Restoring Rusty

[rich weyand]

See where that puts you in operating temperature when you drive around. You want to be in the 195 to 205 range for a street sbc. Note that cylinder and ring wear goes DOWN as operating temperature goes up. Also, low octane gasoline burns more completely as temps go up, so you get more mileage and better performance. I think the 180 will probably be too low, given how low your operating temps are without the thermostat.

And it goes without saying you should buy a good one. Lots of after-market thermostats are crap. Why not just use the ACDelco 12TP1E High-Flow 195? (The High-Flow 180 is 12TP1D.) Amazon.com: ACDelco 12TP1E Professional Engine...

[rich weyand]

BTW, I really like the look you got going in that engine compartment. Damn.

[Gregski]

with it being 88* F outside today our water temp gauge rose to 212* F waranting at least a trial run of the 180* F T Stat waiting in the wings

[rich weyand]

Yeah, I'd rather see 210 on the high end. Also, having the hood off reduces temps a bit.

[Gregski]

with the 180* F Duralast thermostat installed we was runnin' cool as a cucumber, gentlemen this is the way to go I think

for Extra Credit anything jumps out at you in the photo of this thermostat (hint: the other two did not have this and some people recommend DIYing it)

[68Timber]

Yep. I put one in all of mine. Glad you got it sorted out.

[enaberif]

You would be referring to that small little brass pin. Don't think your THAT sneaky sir.

[Gregski]

yes gentlemen the 180* T stat comes with a 1/8th hole pre drilled I can't help but think of and compare this to the "designer" jeans with the pre torn holes in their knees that cost $80 bucks where regular good ol' fashioned Mexican Levis 505s cost only $20 lol

[D13]

Originally Posted by Gregski

yes gentlemen the 180* T stat comes with a 1/8th hole pre drilled I can't help but think of and compare this to the "designer" jeans with the pre torn holes in their knees that cost $80 bucks where regular good ol' fashioned Mexican Levis 505s cost only $20 lol

That hole is to prevent an air lock. If the thermostat seals well you can trap an air bubble behind it, then the thermosat does not see a 'wet' hot condition and may not open in a timely fashion. The classic symptoms of this is poor heater performance (since flow is impaired) and high engine temperature (since the temp sensor is often below the trapped air bubble, and / or not at the thermostat), or on fuel injected cars using dual sensors, poor performance (car knows its hot and starts adding fuel and pulling timing... but the gauge says all is good). This is particularly common on the first fill and break in start up which is why 'some' people recommend no thermostat (FYI that is the wrong answer for anything but a drag car that is going to go get a hose stuck in it for cooldown. Engines like to run at a steady temeprature where they can be tuned for efficiency). Back in the day I improved cooling performance or driveability on many a car by drilling that small hole to allow air to self purge.

[Gregski]

so then I thought, well with the thermostat issue sorted out lets put the bypass hose back on using my newly acquired 90* 1/2" NPT to 3/4" hose fitting (look at that I speak National Pipe Thread, ha ha)

and oh boy was this a series of headaches which I still have to sort out

first the darn 90* coupling would not screw into the intake manifold cause it would hit the intake manifold bolt, so The Greg removed that bolt, hey what's more important a good looking bypass hose or a torqued down to spec intake manifold (and no intake leak) you guessed it, that bolt came right out

well only for the silly 90* elbow to now hit the intake manifold itself, oh boy, fun, fun, fun

I think tomorrow I will pick up some sort of raiser / extension thingie for this bad boy, and or try a 45* coupling instead

[Gregski]

not willing to admit defeat I tried screwing that 90* fitting into the water pump, surely it has to go in there unobstructed, WRONG

now, first it hit the cover on the back of the water pump, then it hit the bolt loop thingie, great won't work here either, ok, I hope the 45* one works more better tomorrow

[Gregski]

surely there's gotta be something I can fix to finish the day on a high note, aha I remembered there was a disturbance in the Force when I removed the core support and now the driver side headlight needed mending

I wasn't planning on soldiering (sp) that blade connector back on but when I bought a brand new Philips H6024 Standard replacement light bulb like I did a year ago for the other side (you know with the longer blades that will actually work in our trucks) I noticed that for no good reason at all Philips changed their headlights now it says PHILIPS in the front instead of HALOGEN like on the box, like the one on the other side so what's the point of installing the new one, what's the difference if the old one says ATLAS they still won't match... these are the pesky silly things that drive The Greg mad!!!

I can just see that Philips Senior Management Marketing Meeting now...

I'll tell you Bob why the round 7 inch headlights ain't selling...

Why is that Bob?

Cause they say HALOGEN on the front!!!

What?

You heard me, they say HALOGEN so nobody is buying them, I bet if we change that to lets see something like PHILIPS, they will sell like hot cakes!!!

