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I made it home after 7 weeks on the road. Bought a gang of parts and tools.
I can’t get the ficken fan off! I tried clockwise and counterclockwise. I tried a MAP torch on it and it still won’t budge. Unfortunately I have to head back out on the road for 2 more weeks so I won’t get to touch it again for another few weeks.
i guess it’s OK if I cut the fan off since it’s massive. I’ll just have to order a fan/clutch from a 2500. That would fit my truck/rad better anyway.
i want to get the front dress off first, then will use the starter to turn it over to check compression, leak down, and oil pressure. Then I’ll start cleaning/painting/tune up/oil pan swap/etc.
Last edited by rang-a-stang; 03-18-2024 at 09:48 AM.
Had about an hour to wrench today. Here's what I started with (also posting this to record my belt routing for later):
Pulled the front dress off and the coil packs. Then put it on on my engine stand.
I drained the oil and inspected it. It looks like oil with about 1000 miles on it. No grit, no sparkles, no water. I feel pretty good about that.
Lastly I installed a mechanical oil pressure gauge where the factory sensor goes. Next up I will drop some fresh oil and ATF in it and check compression. Once compression is checked, it's gonna get cleaned, rattle canned, oil pan swap, and tune up.
I clipped off the metal portion of the oil cooler lines and connected both oil cooler lines together so the oil circuit is complete. Then I pulled all 8 plugs. #2 looks a little dark but it doesn't look like a plug that was in a water soaked cylinder or oily. I am assuming it was stored with #2's intake valve open. This picture makes some other plugs look bad but it's just the pic.
Hooked up the wrecking yard starter I bought and the cheap flex plate next. Both fit perfectly. Cranked it over for about 45 seconds but never got oil pressure. Grrrr.... It has 5 quarts of oil, 1 quart of ATF, and about half a quart of Marvel Mystery Oil in it. it's a 10qt pan but that should be plenty for the pickup. The motor spins cleanly and there were no odd sounds so I proceeded to compression checks. I am HOPING maybe I hooked up the jumper cables backwards and maybe I spun the motor backward?
Compression checks started on Cylinder 1. Found out my compression tester does not hold pressure. What I saw is as the motor turns, I could hear it slow on the compression stroke as it should. The needle on my gauge would go from 0 to 80, to 160'ish, quickly trickle down to about 110 as the motor turns, then pulse back up to about 160, then trickle down to 110 again over and over as the motor turned. I was hoping for 185 psi but never saw it. I got the EXACT same readings on all 8 cylinders. That tells me it is "probably" good. 160psi is enough to fire off.
Next up I put all the old plugs back in, stuffed a paper towel as deep as possible into each exhaust port and followed each towel up with a plastic bag to seal up the ports. I covered the throttle body and the oil fill tube to prevent water from getting in and pushed the engine out into the driveway and sprayed it down with degreaser. (before pics)
I hooked up my pressure washer to the hot water heater and spent the next 45 mins blasting away. It was NUTS how much dirt and grime came off! Check out my driveway! That's all from the engine!
Lastly I used compressed air to blow it all off to help it dry faster. I see a lot of markings from when the short block was replaced; I am hoping that is a good thing. I am prepping for paint next so I pulled off the coolant bypass hose and balancer. I hope to mask and paint the Valve covers, and block/heads today or tomorrow. I painted the "new" oil pan yesterday too. Here it is as I walked away yesterday.
BBC in AMC blue!
I got called on an emergency bidness trip for a few weeks so it's going to sit like this for a few weeks. I was able to get the "new" oil pan painted satin black but not able to swap it yet.
Had a few minutes before I fly away so I flipped her over and pulled the oil pan.
I noticed this tag earlier and I like it.... I know this engine has been out of the donor for at least 3 years, so that means it only had 9'ish years between rebuild and now.
Anywho, it looks CLLLLEAAAANNN on the inside! The black stuff on the bottom of the big pan is not gritty at all.
Check out the windage tray, mains, and rods! They look like they have no run time at all! Oil pickup was clean.
I tried my new to me oil pan (from a Silverado 8.1) and the pickup is not going to work. No real surprise there but kind of bummed. I'll order the correct one while I am on travel and it should be ready by the time I get home.
