theres no strength to these rings at all... theyre very very very brittle broke the one even just using my fingers vs the rest of it with the hammer and flat head screwdriver...

 

OK, if you can wait a couple of weeks, I'll bring down my groove cleaner.

 

im gonna buy one here soon as i find a place with one... the ap store i stopped at today didnt have one... I always hate borrowing tools... never fails i seem to break the borrowed one...

 

Got the engine mounted to the stand and painted with primer. Now i just gotta wait for paint to dry so i can hit it with color.







maybe itll get some color when i get another day off.... and why is it every time i want to shoot some paint the wind decides to blow at like 50mph outside all the time...

 

Shawn, are you worried that the paint will hold the heat in more so on the fins to help cool the pistons?
What color are you going to paint it?
Dave ----

 

theres the possibility it could... but would be negligible imo... ive done headers and manifolds and still ends up feeling just as hot over them... its more for looks really..

see for yourself... i painted it with color today..







colors called aluminum... i wanted it painted but not to look like it was painted... comes out kinda silvery.. which doesnt bother me any... i like it more shiny anyways...

 

Thursday on the way home from work I hit DMV to see what I needed to get a plate.
I had may insurance cards & signed title I was in and out in about 20 mins and part of that time was BS,ing as she was from Hartford CT and moved down in 2014.
So the truck is totally legal to drive on the streets.

As for insurance I got Hagerry just under $400 a year, if a total lost I get $11,000 and can up that if I want, I can drive it any time as they want you to drive older cars & trucks.
I did not want normal insurance because if totaled you only get book value and how much could that be on an 1981 truck after rebuilding from the ground up?

I have brakes on the truck!
I fixed the home made brake pressure bleeder and at first I did not think it would work because I did not have all the valves open, cap was still leaking.
That and I only got a little air out the rear when I first opened the bleeders, none up front.
Not even starting the truck I could feel they were better, even took it for a lap around the yard.
May take it out later to the store.

Looked into why the speedo is not working. The gear on the out put shaft is stripped.
Thing is the information I am finding does not match to what the truck has and I know the transmission & rear gear are from the factory for the truck.
BTW it is a 11/80 (called a 1981) F100 with a T18 and 2.75 9" rear gear.
The stripped gear looked to be white and the gear on the cable was white type 2a gear.
The information lists a brown gear in the transmission and don't know on the cable gear.

I also looked into why the rear tank gas gauge stopped working.
Cant get to the sender with out dropping the tank, it is full right now, or removing the bed.
Bed is not coming off! So I will run the rear tank empty and then drop it to see if the new sender or the float went bad.
I have the old sender & float still around I can use also.
Dave ----

 

Looks good, maybe I am over thinking the cooling part & paint
On headers & manifold you want to keep the heat in if you can as it helps pull the gases out of the heads.
Thing is you have an air cooled engine there and paint may hurt it.
You will just have to make sure you keep moving to keep the air flowing LOL

Did that motor have the little plastic blocks between the fins or was that on newer bike motors before water cooling?
I was told they were for seeing if it got to hot as they would start to melt.
Dave ----

 

tyty

no plastic blocks on this... heard there were some motorcycles to have rubber spacers between the find to keep them from getting pinched shut... but wasnt on these bikes was on something else..

the heat trapping of the paints really negligible.. if i was wrapping the engine in heat wrap id be more concerned about the heat... itll still cool as efficient as it did before.. most the reason people scream not to paint the motorcycle engines is because their purists... especially with vintage bikes... they want them to look just as they did off the factory floor.. for me id rather not see the oxidation... even the newer bikes out now that are still air cooled there are some out there that are actually painted from factory for the very reason to keep the oxidation off the aluminum bodies...

tbh id be more worried about the mud and crap i see always getting stuck in the fins of the air cooled bikes.. this engine had mud dobbers build their nests in several places between the fins... had to evict a few of their nests when i was cleaning up the engine lol..

 

I went through the same thing with my speedo gear. The drive gear and driven gear were both stripped enough to mess with my transmission so it couldn't shift. The gears drive the speedo cable on mine and the vss sensor. Ford dealer told me mine should have a different color.... they're wrong. Ordered the matching color gear and all is well.

 

Measuring the old rings gap. One ring was .014 the other .022. The specs say as narrow as .012 to as wide as .031







so from my observation i should be good with just ordering stock sized rings... and being able to reuse the stock pistons too..

 

In addition to cleaning out the piston ring grooves i hit the cam chain tensioner with some primer today. Tomorrow ill paint it with color. I just set it there to let it dry.

 

Fixed my shift fork yesterday and today i pulled it from the sand bucket to find it didnt crack during cooling. Smoothed the weld back down and honed out the center bore back to smooth. Also painted the chain tensioner with the color coat.



When your 36 yr old and your inner kid thats inside comes out to play in the sand... you draw a turkey in the sand.


And as a reminder heres how the shift for looked before...



and now the after



little tiny weld...





ground back to flush..



honed smooth again..



Tensioner painted to match the rest of the engine..



now its drying..

 

I ordered the gears off Ebay.
I have the drive gear wanting on the driven gear set, hope it comes tomorrow so I can do the fix over the weekend.
Dave ----

 

I replaced my oil pan last year, and the drain plug in the new one is in a slightly different location. Just different enough that I can't access it to remove it! Now I'm stuck and can't change my oil.


On the old pan, the drain plug was on the side, but on the new pan the plug is at a 45 angle recessed.

So hard to get a picture that explains my trouble, but the head of the plug is slightly visible, and right next to it, the motor mount tower. No enough room to get a wrench in there.

Went to change my oil by sucking it out, and knocked the vacuum thing off the fender by mistake and it cracked. So now it won't hold vacuum!