Project Road Trip

[Baskinator]

You could've gotten the sensa-trac shocks for about $70 on amazon, they're probably the best ones for it too. Excited to see everything together though!

[rohnk]

I may upgrade the shocks later one, right now I just need to replace the originals that are on there. I got the Monroe Sense a matic I think they are called. $27 a piece at O'Reilly's and they were in stock.

With the new leaf springs and extra leaf, the ride will be a bit stiffer anyway. I can always upgrade later to try and smooth it out if need be.

[rohnk]

Lots of work today. I took off the carb to gain access to the air injection manifold. Then the air pump came out. Then the air injection manifold. Then I drained the coolant and removed the CTO from the intake. After all that, I took off the valve cover and started in on the A/C compressor. After a bit of work, that finally came out and I called it a night. I worked on it for roughly 3.5 hours in total today so it wasn't as easy as just removing bolts.

The biggest bugger I had to deal with was that little  of a bolt behind the valve cover at the firewall. It was loose, but covered in oil so I just couldn't get a good grip on it to turn it out. Because of the angles my socket kept slipping off it too. What a PITA! I think I'll drill a hole in that thing and hang it on a necklace. Something to tell my grandkids about, "the battle with the oily bolt"! OK, maybe it wasn't that bad. I also found that there was no gasket on the valve cover, just a boat load of RTV. There is also RTV on some of the rockers on the pushrod side. Not put there by mistake I don't think. I have no idea why someone would put RTV on the rockers though.

[mudkicker715]

With the right combonation of tools that bolt only takes seconds.

[Prafeston]

Does your Eagle already have the aluminum valve cover? If not you should definitely do that while you have the cover off already!

[rohnk]

I have the aluminum cover on order. Should be in this week.

Yes MudKicker, I figure you would make that comment!  It had me scratching my head for a few minutes. The hardest part was stretching the length of the engine to reach the darn thing.

[rohnk]

Forgot to mention something. When I drained the coolant, it is a dark green color and smells sweet as it should. However, the coolant that came out of the intake manifold is rust brown. When I cut off a couple of hoses, I found where rust has settled in the lower portions of the hoses. Looking in the radiator cap, I can see the inside of the radiator has a layer of rust all over the core.

It hasn't been leaking and I don't think it is plugged, so I think I will take it out and have it pressure tested in a bath to look for any weaknesses. They'll also flush the radiator and run through a mixture they have the removes rust and cleans up any debris that has been left behind. The last radiator the guys did for me came back looking brand new and they showed me a bucket of sludge that came out of it. This one looks a little worse than the old one back in teh day. We shall see.

[Prafeston]

Sounds like you are moving right along. I never have gotten up the guts to remove the valve cover. I don't know how to drill and tap the wholes and I'm a little worried about the while progress.

[mudkicker715]

I have the aluminum cover on order. Should be in this week.

Yes MudKicker, I figure you would make that comment!  It had me scratching my head for a few minutes. The hardest part was stretching the length of the engine to reach the darn thing.

I guess i only mentioned that a have dozen of a dozen times. Even took pics and posted myself one handing it. Haha

[Baskinator]

Sounds like you are moving right along. I never have gotten up the guts to remove the valve cover. I don't know how to drill and tap the wholes and I'm a little worried about the while progress.

It's not as bad as you think Rafe, just needs a little massaging to remove. Drilling and tapping isn't necessary at all, unless a bolt is broken or threads are stripped. Really just a matter of removing bolts and replacing the gasket.

Rohn, how much will it cost to have a mechanic do that for your radiator? If it's costly enough, you always could just go with one of those $200 shiny aluminum radiators from eBay that captspillane got for his. It's the best way to upgrade the cooling system, which would be very good for such an old engine.

That valve cover bolt at the firewall is really annoying to remove, but it's worlds easier with a 3/8 u-joint and extension on your socket.

[Prafeston]

I thought there were 1 or 2 holes that had to be tapped...what year Eagle do you have?

[rohnk]

Baskinator, it is a radiator shop located in teh back of a dirty warehouse building that not a lot of people know about. The guy is a scrap metal hauler and works on refurbing radiators as a hobby with the help of his sons. His boys have probably taken it over by now. It has been probably 7-8 years since I was there.

Anyway, the cost should be around $60. He will first clean it up and then dunk it in a tub of antifreeze and pressurize it looking for bubbles. If he doesn't find any, they clean it up again and run his "cocktail" through it for a few hours. After that, they rinse and repeat reversing the flow if it is obstructed at all. Then they clean it up, dunk again to look for air leaks, fix the leaks and shine it up and paint it.

Takes about a week to get done but it is mostly the time it takes to run the cocktail through it. I can't say for sure, but I think the cocktail is a rust remover/scale dissolving solution. All I do know for sure is that the fluid runs through like a greyhound after a rabbit when they are done.

[vangremlin]

I thought there were 1 or 2 holes that had to be tapped...what year Eagle do you have?

Yes, some of the holes will probably have to be tapped when you switch to the aluminum valve cover.  I had never tapped anything before, it was actually very easy.  Mine did not need to be drilled at all.

[Baskinator]

Ah, you're right, I didn't realize you meant when switching to the aluminum cover. Mine is a later 258, which already had an aluminum one. In that case, drilling and tapping will probably be a pain and will take careful work. My biggest concern would be hitting a water jacket, especially if you're not prepared to replace the cylinder head or at least JB weld it.

[rohnk]

Rafe, mine is an 82.

I'm not worried about drilling and tapping the head. I've done that kind of stuff before. If it cracks, it cracks. Nothing I can do about that. If it did though, this project would become a long term project and I would pull the engine and start over basically. Then I could build up the block the way I want it and upgrade all the internals. Probably go the stroker route if I had to go that far.

But alas, none of that should have to happen on this one.