Brief update

A few weeks ago, I formally started "working on Peanut" again by sweeping out as many spiderwebs as I could and clearing out a bunch of crap that I had been storing under the truck. The old fuel tank that I was considering selling was sent to the dump, where I imagine it will be recycled or something.

I bought some hardware to hang a shop light over the engine bay (which light had been purchased a few years ago), but haven't installed it yet.

At the moment, I have the battery charger running at low power to see if the battery will take a charge. The charger meter shows near 100% charge, but I have my doubts about the battery's abilities after all this time.

Why does my house smell like gas?

Oh, because I left the fuel tank outlet line unhooked. That was dumb.

Cranked on the fuel pump inlet fitting with the 2' cheater bar. Seems to have fixed the leak.

After another hiatus...

Pulled plugs and cleaned with wire brush & shop towels.

Checked gaps and reset where necessary (two were a bit over) to .060

Hand-turned engine to where the ball on the flywheel lined up with the needle.

Looked at the distributor -- just where it should be, with the 6 points on the rotating star lined up with the points on the fixed piece.

Hooked everything back up -- won't start. There's a wet "pop" sound every once in a while when cranking.

I noticed that the fuel pump bowl is very full. I disconnected the line between the pump and the carb -- no gas comes out, even while cranking. Time to pull the pump.

Disconnected the fuel line from the gas tank to prevent siphoning. Disconnected the main fuel line from the fuel pump inlet. Blew air (using a straw) into the main fuel line - some fuel came out the other end; doesn't appear clogged. Checked the fuel gage - still fuel in there. The fuel pump bowl is totally full, but there's no visible particulates clogging the filter screen. Blew air thru the pump-carb fuel line - no obstructions there either.

Pulled the fuel pump. Some gold-colored deposits on the inside of the glass bowl. Tried pumping some gas out of a gas can - doesn't seem to be sucking. Blew air into inlet - no clogs there.

Pulled fuel pump apart & reassembled - no visible problems. This aftermarket/repro pump doesn't have removable valves like the original, so I can't inspect those.

Hand test on the inlet - seems like there's good suction. Hand cranked pump -- got good flow pumping out of a gas can. I might not have been pushing hard enough on the crank before? Noted that the bowl is 1/4 to 3/4 full when pumping.

Applied a little more blue gasket dressing and reinstalled the pump. Still won't start.

Don't see any fuel flowing into the pump. Dumped the rest of the gas can into the fuel tank -- now the gas is flowing into the pump. But she still won't start.

And there's a nice fuel leak on both sides of the pump. While cleaning up, I notice my old note that I had to use a 2' cheater bar on a box wrench in order to tighten the fuel lines properly before.

Need to charge the battery, but not yet since there's probably some gas fumes in the garage.

Cranks, but won't catch

With the choke all the way in and my foot on the gas, she coughs and sputters, but won't keep going.

I pulled the spark plugs -- they're very carboned, and some have gasoline on them.

Looks way off TDC -- rotated back to TDC and then back a few degrees. I ran a drill in the oil pump to get some oil circulating. The oil seems a bit runny and smells of gasoline?

Reinstalled the HEI at 90 degrees to the engine. Wiped off and reinstalled the plugs.

Still won't start at all...

Under Pressure

Supposedly I just need to turn the oil pump a little to get the distro tang to engage...

Disconnected the vacuum line from the distributor advance. Removed the cap w/wires.

Bumped the engine until the rotor points at 90 degrees from the engine axis.

Removed the wires to the coil (red +, black -). Pulled the road draft tube for better access to the distro clamp.

Hmm...comparing photos shows that the original distro sits much lower than the HEI one is sitting.

Measurements: ~3 1/4" from the top of the distro clamp to the distro-driving gear. 5 3/4" from the top of the clamp to the slot in the oil pump.

Turns out the shoulder on the HEI distributor is about an inch too low. Looked at installing the old distributor and whatnot, but after cleaning up the contacts on the old distributor cap, decided it wasn't worth the hassle.

So I spent a good deal of time with a Dremel and ground down the lip on the HEI distributor -- the Dremel was required since I couldn't figure out how to get the thing mounted in a lathe securely.

After trimming it down, I re-installed, and the distro definitely sunk down a little more.

Cranking the engine shows some oil pressure and oil circulation is visible. The engine started -- and then died. Now it won't turn over, but the battery is running low. Time to charge it.

Cleanin' bolts

Based on last week's experience with the new #9 bolt, I decided to clean up all of the threads before torquing the head bolts down.

I pulled out all the pushrods for better access to the bolts. Then I pulled all of the new head bolts and ran them thru the die, which was no small task. I used the round hole in the end of Peanut's bedsides as a sort of clamp for holding the die while I cranked on a bolt with a ratchet, with a bit of pipe insulation around the handle of the die to keep it from damaging the bedside metal.

I tapped all of the head bolt holes that I could -- the #11 wouldn't take the die all the way, and I couldn't reach the #17 hole because the firewall is in the way.

Installed the new GR8 bolts and torqued to 70 ft-lb, then 80, then 90. Note that the torque spec for GR8 1/2-13 bolts is 110 ft-lb dry and 80 ft-lb lubed.

I tapped & died the rocker arm bolts and holes (they were pretty clean to begin with) and installed the rocker arm assembly & tightened to 20-25 ft-lb. Then I set the valve lash.

I fired up the engine -- but there's no oil pressure! And I don't see any oil circulating!

Out, out, damned bolt!

I modified a drill bit extension for this project -- I turned its outer diameter down a bit on the lathe at work to get to .500" diameter to fit into the bolt hole. There's just enough thickness left on the barrel of the extension for its set screws to get some grip, but just barely.

I was able to use that extension with a left-handed drill bit to get out the #9 head bolt shank. Whew! Although I did drop one of the extension's set screws down the pushrod hole -- I was able to dig it out with a magnet-on-a-stick.

The new #9 bolt wouldn't set in all the way, so I pulled it out and ran it through a die - now it sets great.