I took this picture just because I think it's cool to see the 8.1 cast in the side. This will be the only marking anywhere that will show the true size of this beast.
Well crap. I ordered a Melling 241S and it is clearly too short. I measure about 8.25" from from the block. My oil pan measures about 9.75" from the block. That's a 1.5" gap. Gggrrr...
Looking around online, it looks like Melling 307S is for a deeper pan so I ordered it. It shows up tomorrow morning at my local McParts store. I want to get my oil pan on tomorrow and get the engine flipped back upright.
Ahhhh... much better. Melling's 307S gave me about 1/2" of clearance between the bottom of the pan and the pickup. First I measured:
Then I ran a little emery cloth over the portion of the pickup that goes into the water pump to roughen it up a little, cleaned the whole thing in alcohol, and threw it in the freezer for a couple hours. I leveled the block across the #1 main bolts, grabbed the pickup out of the freezer, coated the interference portion in red Loctite, drove it home, and then leveled it off.
Next up came the oil pan. I put RTV in the 4 corners but otherwise installed it dry with a new Fel Pro OS 30714 R oil pan gasket, torqued to 18ft/#s in a cross pattern, and cleaned/installed the oil level sensor in the side.
After that picture was taken I passed a tap through every single down facing and forward facing bolt hole. Some of those holes were SUPER crusty. When I rotate it back upright, I will spray them out with brake cleaner. I also ordered a new compression tester and installed my new Baldwin B1428 oil filter.
Next up is the forward and rear main seals, permanently installing the flexplate and starter, tap the bell housing bolt holes, and tune up.
Last edited by rang-a-stang; 05-06-2024 at 10:26 PM.
Yes sir! I appreciate the kind words!
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Had a couple hours (collectively) over the last week. I hoisted it off the stand, tapped/cleaned out all the bellhousing bolt holes, put a new GM rear main seal on it, and final installed the flex plate. I used blue loctite on all the bolts, torqued them to 15ft/#s, 30ft/#s, and then 75ft/l#s then stuck it back on the engine stand. Next up, I final installed the starter, put in a new stock temp AC Delco TStat and new GM coolant bypass hose, an AC Delco forward main seal, and 6 fresh quarts of 5W-30. Hooked up my Mazda via jumper cables (paying particular attention to the polarity). After about 40 seconds of cranking:
YESSS!!! That makes me feel MUCH better! I also picked up another cheap compression gauge. Cylinders 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7 had 155 psi. 6 and 8 had 160 and 165 respectively. I tested the odd side first, then up the even side. I am assuming those last two cylinders were slightly higher because they were the last two I checked and maybe they were getting lubed at that point and the oil may have sealed the rings a little? Anyway, IMHO, these are fantastic numbers showing a healthy engine.
I threw a set of NGK Iridium plugs in it (gapped to .045) and called it a night. I know I post a lot of pictures of my engine and they all look the same but to me, they show progress. Here is how it looks after all this:
The only things I have left on my checkoff sheet for the engine prior to install are to 1) remove a broken exhaust manifold stud, 2) swap out the oil cooler line adapters (mine are a little crusty and I do not trust them to not leak), and 3) install the crank pulley. I need to find a dipstick tube, too but I can install it without the dipstick. The dipstick from the workhouse oil pan will not work with this pan BUT I am not going to buy it until the front accessory drive is back on. Neither of these actions (dipstick or accessroy drive install) will happen before I install the engine. Sooooo... all that to say, this thread will go cold for a while because once the 3 steps above are complete, I will pull my trans and Xfer case out to prep them for install. Next post should be my engine and trans married together. Hopefully that will be by mid-June.
Last edited by rang-a-stang; 05-08-2024 at 11:23 PM.
03-17-2024, 12:25 PM
What I saw is as the motor turns, I could hear it slow on the compression stroke as it should. The needle on my gauge would go from 0 to 80, to 160'ish, quickly trickle down to about 110 as the motor turns, then pulse back up to about 160, then trickle down to 110 again over and over as the motor turned. I was hoping for 185 psi but never saw it. I got the EXACT same readings on all 8 cylinders. That tells me it is "probably" good. 160psi is enough to fire off. 
