Lahti35

I spent 2 hours tonight installing the alternator and doing some tuning... I checked the timing and found it at 11 degrees AFTER tdc, I had dropped the timing back some during break in and went too far. Ran much better at 12 degrees BEFORE tdc, lol! No harm done it seems... I got the idle down to 800rpm in park, spec is 650 in drive so I left it a bit high to account for that. Vacuum is at 20 at idle, spec is 17 so nothing wrong with that. I'm still going to have to do some more tuning on the idle adjusters and fast idle cam but I'm going to wait until the exhaust is complete and my new spark plugs show up. I decided to switch to the old fashioned copper core autolites instead of the fancy ones in there now (which are most likely fouled some after running rich during break in for a time). It's tough to see the idle adjusters in poor lighting as they are buried under the float bowl so i'll wait for a bright afternoon. Then this happened... After getting it tuned-ish I stepped on the brake while running and selected each gear in turn to allow trans fluid to do it's thing and made sure it was responding. When first selecting a gear there was hesitation as the fluid went where it needed to go, response was instant selecting gears on the second go around so I put it in reverse and backed out of the garage. I have pushed this truck in and out of the garage countless times in the last 2 1/2 years so it was nice to just go for a ride. What goes out must go back in so... Once back in the shop I tested the charging system and it was working at 14.25V so another win for the day. I'm really looking forward to getting an exhaust on it and going around the block. I'd like to get a few miles on it before it snows to finish breaking in the engine and be ready for spring fun. Almost there!

I put it in there. It's something I bought NOS and had it on the shelf for years now. Seemed like a neat thing to try. The brass bung is two parts, there is an inner flange with a sealing ring and the outer nut. The sight glass screws into the brass part once it's installed. I sealed the glass with Rectorseal and let it setup for some time before filling. It was fun to try and get the inner part in place past the baffle in the top tank, tight fit!

I spent yesterday evening filling up the transmission and doing a few heat cycles on the engine while flushing the radiator to make sure the system was ready for coolant. No issues and no leaks. This old accessory radiator "window" shows you it's full. I did find that my vintage oil pressure gauge in the cab is lying to me. No way I've got 50psi at idle after it's hot. My other gauge said 20psi hot, I'll track down a new gauge for the cab. Hopefully I can get the exhaust done in the next week and move on to dialing in the engine idle speed, choke, and jets. I need to quiet this sucker down, no fun working on it with just headers... Man alive it's loud!

Working on some small stuff today... I tried to roll the engine over with the key last night but no go unless I pushed the gear selector up as far as it would go. Ah ha! The neutral safety switch needed to be adjusted so I did that this AM, rolls over no problem now. I found some extra thick washers for the power steering pump bracket bolts, they ran out of threads before they could contact the bracket and lock the PS pump in place for belt adjustment. A quick look at some Ford parts diagrams showed I was missing these, once installed the issue was solved. I also cut my return lines and connected one end until my Oetiker clamps get here... Charged the battery, hooked up some wiring and hooked up the trans cooler lines... I should say I tried to hook up the trans cooler lines, one fit perfectly but the other was way too short no matter what I tried. This sort of stuff cheeses me off but it's been so long since I bought the set of cooler lines I can't remember where I got them from so I'm on my own here. I did have some 5/16" line here so I unrolled some and set to work making a new line. I had to do some adjusting to clear the header but it turned out ok. Not perfect but pretty good, I can live with it.

I'd thought about that, I may attend with it if it behaves!

I had a 1960 93B Saab for a period of time, the older 2 stroke design. The block only had 7 moving parts supported on roller bearings and the radiator was behind the engine (as was the fan). Fun little car that scooted around pretty good... Parts availability was lousy though, really hard to find stuff and it required some specialized services to rebuild. The later ones like this with the Ford V4 engine would be easier to get parts for I would think.

