Dillard : A 1973 F100 Ranger project

What happens to valve seals when they switched from leaded to unleaded?

RossD said:

What happens to valve seals when they switched from leaded to unleaded?

probably the right answer.  

I love the old FE engines for their reliability. My dad had several when i was growing up,  one of which we kept running for so long that the combo of 50w and STP oil treatment was only enough to get it to have oil pressure while driving....at idle it had next to nothing. Another ran even when the points werent opening, not sure how that works

Cam bearing surgery has commenced. 

After much “massaging” it looks like the bore is slightly off. I came home to man the grill and left the block with dave to deal with. 

I did meet John, which was nice to meet another grm’er. We tried to draft dave into a challenge build. He didn’t bite, but the seed has been planted. Would be very handy to have a machinist on a build. Sounds budget friendly. 

I've got a problem. 

I've very much neglected this build but things have been moving.  Let me catch you up just a bit.  

When we left off I had some bore problems with the cam, I ended up taking the machine shop locally that was highly recommended, I honestly don't remember who told me about them, but they were great. They do a ton of Ferrari rebuilds? (who knew that was a thing?) and they were great to talk to.  They fixed my bore and then installed bearings for me.  It wasn't cheap, but the work was great and that's generally the way these things go. 

From there I started putting things together and got stuck on the rear mains.  These go in with a v shaped rubber piece on each side that you then hammer a nail basically in to add pressure.  I bent the first two seals because I was not confident.  Dad decided to come down to visit and I put him to work with me.  He races fords and while this is quite a bit different than the full cnc block that he just built, it's still a lot more experience than I have.  With him there, we bent another, and then I did it again and got it, the last time I had done it enough times that I stopped being scared and went for it.  It seated perfectly. 

From there we had to retap the crank end (I did have the crank checked).  

So we've basically caught up to where I am now and the issue.  When I was taking the exhaust manifold off, a bolt broke.  Thankfully it was on the outer ear and just a through bolt. I tried to drill it out and then had the bright ida of using an easy out....wellllllll, the easy out has broken.  flush.  and it seems to be hardened.  I'm at a loss.  I have the heads on and most all the rotating assembly in already.  Will I have to take the motor apart and back to the machine shop or could I take it in as is? I don't have pushrods, lifters, or rocker arms in yet.   Photos ot follow.  

Those top two photos are of the problem, the first was after drilling, the second after I got the easy out stuck.  

Honestly, I wish that I had just paid someone to rebuild this motor.  I have been struggling with a lack of knowledge the whole time, and while that generally doesn't bother me at all, I would be more confident if I had watched someone do this once and then tackled the second.  I think on the next truck I may even drop a crate motor in just for reliability, we'll see.  

I've still got to deal with the points (thinking about keeping that) the a/c, and painting the thing.  Brakes are good, transmission is done, and I need to clean up the interior.  I have a few buyers who are waiting on me to finish, I just want to make sure that it is right before it leaves my possession.  

You're making steady progress! See how much a machine shop or exhaust shop will charge to get those studs out. They have lots of practice doing this.....

In reply to Agent98 :

I thought that would be my only hope. Thanks for the confirmation.  

One data point, extracting two broken studs on a manifold I had= Meineke charged me $100 bucks.

For that you could also check ebay or CL for a used manifold or manifolds or get some cheap or used headers.

Agent98 said:

One data point, extracting two broken studs on a manifold I had= Meineke charged me $100 bucks.

 

For that you could also check ebay or CL for a used manifold or manifolds or get some cheap or used headers.

 

 

 

 

I would do that if the bolt wasn’t stuck in the head that was just rebuilt...

You already know this, but there ain’t nuttin easy bout ezouts!

are you good enough/able to put a [thin] nut over the spot and weld the ez out to the nut??  Just unscrew it (CW) from there. 

Long ago, I broke off a bolt in the exhaust manifold of my FC RX-7.  I also broke off an easy-out, just like you have done here.

I ended up using my dremel tool and a die-grinder bit, and just slowly ground out both.  It was terribly unpleasant because I was doing it while under the car.  So at least you can work in comfort.

Once you clear out most of the stud you can just sort of chip out the thread part.  Run a tap to chase the threads, and you're good to go.

You can buy carbide straight-flute drill bits that will drill out a tap.  I did this a few years ago when I needed to clear an M2 tap out of a titanium part.  A headache, that.

Drill bits look like this, and I've bought them from McMaster and from my local supplier.