The first "Hawk-Rod" resurrection, Roadkill style

[monroegtx]

looking forward to the startup vid Hawk. Not sure about the clear coat, but that's just personal taste. I'd probably need to see it all installed to really judge it. I've no doubt that which ever way you go it'll be amazing. Loving it.

 

[HawkRod]

Spent time messing with carb linkage, painting some stuff, bringing up the tranny, and putting the engine in the K-member.

Here is the Edelbrock 600 carb I will be breaking it in with. I know it works well and want something reliable during the critical first 30 minutes.

However, 600 CFM will not be enough for this engine. Here is the Thermoquad I want to use. According to the numbers, it is off of a 400 cubic inch car from 70-76. I think it is 800 CFM which the engine should be much happier with. I rebuilt it many years ago but haven't run it.

Tomorrow I hope to clean the tranny, replace the tail shaft with the gear vendors unit and connect the transmission to the engine.

Progress!

 

[Builderguy]

Hawk,
Skip the clear coat!!! The thinner the paint film is, the less heat it retains. That means the paint will stay pristine longer. Too many layers and the paint will start to "internally cook" and start to discolor and fail.

https://knowhow.napaonline.com/how-to-paint-an-engine/

P.S. Fine job you are doing, Sir.

 

[HawkRod]

Hawk,
Skip the clear coat!!! The thinner the paint film is, the less heat it retains. That means the paint will stay pristine longer. Too many layers and the paint will start to "internally cook" and start to discolor and fail.

https://knowhow.napaonline.com/how-to-paint-an-engine/

P.S. Fine job you are doing, Sir.

Thanks for the link and the article. I think I did most of what they recommended except that I used rattle can paint. Hopefully it holds up!

I will just leave the aluminum bare and hope that some sporadic cleaning can keep it nice.

P.S. If you are bored now that your car looks so nice, you are welcome to come over and fix some of the rust on this one!!!

 

[Don Frelier]

The thermoquad is a spreadbore and the Edelbrock is a square bore. Do you have a different intake to go with it?

 

[HawkRod]

Crap!!!

So I went to put the Gear Vendors tail shaft on my transmission this morning. Nope. Not gonna happen.

The transmission park pawl assembly has a half moon shaped piece with a pin in it. This piece sits in the tail shaft and rocks back and forth when Park is engaged. The hole for the pin is mis-drilled in the Gear Vendors tail shaft. It is offset from center, so the half moon piece doesn't fit.

Here are pictures although it may be hard to see. Stock shaft on on left, Gear Vendors on right.

Here is the Gear Vendors unit. You can see the hole is not centered (off to the left).

Here is a closeup of the stock tail shaft.

Gear Vendors is not open until Monday, so I have to wait until then before I call them. Unless they can get a replacement out PRONTO, I might be dead in the water for leaving September 7th.
I will connect the transmission as a stock unit and put the whole K-Member in the car. It'll take more time to swap it out when it is in the car, but if I get the pieces in time I can at least do that.

I started working on some other stuff to avoid throwing **** around the garage in frustration. I got the carb and kickdown linkage set up on the engine, and will keep working on other stuff that bolt to the front of the engine like the power steering and alternator.

 

[HawkRod]

The thermoquad is a spreadbore and the Edelbrock is a square bore. Do you have a different intake to go with it?

The manifold I have on the engine is a spreadbore manifold. To run the Edelbrock I have an adapter plate to allow the square bore to work. So the Thermoquad fits it beautifully!

Thanks for checking on me to be sure I don't stumble on other issues! Luckily, this will not be one of them!

Hawk

 

[qkcuda]

Hawk, what's happening with the gear vendors?

 

[Builderguy]

Breathe Hawk, breathe. One breath at a time, the car will come around. It wants to go on this trip as much as you do. Do what you can do and let the other pieces fall into place. Keep working on all the little things you thought you would not have time for. Turn a negative into a positive and all that other kinda crap people say. I do see some 12 hour days in your future.

 

[HawkRod]

Hawk, what's happening with the gear vendors?

Breathe Hawk, breathe. One breath at a time, the car will come around. It wants to go on this trip as much as you do. Do what you can do and let the other pieces fall into place. Keep working on all the little things you thought you would not have time for. Turn a negative into a positive and all that other kinda crap people say. I do see some 12 hour days in your future.

