Hot Rods The (mis) Adventures of a Compulsive Tinkerer

I found that Centerville (the Nailhead guys) sell reproductions of the old Hurst motor mounts for Buicks. The were fairly priced so I ordered some. While I was ordering stuff I ordered the adapter plates from Offenhauser that were missing from the new manifold that I bought for the Pontiac engine. Both those items came the day before Christmas.
I was going to cheap out and use the plates from another Offy manifold that I have but I’m glad I bought new ones. The new ones are thicker, are machined aluminum instead of zinc and they have bosses that can be drilled and tapped for a vacuum fitting if needed.

The motor mounts from Centerville are nice. Powder coated gloss black and they fit the block perfectly.
But, (always a but…) it looks like they will need the horseshoe shaped spacers that Hurst offered back in the old days to sit on the same pads as the Hemi and have the crank centerline at the same height as the Hemi. Not a tragedy but disappointing. We’ll see how it works out when I stick the Buick back in.

 

I couldn’t find my oil pump primer tool so I went ahead and made one for the Pontiac.

It came out pretty good so I chucked it up and tried it. All went well at first with the oil pressure gauge jumping up to 40 or so pounds right away, but then the drill motor seemed to unload and I could hear a squishing sound. I removed the intake and valley cover (they were just sitting on there) and tried again. The squishing sounds like it’s coming from the front. I added the last quart of oil but I got called away so I didn’t get to try it again. I’m wondering if I missed installing a plug in the timing chain area and oil is going unrestricted into the timing cover and down into the front of the oil pan. So far no oil to the rocker arms but I haven’t run the pump much and the oil has to push through copious amounts of Isky Rev-Lube. I’ll try again tomorrow.

 

Moving on, I mocked up the steering shaft with the u-joints and D-D shaft that I had on hand. No problems there, I just need to order another u-joint and ***emble it. I won’t order anything until the steering box is finalized but it looks good. Nice having the starter on the other side.

I took the axle and wishbones off so I could maneuver the cherry picker when removing the Chrysler. I tack welded the motor mounts to the frame with the Hemi in position. Then I pulled out the Hemi and re-installed the Buick with the new Hurst mounts.
Oh yeah, a little fit check of the hairpins that go with the chrome front end, just to mark where they end up. Not sure which front axle ***embly I want to use.


In with the Buick…. It sat right on the frame brackets just like I hoped.


The steering column/starter situation is a little ugly. Got some figuring to do there.


And I might have to take a BFH to the firewall for some distributor clearance. I don’t want to do that if I don’t absolutely have to. I might be able to cheat the engine forward a little bit, we’ll see. No problem if I run my flat top Mallory distributor.

Trying to catch up after goofin’ off for the last week or so…..

 

I doubt I’m the only one who thinks of this…but we lather up the journals, then pump up the oil as we rotate the engine.
We have oil coming out, good pressure…

What happened to the lube we put on the journals?
Just asking

 

Reading your thread this AM and I admire your ambition, I'm impressed with the projects/progress. You have inspired me, like you my mind is always thinking, but life has slowed me to a stop temporally, not too long I hope. I've been down sizing as I have too much "Stuff" and do have one project left to finish, just keeping up with home, car hobby, no longer building, just maintaining and enjoying cruising, local shows keeps me busy. I enjoyed your thread, it's nice to see pictures, Thank You, Have a Great day !

 

Nice progress.

RE: The br*** pipe connected to the oil pressure gauge. That's OK for start-up and engine break-in, but I had a similar br*** pipe connecting an oil pressure sender. It failed from engine vibrations! It cracked at the root of the threads and started leaking oil. Fortunately I noticed it before it broke off completely and drained the sump.
I would use a stainless - or braided - connector there.
An oil filled gauge to dampen harmful vibrations will also add life to the gauge.

My Olds engine experience: Many decades ago I bought a clapped out A sedan with an Olds engine wearing a 6-deuce log intake with Ford 94 carbs on it. I junked the Olds, kept the intake around for a while until my wife and I got invited to a party where we had to bring a gag gift.
Yup - I wrapped up the intake.
I can still picture that intake sitting out by somebody's curb on trash day. I hope somebody that could use it ended up with it and it isn't in a landfill.
Carry on.