I spent the bulk of this weekend doing all the little stuff you need to do once an engine is in place. I went through and hooked up vacuum hoses, linkages, heating/cooling hoses, speedo, battery cables, etc... I found my upper radiator hose was too short as I had cut it to fit the break in stand and the radiator was lower than in the actual truck... No great loss, it was one of those "cut to fit" generic things, the correct on is in the way. By the end of Saturday things looked like this... First thing Sunday I went to the hardware store to get some odd and ends that held me up somewhat the day before. Once equipped with my new supply of fasteners I was able to connect the drive shaft. Hooked up the skid plate bracket also. I added a big ground strap from the engine to the frame underneath, can't have enough grounds! Then I had some fun with the alternator brackets. Hindsight tells me they should be put on before the fan/pully because there is a distinct lack of space there when the pulley is installed. I fought with the lower bracket for 10 minutes before I go the upper bolt in as it's a really tight fit. Proud that I had avoided taking the fan off I moved to the upper adjusting bracket where I found there was no way to do it without taking the fan off... Rats! Loosening the fan to get 1/4" clearance did the trick and the bolt went in. Next I went to put the power steering bracket on and found it was being blocked by the oil pressure sender. I installed a T to run a oil pressure gauge in the cab that extended how far the sender stuck out, too far it turns out. A 90 degree fitting and a piece of pipe will get it out of the way, just need to get the pipe but I found a 90 today and installed that. With the bracket now fitting I was able to install the pump and the cooler. I still need to get some hose this week for the return line to finish the install but the pressure line is hooked up. The last pieces I need for the exhaust should be here tomorrow so I'll work on that in the evenings this week. I hope to have it installed by next weekend and fire it up again.

Now that the covid stuff is at a low ebb I'd like to go just over the Canadian border and buy some 30's Ford car parts. These are axles that are too big/heavy to ship so it's a pick it up thing. I've looked into the border websites and their list of rules/regs/forms, etc... Didn't find anything really helpful for antique parts. The parts are less than $200 from an individual, nothing expensive. Does anyone have some real life experience in this?

True dat! Feels great!

It's in the hole! Installation was pretty smooth, took 45 minutes with my neighbor helping out. He's a car guy working on his high school late 40's ford truck with a Ford FE engine in it also. The lift had to pull it pretty high up in the air to clear the core support, high enough to make me nervous. Coupled with the fact that it had to be tilted at a nearly 40 degree angle then leveled out to get it down into the transmission tunnel makes for a bit of fun. I did go get a steak dinner, I earned it!

I just did some maintenance on my blasting cabinet also. Seems like it's always one of those "when I have time" things, only in my case I didn't have time for 2 years... My rubber gloves started rotting and when I cleaned out the dust collector it was almost full to the top. So much for "do not fill above this line", lol! Always nice to have fresh media, I don't realize the diminished functionality until I dump new media in. Looking great, keep up the good work!

The last few nights I've been wrapping up stuff under the hood in preparation for the engine install. I replaced the rag joint Tuesday night, not a terrible job if the engine is out! Ford provides a nice wide crossmember to sit on and it's all right there in front of you. You do have to remove the column clamp, firewall bracket, loosen the column mount inside the cab, and slide it back 2" but nothing crazy. The new joints don't come with the horn jumper wire like the original so you have to make a jumper. I read too many posts on forums where people replace their joint and then the horn doesn't work and they can't figure out why. I even tested with the multi-meter to verify just to be sure I've got a good path to ground, no mistakes! I saved the old one for rebuild some day when I'm old🤪 I read it's a real bear to do. While I was in there I spent some time cleaning the lower frame area of grease, dirt, and oil. The brake equalizer/warning switch is down there and I may have to service it sooner than later so I wanted it clean. Some more general tidy up followed and I pronounced the engine compartment open for business. The engine goes in tonight after work. I also spent some time preparing my lift and reviewing some Ford diagrams to make sure the mounts go in the right way. I drained the oil from the engine and put a new filter on, oil looked ok with nothing beyond what one would expect for break in. Some vacuum hose and temp sender installation finished the night around 11. If this thing goes in there ok I'm going to buy a steak dinner for the wife and I, I didn't think this day would ever get here.

You can say that again!

