351 Windsor: The Tear Down

So where was I? Well, I had a day off from real life in mid November to start tearing down the 351W. This project actually began on my birthday in 2009 when my friend James came by to show me how to put the car or jack stands. Since then it has become traditional for me to work on the car on my birthday. One year I spent the best part of the day driving out to Mustangs Plus in Stockton so I could pick up my new leaf springs. The problem with birthdays though, is that they only last for twenty four hours. This year all I managed to accomplish was getting the motor up on the stand and draining out the oil. Then it was back to this look for another six weeks:

My biggest worry over this period was whether I had jumped the gun by draining out the oil. I really should have waited. Oh well. When I finally did pop off the oil pan, it didn't actually look too bad. There was some white crud in the bottom of the pan. I think this comes from water getting into the oil*.

Overall the "inside bits" looked great, even close up

Now let's back up a step. One day shortly after I got the motor up on the stand my friend Brian took the time to explain to me how important it was that I marked the pistons, main caps and so on so that they would go back exactly the same way. We were having lunch at sabuy sabuy on College at the time and I ended up leaving with, like, three table clothes covered in diagrams and instructions. So, with this knowledge, the first thing I needed was some number punches. I tried really hard to get a top notch set from Granger, but I just couldn't make it happen. Fortunately HF have a once-use set for less than a price of a big mac. Probably. The only thing is....they may as well be made of plastic. In fact I think they were made out of plastic!

After a good thirty minutes of screwing around with my pseudo-plastic punches, trying to figure out how to get any kind of legible impression from them, I found that all my pistons and rods have already been marked. Or to put that another way, the engine has been apart before. Not too surprising for a forty year old motor in as good a shape as this one. So I threw the HF punches in the trash and moved on.

My new Crafstman tools made the job of pulling the pistons a piece of cake. I'm still getting used to the difference good tools make.

Next up, the harmonic balancer...and here's where it starts to get complicated. To get the balance off, you need to use a puller. I already have one of those, but before I could even worry about finding it in my tiny, overcrowded garage, I needed to get the bolt out.

First task: stop the engine from turning while I undo the huge bolt which prevents removal of the harmonic balancer. I did my usual "copy Alex" and attached some clamps to the pressure plate; I'm going to be using a manual transmission so the pressure plate is scrap at this point and I didn't worry about damaging it.

I had to carve up one of my clamps to make it fit.

I had a bunch of attempts at undoing the bolt, culminating in a two foot breaker bar fitted with the handle off the floor jack...and all I succeeded in doing was warping the pressure plate. I swung on the jack handle with my entire body weight and....nothing happened. Well nothing apart from the stand nearly fell over!

After that near-miss, I did the only thing I could do: gave up, and made arrangements to transport the motor to where a decent impact wrench could get the job done. I'm very fortunate to have several friends located nearby with the necessary tools. But first I had to get the engine into the back of the Lesboat.† Just the thought of having to re-build the "leaning tower of Pisa" I needed to get the motor onto the stand was enough for me to enlist the help of my neighbor this time. I prepared a special dolly to use as a transport cradle.

Took off the main caps just to make it a all a little bit lighter.

And then I had an idea: The only thing still holding the crank in place was the timing chain! After this realization I couldn't destroy the chain fast enough: I used a flat blade screw driver to destroy it one link at a time‡. I would of broken out the screaming cutting wheel of death, but fortunately I lent that out to a buddy, otherwise who knows how much damage I might have done...

Had to wiggle it a bit, but the crank came out WITH the harmonic balancer still attached. Nobody I've talked to has ever seen/heard of somebody doing this before. I think my novice status means I often take the unorthodox route without any concern.

Pulled out the old cam and the lifters...

Tossed everything into the Lesboat and set sail for Stirtz Machine in Oakland.

The guys at Stirtz Machine have been building motors since the dawn of time. On the days when the shop is closed they build some of the finest race cars ever seen in the Bay Area. They also did me the favor of hitting my troublesome harmonic balancer bolt with the biggest impact wrench in the shop....and after multiple attempts the bolt gave it up. I left the block for magnuflux and sonic testing which is an incredibly cheap $40. Hopefully it will pass....

Have you spotted it yet?

Back in the garage, the engine dolly looked very empty. I felt like a well loved guest had departed; someone that would be gone for a while. I tried to take my mind off the feeling of emptiness by pulling the balancer off the crankshaft and freeing up the timing chain cover. But the only thing that could cheer me up was a good 30 minutes looking through the Summit Catalog :))) 

(*One day I might write up the story of why I know this).
(† Another one for the future).
(‡ Intended).

sometimes you have to take a stand

It's great to be back at work on my '68. And with a pivotal bit of work to report too. Progress in terms of replacing the stock six cylinder motor with a much thirstier V8 has been slow to say the least (it's all in the preparation!) but finally I'm back in business. This will probably be the last time I'll mention the six cylinder engine, so I'm going to start off with my favorite picture of the engine compartment as it was when I took ownership of the car. This photo was taken after I detailed out the motor before Ponies and Snakes 2009. To date this remains the car's only show appearance.

