What did you do with your ebody/Mopar today?

[blown motor]

Installed the heater control cable that I picked up on the weekend in the PW.

[jimynick]

Cool, I mean that's hot Murray! 

[blown motor]

Well I wasn't really working on anything but I was in the shop enjoying the fruit of my favourite craft brewery and listening to some Marshall Tucker Band when my son shows up with some apple pie. Does life get any better?

[jimynick]

It appears you've got your priorities right there Murray!

[YellowThumper]

No pics but started reassembly.
Also purchased carpet and sound deadner.

[jimynick]

Well, in the eternal take two steps forward and one back, yesterday it dried up enough that I thought I'd see if I could get the car out for a test run. Fired 'er up, enjoying the sound of it and went to put it in first to pull out- it didn't want to go into gear! My freshly rebuilt trans didn't want to go in gear! WTF? Shutting it off I again tried to put it in first and it went right in! Whaa? I suddenly had a premonition and while depressing the clutch put my right heel on the brake and turned the key- it lurched! OMG, the clutch isn't disengaging! Now, I'm aware that the clutch disc is marked "flywheel side" and we thought we'd obeyed that at the time. Maybe not    Barring any linkage issues, I don't know what else it could be and we'll get it up in the air for a look-see. It's getting hard to maintain enthusiasm when so much BS comes your way, but I'm stubborn and I'm thinking of my late dad's old saying that kinda goes " non illegitima carborundum" which roughly translates as "don't let the bastards grind you down" . Hold my hand here dad, please.

[blown motor]

Stay with it Ian, you'll get there and when you do I suspect you'll have the only rubber coated street in all of Cambridge.

[ec_co]

No pics but started reassembly.
Also purchased carpet and sound deadner.

I started installing mine today. I went a little overboard - 1st layer butyl/foil, 2nd is a 3 in 1 with a closed cell layer, 3rd a mass pad. Be prepared for lots of arm work and if you do your roof, that'll wear anyone out. I'll have to do it in stages, I already have 3 hrs in and I'd guestimate that's 10%.

[YellowThumper]

No pics but started reassembly.
Also purchased carpet and sound deadner.

I started installing mine today. I went a little overboard - 1st layer butyl/foil, 2nd is a 3 in 1 with a closed cell layer, 3rd a mass pad. Be prepared for lots of arm work and if you do your roof, that'll wear anyone out. I'll have to do it in stages, I already have 3 hrs in and I'd guestimate that's 10%.

Already started the butyl stuff.
Bought carpet with padding. Will see how that lays out. Also purchased Boom Mat. Will use that on inner roof if I don't use it on floor.
Roof is future issue when pulling and re-sealing windows.

[Cudajason]

I got a bit of time in the garage yesterday.  bleed the brakes and got her steering coupler to fit on the new steering box.

hope to get it all assembled and fired up today. 

[screamindriver]

Out and about with the nice weather...

[YellowThumper]

Successfully navigated the usage of copper antiseize during reassembly.
None on my nose, elbows or anywhere else other than my hands.

[jimynick]

Son Nick got at my car before the bride and I got back from the beach andhe ended up putting about 5/64" washers under the pressure plate and lo and behold the thing can now be put in gear and functions as a clutch should. I'm a little leery of this and told him so and it was decided to try it out and see. It now goes into gear and disengages as it's supposed to, so we fired it up and it moved out of the garage on it's own power. The difference in clutch effort is amazing and the rebuilt trans never shifted so good! We went to Hespeler and gassed it up and decided to take the 401 back just to give her legs a stretch. All seemed well and the power is right there; all seemed to be well with the world---until I noticed some smoking out the back end! WTF?! We got it home and into the garage to cool and later Nick said that he thought the issue may be bad/damaged valve guide seals- please God! I insisted that we do a leak test and the numbers evenly came back at 10%, a figure lower than any other Nick said he'd tested. This removed 50% of the gut rot and the most likely culprit seems to be those swine seals. When I bought the heads the shop said they'd had some concerns that the springs could interfere with the rockers and the workaround was that I suggested they use beehive springs and they did. I wonder if the lift of the cam has caused some of the seals to be damaged causing a oil leak into the cylinders causing the smoke? Getting the springs and retainers off the assembled engine has us headscratching for a way that doesn't include a $300cdn Comp Cams tool- any suggestions/solutions out there? If so, please let me know asap as I'm trying to make a rod run next week. 

[Cudajason]

Son Nick got at my car before the bride and I got back from the beach andhe ended up putting about 5/64" washers under the pressure plate and lo and behold the thing can now be put in gear and functions as a clutch should. I'm a little leery of this and told him so and it was decided to try it out and see. It now goes into gear and disengages as it's supposed to, so we fired it up and it moved out of the garage on it's own power. The difference in clutch effort is amazing and the rebuilt trans never shifted so good! We went to Hespeler and gassed it up and decided to take the 401 back just to give her legs a stretch. All seemed well and the power is right there; all seemed to be well with the world---until I noticed some smoking out the back end! WTF?! We got it home and into the garage to cool and later Nick said that he thought the issue may be bad/damaged valve guide seals- please God! I insisted that we do a leak test and the numbers evenly came back at 10%, a figure lower than any other Nick said he'd tested. This removed 50% of the gut rot and the most likely culprit seems to be those swine seals. When I bought the heads the shop said they'd had some concerns that the springs could interfere with the rockers and the workaround was that I suggested they use beehive springs and they did. I wonder if the lift of the cam has caused some of the seals to be damaged causing a oil leak into the cylinders causing the smoke? Getting the springs and retainers off the assembled engine has us headscratching for a way that doesn't include a $300cdn Comp Cams tool- any suggestions/solutions out there? If so, please let me know asap as I'm trying to make a rod run next week. 

@jimynick  Wow man you are snake bit. 

I have a spring compressor designed to remove the springs with the heads on and the adapter to fill the cylinder with air to hold the valves up. both worked like charm to change out the springs when I did a cam change a few years ago. You are welcome to both. 

[jimynick]

Thanks Jason! The snake got bigger. When taking the valve covers off to see about the valve seals, I realized that there were no baffles covering the pcv valve which would've allowed the HV pump to spray directly onto the pcv valve. Yikes, could that be the problem regarding smoking versus the seals? I made a sheet metal baffle and installed it and we reinstalled the rocker arms, reset the lifter preload and put the engine back together before taking it out for another test ride. It seemed promising, but after a few miles the smoking returned. SOB! The engine seems to run well and after Nick removed the pressure plate washers the clutch acted normal. If the engine ran poorly it'd be one thing, but it seems strong and with a normal clutch again, it'll spin the tires at will. But this GD smoking has me baffled. I went and got a set of new seals today and I'll put them in and hope for the best. Oh, and it seems that my Right Stuff may have been the wrong stuff as it seems to have not sealed the china walls 100% and there seems to be seepage at them. What an unbelievable PITA! Losing my sense of humour about it, but we'll keep on trying.