It lives... Break in was a little hair raising... I forgot to pull the tag of the radiator so the fan attacked that, lol. I was so focused on setting the gas/battery/wiring up I neglected to remove it. I had to shut it down at 7 minutes as the heat kept climbing, I'm glad I installed the temp gauge. It got to 220 and I stopped it. It was a very slow increase but it just kept going up. I waited 20 minutes until it dropped to 160 and ran it another 6-7 minutes until it got hot again. I have a 190 thermostat it in. I ran two fans at the radiator, a Vornado that puts out a good stream and a box fan I had. The thermostat was defiantly opening as the radiator was hot. I assumed a hotter temp during break in but I did get nervous! Initially the lifters were noisy as I installed them dry and then needed to pump up, which they did after a few minutes. During the second stretch of run in I started getting some loud ticking and man I gotta tell you my heart just sank. I'd been reading all the flat tappet failure stories for the last two years and figured I was doomed. There was nothing left two do but finish breaking it in and go from there... After it cooled again I started it for the third and final time and noticed right away the loud ticking was gone. Hmmmmmm I got to thinking and did some exploring while it was running and it would come and go at different RPM's. Turned out to be exhaust leaks at the collectors ticking away, boy did they freak me out! The third leg of break in went 9 minutes and while the temp did creep up it was doing it much slower and topping out at 210. I think my fan setup was less than optimal, too high on the radiator and too far away. The wind was also pushing all the heat back into the garage, no help there. After break in was over I dropped it back to 800 rpm and it ran smoother than when it first started. Oil pressure was 20psi at idle, 50psi at 2300rpm which is more than acceptable. Timing was at 38 degrees at 2500rpm, just a hair under spec which is 27-38 at that rpm in the manual. The smoking cleared up 99% by the end of break in with only a small puff when blipping the throttle. I'll put some load on the rings when the truck starts driving to seat them the rest of the way. Throttle response is fantastic, and vacuum came in at 20 without fine tuning anything yet. Start after break in: The cam seems to have made it, the thing ran without self destructing, and it restarted after all was said and done. I win for today!

Some more gyrating in circles but almost there... I went to set the initial timing today and bring the engine to TDC on the compression stroke of No.1 cylinder when I found the crank would not turn without a lot of force. Way too much force in fact and when it did finally turn I could here metal on metal. It didn't take long to find the source of the issue. The starter housing was contacting the gear teeth on the flex plate so out came the grinder and in a few minutes I shaved it down to clear... No issues after the clearance was opened up and the starter reinstalled. I also had to find a way to run the fan/water pump from the crank without the alternator installed and use of it's pulley. The belt goes around the crank pulley, fan, and alternator normally. I was able to cut a belt and make it the exact size I needed for reference at the local hardware lawn mower repair counter today at lunch. I did find one that fit, clearance around the water pump is tight as no belt was ever supposed to run in that location but it will work. Interestingly enough when the guy at the parts counter asked what the belt was for and I told him he had just broke in a Ford 352 and had to come up with a similar solution! I also had an issue with my control panel on the break in stand. While doing checks with a multimeter I was not getting any voltage to the starter solenoid when I pressed the button. Turned out to be the button's fault as it has a weird contact inside that connects the two + terminals and two - terminals to themselves instead of - to +. Weird, but I got it fixed and now have power to the coil and starter solenoid both. Last thing I did tonight was set the initial timing to 12 degrees TDC and test oil flow of the pump. I was able to get a 1/4 long socket down into the oil pump drive base and onto the hex pump drive shaft. Combined with a socket speed handle rotating counterclockwise I was able to get oil up to the rocker arms and a reading of 40lb on the gauge. Good deal! Tomorrow I'll prime it again just before I set the distributor in for good measure. It's hard to see but that's oil dripping out the end of the rocker shaft...

I'd be interested to know as I have that exact transmission crossmember in my shop. I wish I knew what it was out of.

Great minds think alike! Those are plan C if the last plan fails. I'm defiantly going to use their collector gaskets, I'll see how things do during break in and go from there. I do enjoy the easy access having the engine on a break in stand affords me, issues like this are easy to address with it out in the open.

I've been watching the cured silicone evacuate itself from the mating surfaces at the header flanges for a day now... Tonight I checked the torque on the studs and 2/3 were loose, I'm not liking this system. I followed the directions and no dice. Last night I put a bead of the same silicone on a 1/4 steel bar to simulate the header flange using the same prep and cure time of 24 hours. I put it up against a larger piece of bar stock to simulate the head surface and put the whole thing in a vise and slowly applied pressure. It didn't take much force for the silicone to start migrating out of the sandwich and start splitting. I applied some more force and then took it out and opened it up to find the silicone had lost any adhesion to the pieces. Hmmmmmmmmmmm.... I decided to undo the headers and take a looksee at the state of the "gaskets" I had been instructed to make. Not a single one was intact, they all looked like pumpkin spice goose poo. Now I guess I get the idea here but how I was ever going to get to 15-20ft/lb of torque on the headers when the cured silicone started spitting out at less than 10ft/lb is a mystery to me. Since the headers are new and the exhaust side of my heads was shaved flat I just cleaned again, laid down a thin layer of the same silicon, and torqued the headers to 18ft/lb. We'll see what happens. Interestingly while doing research this evening it seems people do everything from installing them with wet silicone to 48hr cured silicone and have everything from success to failure at both ends of the spectrum. There doesn't seem to be much consensus, even among the header manufacturer that had at least two different methods depending on when you bought headers from them. I'm going to give it until Friday to cure, a full 48hrs+... Kinda a bummer that start up gets bumped back but that's China town Jack.

