Glamour Shots.. '62 Valiant Wagon
5/6/24:
Over the weekend I got to doing a bit more work and sorting things on the Valiant wagon.
After running the engine for maybe ~4 minutes I was concerned that I was not seeing oil at the top of the engine...
I feared the worst!
* A mis-installed rearmost cam bearing?
* A head gasket with a missing block-to-head oil transfer passage?
* Something else dumb that I did not catch?
Let's spin the roulette wheel of Slant 6 maladies...
I went to the garage Sunday fully expecting to be pissed off when I found the cause of my dumbassery.
In preparation, I went to the hardware store and bought an 18" long 1/4" drill bit to poke around and clear obstructions etc. in the block to head oil passage. I removed the heater box from the firewall for proper head bolt and valve cover access.
I have learned on a new engine install such as this, to not hook up the heater lines so that when valve cover removal is needed for the break-in and initial lashings that I do not need to drain the core and make a coolant/water mess everywhere.
When I got the heater box off, I started the engine up - There was oil up there at the top, but it was spurting out the rearmost rocker shaft stud.. creating a pretty substantial rocker shaft leak so that the oil could not get to the rocker arms up past cylinder #5.
Pheww! I was relieved. I corrected my dumbassery this time with minimal amounts of depression or self-loathing. A quick tightening up of that rearmost rocker shaft bolt and bam - Oil pressure to all rockers!
I let the engine run and warm up, then set the hot lash.
So Timing, Idle, and Lash are all set. The next tuning task will be to get the O2 gauge on there and start tuning the PV and Jets on the little Holley 4 barrel - Or possibly trade it for an Edelbrock AFB 500.
Once I got the rocker cover screwed back on, then I set up the shop for a rough drivable alignment.
I was able to get -0.75°Camber on the right, which is what I wanted, but I struggled to get any negative Camber on the left side. Maybe -0.125° was all I could get.
Caster was set at +4.5° for both sides.
Toe at -1/16" toe in.
We shall see if the steering wheel is anywhere near straight.
it seems that I will have to install some Moog "Problem Solver" Upper Control Arm Bushings on the left side only. I had to do this same thing on my '69 Dart to get the camber in the negative range where I wanted it with stock-stamped arms and small upper ball joints. The right side seems to fall in place with no offset bushings. I am not sure if that is a coincidence or a trend? I do not have enough A Body data to compare it to as My Road Race '64 Dart has adjustable upper control arms.
Next, fix the rear exhaust, cut and re-angle the end of the tailpipe, and possibly add a rear tailspout.
I have a few more "leakers" on the manifold studs that need to be removed and wrapped excessively with Teflon thread sealer. They might eventually "rust seal themselves together too, but when there is pressure that builds in the cooling system, there are some weepers and leakers that drip onto the block.
5/6/24:
Over the weekend I got to doing a bit more work and sorting things on the Valiant wagon.
After running the engine for maybe ~4 minutes I was concerned that I was not seeing oil at the top of the engine...
I feared the worst!
* A mis-installed rearmost cam bearing?
* A head gasket with a missing block-to-head oil transfer passage?
* Something else dumb that I did not catch?
Let's spin the roulette wheel of Slant 6 maladies...
I went to the garage Sunday fully expecting to be pissed off when I found the cause of my dumbassery.
In preparation, I went to the hardware store and bought an 18" long 1/4" drill bit to poke around and clear obstructions etc. in the block to head oil passage. I removed the heater box from the firewall for proper head bolt and valve cover access.
I have learned on a new engine install such as this, to not hook up the heater lines so that when valve cover removal is needed for the break-in and initial lashings that I do not need to drain the core and make a coolant/water mess everywhere.
When I got the heater box off, I started the engine up - There was oil up there at the top, but it was spurting out the rearmost rocker shaft stud.. creating a pretty substantial rocker shaft leak so that the oil could not get to the rocker arms up past cylinder #5.
Pheww! I was relieved. I corrected my dumbassery this time with minimal amounts of depression or self-loathing. A quick tightening up of that rearmost rocker shaft bolt and bam - Oil pressure to all rockers!
I let the engine run and warm up, then set the hot lash.
So Timing, Idle, and Lash are all set. The next tuning task will be to get the O2 gauge on there and start tuning the PV and Jets on the little Holley 4 barrel - Or possibly trade it for an Edelbrock AFB 500.
Once I got the rocker cover screwed back on, then I set up the shop for a rough drivable alignment.
I was able to get -0.75°Camber on the right, which is what I wanted, but I struggled to get any negative Camber on the left side. Maybe -0.125° was all I could get.
Caster was set at +4.5° for both sides.
Toe at -1/16" toe in.
We shall see if the steering wheel is anywhere near straight.
it seems that I will have to install some Moog "Problem Solver" Upper Control Arm Bushings on the left side only. I had to do this same thing on my '69 Dart to get the camber in the negative range where I wanted it with stock-stamped arms and small upper ball joints. The right side seems to fall in place with no offset bushings. I am not sure if that is a coincidence or a trend? I do not have enough A Body data to compare it to as My Road Race '64 Dart has adjustable upper control arms.
Next, fix the rear exhaust, cut and re-angle the end of the tailpipe, and possibly add a rear tailspout.
I have a few more "leakers" on the manifold studs that need to be removed and wrapped excessively with Teflon thread sealer. They might eventually "rust seal themselves together too, but when there is pressure that builds in the cooling system, there are some weepers and leakers that drip onto the block.
