Crank it up

The 78 crank was installed this week into the 87 engine. Kinda a fun project, hardly even got dirty. First I had to wash the machining grease off the journals and clean out the oil passages. I put a light coat of oil on the journals to keep the rust away, its amazing how you can actually watch rust form after washing the machined and polished surfaces. The Crank was ground .010 under to clean it up. This process was all about clean clean clean. The crank caps and block surfaces that take the new bearings had to be spotless. After finally getting the bearings in the right locations (I kept putting the thrust bearing in the wrong location despite reading the manual over and over again... it just didn't look right in the # 3 position.) Ajay and I carefully placed the crank into the block. A little dab of oil was placed on each main bearing journal then plasti gauge was placed. The crank caps were then torqued down to 80 foot pounds in three steps, I used 40, 60 and 80, starting from the middle and working out to the ends. Then you take it all apart again, measure the width of the crushed plasti gauge to check the clearance. The plasti gauge residu was scraped off with my finger nail, and then wiped off with varisol. Journals were cleaned off again and assembly grease was smeared over all mating surfaces. Before putting the crank back in for the final time, the main oil seal was put in place and RTV smeared over the points where the cap half of the seal mates to the block half. All bolts are then torqued down to 80 again, except the thrust bearing cap. This one gets 12 foot pounds while checking thrust clearance with a pry bar and dial indicator. The clearance all worked out good, the main bearings were all 0.015 and the thrust was +-0.005.

I also test fitted the head, intake and exhaust manifolds... I couldn't resist. looks some pretty!

It isn't a shed, its a garage.

This has been coming for a long time, but I would be fibbing if the jeep project didn't speed up my progress. I decided to try out some ideas with this project that I would one day like to use in a house. I like the idea of thermal mass and passive solar heat, so I insulated my concrete slab with rigid polystyrene and ran 1/2" pex tubing for in floor radiant heating. To passively heat the slab I placed my roof trusses such that they have a southern exposure. With the addition of three skylights, two straight through for direct sunlight and one into a hot box with a water cylinder painted black, I will use sunlight to brighten and heat the slab through green house affect and passively heating water that will circulate through the slab. I will put in a small hot water boiler in series with the system as back up heat, and the water will have a 20% Etheline Glycol additive for freeze protection. Having the solar collector in the rafters necessitates a pump to circulate the water, since its the reverse orientation for thermo siphoning to work for me. However I intend to use a small 12v pump with a solar cell. The pump doesn't have to do much work, as the system is balanced in terms of head; the only work the pump has to do is overcome the friction of the pipes and the difference in weight of hot vs cool water. Also, I only want the circulation to happen during the day, I don't want cool water circulated through my warmed up slab at night, a solar powered pump would be pretty good at circulating only when heat transfer is needed.

Engine part 3

The Engine has been back from the machine shop for a while now, but all I have gotten a chance to do is wash it out oil up the bores and give it a coat of POR15 and black engine enamel. Looks pretty nice I must say, looking forward to stuffing all the bits back inside. I have received my intake manifold and exhaust header from Clifford and did a trial fit of everything, will post those pics later. Most of my time of late has been fixing the sand blaster and wireing the Bakery for welder action. The electricity has been cut up there for years, and we have been using an extension cord for lights and angle grinders so far, but its time for welding so I needed 220v. Since I am building a garage to house this project, amongst others, after the bakery gets torn down (or falls down, which ever comes first) I bought the direct burial 8/3 cable and breaker box and temporarily ran it up to the bakery.

A bunch of things

Here is a few more pics. I'll leave engine part 3 to when I have the block back from the shop, however the status at present is the 87 block is good!!! So the configuration is going to be 87 block and 78 crank and connecting rods... and a 4.0L High output head that I bought from Florida. The head has been modified to work with the 258 (4.2L) by the excess water jacket holes being welded shut. To compliment this head I have bought a Clifford Performance intake manifold and header. This is a modification that will supposedly give me 40-50 more horses. For lungs I am going to add a GM TBI fuel injection system from a 92 4.3L Astrovan. Also I have decided on the Ford 8.8 rear end and have even been so bold as to purchase one from a 1998 ford Explorer XLT. I have bought 4.56 Superior gears for the ford 8.8 as well as my front Dana 30 and I'm going to throw in a locker front and back while I'm at it.

Engine part 2

Ok, 87 engine is cleaned up best I can. The crank is bad, but the block is pretty good. The 78 looks great however and its crank is perfect. If the 87 is good to go, I'll put the crank and connecting rods from the 78 into it. The crank from the older 258 is heavier and supposedly better. I found a web site talking about drag racing with this engine, and the old crank was sought after while the new lighter one is not. Stripping this engine down was pretty easy, except for the one piston I had to beat on to get out. looks like the bore that had open valves rusted a little and this is the source of my seized status. Now, to Constantines Engine Machine shop!

Engine part 1

Now, not long after I bought the Jeep, I "blew" the engine. Being 17 years old, I didn't know what this really meant, however I did know that I wanted to keep the old "blown" Engine for posterity. A replacement was found and $800 later the Jeep was running again... and the old 87 Engine started its 15 year rust cycle in my garage. I blew the second engine again years later on the Queensway in Ottawa, coming home from work at Nortel. Donny was with me when the thing started making an awful noise, so we pulled over. The old 258 was clanging away when finally a connecting rod busted out through the side of the block and started pissing oil. Now the engine is still running... finnaly it died and another $800 later I have the third engine in the Jeep. This one is a very fresh 1978 258 with only 80k on it. Came out of a Paser or something, apparently the old guy that owned the car only drove it back and forth to the liqueur store and on one such trip wrapped the thing around a pole. This was still 10 years ago, so even at that point the engine was 20 years old and the AMC blue engine enamel was still mostly intact. This is the Engine I removed from the frame in December. It was a little worse for ware sitting in the jeep for 8 years... ie siezed solid, however it is the most likely candidate for rebuilding. At this point I had little hope of rebuilding my old 87 engine but I was going to clean it up anyway and give the machine shop the choice of which block to re-build.

Stripping the Frame

With the body off and out of the way, I removed the front and rear end from the frame and inspected all the bits and pieces. My front end looks fine, the Dana 30 is good to go with some better gears however the rear Dana 35c is by all accounts a piece of crap. Apparently its the weakest rear end in any modern 4x4. So, after a bit of googling, I will be replacing this with a waggy Dana 44 or a Ford 8.8.