 

HAMB , wakes up memories, way back in the day 1964, my first car (avatar) I installed 3 panel with oil pressure gauge under dash with copper tubing/fittings and had the line crack at gauge inside car. A little a mess as I wrapped it with electrical tape after pinching line with pliers to get it home. just being a kid I was advised at the speed shop to use copper not plastic line, my first experience dealing with an "Expert"

 

Thanks Wicarnut - I’ve slowed down a bunch over the last few years with some down time to reconsider whether I should be doing this stuff still or if I should just hire an auction company to liquidate it all and buy one finished car to drive to the finish line. But I live for accomplishments, big or small they keep me getting up each morning. And I do what interests me at the moment, whether it’s a home maintenance or car stuff or yard stuff. I try to just get something done. Taking pictures and writing posts helps me to not feel like such a hermit out here.
Frenchtown - I know exactly what you mean! I’ve had fittings fail at the root of a pipe thread too so I’m careful not to stress them or cantilever them. This setup is just for startup/break-in on the dolly, Installed in my Stude pickup it has a remote oil filter due to the Mopar torsion bars. .

 

With it being so close, the engine angle becomes more critical as well as the height. I just dropped it in last night and went in for dinner. I’ll tinker with it today and see what I can do. I don’t mind working the firewall to gain some extra clearance. I kinda like my engines a little higher than current thinking usually places them. I run mechanical fans, so where the fan is in respect to the radiator core is a big factor to me. Plus, I like the way it looks.

 

Thanks. Hopefully I won’t have to bash it in…

 

Yeah, what about that? IDK. I’m hoping enough remains to provide some additional protection but myself, I would have everything ready to go, do a last minute oil pump prime, drop in the distributor and go. There should be fresh break-in oil everywhere at a minimum.
Truth is, I never worried about such things as a young stud with a hot rod. I just put ***embly lube on everything during ***embly, added my favorite oil and fired it up whenever I got the engine in and ready. Never had a failure. Well, that’s not entirely true. My big stroker Olds died a gruesome death but the local machine shop built it and it was caused by water in some cylinders. And my 396 Chevy spun some rod bearings but it was a low mileage factory engine that I just dropped in and started beating on. My conscience is clear…

 

I did some fiddling with the Buick engine position and no major changes are needed. 5/8” worth of spacers in front and scooting the engine as far forward as possible make everything clear ok and the angle good. I will give the firewall a little whack dead center just for good measure and I’ll probably add a little strut to control any tendency for the engine to slide back since the mounts are slotted.

Note that the bolt is tilted. There’s room to elongate the slot to make everything good. The bolt on the other side is centered in the slot.
Oh yeah, and I’ll make nice spacers.

There’s about 3/8” of clearance between the firewall and the distributor but both the body and the engine can be moved fore and aft during ***embly so I’d like a little more clearance. 1/2” would be ok - 3/4” would be better.

 

If you move the engine any further forward will there still be enough room to slip a V-belt between the front pulley and the crossmember U-bolts?

 

Heck, I’ll go along with your thought!

 

There’s about 5/8”-3/4”, should be enough. The camera angle makes it look smaller. Wouldn’t be the first time that I’ve had a car where I had to take the pulley off to install a belt though, lol.

 

I woke up with gout in my big toe/foot so I was a little slow today. Must have been all of the rich holiday food. My wife says it’s from standing on the cold concrete floor for hours.
I “adjusted” the fit of the p***enger side motor mount a little. I elongated both the holes on the block side and the slot for the main bolt just enough to make everything fit properly.
Now I’m going to step back and think a little before I pull the Buick out and move on to welding.

 

You wrote word “gout” & my toes starting hurting. Not rich food - check on line foods to avoid. Good luck, had in index finger once was killing me

 

I decided to lay out the rear end components and do some thinkin’….
There’s always the temptation to just buy someone’s kit and be done with it. This setup is simple, different, and stout enough to take some horsepower. It’s a nod to good old Tex Smith….
I have coilovers, quarter elliptics and parallel leafs in stock. Also the Corvair coils as shown (the other one is taking a bath in citric acid). I won’t do a transverse leaf. Mainly because I don’t have one.
I bought the ‘49-‘50 Olds trailing arms several years ago, they are in great condition. I bought a bunch of spring seats from Speedway, mostly from their “Garage Sale” area for cheap. The gold ones cost me a whopping $1.04 each! Strange number - who’s arguing? Not me. I’ve got the Corvair (rear) springs, cones, bump stops and isolators from a ‘65 Corsa. Speedway has lots of choices for coil spring lengths and rates if I use theirs. Using the Corvair springs would mean ordering special new springs if these should prove to be too soft. But I like that they can be bolted to the back of the trailing arms with cups and bolts, like a Chevy truck.

