'75 W300 repair/mod project - Ol' Blue

I got a bit off track talking/typing about my DD and forgot to take and post these yesterday. Descriptions are above each pic as usual.

Here's the cleaned pistons and rods as well as the rest of the block internals I removed yesterday. All that's left on the block is the distributor drive bushing, cam bearings, freeze plugs, block heater plug, coolant drain petcocks and the oil gallery plugs. The oil gallery plugs are going to be pulled so I'll have access to clean out the oil galleries with some long bore brushes.


The #5 main bearing took one for the team. The rest of the main and rod bearings (Clevite 77's) show otherwise normal wear for an engine that's been run for a while.


Thankfully the bearings did their job and the crank rod and main journals are all fine. I can't catch a fingernail anywhere on any of the journals. As mentioned earlier I'll be chamfering the oil holes in the crank journals for a reliability upgrade before giving it a thorough cleaning.


I didn't find a manufacturer's name or logo on the timing set, just a few numbers here and there. It's a standard non adjustable single bolt double roller set by the looks of it. Timing chain stretch was minimal so this set will be going back in the engine. The fuel pump rod and distributor driver shaft both fit well in their respective bores and will be fine for reuse after cleaning.


Today I pulled the clutch friction disk and pressure plate off the trans input shaft to get a look at the back of the other side of the fiber disk. About 50% of the fiber, and a few of the rivets that held those pieces, were missing. I guess "redistributed" would be a better word for it as the pieces that separated from the disk were strewn all over the place in the bell housing area. The PP got cooked even worse than the flywheel by the looks of it.


It's a big oily mess in the bellhousing area, even after knocking the big fiber chunks out. The TO bearing still feels good, but the outer surface of the bearing itself looks a bit rusty.
 
I guess that was why I could only give it 3/4 throttle at most. There was only 3/4 of the clutch fibers left. :D

When I went out to the truck to work on it I decided to pick up the radiator support and give it a little attention. The opening for the radiator was overlapping the fins on the large radiator. As far as I know, that was so the smaller radiator would have a place to bolt to. I won't ever use a small radiator in this truck with the 440 in there, so that 3" wide strip of excess metal got sliced out with the angle grinder. I gave the cut edge a touch up with the satin black paint for now, but I still have a little work to do to the support straightening a few wrinkles out.


I got a little time between fencing the yard to clean up the bell housing a little. I used a screwdriver and a pick to get the big chunks of oily asbestos out of the way first and then some Purple Power degreaser to get the remaining gunk off the metal. I only managed to get it scrubbed about halfway before getting called on to put up more fence. I gave the clean metal, as well as some of the frame rails, a coat of satin black. I still need to get the driver side of the bellhousing cleaned up and painted, but that will have to be done on another day since the sun just went down.


One thing I noticed while I was in there cleaning the bellhousing is that the Z bar bushings are gone. There's couple more parts added to the list now.
 
The big brown truck showed up today with the shorty headers. They look better than I expected for the price I paid for them. The real test will be how well they seal up and run on the 440. Here's a few comparison pics of one of the shortys next to the truck manifold.



I guess it's not just the factory guys that work hungover on Mondays. It looks like it's a problem for the aftermarket workers as well. The name badge is welded on upside down. :D


Afterwards I finished cleaning up and painting inside the bellhousing, some of the frame rails, the cross members and quite a bit of the front axle. Then I moved onto the starter. The gear cover was pushed halfway off the starter by all the clutch fibers that were wedged in there. All that gunk got removed from around the gears first and then it was just more cleaning and painting. I also got that starter gear cover cleaned up, but had to hold off on painting it since a heavy thunderstorm blew in suddenly. I'll get some starter pics in a few minutes when it clears up. :shifty:
 
upside down would be fine for turbo or out the hood aplications

that clutch is actualy quite impressive

please tell me your going to do the freeze plugs while its out...youve got a chance..by all means do it..cause replaceing them later is neerly imposible
 
69.5CUDA said:
please tell me your going to do the freeze plugs while its out...youve got a chance..by all means do it..cause replaceing them later is neerly imposible
Click to expand...
What? Can't a guy live on the edge a little? :shifty:

These freeze plugs look fine on the inside from what I can see through the giant figure eight water jacket holes on the cylinder decks. The outsides of the plugs look like they're almost brand new, but we all know that has little to do with the inside condition. It's a gamble I'm going to have to take. There's also the fact I'm counting dimes here trying to figure out how to get the wrist pin fit fixed on #7 ($20) and still be able to get the bearings for the bottom end ($?). Those two things are all I'm lacking at this point to be able to put this engine back together. Might have to haul some more stuff to the pawn shop to get by this month again.:doubt:

Anyway, I got the starter gear cover painted gunmetal grey today and then moved onto the starter heat shield. For whatever reason, the heat shield was in pretty bad shape and has been repaired at least once before. I was able to get a better look at the damage after cleaning and sand blasting it. First thing I did was to straighten out the large flat sheet metal shield part with a hammer and the flat part of a vise. From there I was able to size it up against the motor of the starter and see where the three mounting legs needed to be tweaked for it to fit properly. One of the legs started to twist around the spot weld that was holding it so I stopped before I snapped it off. I broke out the MIG and ran a bead on either side of each mounting leg. While I had the welder out, I also welded up a 1/2" crack in the sheet metal next to one of the legs. Then I got the angle grinder out to hide the evidence of just how bad of a welder I am.[smilie=f:
One more test fit, which it passed with flying colors, before it's next trip through the sand blaster. Then it got dusted off and painted gunmetal grey, just like all the other sheet metal parts.

