Restoring Rusty

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by rich weyand

... Now, lots of SBCs run pretty cold, like mine. Low compression, torquer cam, runs cold as a witch's heart...

Rich I honestly did not believe that until the gauge without the thermostat read 150* F at idle while parked and dropped to 148* F while driving with the wind in its grille

Give this man a hand guys, he know what he talk about!

so I took out the thermostat and had to find out how hot or cool the engine runs without one, I mean we are troubleshooting here folks, we are learning, we are gathering information and our data must need be complete so that we can make an educated wild @ss guess at a solution, right?

[Gregski]

judging from those numbers above the truck is fine, we are not running hot at all, I would say 190* to 220* F is a perfect range for an SBC, however since we know the Vortec heads are pronned to cracking (ask me how I know, LOL) we are gonna give a 180* F thermostat a try tomorrow

we bench tested it tonight, and it seems the most responsive out of all of them, opens at around 190* F

[Gregski]

HOW YOU LIKE ME NOW?

... just added 3 inches to my street credit!!!

[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.

[rich weyand]

Originally Posted by Gregski

alright so equipped with the brand new digital water temp gauge and sending unit it was time to go back to square one and install the 195* F thermostat back in to see how hot actually the truck runs, and so we did and guess what the guage never read above 199* F and we drove it hard for 30 minutes like we do in all our tests
...
so while driving ie moving we were reading 194* F and while stopped at a red light we were reading 197* F

Went back and re-read this post. That's perfect right there.

[Eraser475]

I love your writing style and build. Is that a 6" tall air filter?

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by Eraser475

I love your writing style and build. Is that a 6" tall air filter?

thank you so much, I appreciate the feedback

6" air filter, are you insane bro? it's a modest 5" ha ha

have we tried to shut the hood yet? um no! more on why the hood is still off later

[Eraser475]

Haha, I was just curious since I made an aircleaner that accepts 6" tall air filters for my 6.2 Diesel, but then I couldnt find a 6" tall filter other than K&N. Since I dont like sucking dirt into my engine and think K&N filters are next to worthless, I ended up taking two 3" Wix paper filters and gluing them together for now.

I really enjoy the work you've done on the A833 transmission as well, since i was lucky enough to pick up an '82 K-10 6.2 Diesel that had one in it for $100. I'll be tinkeringnwith that over summer

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by Eraser475

Haha, I was just curious since I made an aircleaner that accepts 6" tall air filters for my 6.2 Diesel, but then I couldnt find a 6" tall filter other than K&N. Since I dont like sucking dirt into my engine and think K&N filters are next to worthless, I ended up taking two 3" Wix paper filters and gluing them together for now.

Well that's what we call Hot Roddin' very resourceful and why else do you think they invented Crazy Glue?! well done mate

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by Eraser475

I really enjoy the work you've done on the A833 transmission as well, since i was lucky enough to pick up an '82 K-10 6.2 Diesel that had one in it for $100. I'll be tinkering with that over summer

I am loving that transmission, what a difference of night and day vs the Granny Gear Muncie, on both ends, better 1st gear and a better 4th aka Overdrive

... please check out this link The Ultimate Mopar A-833 4-Speed Fix: Get Overdrive & Strength!, and I guess we will be taking those gear boxes to the next level together than

[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

[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]

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.