Biohazard

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And on that note...for anyone reading this thread...I am on the hunt for some decent '69 grille assemblies. :D Decently priced, that is. If you plan to retire from the proceeds...........
 
I had planned, last weekend, to pull and clean the motor this weekend. So, bright and early Saturday AM I got out and removed the few things that were left connecting the motor to the rest of the fish. Of course, as soon as I roll the hoist into place, it starts raining.

I roll the hoist back into the garage, throw some plastic over the engine, and check the radar app on my phone. Looks like it's gonna pass soon and it does. I put the hoist back in place, start pulling the nuts off the mounts, get the engine up off the K....hmm, still something holding the motor to the tranny. I get under the car to inspect and...here comes the rain again.

This goes on several times throughout the day. Problem is, it ain't my lift so I'm trying to keep it from rusting from the rain. But, even though it took me all day (some of the rainshowers lasted over an hour) I finally got this...

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So I have one filthy 318 here. The heaviest caked-on gunk is at the back of the block behind the distributor....and it is THICK!!

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It's also pretty nasty up in the armpits under the exhaust manifolds. My daily's chillin' in the background.

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All of the accessories were also caked up with shizzle to include the pulleys. Honestly, the crud was so thick, so fully distributed, and so stubborn that I truly believe this HAS to be the original mill and has NEVER been pulled before.

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Now, keep in mind that the car still gives off a little stinkiness from the front which leads me to assume that the stuff under the hood is still contaminated so, before I can shelter the motor in the garage, its got to be clean. Unfortunately, due to the weather, I was unable to start any form of cleaning so I wrapped the motor up in plastic and dragged it inside for the night.

This morning (Sunday) I got a bottle of environmentally friendly degreaser, some cheap scrub brushes, and rolled out the pressure washer for phase one of the engine cleaning. Eight hours later....

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Cleaning the accessories was a serious bytch...it took more time than scrubbing the block...but I sprayed, scrubbed, and rinsed every centimeter of surface area. Tonight, it is dangling in the garage without the plastic cocoon and with a dehumidifier running. My hands and feet are woefully pruned up and I expect to be sleeping like a kitten tonight.
 
Scrubbing away at the crud on the lower right side of the block like an archaeologist brushing sand away from some hyroglyphs, I started seeing some familiar numbers and letters. A VIN! And not just any VIN but the same VIN as stamped on the dash.

Yes! As suspected. It's the original motor!
 
Got another bottle of the biodegradeable degreaser (Perfect Solution) and, today, I got into the engine compartment to do a little cleaning.

>Washed the 3 firewalls with a scrubby and that Sani-Scrub. It was nice to be able to get at areas of the engine comparment I was previously unable to reach.

>Sprayed some degreaser on and scrubbed the steering box but didn't finish.

>Degreased and scrubbed suspension components such as the K frame, torsion bars, steering linkage, and the front sway bar. Didn't finish here, either..just a preliminary scrub.

>Sprayed a good amount of the degreaser atop the tranny and around the shift linkage points. Did a lot of scrubbing here to get the crud off the trans housing. Got most of it down to aluminum but there's still no shortage of brown gooey boogers melted all over the casing.

>I got the underside of the tunnel pretty clean going back to the pinch. I think cleaning much farther back is going to require removing the trans brace and allowing it to drop so I can get back there better.

>Scrubbed what I would call the 'inside' of the car's chin. Plenty of gunk had collected here but this panel cleaned up alot easier than areas further aft.

Generally, its now alot easier for me to maneuver around inside the engine bay without having every part of me smeared in paleolithic petroleum products AND the car's odor output seems to have gone down...at least it seemed so this evening.

No pics for this post. I'll snap some tomorrow or maybe just when I get the transmission to where its satisfactory.
 
This weekend was two days of cleaning. Got the lion's share of the greasy gunk off Saturday and a bit more on Sunday along with just a good soap-n'-sponge on all surfaces under the hood. I even washed the wires and wire bundles...very detailed.

Ordered some more Marine Clean from POR-15 along with their Prep spray, a complete gasket kit so that I would have whatever pieces I need no matter what I decided to replace, and I'm fixin' to order up some...
...Universal Red from Eastwood for the engine.

...because the motor is originally Chrysler Red, I wanted to stay with "red" but the factory shade is kinda fugly and too close to the car's Scorch Red. I thought I could keep it looking semi-correct but still stand out a bit more. Anyways, it briefs well.
 
Did you leave the tranny in?

Makes it a lot harder if you did and opens the chance of breaking the front pump gears or at a minimum it tends to crook the front pump bushing and will lead to instant trans fluid leakage and bushing failure when you put it back together.

I always remove the flex plate bolts and leave the convertor in the tranny or pull the engine and trans together.

Looks like some of your freeze plugs are leaking and now is a good time to replace them.

Good luck and Keep plugging at it.
 
Thanks for the advice! I was thinking of dropping the tranny and taking it to a shop for a freshening up...new seals, gaskets, etc. And, I will research doing the freeze plugs.
 