Fast forward to May 2010, and I ripped down the six as much as I could, but without any hoisting equipment, I had to work round it for a bit longer.

February 2011 and with the help of my buddies Chuck and Phil the six was pulled out at last.

I donated the six and the 3 speed gearbox to my friend Wayne for use as a drive-train in his 67; I was delighted to get rid of it because I was in the process of moving house at the time.

the last photo before departure...

My first option for a replacement was a 1974 302 which was donated by my buddy Abe after he acquired a 351W. The story of this motor was documented here.

This is how the 302 looked for 99% of the time it was in my custody. The yellow polythene came with a mattress I bought from Ikea on the same day I acquired the motor. Later I passed it onto my friend Larry, who had it over-bored and rebuilt it before installing it in an Eleanor clone. I have no idea what he did with the polythene.

If you're wondering, the reason I let the 302 slide on by was this, my dream motor, my very own 351W. I acquired the 351W from the Koncord Kougar King, so naturally it came out of a Cougar, a 69 model to be precise. Here it is about to be loaded into Wayne's pick-up, one summer day in July 2011.

taking in San Leandro, on the way back to the Green Room

parked up and in line for some TLC...eventually...

Fast forward to November 2012, and I've got the day off work and just one thing on my mind: getting the 351W up on the engine stand. Now an engine stand is an odd thing: While it might be an expensive bit of kit, if you've got one you don't need it is an awful thing to store. I know the latter is true because when I floated my requirements for such an item among my car-friends I was inundated with proffered donations. My friend Larry got lucky because he lives closest to me. And, although the stand didn't come with any hardware, I managed to get what I needed from Home Depot for a few bucks. I started by bolting the stand face plate into the block; my 4.5 inch bolts were probably half an inch too long so I had to figure out some spacers.

So far so good, but the motor was still too heavy for me to lift it onto the stand, so I set about reducing the weight. Started by popping off the valve covers. The inside was very clean: no sludge, no filings, no broken springs etc; all very nice in fact.

Pulled out the stock manifold. I've already got a four barrel aluminum replacement stashed somewhere. The valley also looked in top notch condition with absolutely no sludge.

Off with the heads. This is when I began to really appreciate what a good set of tools can do...it was just *so much* easier.

There was a bit of crud on the top of the cylinders, but the walls were hardly scored at all. Yabba-dadda-do!

OK, so the motor was a lot lighter without the heads, but still far too heavy to lift it onto the stand. The sensible thing to do at this point would be to buy or borrow a cherry picker, or failing that, round up a couple of strong friends...but neither of these options was on my agenda. Oh, no. I like to do stuff the hard way. Started by chocking up the base with some pieces of timber. I just wanted to raise the base enough to slide the engine stand underneath.

I used a combination of the floor jack and a long piece of timber to jack up the platform in my tiny work space. Altogether I needed the equivalent of five 2x4's in height (approx 9.5 inches) to clear the engine stand (as below). I then inserted a bunch more pieces of lumber between the platform and the motor to gain another 6-8 inches of height. Unfortunately I was still about eight inches away from where I needed to be, and the position of the motor was becoming precarious. I literally could not go an inch higher without the motor toppling over....

So it may surprise you to see the next couple of pictures:

Here's the secret: I took the front caster off the engine stand, which, when angled down was at the perfect height. Then after the engine was mounted on the stand I levered in some timber and replaced the caster.

With this result:

Overall the cylinders were very clean, with just some light rust right at the top, probably from sitting for so long.

Drained out the oil...

Tune in to the next installment to find out "what's inside the oil pan" ;)

toolbox porn

It goes without saying that a lot of time and money has been invested in this project, so much so that I often refer to the '68 as "the car-shaped black hole in the garage." It may be surprising to learn then - or it may be obvious from this blog - that I have hardly spent any real dough on tools. And, since you asked, the nearest thing to a toolbox in my garage is a wooden beer crate. All my friends in BAMA laugh when they see my tools, and comments like "I can't believe how much you've accomplished with this pile of crap" are at the polite end of the spectrum. So, when I had the opportunity recently to cash in some chips, I splurged on a Craftsman 413 pc Mechanics Tool Set, a deep 6-drawer top chest, and a bunch of other stuff like the 41 pc screwdriver set and some ratcheting wrenches. Stay tuned to see these tools get REAL DIRTY!

It doesn't look much in the shipping box but it weighed a TON!

Nice shinny red tool box....soon to be covered in all the usual stickers

I hope I never have to buy another socket EVER....

...to make sure I got all the metric stuff too, but not as well organized.

every combination wrench up to inch eighth

Ratcheting wrenches in the common sizes....why-oh-why didn't I get these before now?

`more screwdrivers than you can shake a stick at...

this is the "pile of crap" that got me this far..

at last my shop all set up...

...now nothing can stop me!