And the 331 project finally begins...

[cgrey8]

Back on my original swap, I bought one of those bars to hold the pinion still while torquing the crush sleeve down on the rearend. I'm wondering if I can use that on the balancer? I'd forgotten all about that thing until I saw your pics..thanks for posting that.

The odd-shaped flywheel replacement is also neat. I assume it binds on the engine stand itself?

I'm just looking forward to actually get into an engine. I've seen pictures after pictures, read discussions after discussions, but this time I get to do it for real on an engine that's actually mine.

[MalcolmV8]

Yes on the back of the motor, that bar turns till it hits the engine stand itself and binds up. Works great. Easy to make too. Just get some flat bar and drill some holes so that it can either bolt up to the rear of the crank or to the flywheel.

[Dave]

I did something just like that at the crank. Without a flywheel I just stuck a couple of bolts into fly wheel and use my 18" breaker bar. When the flywheel was on, I just cut a piece of 2x4 at an angle and let it wedge between the teeth and one of the dowel in the block. More you would crank on the harmonic balance, the more the teeth locked into the wood. Sometimes you just have to get creative. I'm also a cheap SOB!
Dave - another day of 90 degs, never made it that hot all last year

[MalcolmV8]

Dave - another day of 90 degs, never made it that hot all last year

This weekend the heat and humidity just hit Kansas City too. Weather was so nice there for a few weeks now you step outside and you're sweating and it's muggy and unpleasant. Note to self: move to the coast and live on the beach lol

[Dave]

Dave - another day of 90 degs, never made it that hot all last year

This weekend the heat and humidity just hit Kansas City too. Weather was so nice there for a few weeks now you step outside and you're sweating and it's muggy and unpleasant. Note to self: move to the coast and live on the beach lol

Note to self ---- Not the Gulf Coast!
Dave

[cgrey8]

Headed there in a few weeks. I hope the coast isn't covered in tar balls.

Today my 6" porting bits came in. 3 for cast iron and 3 for aluminum.

[cgrey8]

I got the accessories, lower intake, and valve covers off the engine. One of the water pump bolts was seized pretty well. I almost rounded it off. But before it went south, I got the vise grips on it and banged it with a mallet. That loosened it up enough to come out without sheering. But I wasn't so lucky with one of the lower intake bolts. Notice:



Short of drenching it in penetrating lube like WD40, how difficult is this going to be to get it out? I don't have a tap set to drill the bolt and back it out. I'm wondering if it'll be cheaper to just have the machine shop to get it out vs buying the parts to do it myself and possibly still not doing it right, then have to retap and helicoil the hole. Thoughts?

[MalcolmV8]

That one should be easy Chris as you still have stub sticking out. Wire wheel and scrape all the extra rust and crud off and soak in some PB blaster for a while. Then apply some heat with a little hand held torch and you should be able to turn it out. Personally I'd take another bolt and weld it on the top first and put a socket on and turn it off.

[Dave]

What I do quite often is back the bolt out till it gets tighter and then screw it back in, shoot it with some penetration oil. The threads get full of stuff and when you try and force the bolt out, it also heats up. Back it out as far as you can and then back in again. I try and do this in steps. Just like when you are tapping a thread, always best to not do it all at once. Had to look some to find this on different penetrating oils. Good luck!
Dave
I have shamelessly copied this from another site:

*Don't forget the April 2007 "Machinist's Workshop" magazine comparison
test.*
**
*They arranged a subjective test of all the popular penetrants with
the control being the torque required to remove the nut from a
"scientifically rusted" environment.*
**

*Penetrating oil ..... Average load*

None ..................... 516 pounds
WD-40 .................. 238 pounds
PB Blaster ............. 214 pounds
Liquid Wrench ..... 127 pounds
Kano Kroil ............ 106 pounds
ATF-Acetone mix....53 pounds

*The ATF-Acetone mix was a "home brew" mix of 50% acetone - 50% automatic transmission fluid.*
*Note the "home brew" was better than any commercial product in this one
particular test. Our local machinist group mixed up a batch and we all now
use it with equally good results. Note also that "Liquid Wrench" is about
as good as "Kroil" for about 20% of the price. *

[cgrey8]

I have liquid wrench and that's what I've drenched it in. I even grabbed it with vise-grips and wiggled it back and forth. I could see the fluid sinking and rising between the bolt and the rust I couldn't get out of the way. But I wasn't able to completely free it. Hopefully the working back and forth opened up the corrosion enough for the penetrate to get in deeper. I'll try again later. And I have plenty of ATF and Acetone, so I can try that as well. I have a hard time believing it is THAT good as compared to the others. But hey, I'll give it a try. I won't argue with results...only with failures.

[MalcolmV8]

ATF and acetone. That's a new one on me.

[cgrey8]

After letting it soak a while, I tried moving the bolt again, it still won't budge. But I did notice that the bolt hole extends all the way through the head. So I flipped the engine over on the stand, and sprayed down in the hole so hopefully it can penetrate from both sides of the bolt. To make matters worse, the vise-grips are smoothing off the sides of the bolt making it harder to get a bite on. If I had a welder, I would do as Malcolm said and weld another bolt to the broken stud and try to back it out that way. But without a welder, I'm left with more crude/conventional means. I don't even have a propane torch. But I think I'll stop by Lowes this afternoon and get one. I used to have one, but it was so old it got to where it wouldn't disengage. I pressed the button one day, the flame came on, and never would go out. So I was just stuck with the flame blowing. The only thing I could do was just let the thing run the can down and burn itself out. But I do expect to need a torch to help me get the balancer bolt off. It looks rusted on pretty well. So I'm sure it'll be a huge PITA too and the torch might help getting it off.

[MalcolmV8]

You could take a file and try to file two flat sides to the piece of bolt that's sticking out and put a wrench on it and work it around back and forth and hopefully work it out eventually.
I use my welder so much I'm not sure how you get by without one.

[cgrey8]

I might just use this an the excuse I've been needing to get one. I've wanted one for quite some time and I have things I would do if I had a welder. If the torch doesn't get the bolt out, buying a welder might be my next purchase. The main thing that's held me back is I keep telling myself I want a complete MIG setup with bottle. Although it seems the flux-core welders do pretty well. Their welds might not be quite as strong as a MIG, but are they close? Or is there a compelling reason to NOT use flux core wire and pay the premium for a MIG setup?

[MalcolmV8]

MIG all the way. I've never liked flux welding but it does work if you have to weld in windy conditions where the shielding gas gets blown away real bad.
If I had to do it again I'd get a 220 volt unit. I have a 110 and it does work but has limits on metal thickness and duty cycle.