 

Here’s where I need a little help. My trailing arms didn’t have bushings. My first search for Olds trailing arm bushings came up with only late model stuff. After a while I gave up hope of finding ’49-‘50 Olds parts. I had some Chevy Nova bushings left over from a job I did in my shop years ago. They were too long and slightly smaller than the ones that the Olds arms use but I made some sleeves to make them fit.
My problem: They take 1/2” bolts. I’d like to use at least 9/16” bolts with sleeves, preferably 5/8 bolts with sleeves. 5/8” is a typical size bolt for a performance ladder bar, sometimes 3/4”. My attempts at trying to enlarge the bolt hole in the rubber bushings were, well, futile. So I bought some urethane bushings, same result. How do I “bore out” the rubber (or the urethane) bushings to 3/4” ID. I was sure that a sharp reamer would do it but it doesn’t.
Any suggestions?

I would prefer to use the rubber bushings because they are more compliant. But I’m good with either one. As you can see, I have to make a choice because the distance required between the mounting brackets is different depending on which one I choose. Help!

 

For bushings look up local “ Fleet Pride “ truck parts & explain size you want. Tons of choices

 

Rubber is much easier to cut/drill after being frozen. A light coating of a fast evaporating lubricant will help as well.

 

Doesn't really apply here(or maybe it does), but I could cut conveyor belting with a utility knife and lube, WD-40, where you couldn't cut it dry. Won a couple friendly bets on the job site with that one.

 

I think you've got it figured out, just being out there moving is the key. I can't imagine just polishing a finished car and not having something to wrap my brain around. I'm with you, Bob!

 

While lying in bed last night I had an idea that I might try.
Sharpen the end of a piece of thin wall 3/4” round tubing, chuck it in my drill press. Take the rubber bushing and sleeve and put two hose clamps around the sleeve and align it under the tube in the drill vise and secure the vice to the table. Heat the tube with my Oxy-acetylene torch and with the drill press spinning on the lowest speed push it through the bushing. Kind of a circular hot knife.
I haven’t been able to hold the bushing securely in previous attempts, even taking the smallest bites, it’ll grab and yank the rubber bushing out of the chuck. I’m thinking that my split sleeve might provide more surface friction while the hose clamps squeeze the full cir***ference and provide an obstacle to prevent the sleeve from spinning in the vice. I might have to glue the sleeve to the bushing.
I might try it cold with WD-40 first, like Algoma56 suggested. Depends on how good of an edge I can get on the 3/4” tube.
I won’t get to try it until later, we have appointments today and I need to drop off some connecting rods at the machine shop while we’re out and about.

 

I kinda tried that. But the rubber just seems to move out of the way and when you increase the cut and finally get a bite, it pulls the bushing out of position in the chuck. I guess the cutter needs to be like a thin blade but a blade is hard to control. Or the bushing needs to be held more securely.
I tried a reamer but it doesn’t bite the rubber either, the rubber just kinda moved out of the way. I haven’t tried that with the urethane bushings. I think I’ll take them to the machine shop today and see if Willy has any suggestions. Maybe he’ll do it, he loves a challenge…..

 

Dry ice, liquid nitrogen or just tossing rubber parts in the freezer will harden the rubber to some extent, enabling the material to harden enough for more effective machining. The colder the better. I have seen some dramatic results from the extreeme cold provided by Mother Nature as well, such as the rubber soles on boots simply cracking in half, unable to bend, or breaking a cast iron stove into a fragmented pile with a few blows from a ball pein hammer.
Works wonders the other way too by warming rubber to make it more flexible, such as installing rubber gaskets for auto gl***. Just a matter of using temperature to our advantage.

 

That's what I was thinking - some 4x4 and off roader aftermarket suspension suppliers

 

That’s where I found the urethane bushings - off road supplier. I looked at Fleet Pride and they do indeed have a ton of stuff but their website didn’t seem to offer any dimensional information and quite a few have no picture.
I dropped off the urethane bushings and some dimensions to my friend and he’s going modify them for me. I will try to modify the rubber ones myself, if it works, new ones are available if I need them.

 

Would a holesaw work on your rubber bushing?

I’ve bored urethane bushing and changed the OD in my small late. I don’t recall issues doing it.

 

It’s been quite a while since I tried boring the rubber bushings. No doubt I could have modified the urethane bushings but I have since disconnected my big ol’ lathe and used the power circuit for my mini-splits. My intention was to rearrange my shop and move my lathe over to where my mill used to be, but that’s a helluva lot to ask of one old man. Hard to believe that I moved it out of my SoCal shop, onto a flatbed trailer, schlepped it 400 miles north, unloaded it from the trailer and positioned it in my new shop - all my myself! But that’s was 15 years ago when I was a strapping young 60 year old, lol.
I had to run some parts up to Baechler Machine anyway so I took them along. He said no problem, I’ll get them back next year….. In the meantime, I’ll set up my drill press and maybe try a hole saw on the rubber ones. Again, the hard part is holding the bushing from turning without deforming it too much.