Tomorrow I'm heading out to the machine shop in town to get the wrist pin fit taken care of.
 
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I just got back from the machine shop and the #7 wrist pin now flops around snugly in the piston like it should. Next up is measuring the crank journals to verify bearing sizes and then putting in an order for a new set.
 
If the bearings are oversize, the oversize (crank undersize) will be stamped into the back of the shells. I've never seen a set that weren't--even factory bearings (I had a "Maltese cross" 440HP at one point)

Let me know what you find, because I might--might--have a spare set of 440 main bearings lying around. I'm almost positive I bought a complete set of standard crank and rod bearings for my 440, but the garage roof leaked on the crank and rusted it. I ended up getting a .010"/.010" reman crank, which came with the appropriate bearings. I won't give them away, but I can send them to you to keep progress moving and we can worry about payment when you're a little more solvent. Plus, I'll be cheaper than retail since I can't return 'em and I have no use for 'em.
 
I'll let you know what I find on the backs of the bearings and the mic readings from the journals. That would really help a bunch.:bravo: We can discuss payment details in PM's if that's OK with you.

My back got screwed up pretty bad yesterday helping my wife with the chickens, so I didn't get much of anything done today. I tried to use an EZ-out to remove the four broken studs (found one more in the accessory end) in the driver side head, but it's too small (#2) to even budge them. Rather than pushing my luck with the wrong size tool for the job, I'll try to borrow the correct sized one (#3) from my neighbor. He's usually out on the weekends during race season, so I'll have to try to catch up with him on Monday. For now, I just ran a 3/8-16 tap through all the open holes in the heads to clean up the threads. The grade 8, 12pt reduced head header bolts I picked up from Ebay showed up in the mail so I checked the thread fit with those. So far so good, but I'll want to get some washers under the header bolt heads as the holes in the headers are a bit too big for my tastes.
 
gomopar440 said:
I'll want to get some washers under the header bolt heads as the holes in the headers are a bit too big for my tastes.
Click to expand...
It's not janky overseas quality, there's actually a legitimate reason for the holes being so large: Thermal expansion. 304 stainless has a very high expansion rate; so much so that if the bolt holes were "just right" it's very likely they would expand enough to shear the bolts off flush with the heads. Don't be surprised at installation time if you find out the bolt holes in the header flanges aren't centered over the ones in the heads, either. It's pretty common practice with 304 to offset the bolt holes slightly toward the end of the head for the same reason. Once they're up to temp, the holes are actually centered.

PM me about the bearings if they're something you can use. If you're already undersize, I can't help you there. The only OS bearings I've got are for the crank I'm using.
 
I know the truck might look like it belongs in one, but this isn't an episode of Roadkill. :silenced:

BTW, I pulled the rest of the main bearing shells from the main caps and cleaned off and got the part numbers off the backs of them. A few of the upper bearing shells have "010010010" or similar stamped in ink on the other side of the bearings, right over the top of the Clevite 77 name. Looks like a .010 set, but those part numbers on the #3 thrust bearing have me a little confused.:hmmm:

#1
10 88
MB2067P
UPPER CA
11 88
MB2067P
LOWER E

#2
10 88
MB2067P
UPPER F
11 88
MB2067P
LOWER E

#3
6-89
.010
UPPER
MB2457P
DAB
7333 CAP-L
1-30 D-49

#4
10 88
MB2067P
UPPER F
11 88
MB2067P
LOWER F

#5
10 88
MB2067P
UPPER F
11 88
MB2067P
LOWER E

I also mic'd the main journals on the crank and they're all reading the same at 2.745".
 
It could be the mic I used, it's a used one I got in a set a while ago. I don't have a 2 or 3" micrometer standard gauge rod to verify it's accuracy (or inaccuracy). I can double check it with a dial vernier, but that's really not the right tool for the job and isn't something I'd trust to check a mic's accuracy with. I'll bring those mics with me to the machine shop next time I'm out there to see if they'll let me borrow their mic checking gauges for a few minutes.

Speaking of borrowing stuff, my neighbor loaned me a #3 EZ-out to try to remove those broken studs in the head. He also let me use his C-clamp type valve spring compressor to make cleaning up the heads a bit easier. There's still a lot of casting flash I want to remove from them, inside the ports as well as outside.

