Water Pump and Head Manifold Port Clean Up

Time in Garage: 2 hours

Removed water pumps from both engines. Not sure of condition of seal on the '59 engine so I intend to utilize the '57 water pump in the reassembly. Cleaned up the head manifold port area-removed the old gasket...spent some additional time cleaning up the block. Put the manifold hold down clamps and studs and bolts into the Eastwood Tumbler...they came out "looking good"....

More Parts Cleaning

Time in Garage: 2 hours

Sprayed brake cleaner on the block areas that I have been working on...the block cleaned up well...sanded the distributor side in prep for painting....went back to the transmission for additional cleaning...There is some kind of black material on the casing...perhaps some type of undercoating or road tar...takes a while to clean off for sure...

Put the oil pan bolts and washers in the Eastwood tumbler and cleaned them up..

I decided to purchase a new oil pump pick up screen-ordered yesterday and added to the existing order..

My wife asked me last night how I was doing out n the garage and was I making progress...I said "well" and I was making progress..I explained briefly what I was doing and that I hoped to have the drive train reinstalled and the chassis ready by the end of February..I figured this would give me the 60 hours I have estimated for the job taking into account Christmas and my winter vacation and the kitchen reno I am assisting my daughter with at the end of January..she looked somewhat skeptical...I am not surprised...

Engine Internals

Time in garage: 3 hours

Last week I refocused on my critical path and decided I wanted to get the engine and transmission installed on the chassis to free up room in my garage. First order of business was removing the oil pan again and installing the new oil pump cartridge. After removing the oil pump I realized the pick up screen was broken at the oil inlet point. Checking the Moss catalogue I noticed a new screen was around $38...figuring I could save $38 I pulled the pan off my spare engine to check out the screen ...it was flawed in the same way. A quick e-mail to my supplier indicated the need to solder the screen. My rational self questions the need to fix the problem based on the fact the solder job would need to be correctly or there could be problems with contamination of the oil supply by loose solder...also it would probably be difficult to get the existing screen clean enough to solder properly....given both engines have the same problem and I am putting on an external oil filter conversion kit onto the engine which may filter the oil better than the stock system I may skip the step...more research is required....

It looks like the transmission input seal will need to be replaced....some oil leaked out when I had the transmission sitting on the bell housing when I was cleaning it...probably an indication the seal has dried up in storage...

I have to pick up some new bolts,nuts and lock washers for the new engine mounts...also new washers for the oil pan...oil pan bolts need to go into the Eastwood tumbler for renewing.

I spent about 30 minutes cleaning up the gasket mounting flange and the outside of the oil pan in prep for paint...

Lots of lugging around of engine blocks and some oil spillage to take care of.

A productive time...