neil morse

Two Edsels in a single photo -- that's more remarkable than the Buick!

Here you go: Here's the "before" pic again for comparison: I checked the clearance with Plastigauge, and it came out to .002". I read in another thread that the factory spec is .0005 to .004, so I'm satisfied (and also sick of endlessly doing figure-8 patterns on a piece of sandpaper taped to a piece of glass!). (I would have checked it on the helium light band scale, but I loaned my helium light band gauge to Konrad and he hasn't returned it.) 😜

Thanks for all your input, Konrad! Yes, I took on this job because I figured I had nothing else to do since we can't go fly our model planes and I wanted to clean everything up and try to learn a bit more about my engine (which I have). I'm going to have to call you up to sort through all the questions you are asking and suggestions you are offering. But, yes I remembered your suggested procedure for lapping, and that's exactly what I did.

Add some mint green and you'd have a perfect Howard Johnson's car!

(You knew that was coming!)

Matt, I had exactly the same problem with my clutch pedal. The pedal would not return all the way, and in fact I could hear the throw out bearing "chirping" at me until I pulled the pedal all the way up with my toe (as you say), which was very annoying. In my case, it turned out just to be a matter of cleaning up the area where that "hook" at the end of the large return spring attaches to the base of the pedal. The "hook" has to be free to pivot on that "post" (or whatever the proper term is) at the base of the pedal. On my car, that area was so caked with old grease and dirt that the hook was stuck in place, preventing the spring from pulling the pedal up that last few inches. You can very clearly see the area I'm talking about in the pic you posted of your Century. Here are pics of what mine looked like before and after I thoroughly cleaned up the area by soaking it over several days with a mixture of acetone and ATF and then getting in there with a wire brush. This took care of the problem for me. However, I will say that the area in question was a real PITA to get to!

Thanks, John and Don. I will make sure my battery is fully charged -- I have it on a trickle charger while I'm doing this work, so it shouldn't be a problem. I'm looking forward to getting everything buttoned back up, but I've still got a ways to go.

So ... I have read some conflicting things about the procedure when putting the pump back in. Several people have mentioned the importance of packing the gears with Vaseline. I have also been told to pack the gears with grease. On another thread (from a reputable source), the recommendation before reinstalling the pump is "Pour oil into the new-rebuilt oil pump to fill it and "prime" it. You can feel the resistance of the gears when it fills with oil." In any case, the idea of pulling the coil wire and turning over the engine to build up pressure seems like a good precaution. Comments?

Automotive Archaeology From the picture I posted earlier, you can see that the pistons on my car look quite new. Today, I confirmed that the con rods and rod bearing caps are stamped with numbers indicating the cylinders (1 through 8). According to Don Micheletti, this indicates that the engine was rebuilt by a professional shop at some point. Good news!

Aren't those Kelsey-Hayes wheels worth quite a bit just by themselves? Seems like another great MoPar deal.

Cool photo! I wonder how it was taken. Nowadays, you immediately think "drone," but back in those days maybe they borrowed a hook and ladder truck from the local Fire Department.

No need to apologize, John. I was actually just logging on to say I was going to send you a PM -- my intention being to take another stab at trying to help you get this straight. You saved me the effort! 😄

I made some progress today.

The little chunks on the screen are not hard. They crumble very easily in my fingers. Also, my car does not smoke or burn oil, so I don't think it's got bad rings.

I'm always ready to learn new things, but I'm afraid I really don't follow what you're saying. In this situation, surely the low spots were only "low" in relation to the "high" spots. They actually were indentations in the plate. Once the plate is sanded perfectly smooth, they will no longer be low. The whole plate will have a uniform clearance from the gears that is less than the previous "low" spots. I don't think your "sanding off old finish" analogy makes sense in this context. Anyhow, I don't want to argue with you -- we will just have to agree to disagree.

This is all new to me, of course, but I am just following the procedure that has been very frequently suggested on this forum as a fix for low oil pressure. I'm also not understanding how sanding the plate could result in increasing the clearance. As long as you make sure you're sanding it perfectly flat (by putting the sandpaper on a perfectly flat surface -- a piece of glass in my case), aren't you going to inevitably decrease the clearance?

Yes, thanks for that advice, Matt, although I had already come to the same conclusion. Dealing with main bearings is way beyond my job description, at this point, and I agree that there is no indication that anything is wrong with them at present -- so that's the way I'm going to leave them!

One further photo: Here's what my crankshaft looks like. The pistons look very new, which is good news. (As I've said earlier in this thread, I don't have a good history on this car, and don't know what has been done to the engine -- although it runs very well.)

Oil Pan and Pump With a shut in order in place, I was looking around for another project to take on so I decided to finally drop the oil pan on my car and take a look at the oil pump. First, I had to seek advice on the technical forum because I couldn't figure out how to get to the front bolts on the pan. I got immediate and welcome help, as I figured I would. I followed Dave Stovall's step-by-step procedure, and got the pan off pretty easily. The only difficulty was (as Dave warned me) the four bolts -- two on each side -- that are in between the front bolts and the remaining openly accessible ones. These are hard to reach, but with a socket extension, a U-joint, and a lot of patience, I eventually got them out. The only thing I would add to Dave's list is a tip I got from Don Micheletti. I got two 2" bolts and put one on each side before I used a screwdriver and a hammer to finally pry the gasket loose. This way the pan was caught by the two long bolts when it dropped. Also, as indicated in the other thread, I actually had to remove the pump before I could wrestle the pan all the way out because the bottom of the pump was hanging up on the forward baffle in the pan. Here's how it looked when I got the pan and pump out. The pan has about 1/4" to 1/2" of sludge in the bottom, which I guess is pretty typical. The pump looks fine, but the pick-up screen was pretty clogged up with the same kind of sludge. The plate at the bottom of the pump didn't look too bad, but I will go through the routine of sanding it smooth to see if it gives me a little more oil pressure. (My car's pressure is okay, but not great. It's about 45 lbs. on cold start, but goes down to 10 lbs. at idle when hot. It maintains about 30 to 35 under load when warmed up.) So that's all for now. I have the messy job of cleaning up the pan and then plan on giving it a new coat of Dante Red. I also have to clean up the screen and then sand the plate and check the clearance with Plastigauge. Standby for more reports.

This seems to be such a good deal that I wonder if it's legit.

You're more than welcome. Us Neils (Neals) have to stick together!

A picture is worth 1,000 words. Thanks again for the help. I followed Dave's suggestions. The only problem I had was that the bottom of the pump was catching on the front baffle in the pan, and there was no way that I could get the pan off with the pump in place. (The tie rod kept the pan from dropping low enough.) So I just removed the pump and that freed up the pan.

I'm sure you just have a bad ground situation. Since you put in a new harness, you know that the wire from the sender goes up into the trunk where there's a butt connector to the wire that goes to the gauge. Disconnect this and ground the wire from the gauge. If your gauge goes to empty, you know that you have a bad ground at the sender. The sender is grounded through the metal fuel line. If you have a bit rubber hose between the metal line and the sender, you will not have a proper ground. Just ground the sender with a separate wire and you're done. If the gauge doesn't go to empty when that wire is grounded, then you unfortunately have a problem with the dash unit.