I'm going to sign of the computer for a while as we're getting a big thunder and lightning storm over head and the power has been flickering. And just for giggles, they issued a flood watch for our area until Wednesday morning... :wtf:
https://weather.com/weather/alerts/...ificance=A&areaid=MTZ007&office=KMSO&etn=0003
 
Curious, indeed. The published specs for standard journals as far as nominal tolerances are 2.7495"-2.7505". It's like you've got a .005" undersize crank, something of which I've never heard. :hmmm: But hey, you learned approximately when Mr. Ford Dumbass was in your engine. :D

I looked into it a little, and back in the bad ol' days Clevite did indeed use an ink stamping to mark oversizes (the cheap bastards) so your assumption about the .010" oversize is correct. You're very lucky the printing is still there; Clevite went to stamping because the ink almost always washed away. This makes me wonder about the clearances at your main bearings; if your measurements are correct that thing had to be tight. What does the wear pattern look like? Lots of copper showing? If not, your mic is reading too large.

The bearings I have are definitely standard size, so those are out of the question unless you're going to replace the crank. Considering the ridiculous undercuts even the cast cranks can withstand, unless it's bent there's no reason to do so. That being said, considering how inexpensive a reman crank usually is, particularly the cast ones, it might serve you well to get one from a local parts store. There are a few good reasons to do so, including knowing that the journal surfaces are true and correctly polished, and reman cranks come with the bearings to fit that crank's undersizing. It's very easy to spend well over $150 just on the bearings, so whether the extra money is worth the piece of mind is your call. It would be to me, even if they sent me a .030"/.030" crank. For a cast crank, the "Joe Off the Street" price at my store is $294.02, but if Joe seems like a good guy I could go to around $270, maybe a little less for a really-good customer. Your mileage will vary, of course, because so much depends on whether the store is an independent or corporate installation--as well as the person behind the counter.
 
The #5 bearing was the only main that showed any copper through the grey journal contact surface. The others had mild scuffing here and there, as well as some embedded trash from the oil visible on the contact surfaces. The gouge in the #5 main bearing appears to have been from a larger than normal piece of oil-borne trash, but it somehow managed to not affect that crank journal at all.:confused: I'm going to recheck the crank after I calibrate the mic(s), but for now I'll go with the assumption that it's a .010 main crank. If it was too tight (@ .005), like you suggested all the other mains would have shown a LOT more wear than what I'm seeing here.

FWIW: I'm keeping this forged crank rather than swapping it for a parts house reman cast crank. Getting a new set of bearings to fit the crank I have now is still going to be way cheaper than buying a cast crank, and then having to also buy the damper and flywheel that it calls for.

On a side note, the #3 EZ-out didn't budge those broken studs either. Looks like I'll be walking up the drill sizes until I can scrape or pry the leftover stud remains out of the threads.

I wasn't really feeling like messing with those studs anymore today, so I started pulling the valves. I've removed three of the exhaust valves so far, and all their guides feel good and snug. The rubber valve stem seals are still flexible and don't show any signs of cracking. My ADD must be acting up bad today because after the third valve, I moved right onto a little porting work. I was mainly wanting to remove the casting flash that was staring back at me from inside the exhaust ports. However, once you have that die grinder in your hand... Well, let's just say the valve seat to bowl transition is looking much better now as well. I also cleaned up the rough cast surface of the exhaust port walls, but they'll still need going over with some sanding drums before I'm done with them. Right now I'm just using carbide burrs to get the heavy stuff knocked out of the way first.
 
gomopar440 said:
My ADD must be acting up bad today because after the third valve, I moved right onto a little porting work.
Click to expand...

The same thing seems to happen to me too. I've even spent unknown hours porting a head for a 4-banger. :doh:

But, the equation does say efficiency = economy + power. Porting is free power :huh:
 
Material removal in the ports beyond simple cleanup will indeed make more power, but it will do so at a higher engine speed. Them's physics, and you can't defy them. Also remember, a smooth port is an unhappy port in terms of flow. The heavy hitters know this, and their CNC porting is often followed by what I'd call a "stutter cut", done by hand, to reintroduce an "even" uneven surface in the port. Think golf ball, but at a much-smaller scale.
 
I'm not planning to touch the interior walls of the intake ports, other than to remove any casting flash. The majority of the intake port walls are going to be left as cast. Only the exhaust side is getting the smoothing treatment. All of the bowls under the valves will get blended into the seats and the valve guide bosses will have the sharp edges rounded over. I'm not going all out on those guide bosses as I'd rather leave most of the meat on them to support the guides for long term reliability.

I may also gasket match the intake ports, but the exhaust ports are definitely going to need to be matched up for sure. The header openings are almost twice the size of the stock exhaust manifold ports. I'm sure that the resulting ledge at that junction will help prevent exhaust gas reversion, but with that big of an offset, I can't imagine the exhaust gasses will be flowing very efficiently at any speed through there as is.

BTW: If there really are 4.88 gears in those axles, I'll have plenty of opportunities to get up into the upper RPM range on the highway. I think my MPG will be measured in GPM though.:silenced:
 
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