Poor life choices - C4 content

SkinnyG wrote: Talking to yourself is fine. It's when you start telling jokes you've never heard before....

Or say "what".

In reply to petegossett:

You play bass? Wow. Your other bolus and Snopes teammate, Larry, is a bass player. Maybe for the next challenge will get all the closet musicians to bring their axes to the 2017 challenge for a battle of the bands

Re: favourite thread thing, and this thread is one of mine- I think there are a number of factors:

• It's accessible, you picked up a car that should be within anyone's range, the difference is that you actually did it
• You get stuff done, every day (seemingly), and because it's a couple of hours work it's well explained, almost conversational with your audience which leads to
• The community is helping, the flow of advice is great and really shines a light on why this is a decent place to hang out
• Your build feels unstoppable. You keep coming up on problems but there's no suggestion that they'll remain unresolved

It's the closest thread to walking into a bar after work and hearing you talk about the couple of hours you put in on your old Corvette before you headed over.

Disclaimer: I have no idea if this might work. I wondered whether an ultrasonic cleaning bath (half litre/litre-ish size) might work with regards to freeing the rings from the pistons? Dump one in at a time, leave it buzzing away with some solvent in the tub, might do more with less risk of eating the alloy.

Dammit wrote: Disclaimer: I have no idea if this might work. I wondered whether an ultrasonic cleaning bath (half litre/litre-ish size) might work with regards to freeing the rings from the pistons?

Hmm... My bass amp is 1800-watts. I could just let it feed back & set the pan with the piston in front of it.

Thanks for the encouraging words too. The good thing about a cheap C4 Vette is there's not really anything too complicated about it, with the possible exception of the EFI and digital dash, but those can both be replaced easy enough with old-school analog solutions.

My neighbor is Dennis Freeman Bass Player for Travis Tritt and some others. Eddie Gray the Drummer Lived own the street,Sadly he Passed In October, But Dennis is a Hot Rodder Too.

In reply to GTXVette:

Wow, very cool that Dennis is your neighbor and a hotrodder. Sorry about Eddie though.

The Time Of the Season.

petegossett wrote: I definitely don't have my E36 M3 together enough to pull off a YouTube channel. I just don't have the talent or patience for the editing, etc., not to mention zero talent in front of the camera.

Which would not be out of the ordinary for YouTubers...

Day-33(3-hours):

Well my drummer friend called & cancelled plans for tonight(flakey musicians ), which was ok with me since I had some projects I needed to get finished tonight.

See, I made plans this afternoon to take the block over to Aeromoto's shop tomorrow and use his power washer to get the block cleaned much faster than I was accomplishing manually. Hopefully we can get the cam bearings swapped too.

So first project was to get the block off the stand, temporarily lower it to the ground so I could get the last two freeze plugs and the rear cam cover out, then hoist it into the van.

Then I took a few minutes to clean up the floor, drip tray, engine stand & general work area. It'll be a while before I get started on assembly, but no need to make a bigger mess in the mean time.

Then I started in on the pistons again. Switching to Evapo-rust definitely helped the rust, but I realized I still need to soak them in solvent first.

That's 4-down, 3 to go. Although they'll still need cleaned more.

I did pour some laquer thinner into another pot and put a piston in it, while one is soaking in Evapo-rust. That should expedite the process somewhat.

Then I finally got around to wiping down the main caps and taking a good look at the bearings. They're in order left-to-right in the pic below.

I was surprised how different the wear pattern is across all of them. Number-1 is very even, but #2 is worn crooked. What does this mean?

Number-4 seemed odd too, because there is an 1/8" line at the edge that doesn't seem worn. What's the story here?

The insert will comply with the space into which it is installed. My guess is that the main cap was slightly misaligned or mis-machined on the insert with wear on diagonal corners.

That can be fixed with line-boring the block, but IMO it's probably not the reason the Engine was dead.

This thread makes me feel like a slacker, my cars parked in the garage next too its interior and i havnt touched it since october! Build threads like this get me through the winter.

In reply to dropstep:

Don't be too down on yourself, you're in the middle of winter up there. Other than our deep-freeze last weekend, it was in the 50's-60's all last week, and is supposed to be in the 70's from yesterday through next week. That makes it much easier to get out in the garage and work!

Pete the bearings aren't perfectly round anyway they spread a bit (minut) at the parting line. that said the stain look is from sitting, your only worry here is the color Copper,I see nothing. that piston looks good for wear, see the lines running around the skirt are both side that visiable that would be great. that is where Ovaling would be present. but with your ring gap check and the lack of wear on the piston sides I would purchase stock bore rings and std. bearings,polish the crank

In reply to GTXVette:

Yeah, you would see copper if anything was seriously out of whack, and GM saw fit to slap it together on their flagship car, so I'd be inclined to do the same.

Thanks for the reassurance guys!

Day-34(4-hours):

Had a productive day at Aeromoto's shop and got the engine block & oil pan power washed. No pics though, since the block wasn't that dirty...though I probably should have snapped a selfie of me covered head-to-toe with sludge after spraying out the pan.

We couldn't find his cam bearing tool though, so I'll see if one of the parts stores nearby has one to loan. He did let me borrow his piston ring pliers, ring compressor, an extra-deep-well socket(for the main cap bolts that have the oil baffle mounts), and a much nicer torque wrench than my crappy one.

After I got home & unloaded the van, I pulled the rings off of one more piston, then spent some time cleaning it and two others.

And since there wasn't much to photograph today, here's my makeshift parts tank.

Do what ever it takes with what ever you got!!!!!

Your pistons are cleaner than mine. I'm jealous.

mazdeuce wrote: Your pistons are cleaner than mine. I'm jealous.

I'm just glad I didn't use scotchbrite pads either!

Those aren't broken like the ones that came out of mine!

Bobzilla wrote: Those aren't broken like the ones that came out of mine!

That's definitely a plus!

Day-35(4-hours):

Not much worth photographing, but I completed cleaning all the pistons, so I bagged them up until the ARP bolts get here.

So I started cleaning the timing cover. While this engine had only 63,000 miles on, from the crud all over the exterior I'm thinking it must have been leaking for at least 60,000 of them.

I'm struggling to get the front seal out, so any advice or tips would be welcome!

I think you can cut that with a Dremel or similar and knock it out as long as you don't catch the cover itself with the wheel.

However you do it be careful not to warp the cover, it will leak more than normal if you do.

Punch

In reply to fasted58:

I tried using a metric socket, which fit the ID of the seal, and the hub opening of the old brake rotor, which just cleared the OD of protrusion around the crank snout. All I accomplished was ripping the guts out of the seal & leaving the shell firmly stuck in the cover.