That is genius Marve go on and get it changed

[Gregski]

so here's why we've been driving around without a hood, 80's style

remember a year ago we took the hood down to bare metal and than painted the top green and POR15ed the belly

well I screwed up I used Muriatic acid instead of Phosphoric acid (hey acid is acid ain't it) and make a long story short the rust came back

I saw a car show not to long ago where the builder wanted to do a fake "patina" on his Rat Rod and said all you have to do is put some Muriatic acid on a brand new sheet metal and that will accelerate the rusting process, oh great

gentlemen having done all that hard work, this honestly made me sick to my stomach

[Gregski]

I mean look at this stuff it is coming off in sheets, I don't get it, I thought POR stood for Paint Over Rust I thought this stuff was supposed to hug rust, cover it, prevent it, what ever

[Gregski]

so absolutely hating to do things over (like most of you I'm sure) and since this hood has reversed tacoed on me on the freeway and since I have a lead on another hood, I put absolutely minimal effort in prepping this thing for a re coat with POR15

so first I washed the darn thing in Phosphoric acid, than washed it off with water, oh and rain

after that I just knocked off only the minimal loose rust so we will see how POR 15 really sticks to all this rust, after all that is what the directions say, they don't tell you to take it down to bare metal

[Gregski]

now I have half donkeyed things in the past, seldom but sometimes I do, and let me tell you I am amazed when some of those doings / projects actually out last or out perform the ones I nearly killed myself on doing right

so here is that hood re coated with POR15 in disgust - may it Rust in Peace

[D13]

POR-15 is a water cured urethane (not really a paint). It needs something rough to grab on. It will not stick unless the surface is contaminate free (clean) and rough. That's why it works good on rust (lots of little cracks and pores) and simply does not stick on clean smooth surfaces. It doesn't really chemically bond well, the attachment is more mechanical. It works by sealing the air away from the rust site, stopping firther oxidation.
Muriatic acid on the surface under it created a new layer of damage between what the POR was bonded to and the good metal. Now the POR is no longer 'attached' to the surface and just flakes off. BTDT.

[Gregski]

went out and bought more legos today, surely there's got to be a bypass hose solution somewhere among them

[Gregski]

so our mission should we choose to accept it, SIMPLE... replace that straight 3/4" hose fitting with a 45* degree one, connect the bypass hose and have a beer, how hard could it be?

alright, so we got the old fitting out, did a stare and compare for the audience, and screwed the new one in, using that white goop on the threads, which is absolutely fantastic, love that stuff

well, it all screwed in nice, and looked good, but it did not work, the hose was too kinked, and we did not have a pre molded one to use, so back to the drawing board we went

[Gregski]

I know, let's give that 90* fitting a try now with its little buddy the extension it should screw in just fine

ok, stare and compare - check

screw the base in - check

screw the 90 in - check

looks kinda hokey and too modular but it will pass the 50 feet rule, and still impress the ladies I'm sure

[Gregski]

OK, let's conectize that bypass hose and have that beer, lets go

again, someday we will find a molded 3/4" hose to take this one's job, but for now it will do... [say it with me now] IT'S A TRUCK !!!

[Gregski]

and for a test drive we went, we had to see if running a bypass hose would test any different than running the heater core, and it looks good, no difference a bit cooler actually at 184* F but that's because it was a bit cooler outside today during the test, 86* F instead of 88* F like yesterday

[Gregski]

FORUMnians let me take you to the College of NPT Knowlege, for those of you uninitiated NPT stands for National Pipe Thread, or as I like to call it Eh Close Enuff thread size, for instance believe it or not the sizes of the temperature sending units below are 1/8", 3/8" and 1/2" in NPT lingo, and not that at all in the real world, but that's par for the course, their accompanying adapters, reducers as they are sometimes called, or even shims I placed next to them so you can see how we can take the 1/8" thingmajig and make it fit into the 70's heads or the 90's heads

word on the street is that when you buy a universal gauge these days it comes with a sending unit in a size of 1/8" and places like Summit know that you need 3/8" so they throw in the 1/2" adapter for FREE, LOL, others like Autometer (pronounces: OVERPRICED) will give you a couple adapters like the 3/8" and 1/2", guilt I think, guilt makes them throw those in, ha ha

[Gregski]

gentlemen, clearly there is no shortage of work in The Greg's Garage, and what I should have been doing was bolting up the hinges so we could put the hood back on, or troubleshooting that annoying ticking sound, or dialing in the timing advance, but instead we did what any unreasonable Hot Roder would do, we tinkered with something totally else

I mean we can't have that water temp gauge sitting atop the dash like that, that's Amateur Hour people, - amateur hour, what are we Ford Owners or something...

[Gregski]

folks I don't know about you, but I have never been more underwhelmed with a tool than I am with the Dremel, it never ceases to unimpress me, it's such a toy, such a gimick tool

here we are trying to cut some measly plastic and all it does is what it always does, it just melts it

even when we went out and spent like $15 bucks on these tiny cut off wheels, all they do is melt the plastic, oh excuse me, melt it less, ha ha

I think they do such a lame job at cutting so they can sell you yet another attachment, like their lame sanding wheel, ha ha

so here we have it, 1, 2, 3, and 4 holes trimmed and sanded semi flat