Thread: Project Special K

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So today was a day off and the shop was still crammed full of junk like old boxes and beatup or broken discarded parts, so I continued to clean house. I then started to work on removing the engine. First off, removing the hood by myself, only one bolt snapped off, hopefully it won't be a problem. I hade to create a space to work on the engine and for the hood, etc. So I decided trucks are great because when in doubt, throw it in the bed!
Then I organized all the engine parts on the shelves, and finally finished with recycling 20 cardboard boxes. I think I'll wait until my friend is availible this weekend to pull the engine.Here is a photo of the truck minus the hood

Here is a shot of all my parts where I can finally see and find them

And last but not least, the truck being used like a truck!

Windy nasty day today. Barely got the oil drained, felt like there was something in the air that burned my eyes and made my nose run. Funny thing is the oil is new, only a few hours of running the engine parked with it, yet it was black and stank like gas. I also put a new oil filter on when I changed it a few months ago. The old oil looked and smelled the same way, but that was in the car for 7 years, before I bought it and changed it! Any ideas as to the smell? Problems I should be aware of? Chime in, thanks, Steve

Well i think when you just drained the pan you have oil up in top of block and lifters . When you ran it your picking up the residule oil in block . May take a few changes to get it all out or a tear down and clean.

thanks Bobby I hope your right!

Well look at you!! Your garage looks all organized and clean. I'm getting better myself at keeping ours straightened up and it does make a lot of difference. I hate tripping over stuff and not finding things you need.

I think Bobby is right, your clean detergent oil is doing it's job. You may have to change it and the filter quite a few times before all the old crud is removed. Oils today get blacker much faster because of the high detergent levels in them. Whatever you do, don't speed up the process by adding one of those 5 minute engine flush additives. I used one of those one time and all the stuff washed down into the pan and plugged up my pump screen. Had to pull the pan to remove all the junk it cleaned out of the top of the motor. By letting your oil do it the dirt will be removed at an acceptable rate over time.

You scored really well on that engine lift.

Don

Well today, I got off my a$$ and started to remove the engine. Many hours later it is still connected to tranny via the torque converter I'm guessing. It took longer than I thought to disconnect everything. With Dennys help and only two thread highjacks sorry guys!, ) I got to the point of the motormounts free, the tranny unbolted from the engine, and the cherry picker hooked up. The immediate problems include the steering bar under the truck runs so low it hits the arm(legs) of the cherry picker, so I had to jack the truck up to clear the legs of the hoist, to get the hoist over the engine. Next, the tranny was so fond of being attached to this engine it wouldn't let go. I was doing this all solo*(although Pretzel tried to help) so my frustration factor was high. I decided to stop for the day and post where I'm at. I think I might bolt the tranny back on and pull the whole power train altogether, then separate them once out of the truck. I'm worried that I might not clear the hood front with the truck jacked up, so we'll see. I also figured out why the engine is in at a 9 dgree angle see photos below. The crank pulley sits right above a frame cross member, by about 1/4 inch, so he could drop it any lower without removing that. I know these engines will fit into this truck, because CPP sells a motor mount for a 460 for the 48 F1 truck that bolts in, I think the engine just needs to go further back! So I'll order that and see how the engine sits with it in. I'd like to get the engine out without the tranny, but can't seem to get the torque converter off the fly wheel(maybe the engine angle affects that too. Advice, thoughts?

I do think you will be happier if you can move the engine back a few inches to drop into the space behind that crossmember.

Dumb question on your engine not coming out situation. You did remove the torque converter to flexplate bolts, didn't you? If so, like Denny said, you might just have things cocked in there and the locating pins are keeping the transmission to be stuck on the block.

Little different than those nice, light small block Chevy engines, huh??

Don

Yeah! I took the 4 nuts off the torque converter from the fly wheel, but couldn't get it to slide back. I'll try playing with jacking the tranny and engine together. I might have to wait for help later in the week if that doesn't work! Good thing I bought the lift, just think 5 days rental would be what I already paid!
Boy I'm stiff and sore now! I think for every step foward the truck takes a few blows back in the form of punishment to my body! Maybe I'll name it Christine!

