Source, it looked nice bolted up well but did not work with the factory A/C compressor because the thermostat neck was not turned at an angle to clear the the compressor. I found this out later and ultimately sold the pump on Ebay. I had to get the original pump machined as the heater pipes were rusted and snapped off flush in the housing. Exhaust headers were powder coated cast iron grey at Performance Coatings Inc. The car was buttery yellow originally and everything was spray painted semi flat black. I was able to remove a lot of paint with a hose under the hood.
|
|
|
Post by Steam McQueen on Feb 29, 2012 12:34:23 GMT -5
Since it was running on water in the cooling system you could see that the block had froze at one time It froze? In Memphis?? Wow, I just checked a site that said the average temp. in Memphis in January is 31.3°F so yeah, holy crap I didn't know it went below freezing there. Actually now that I think of it I do recall a picture of Graceland covered in snow. A quick search and I believe this is the exact pic I saw ... - Ha, carry on then. Great pics and info in this thread, blusmbl.
|
|
|
Post by blusmbl on Feb 29, 2012 20:37:14 GMT -5
I was glad I didn't get rid of the factory water pump housing. The whole time I thought the brackets from the 400 were the problem and somehow I needed specific 440 brackets to make the compressor fit. I found a used 440 compressor in Florida with brackets and had it shipped in, disassembled it cleaned up the brackets and (bang) the compressor still hit the thermostat housing and would not bolt up. Then I dug out the old water pump housing and noticed that the neck bolts were turned at an angle, I removed the aluminum pump swapped them out and the compressor dropped right in. You can see here just how close they are, and with the housing bolts straight across how it would hit the side of the pump where the oil service port is. The fact that it could freeze in Memphis was news to me after I cracked that engine open. After that I would look at the temps when it gets cold around here and it does get below freezing there more than I had thought, I always assumed it was the South and was somewhat mild. Well now its time to work on the firewall. I D/A'd the inner fenders and firewall and blasted the frames and wire wheeled everything else. It took a while and I worked in sections cleaning and reprimeing areas as I went. I shot the firewall in black shopline 9000 GM civilian gloss black acrylic urethane which is just a generic gloss black. I did the fenderwells in Duplicolor DE1635 semi gloss black. I did sand out those small sags on the edges, I think I did them three times. The lower frame area was shot with Duplicolor DE1634 low gloss black. I cleaned up the wire harness and the plastic bottles with citrus safe orange paint stripper, it cleaned all the old paint and gunk off the wires quite well but didn't harm or melt anything. Rewrapped the harness and cleaned up and detailed the rest of the components and reinstalled.
|
|
|
Post by blusmbl on Feb 29, 2012 21:00:05 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by tk826 on Feb 29, 2012 22:34:07 GMT -5
I didn't notice him, but I did see a couple nice knuckle busters, in that photo... ouch. Sweet work all around. You've already answered several questions I had brewing for you. Here's one though: Just curious... Although those under-hood decals are a nice touch, is there a reason that you decided not to install the hood insulation? Is it just one of those "can live with it/ can live without it" situations? * Also, if you haven't done so already, please give some thought to joining us at this years CEVS/ Mt.Prospect show.
|
|
|
Post by spanks79 on Mar 1, 2012 7:55:22 GMT -5
Wow, great build! This is exactly the same type of restoration I have been dreaming about once I get a car.
I can't wait, hittin the road to pick it up tomorrow!
I see you got your engine from Advance Auto. That is a route I had not considered before. Is it a direct replacement stock reman unit or some sor of performance build? I took a quick look on the Advance web site and could not find any info. O'Reilly's has a listings for preformance build. I want a 440 but I know from experience that an engine has to be built as a "package" not just a pile of the "best" parts, I know about Small block chevys but it is like starting over with a RB mopar.
|
|
|
Post by blusmbl on Mar 1, 2012 20:47:16 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by blusmbl on Mar 1, 2012 21:05:53 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by legendaryacura8 on Mar 1, 2012 21:35:19 GMT -5
You said 1845 for the rebuilt motor. Is that including heads, intake manifold, water pump, etc? Or are we just talking rebuilt block with pistons crankshaft, camshaft, etc?
|
|