Ol John Lee gets Prostate Surgery, Live from the Garage

[Sharps40]

Unlike ageing men that tighten up and leak less, Ol John Lee has loosened up and leaks a good bit. Time for some automotive prostate surgery, front seal and snout race style. My first time unbuttoning so much of this engine...I'd say from the grease, its not been unbuttoned at all in near 49 years. Lets hope for no broken fastners, PB blaster standing ready.

The leak, every shut down and while running, about 1 quart per tank of gas or every 230 miles.



Battery, fan and shroud out. I always pull the battery or at least a terminal when working around a motor....plannin on keepin my hands and arms.



Lower fan pully off and I dimple the screw holes to assure I use the right holes later. I'll clean it and the bright spots on the washers will still show but I always like index marks too.



$16 snout puller from O'Reillies. Hope its up to the job, we'll see in a minute. Comes with the right threaded bolts and some extras for lotsa snouts, works with 2 or 3 bolt pattern. Natch, the bolts are between metric and SAE so, if it slips, Big Adjustable Wrench time. I greased all the threads and the center button on assembly, less wear on the threads I suppose, course it'll catch all the dirt, so then it'll have to be cleaned too.



Snout is off, it needs cleaning, watch the woodruf key in the crank, mine stayed in the crank, I'll make sure its there for assembly too. Felpro timing kit comes with a snout race, I bought a spare from National too, it comes with a flange to tap it on and a tapper onner. I checked, its long enough to cover the many grooves worn in the snout, should work slick....guess i'll clean up the snout while I'm at it...sucks, gonna have lots clean spots on Ol John Lees motor....I'll catch hell for not cleanin it all but I spect mucha the grease is keeping things sealed up and leak free, cept for this spot.



The evidence, a wet snout cover and a rotten snout seal. Nice countersink in the crank nose, should help line up and start that tap drill later. I'm adding a snout retention bolt and washer, ala Mr. Gasket. I understand the early V8s had press fit snouts and the later hi pro 327 (not the low pro 327) and 350s went to a crank bolt for additional security. In any event, it'll help pull the snout back onto the crank nose and keep it there. New radiator, don't need a big hole in it yet.



Only drill I have is 3/8" but the tap bit comes from O'Reillies with a reduced shank. Bless Chevy, no room for a drill with a long bit, so out comes the radiator. Now I gotta push it outta the garage and back in cause it'll spill and I ain't spending 3 hours layin in cold coolent in November. Maybe my boy will get outta bed and help push for a quarter.



Back later with more pics. This'll be one of them take breaks, work slow and carfull, clean as I go and smoke cigars furiously kinda jobs.

[Corts60]

Yeah, I'd say that engine hasn't been apart in a long time too. Haha. Maybe a little pressure washing after you replace the seal?

[Sharps40]

No pressure washing, grease keeps in the oil.....less seal replacement to do. Job is done, working picks in order now, bear with me as I post up the whole story.

[Sharps40]

Pull the water pump....after draining all the coolant, I caught most of it in the bucket.



Once the timing cover is off, with the 16 side bolts removed so the pan can drop and release the timing cover....the chain ain't in bad shape, slack is within tolerance.



The failure of the seal was a split in the rubber, pretty much pumpin oil out the break. The old seal pulled out neatly with plyers.



We covered everything to keep out more gunk as we scraped gaskets off the block.



The lower timing cover seal was hard as a rock, no flex left in it at all.



My parts washer works great, comes with an adgitater function to keep the parts swirlin in the cleaner juice.



Remember the groove on the harmonic blanacer? We opted for the repair race that came in the felpro gasket kit, it was longer than the national part I bought as a spare and did a better job of covering the entire shank of the snout. We'll save the national for another job, it'll work, just needs more careful positioning to make sure it covers both the groove and extends to either side of the new seal...if we pushed it too far back it would cover the groove but I wasn't sure if the seal would fall fully on the race or part on part off. Anyway, useing the red locktite that came in the felpro kit.

[Sharps40]

Tapping the new race into position, just till the crimped end is flush with the snout.



Thats it for the snout repair, wipe off and let the loctite harden.