My neighbor showed up in town today, so tomorrow we'll try to get the beast out! Meanwhile on Dave's and Don's and a few other of you guy's advice I've been hunting around about rebuild kits and rebuilt engines. I think I found the solution today from a place called S & S in Spokane, Wa. They sell rebuilt engines to your specs for very reasonable prices with pretty good warrentees. The parts are all new and name brand. I talked with a guy there, told him what I have and what I want, and this is the quote he gave me:

Engine cost 1485.00
Core charge 200.00
Cloy's Double row timing set 50.00
Series 2 street performance cam 50.00
shipping 175.00 to my door, fork lift free.= 1960.00 total.


This long block comes with the block, heads, and all the internals. The only thing you will need is the external covers. Such as oil pan, valves covers, intake. Ect...
The engine also includes a complete set of Felpro gaskets and a new Melling oil pump, as well as an unbeatable warranty.
The engine comes with a 7 year 70,000 mile warranty. We cover parts and labor for the full 7 years. The standard labor rate that applies with this warranty is 50.00 per hour up to a max of 850.00 (This warranty also applies for self installation). The only thing that changes for self installation is the amount of labor we cover. For self installation we cover 15.00 a hour. We do however offer a Premium Warranty that will cover 85.00 per hour up to a max of 1200.00. The Premium warranty is a additional 350.00.( This warranty is for ASE certified installation only.)

This engine is built with premium pro stock aftermarket parts, they are as fallows. The pistons used are Federal Mogul or Sealed Power(in my case, flat top hypereutectic pistons), Rings are Hastings, new Durabond hardened seats, Cloy's steel timing set, Elgin stainless steel valves, springs, keepers, retainers, rockers, push rods, lifters, nuts, fulcrums, and cam. The crank is reground and polished, and new Clevite77 over sized bearings are used. The blocks are baked, shotpeened, and magnafluxed Then the blocks are bored, and diamond honed. This same process is used on our cylinder heads.

Casey Fulks
S & S Engine Manufacturing Company
1023 N. Monroe Street
Spokane Washington 99201

I don't think I'll be able to beat this, plus, I'm pretty sure I can sell my existing engine on craigslist for 3-400.00 bucks since it runs! Chime in!

I take it that is a 460 you are talking about, Steve? If so, that seems like a good price to me. BBF are not cheap to rebuild, and if these guys have a good reputation you should be ok.

We'll see what some of our engine guys on here think.

Don

Actually a 429.

Still good.

Don

That's what I thought. I asked the guy, if he could match my dove-c heads and he said yes. He also sounded honest. They've been in buisness for 38 years, and have direct purchasing on parts, for cheaper prices.

Well we got the engine out today, suffice to say I missed a bolt that was hidden behing the transmission filler tube. After an explosive moment, luckily nobody was hurt, it broke free taking a block tab with it! Picture says it all. Truck sits up a bit higher now.

It's funny, when my neighbor helped me get the engine out the other day, I told him we might as well pull the tranny out at the same time. So I disconnected the linkage, but couldn't get at the bolts that hold it to the cross member. Closer inspection has revealed why. I guess that put it in there could figure how to get at the bolts either so he bolted the bracket to two tabs, dropped it in place and welded the tabs to the cross member. Fortunately I've ordered two new cross members, one for the motor mounts and one for the transmission, so this hopefully won't happen again. the engine was also hard mounted without motormount rubber, so I've got those on order two. I hope it all fits like the CPP pages say it should, with their aftermarket mounts. I've run into a lot of info about 429/460's for trucks only and for cars only. Any idea what is different about them. I noticed if I drop my engine down more, past the front cross member, I'll have problems with the alternator hitting a side brace. I've seen some aftermarket billet alternator mounts that relocate it to the passenger side cylinder head are and bolt it to one of the water pump holes. As I'm selling the old engine, I'm wondering about keeping the old pulleys or buying a new set. I like the March Performance ones, but would just like a replacement set with the right diameters. It seems you either get a different size water pump pulley that increases your water flow, or you get a different size alternator pulley that drops the revolutions to the alternator, to increase horsepower. Since I have a new weiand aluminum water pump that is high flow, it doesn't make sense to go that dirrection. And I have no idea what my electrical requirements will be, but I have a new 100 amp one lead alternator from summit for electrical needs. I'd really just like to find a set that works with the alternator in the higher position, using one v belt to run all three pulleys(waterpump, crank, and alternator) Any suggestions, billet or chrome would be nice, but steel works too. Steve.