I'd tap that

Managed to get some more time on the car today and focussed on drilling and tapping the 3 broken studs. All were sorted with out too much hassle and much safer than risking easy-outs. Learnt my lesson there.

I had to get a new drill bit and tap set as I didn't own the required 'F' sized bit to drill a 5/16" - 18 hole, HomeDepot got me sorted. To make things easier I had to remove the thermostat housing and found a relatively new looking t-stat heavily stuck in place with a load of gasket sealer. The housing is pretty beat up and corroded so I've ordered a new one (along with a new t-stat) from RockAuto.

Now I've just got to deal with the one remaining stud and figuring the best way to get it out.

Crack kills

January and February are busy months for us as 4 family birthdays fall at this time, plus if  you throw in the 2 weeks of everyone being sick then not much progress has been made on the car. However past couple of weeks I'm been working on the exhaust manifold.
I've had the new (used) intake and exhaust manifold sitting in the garage for a while now. It's from a 70-72 model, which means the choke pocket is open to the exhaust gases. Originally there was a stainless steel cup that sat in the hole but this is no longer available new and NOS is super pricey.  As I'm going to convert to an electric choke I don't need this pocket so I just need to make a plate up and cap this off and then I'll be good to go.

Went to a friend's workshop and used his bead blaster to strip and clean the new intake and exhaust manifolds. They came up really well and while we were there tackled the broken stud. The left hand bolt hole had a snapped off stud in it. I had already drilled and tried an "easy-out" on it which I'd also snapped. Those things are made from super hard steel and can't be drilled. Luckily we managed to punch it through the stud and could redrill and tap it. The other stud was stretched and bent and again snapped during removal, but was drilled and tapped too.

I sprayed the intake manifold with VHT silver and it looks like new. I need to find some black super high temp paint for the exhaust manifold and then it will look like the dog's proverbials.

I decided to try and take the existing manifold off and have been soaking the bolt in PB Blaster. Yes I said bolts as some previous owner or "mechanic" ditched the Dodge/Chrysler installation procedure of studs and special hardware in favour of an assortment of bolts and multiple washers.The manifolds are designed to float so that as they get hot they can expand. If they can't expand and slide then this happens.

Yep, cracked in to two pieces no wonder it was noisy, smelly and low on power. There are also 2 other cracks on it so it's fair to say it's junk.

Here's the block sans manifolds. I snapped one of the studs off (one of 2 remaining) and the last one is chewed up and needs replacing too.There were also 2 studs snapped off in the head already so I'll drill and retap these too. I've got the new studs already from silver seal and the new exhaust manifold from Remflex so I'm pretty much ready to go. I'd like to use brass nuts on assembly but I'm having a hard time locating them, so may have to switch to stainless.

It's a simple life

Tonight's dinner. Mrs P made Oysters Rockefeller, I made shrimp in cream and champagne sauce, and one of our neighbors (who happens to be French) supplied a homemade pate. Best not over do it in the new year though eh?

Played the waiting game.

It's been a bit quiet on the car front, I won the instrument cluster and it turned up really quickly. I took my time carefully swapping the temperature and fuel gauges over and used the speedo fascia as it was in better condition than the original one. Then I had to wait for the instrument voltage regulator to arrive, and wait and wait and wait. It took nearly a month to arrive and by the time I got it Christmas was just about here and my 'free' time was all gone.

Pleased to say though that I managed to get it all back together and stuck 3 gallons of gas in it and I've just taken it for a drive. I can report that the temperature gauge and gas gauges now work although the odometer still isn't :-( If I can summon up the patience to take the dash apart again I'll swap in the new speedo and give up on the original one.

I've got a line on a new (used) intake and exhaust manifold for a knock down price. When I started it up today I forgot how loud and smelly it runs with the cracked one.

I received a 5.1 surround sound system for Xmas from Mrs P and although I've only managed to set up the front 3 speakers and the subwoofer I'm mightily impressed by it. We watched Super 8 on it and when the train crashes it was AWESOME. Now deciding how to hide the wires to the rear speakers as they have to navigate a fireplace and an open doorway.

Turkey Run

Yesterday I went to Daytona for the annual Turkey Run held at the International Speedway. There were something like 3500 cars pre-registered and I probably saw a third of those at the very most. I spent the majority of the time hunting around the swap meet trying to find a new (used) exhaust manifold. However after a while one rusty piece of engine looks much like any other and the best I got was a contact for a local(ish) Mopar car part specialist who said he probably had one. He talked like he knew his stuff (well convinced me anyways) and he looked and talked like Uncle Jessie from the Dukes of Hazzard.

My new best friend??

Ended up getting a bit sunburnt too and now have a glorious redneck sun tan ie face, neck and arms being red, rest of me being white.

Still waiting on the new parts to arrive, I won the new instrument cluster and that should be here early next week. Til then not much I can do on the car so Mrs P has me decorating.

An optimist says the tank is half full

The exterior of the gas tank has been treated with Rustoleum Rust Reformer and then painted with gloss black Rustoleum paint. The inside was first blasted with a pressure washer and then using some household cleaner, water and 6 ft of metal chain I shook the hell out of that thing for as long as I could. I plugged the holes with some special gas tank repair putty too. It's still far from perfect but should all last me a bit longer.

The new sender unit has arrived and I hooked it up to the gauge (without re-installing the tank) to see if everything was working correctly. I set the armature of the sender to indicate a full tank (minimum resistance) and checked the gauge. It read 1/2 a tank. I set the armature to 1/2 tank position and the gauge read Empty. Setting the sender unit to empty (and maximum resistance) the gauge hardly moves at all and is well below the Empty marker.
I've bid on a new instrument cluster on a well know online tat bazaar.

Troubled by gas

I'm still troubled by the lack of odometer and fuel gauge and I need one or preferably both working. I swapped out the new instrument voltage regulator for some homebrew solid state electronics but all that did was stop the gauge from reading full. I took the odometer/speedo apart and found that mechanically it appears sound and works on the bench, however when reinstalled in the car the odometer still doesn't move. I've replaced the speedo cable in case that's the problem but I've yet to test it.

For the fuel gauge, I've taken the tank out and ordered a new sender unit. The original below was pretty crusty looking and the resistance across the range was all over the place and inconsistent. I'm hoping that this is what's causing my gauge to read less than empty.

The tank has seen better days and there are 3 small holes in it that i'll be plugging up. The interior of the tank has seen better days too and although it doesn't look rusty it's full of crud. Also looks like a previous owner hit something hard, as the bottom is all beat up and has been repaired with a big patch of solder. A new tank is about $200 but I'm going to see if I can get this one clean and serviceable first. 

On a positive note I managed to get the front bench seats out and using the trusted P B Blaster the tracks are now free and the seat will slide easily.