[Sharps40]

A depth gauge for the crank snout bolt I'm adding. Pretty much to mark the length of threads on the bolt, that way I'm sure I went deep enough. Some extra thread for a longer bolt or at least to get threads down far enough. In any event a quick check indicated we'd drill no deeper than the face of the crank gear, so no chance of hittin an oil galley.

Just gotta drill it straight and confirmed, its an iron crank, lots of grainey balled up chips come out, not smooth sharp chips like when drilling steel.



Me and my drill and lots of checks and oil and checks and about 15 minutes to get the hole drilled.



Deep enough, and glad I plugged up the gaps leading to my oil pan, thats a lotta chips.



Just starting the tap to get two or three good threads leading into the nose of the crank.



Now I pull the tap and pack the hole with good grease to lube the tap. Iron is tender, I don't wanna bung the threads in the process of cuttin them. I back out the tap a lot to clear greese and chips from the flutes.



Thats it, bottom of this hole...hope it's straight.



Yep, looks pretty straight.

[Sharps40]

New front main gets tapped into the cover, wood blocks back up the cover to prevent caveing it in, the fit is darn tight.



This a use whatcha got shop, got no big sockets so, two hammers and a pully seat the seal in the cover.



The back side of the seal, bottomed and looks good, even all the way around.



The seal sits just a bit proud of the cover but I know its in there right and the amount proud is even all the way around so its all good.



Finger painting a skim coat of blue RTV to stick the paper gasket to....



A dollop of blue goo in the corners where the pan and lower seal come together...just a squooch, not a gob.

[Sharps40]

Finger painting blue goo onto all the gasket and seal surfaces on the back and bottom of the timeing cover, just a skim coat.





Lower pan seal installed, ends trimmed not to over compress against the pan lips and coated the ends as well, again, just a skim coat.



Line it all up, install the timing cover bolts finger tight + 1/4 turn and same for the two front corners of the oil pan, wait 30 minutes and draw all the bolts down to the proper torque value....no torque wrench here so snug and a bit...if the bolt smokes, back off 1/2 turn.



After a bit of clean up, greased up the snout seal real good, greased the crank snout, greased the inside of the balancer and its new raceway, pretty much, greesed everything that was made of rubber or shiney metal, bang the balancer back on...yep, the woodruf key was properly installed in the crankshaft, so, no slip and no timeing mark in the wrong place.



Once we're sure the balancer ain't goin on any futher, install the lower pully and then install that new Mr. Gasket Balancer bolt and washers....nice, no flying crank balancers in this motors future.

[Sharps40]

Reinstalling all the side oil pan bolts....7 more on each side, naturally, all in tight spots.



Finger painting a skim coat of blue goo to grab the water pump gaskets.



Pump is back on and we are again, finger tight plus 1/4 turn and 30 minute wait untill torqeing the bolts down...



We cleaned and repaired both ground wires on the battery, this one for the block.



Its nice to work the fan with the radiator out...shroud laying in there and I can actually reach the fan bolts with out gettin twisted up like a pretzel...



Snuggin down the alternator, check out that pretty gold bolt on the crank, that was the hairest part of the job, but, its in straight and snugs down some more piece of mind for this old boy to hold together a bit longer.

[Sharps40]

Everything is hooked back up, double checked all the bolts, cleaned the pan (only a little, that there dirt and greese is patina, quite valuable and took years to accumualte).

Toping off the fluids and coolant.



Here the motor is running, has been for about 30 minutes, no leaks....



And again 15 minutes later, still running, no leaks....




Only leak we found on the additional 40 minute test ride was the oil drain plug gasket. Go figure. So drained the pan, swapped out the plug gasket and rechecked the rear main, still no leak there so....

I'll drive Ol John Lee about 300 miles this week for work and if no leaks, he gets a fresh tank of 20W50 and a filter change. We might just be at the point where I don't have to save my old oil from the chrysler to top off the chevy with! Mark me happy.....Ol John Lee too I think.

[Ta2Don]

Many Kudos... also enjoyed the humor, especially about the Parts Washer!