So...some of the fittings and details under the bonnet look a little crunky. For example:

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So I went at some of the stuff with steel wool in just a few places to see how they will eventually clean up. Its gonna be tedious, but the potential is there...

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The heads are another story. Look at some o'these valves...

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And I finally have some pics of the engineroom sans engine. These were taken after the Saturday and Sunday scrub-downs and after today's rinse-down with ammonia.

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What the photos do not, and could never, convey is how fresh it smells around her now and how elated I am that the cleanup is actually working!
 
There'll be new valves and seals going in. Too lazy to clean the originals.
 
Removed the tranny today. It started raining so the trans is still under the car but no longer connected. Once I finish draining the fluid out, I'll haul it somewhere for servicing...new seals and whatever. I'm not real smart on transmissions so I'm not messing with it myself.

The support brace was caked with crunk on the upper side and the rear transmission mount is crumbling. Time for more online shopping.
 
Got the trans out of the car and into my pickup bed for transport to the trans shop.
Went at the underside in the vicinity of the tunnel with my last jug and a half of ammonia. It was hot as blazes all weekend but didn't rain so I left the car uncovered for several hours (hood is off) and let the sun do a little of it's magic on the resident organisms.

CAR SMELLS GREAT!! That's the bottom line for this weekend's work.

I'll have pics up this evening..mostly of the tranny.
 
Aww, shucks. No photos of the transmission. I got out of work early today so, rather than taking it to the shop in the morning, I got it to them before they closed today.

Work at the shop should be naught more than opening her up and reassembling with all new soft bits...seals, gaskets, bands, etc. Of course, if anything is found to be 'near-death', instructions are to replace that part. I expect back a fully functional, leak-free, and clean transmission. (I had gotten it mostly clean but the guys are going to steam-clean it proper)
 
Well no surprise, really.

Transmission is pretty much done. The tech said all was good mechanically minus the clutches. They were beginning to "crumble"...lol. All of the seals were dried out and the oil pan was poorly sealed. Whoever sealed up the pan must've been in there doing the bands because they looked like they had recently been replaced. Thumbs up for a legit transmission tech.


Anyone still reading this?
 
Transmission is pretty much done. The tech said all was good mechanically minus the clutches. They were beginning to "crumble"...lol. All of the seals were dried out and the oil pan was poorly sealed. Whoever sealed up the pan must've been in there doing the bands because they looked like they had recently been replaced. Thumbs up for a legit transmission tech.
When you go to reassemble engine to trans, take the convertor off the engine flex plate and install it on trans shaft. Before you remove convertor though, mark one flex plate bolt lug to matching nut area on convertor since the bolt pattern is odd spacing. Be sure the convertor is turned and lightly pushed until it seats all way onto shaft. Face of convertor should be about 1/2 inch in from face of bellhousing. Since everything is out probably simpler to install engine & trans as unit.
 
Will do this ^ Taking the convertor to the trans shop for this very reason - he's going to set the convertor on the tranny for me, then we'll secure it for transport. Marking the convertor position on the flex plate...wouldn't have thought to do that. Thanks!
 
Will do this ^ Taking the convertor to the trans shop for this very reason - he's going to set the convertor on the tranny for me, then we'll secure it for transport. Marking the convertor position on the flex plate...wouldn't have thought to do that. Thanks!

That is good advice. I always mark mine with a 1,2,3,and 4 just so I know how far off I am and spin it around. 1 will work, but for some reason I inevitably spin the crank for some reason or another and then have to turn the crank to find that 1 I put on there. ](*,)
 
Nah...thorough rinse every time. It was actually showing dramatic improvement when I posted that.

Presently: Being certain that victory was close at hand, I pulled the cover off completely and re-treated the entire car with ammonia one more time to ensure that any cross-contamination from dirty parts to clean parts was kicked square in the junk. Chassis, cabin, and engine bay...the whole thing...all at once. I do believe the mold fight is over and that I can, now, get to painting and reassembling stuff.

pending a sniff-check, of course.
 
Tip o'the hat to Mike at Transmatic.

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As suspected, the seals were dried out so they all got replaced. The friction material on the clutches was starting to flake off, too, so they also got replaced.

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Mike put in a different valve body (or re-adjusted mine, not sure) for a more brisk 1-2 shift. Even got a new O-ring for the dipstick tube. Excitement, yo.

The rest of the month is gonna have to be elbow grease: I'm spent-out for August. Really too bad because I desperately wanted to order new insulation for the firewall and begin reassembling under the dash. Not to worry on it, though...I have plenty of work to do just cleaning the HVAC unit.
 
Just found your thread and read it all. You are very detailed in cleaning, and for good reason, "WIFE's Nose".
Good luck with the rest of detailing and reassembling.
 
Great project !

A few notes. The really picky resto guys are using tubes of roofing tar for seem sealer on the floors. Glop it on and spread it with a 1.5" wide putty knife. It looks just factory.

If you still have issues with the smell you can buy an ozone generator off of ebay for a few hundred. When you get the interior back together, close all the windows and let the ozone machine run.
 
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