Sorry, haven't had time to even post an update. I just got back from my father-in-law's but did get a lot done over the weekend.

First, with the Gear Vendors tail shaft: I have to say they have been very responsive and have had good customer service. When I called them Monday about the issue (and sent the same pictures I posted above), the guy I spoke to said all the cases and C&C machined, and this is their second most popular kit. He doubted there should be problem but got their lead tech involved. The tech said the half moon piece (called simply a 'seat') does fit in, but has a tighter fit in their unit. He said to be sure to line up the pin and the hole and tap it into place. Well, it worked, and I then put the tail shaft back on the transmission.

Had to deal with some other issues. For example, the aluminum heads are physically bigger then the cast iron heads. This put my alternator bracket out too far. Notice the gap where my finger is.

So I had to cut it apart

Shorten the one side of the bracket and weld it back together

Here it is after trial fitting it and before paint

I messed with a whole bunch of other brackets and stuff to get things aligned. I had to shim out the water pump pulley about 1/32" too.

Finally got it ready to put in the car. Note one old valve cover. I wanted to modify the other aluminum one so the PCV and breather fit better, so I needed the Bridgeport at my father-in-law's place.

Note also the installed gear vendors adapter tail shaft (the unit is not yet installed). And, yes, my old, rusty, crappy headers. They will have to get pressed into service - no $1000 left for TTI headers!

Finally, got it back installed in the car.

I need the radiator, wiring, finish the Gear Vendor's install and to mount a bunch of small stuff before I can start the car, but I am getting closer. Hopefully I can start the car Saturday morning.

One step at a time!

 

[HawkRod]

My goal is to start the car and break the engine in on Saturday.

Most things are in, hooked up and ready to go. In the pictures below you'll see blue tape for things that still need to be done - like fuel for carb, water for radiator, check oil level, etc.

This side also has the completed valve cover modification that allows the factory breather gasket and breather to fit. I also modified the PCV valve area so the gasket catches on a lip in the valve cover and stays put. I then had to add baffles too.

The biggest hurdle left is the Gear Vendors install. I was working tonight on clearancing the transmission tunnel for the Gear Vendors unit. I think the 73 model year has a step down in the transmission tunnel that requires more clearancing than a 68-70, but that is just a guess. What is NOT a guess is more clearancing is needed then just a couple of dimples! No pictures of this yet, I'll take some tomorrow to show the unit.

Hawk

 

[monroegtx]

Great to hear that Gear Vendors helped sort out your install issue. Hope you don't have to many issues finishing that one off. Car is coming together fast now. Well done.

 

[HawkRod]

I got the Gear Vendors unit installed today. Per se, if the clearance is OK, this is an easy-peasy job. The difficulty comes when you have to beat a transmission tunnel into submission in order to get it to fit without hitting!

The main offending parts of the gear vendors units are the two bolt flanges shown below. The unit is round, but these two square it off a bit and hit the tight tunnel.

Using a hammer of any kind is almost impossible since you have no distance to swing it. But I used various means to beat the tunnel where needed. I think I had the gear vendors unit in and out 7 times before I achieved a good fit. In the picture below, you can see the beat up part of the tunnel that needed clearancing.

Finally, it fit as needed and I fully installed it and final tightened all bolts. When installed, it looks like this:

Gear vendors gives you a new yoke to use with their unit, so I have to bring that and my driveshaft to a place tomorrow morning to have my driveshaft shortened and have the new yoke installed. But the install is not done yet. I still need to install the control unit, and speedo cable. That will be a topic of a future update.

However, I am mostly done and ready to start the engine tomorrow. Of course, weird things can and do happen. Remember this car was a true daily driver with no overall issues 4 years ago when the engine blew. But now, suddenly, when I put some water in the radiator, the brazed area around the transmission cooler line is leaking. Crap. I guess I need to try and braze that tomorrow.

The picture above shows water coming out the drain because I opened it, but the leak is at the closest transmission fitting.

Oh, well, one problem at a time!

 

[HawkRod]

Sorry I've been slow to post updates - I have been running hard and trying to keep going.

Unfortunately, I have had to pull the plug on driving across country this fall. There is no way to get everything done in light of the setbacks I have had.

I brazed the leak in the radiator and that was fine, but I have had other setbacks. The first major setback was fairly easy to address. I stretched my pushrods too long trying to maximize my valvetrain action, but they were too long to be able to adjust properly. So I had to wait and get another set so I could get appropriate valve lash.

