Well,,,,,I’ve been putting off this day, but yet I’m eager to get into this project that is waiting for us. Dona’s 63 is a little sick and we need to perform some major surgery on her. There is nothing a bottle of magic additive will take care of it, or some other remedy,,,,we just gotta pull the motor and do some work on her. From the time we drove her home we’ve had a problem of oil spiting out of breather cap which sits on the valve cover, or as they call it “Blow-by”. I was not too sure what the causes blow by and at first I did try some additives but after a little research I found out about was causes excess “blow-by”. It has very slowly gotten worse over the year and we even took her into a mechanic over Christmas and found out that on Cylinder is only at 20 psi, when it should be at 110-150 psi–ouch!!! Then I eventually did a compression test and found out that we had another cylinder at 80 psi, and to make a long story short, most likely there is a problem with the piston rings and the only way to get to the rings is to pull the motor apart–bummer!
So today seemed to be just as good as any day to get started on this project, so as the rain gently feel I started to slowly take the outer engine parts off,,,,ya know, wiring, fan, radiator, distributor… Tomorrow Deb and I will be taking off the intake manifold, rocker arms, water pump, and maybe even the heads. Yes, I said Debbie—she’s very excited about helping with this engine project and she’s looking forward to learning all about engines and what makes them tick. The last time I did any kind of work like this I was 17 and we overhauled the 350 that was out of my El Camino. Debbie asked me how Donna was doing and I said she was a bit nervous and scared, mainly saying that I’m a bit nervous about this project.
The plan is to replace the rings with new Moly coated rings, maybe do a piston upgrade, and cam-shaft upgrade. We also plan on gutting the engine compartment and prepping it for new paint as that is the one area that did not get good coating when my Dad had it painted. I’m giving myself a year to get this done and if we get it done sooner, well great, and if it takes a bit longer, that’s OK to.
So for now Donna will sleep and we will gently and slowly take her apart and then put her all back together with some new parts and some new paint.
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