Great info, thanks! The instructions that came with my headers said to lay a bead on the raised header flange, let it cure overnight and then install and torque. This seems very odd to me and I'm noticing more of what looks like cured silicone squeezing out every day... I'm not feeling very comfortable with their instructions at this point. I would feel better about the way you did it which was my first thought when I learned silicone was used for the gasket. I ran a bead of the copper silicone on some metal to cure overnight and will try to squish it against some steel tonight in my vise. I want to see what happens when I take it back apart. If I have to redo it, no biggy as it's easy to get to right now.

Good to know, thanks! Did you let it dry first and then install? Did you have to retorque?

The end that meets with the head? That is silicone which is what the manufacturer recommends. I did however use high temp copper instead of the ultra black called for... I do have a concern as it looks like it's pushing out over time. I've got an experiment going now with some silicone to see if the ultra-black dries stiffer. The whole concept is strange to me... Apply silicone to header flange and let dry, then install and torque to 20ftlb.

Today I put the headers on for real and torqued them down. No typical gasket on these... the instructions called for putting a bead of silicone on the raised header flanges and allowing it to dry before install. Seemed a little weird to me but when in Rome... I wondered if the silicone would crack and squeeze out under torque but it didn't. I also hooked up my fuel priming system consisting of a squeeze bulb and some hose, very high tech stuff here! This will allow me to fill the carb without cranking the engine to do it. I want it to fire asap, not spend time filling the carb bowl. Since the cooling system was all buttoned up I decide to run my vacuum test to verify there were no potential leaks. I used my vacuum filler to pull down the system, close it off, and watch for the vacuum to hold or drop. I did get a bit of a scare when I first started as I couldn't get it to draw down much. First freaky thought was an intake gasket leak but after checking everything over I realized the rubber seal on the vacuum tool had not sealed off the radiator overflow. A quick change to a different rubber seal pulled some good vacuum. The gauge held it's reading when I closed off the air, success! Since the cooling system checked out I felt it was safe to add oil so I filled it up. Start day is Thursday evening. I'm waiting on some copper exhaust collector gaskets, I need a small piece of exhaust pipe, and I picked up a temp gauge to wire in for start up. I'll wait for Thursday evening to prime the oil system and set the timing.

That's definitely the plan!

Not much, it's 95% ready to go. I've done the electrical, fuel system, and mechanical on it. Everything's been lubed and new tires mounted. All that's left is to replace the rear axle seals (just for good measure) and put a new rag joint in the steering, The rest is just cosmetic stuff after it's up and running. I could spend a little more time cleaning the frame under the hood if I wanted also but it's much better than it was. I'm sure there will be a few bugs to work out but nothing major.

As we inch closer to fire up a few more things off the check list... My starter came in this week. One of the few concessions I had to make was a starter from a Ford truck a bit younger than the original. The reason for this is the headers are very tight to the stock starter and prevent it from being removed without removing the headers. The headers themselves replaced the cracked original manifolds that are of a terrible design and not cost effective to replace. The starter is the end result of a series decisions that require some space creation, since it's 1/3 smaller than the stock starter it'll do. Sunday AM I set about checking the dwell on the distributor. I wanted to make sure it was right on so it fires asap when I start cranking. I set up a test bench with a battery charger, coil, vintage Sears dwell meter and the distributor run with a drill that it came in at 30 degrees. Perfect as the spec is 26-31 degrees. I also got a nice shock that left my hand tingling for 15 minutes when I grabbed a wrong wire, huzzah! I just set it in place for now, I still have to be able to access the oil pump drive to prime the system prior to firing. Later that day I finished up the heater hose bypass, blocked off vacuum ports that won't be used during break in, installed and routed the plug wires, hooked up the battery cables, and temporarily mounted the headers. I found that my engine mounts interfered with said headers so I had to move the braces to the front and carve some relief cuts to make it all work. Nothing crazy, just the stuff that pops up and needs to be taken care of. My muffler, Y pipe and flex hose came today so I can mock up my temporary exhaust system this week. I don't really want to listen to wide open headers for 20 minutes. All of the parts I'll be able to reuse for the permeant exhaust system (except the flex hose) so the cost will be negligible when all is said and done. Some pics of how it sits as of tonight...