The next issue has been shortening my driveshaft due to the Gear Vendors. A company said they could do it in a couple of days, and then when I called to pick it up, said there was a backlog and it would take "at least" a couple of weeks to get it done. I went and picked up the driveshaft and took it somewhere else. It is done now and I pick it up tomorrow, but it has involved 6 hours of extra driving I didn't plan for.

The big issue was startup. I started the fresh engine and ran it for 30 minutes, varying the speed between 1800 and 2500 RPM. Per se, all is fine with that. Luckily, no wiped camshaft. HOWEVER, my left exhaust was belching white smoke the entire time. I have to figure out what is wrong, and at this point, I am out of time. I will, of course, continue to get the car running and working, but there is no way it can be ready in 2 weeks for a 12,000 mile drive across country both ways. I need more time to ensure it is working well.

I did make some progress on the Gear Vendor install. Gear Vendors supplies a speedometer cable connector that connects the factory speedometer cable with the Gear Vendor's cable. Unfortunately, you need to design your own way to mount it. I came up with this bracket design to mount it right at the transmission mount.

I made this out of flat stock. I am still a babe in the woods when it comes to metal working, but practice makes perfect. Here is the bracket mocked up before paint showing the way is mounted.

This bracket worked out well and holds the assembly perfectly.

Today I plan to do a compression and leakdown test to try and determine what is going on with my engine.

 

[qkcuda]

That's too bad Hawk. White smoke sounds like coolant making it's way into the combustion chamber.

 

[Don Frelier]

 

[JDmac72chrgr]

HELLUVA DRIVE TO "GIT-R-DONE"!! Nice bracket: damn 1st f@$#'king driveshaft shop, POS!!!

You didn't loose, just a setback, but you get the idea!! KEEP AT IT HAWK!!

 

[Builderguy]

That sucks!!! I get a little more than pissed when a vender/supplier tells me a date that they know they can't meet just to get my money. I looks like you did everything right, but every now and then ya just get kicked in the *** for no reason. Silver lining bullshit, you now have a little time to address any little things that were "time allowing". Still sucks.

I do feel your pain though, Missed Carlisle, Missed Hickory Corners, Missed Dream Cruise, but DAMMIT we are not going to miss Frankenmuth! Even if I have to tow the car in, it is going to be in that show.

Keep on Hawk, it will get done one way or another.

 

[HawkRod]

That's too bad Hawk. White smoke sounds like coolant making it's way into the combustion chamber.

Yeah, thought (hoped) I might have a bad intake manifold gasket, so I pulled that off. Nope. It was fine.
Now I have to test for a blown head gasket, but really??? My engine deck is as flat as a pancake, with brand new heads. Putting a head gasket on is simple. No RTV, no glue, pins to align it, etc. How the hell can that be bad?!?!
I have been extremely careful and diligent in building this engine. But obviously, something is wrong. I just have to find it and fix it. Despite my care, did I screw something up?

HELLUVA DRIVE TO "GIT-R-DONE"!! Nice bracket: damn 1st f@$#'king driveshaft shop, POS!!! View attachment 1156561
You didn't loose, just a setback, but you get the idea!! KEEP AT IT HAWK!!

That sucks!!! I get a little more than pissed when a vender/supplier tells me a date that they know they can't meet just to get my money. I looks like you did everything right, but every now and then ya just get kicked in the *** for no reason. Silver lining bullshit, you now have a little time to address any little things that were "time allowing". Still sucks.

I do feel your pain though, Missed Carlisle, Missed Hickory Corners, Missed Dream Cruise, but DAMMIT we are not going to miss Frankenmuth! Even if I have to tow the car in, it is going to be in that show.

Keep on Hawk, it will get done one way or another.

Keep up the good fight to make it to Frankenmuth - I'll keep my fingers crossed that nothing unexpected happens.

Thanks guys for the words of encouragement. It's still hugely disappointing. I don't like losing.

I'll loosely plan for a spring trip instead, and use the winter to get this thing sorted and get some miles on it.

 

[MoparJimT]

I am sorry to hear about your set back. I was really looking forward to that beer and swapping stories. I wish I could help and would if I could. Keep up the good fight. It is just the nature of building cars.