all about timing

It's been a bit of a frustrating week on the truck front. Monday afternoon, I had some extra time on my hands, so I decided to do some follow up maintenance to the 454. This engine had 360 miles on it, when I got the truck, so it is now "broken in," and ready for some minor adjusting. The valves (in the heads of the engine), fall into this category. This is not typically a major job, but leave it to my recent luck to turn this into a major job. I first, adjusted the valves by the book, I followed the same method I have used for years, on V8s. As I was re assembling everything, literally, the last bolt I was tightening... BROKE! The bolt broke off inside the head of the engine! it broke flush with the surface. insert moment of quiet panic, and anxiousness, followed quickly by loud outbursts of select expletives--here.

So now, this is priority no. 1. Get the bolt out. I drilled successfully into the center of the bolt, with a small drill bit, and proceeded to follow the small bit with gradually larger bits, until the bolt was able to be pulled out in small pieces. so, I'm out of the woods, right? everything is moving-relatively-smooth. ok... last drill bit size, here comes the bolt, awesome... SNAP! The ... wait, what? (it is beginning to get a little dark out) what just snapped? oh! of course it is the drill bit... so.. F*C@!#@$!!! Now I have a broken drill bit, inside of a broken bolt, inside of the head!

24 hrs later, some expensive drill bits, some careful dremmel-ing, and holding my tongue right, and we have usable threads! ok-- button it up, tighten the bolts, and let's get this thing running.

CRANK, CRANK, CRANK... NOTHIN'. crank...crank...crank...BOOM! I'm pretty sure that backfire cleared out all the deer in a ten mile radius :) well... truck's not running, what happened? must have messed up something in the valve adjustment??

oh geez.. It's now Saturday, and this is easily one of the most frustrating mechanic days, I have had in a long time. That's the most of the drama really, bottom line, it took me the entire day, saturday, to get the valves adjusted correctly, and the problem ended up being a combination valve adjustment, and timing. all in all, the timing of the stroke of the engine, is a VERY finicky, low tolerance, fine tuned, process.

The truck DOES run smoother, and start, and shut down much cleaner. But, taking a running vehicle, adjusting something to make it run better, and then ending up with a non-running vehicle, is extremely frustrating. I'm glad it's done, and in the future, even though you are supposed to adjust the valves after break-in, If the engine is running great, LEAVE IT ALONE!

I have done some body work on the truck, another post coming soon about all that progress.

thanks for checkin in :)

If you build it, They will come...

well... as most of my household projects are begun, this weekend, I began by taking out a bush. 1.) it was in my way, every morning while going to wake up the '71 (nothing should be in the way of this process!) and 2.) we have been thinking about extending our garage roof line to make a carport. Of course its for the '71! we wouldn't want her to have to sit in the wintery rain, especially after she has had a beautiful paint job. So this carport... we are going to basically add on to our garage, keeping the same roof line, just extending it by about 12' or so. We may poor some strip footings, that way, if we ever decided to enclose it and make it a full on garage-mahal, then we could do so easily.

The carport will serve double duty really. Ok, my real motive creeps in in about 12 seconds... You see, I only have a one car garage right now. for the normal weekend warrior, this should suffice, so long as you don't plan on parking a car in the garage, OR you don't plan on restoring the love of your life WHILE remodeling your house. The garage acts as double duty workshop/storage for things to work on in the workshop. So... if I can have somewhere for the storage to move i.e. back of carport, then I can actually use the workshop as a 'workshop' or paint booth, etc. what? a paint booth? indeed! A decision has been made, I will be painting the '71, and she will be Rally Red, its the color red they used on the '67 corvettes (my dream car.)

I have done lots of research into the whole painting gig, what you need for tools, what is the best, what to avoid, how to practice, practice, practice. And how to do it all over again after you fudge it up. I have a friend from back in high school who owns an IMMACULATE '54? gmc.. sorry Chris*, I know the year is somewhere close. But he painted the truck himself as a teenager, so I consulted him, and it seems like if I get in any tight spots, he will be the guy to call. Yes, Chris, I signed you up for this :) Anywho... I figure If I'm going to go all out, and do this truck build, then I should have the facilities for it. And I'm sure at some point during construction, Satchel Page and Team will come slowly creeping out of the 8' tall blackberry patch that is my front yard, and start swingin' hammers with me to get it done...

So the drawing/planning/building will begin. The truck is in great shape right now. I have it to where it is a comfortable everyday driver, and in the meantime, before disassembly begins, I will be patching in some rust free rocker panels, and continue to clean things up under the baby's belly. sorry folks, no images for this post, so if you have made it this far into the reading, congratulations, and thanks for keeping up. I will put up pics of the "before" for the carport soon, and will update apppropriately, as needed.

*No names have been changed for protection of identity. his name really is Chris. and he's a good guy.