Yankee Express RestoMod Project

[Brandy]

Your not gonna use that pass. side water pump housing, are ya?

Yes. Why? Will it disintegrate after 5 seconds or something?

 

[Brandy]

Or do YOU covet it? heh,heh,,,,it does have a brand new pump on it...actually, the motor had a left outlet on it in the truck so as to not cover the timing mark. I will have to think about it some. Is there a way to get the light on the mark from an angle?

 

[5.7 hemi]

It’s inlet is on the pass. side, which was mostly motor homes. Cars were drivers side.

 

[Brandy]

It’s inlet is on the pass. side, which was mostly motor homes. Cars were drivers side.

I knew that but wanted the motor home pump because the inside of the housing is like a sewer drain compared the car one that just has a little hole for the water to pass through.

 

[5.7 hemi]

If ya want a factory one, I’ve got ya covered.

 

[Brandy]

One down and one to go. Cleaned up pretty well. I will do more when I get to porting and cleaning up in the runners and seat areas. Not going to go wild with it, more smoothing the way than anything, unshroud the valves, take down casting crap, blend here and there. Gasket matching.
Drilled out two plugs in the front of the motor and wire cupped the entire lifter valley. Chamfered one lifter oil hole because the lifter was hanging up as it passed the lower lip of the hole. It's the same lifter that was wiped on the previous cam. Now I know why. It drops through the hole nice and slick now.

 

[Brandy]

Broke out the porting kit and took a whack at it. Turns out the previous owner did some of it already. Badly. However, I cleaned up his mess, mostly, and went from there. Turned out okay, at least better than it was. I need to get some valve lapping compound and do that and then I can put it back together. I also cleaned up and correctly shaped the water passages and casting crap everywhere. And also the heat riser too..lol. While I was at it I unshrouded the valves too. Pics..

 

[Brandy]

More..

 

[Mike67]

Pretty nice work there Randy!

 

[Brandy]

Thanks! The PO had tried to unshroud the valves and open up the intake side but he must have had Parkinson's or something...lol. I blended the combustion chambers a little bit, didn't want to polish all the way down and lose compression numbers. I went into the floors about 2" or so and rounded off the incoming castings to get better laminar flow up through. Still need to do some valve work.

 

[Brandy]

Valves lapped on the first head.

 

[Brandy]

more

 

[Brandy]

My bud Rick and I were lounging around the work table in my garage earlier and shooting the breeze when he said, " Uh Oh!"
He pointed to the valve cover lip on one of the heads. It had been repaired at some point and badly. It's the same spot that has the freeze plug screwed up. Anyway there's a slather of weld along the top and a low spot. We laid a straight edge around there and it's a freaking mess. Any suggestions? It's all across one end.

 

[Budnicks]

Block and water pump and valve are out of the soup.

View attachment 611289 View attachment 611290 View attachment 611291 View attachment 611292 View attachment 611293 View attachment 611294 View attachment 611295 View attachment 611296 View attachment 611297 View attachment 611298

That soup/electrolysis effect, did a decent job

 

[Budnicks]

My bud Rick and I were lounging around the work table in my garage earlier and shooting the breeze when he said, " Uh Oh!"
He pointed to the valve cover lip on one of the heads. It had been repaired at some point and badly. It's the same spot that has the freeze plug screwed up. Anyway there's a slather of weld along the top and a low spot. We laid a straight edge around there and it's a freaking mess. Any suggestions? It's all across one end.

Weld with ni-rod {below} fill in the low spot & grind/file it flat
https://www.weldingwarehouseinc.com/products/nickle-alloys/ni-rod-99x/
or maybe some JB WELD may do the trick
if you can rough it up enough to stick, then grind or file it flat

 

[Budnicks]

Broke out the porting kit and took a whack at it. Turns out the previous owner did some of it already. Badly. However, I cleaned up his mess, mostly, and went from there. Turned out okay, at least better than it was. I need to get some valve lapping compound and do that and then I can put it back together. I also cleaned up and correctly shaped the water passages and casting crap everywhere. And also the heat riser too..lol. While I was at it I unshrouded the valves too. Pics..

View attachment 611911 View attachment 611912 View attachment 611913 View attachment 611914 View attachment 611915 View attachment 611916 View attachment 611917 View attachment 611918 View attachment 611919 View attachment 611920

You're doing a nice job

 

[kiwigtx]

Nice work so far....but I see you stole the kitchen table again to use as a work bench.

 

[Brandy]

Yeah! that damn table keeps ending up out there, must be MOPAR elves....it's oddly satisfying to slam the head down and drag it across the table leaving scars and bare wood...lol.

 

[Brandy]

Weld with ni-rod {below} fill in the low spot & grind/file it flat
https://www.weldingwarehouseinc.com/products/nickle-alloys/ni-rod-99x/
or maybe some JB WELD may do the trick
if you can rough it up enough to stick, then grind or file it flat

I was contemplating JB Weld and I also have a stick of steel putty. Might give that a whirl too.

 

[Brandy]

If ya want a factory one, I’ve got ya covered.

My bud Rick stopped by with his 41 Dodge street rod today. His is a 440 with a passenger side WP. He says he just pointed the timing light down in between the alternator bracket and water pump inlet and had no issues timing it. It's around 500HP and runs strong so I think I will be okay.