[Sharps40]

Thanks. Nervewracking part was the drill and tap. But slow and easy and a buddy to help gets ya thru. Just checked the pan and floor - both dry and clean!!!
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[joedoh]

outstanding. I think the number of guys who can actually perform this repair dwindles by the day, but I think more will try with this great how to.

[MikeS.]

Great job and write up too. I see another Rockchucker/RCBS fan too.
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[Sharps40]

Originally Posted by MikeS.

Great job and write up too. I see another Rockchucker/RCBS fan too.
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My guns live and breath and deer Die by the hands of that handy RCBS Rockchucker. And it does double duty as an occasional anvil for pounding small parts straight, has been a vice to bend rebar into U shapes for "stapeling" the fence bottom to the ground where the dog pushes out, etc. A fine multi purpose tool. Sorta like usein pullies as pullies and as seal pushers. Gotta get er done, this here truck is a daily driver, 8200 miles in the last 10 months and we expect to see closer to 15000 miles in the next 12 months!!!

[glos55]

Originally Posted by joedoh

outstanding. I think the number of guys who can actually perform this repair dwindles by the day, but I think more will try with this great how to.

Totally agree!! Nice work guys!!

[Sharps40]

Just an update...had the test idle and ride last evening post completion...no leaks but the oil drain bolt gasket....swapped in a new plug gasket and stopped that heavy drip as well.

Checked this AM, floor dry and clean, pan remains dry, seal dry.

Ran about 100 miles total today to and from work, no drips, drops, leaks, weeps...crankcase remains full. Couple more days of this and I'll be puttin in clean oil and a filter! Hoo Ahhh for the home garage mechanics!

[usnabill]

Sharps40, thanks for this great thread. I was able to make this repair to my inline 6 based on your pictures. The only differences for me though were that I had to remove the radiator in order to pull the harmonic balancer off and I needed to lift one side of the motor to get the oil pan free. Other than that you helped me a ton!

[hd74]

a great write up.i think i would have changed timing chain and gear set. it looked a little loose in one picture.thanks for the write up.

[Sharps40]

Originally Posted by usnabill

Sharps40, thanks for this great thread. I was able to make this repair to my inline 6 based on your pictures. The only differences for me though were that I had to remove the radiator in order to pull the harmonic balancer off and I needed to lift one side of the motor to get the oil pan free. Other than that you helped me a ton!

Glad this helped ya. And, Gald ya were successful. Its an easy job but really kinda scairy if its a daily driver like Ol John Lee. Plus with budget, one can't afford to mess up in the middle! I'd do it again but might make up a sleeve to guide my drill bit/align drill bit if I was doing several cranks for retention bolts....

[Sharps40]

Originally Posted by hd74

a great write up.i think i would have changed timing chain and gear set. it looked a little loose in one picture.thanks for the write up.

I've looked that photo over quite a bit and agree. Its a bit loose, under a flashlight and at odd angles it looked okay. But for now, I think it'll be okay, we rarely see 65 mph in our daily drives and given the total accumulation of wear/years, greese and grit, a motor refresh is in the future for this 283. Ol John Lee gets driven but not thrashed, I did spin a wheel once, accidentally! We'll prolly go with a stock type rebuild (since the current tune on this "getting a bit long in the toot"h engine) yields 15.5/18.20 mpg city/highway.

Right now our focus is on getting the suspension/breaks in top shape. Rebuilding wheel cyls sunday. Splitting the breaks and replumbing to drum/drum manual this winter and also this winter will get a new front suspension and steering box (rear susp is done)

[Sharps40]

And the verdict is in...Ol John Lee has no more leaks. None from the engine and none from the trans or diff or the brakes. Thats the good news.

There is better news.

Ol John Lees oil miles per quart has doubled. Where before leaked a quart per tank of gas used and burned some more I now see him much more economical in the oil use department. Approximatly 1 quart used per 500 to 600 miles. Oil consumption is highest at highway speeds. Running around town at lower RPM and the oil consumption is much less. Loveing it...my tail pipe will never rust out and my wife's chest freezer in the garage has the beginning of a fine coat of rust preventing oil mist on its face.

A perfect combination of funds saved by my home made oil sprayer. Freezer and tail pipe should outlast even my cheepness.