Alright. It has been almost a mounth now since an
update. As you can guess the plan to use this Jeep as a
winter vehicle has not panned out. The original plan was
to purchase and then drive the vehicle with no updates.
So I told you that so that I can
explain where the time has gone. We found and purchased
the car, a straight axle for the front, four link for
the rear, built a mock up of the 454 engine and turbo
400 trans that will go into it. Purchased a second 28
foot trailer to store it in out there. Hauled the
dragster to Indianapolis for a wheelie bar install at
Roo Man Motor Sports. Picked the new trailer up and
hauled it to SD. Put the 1949 into it. Drove back to
Indianapolis ,picked the dragster back up and returned
home. I left out a LOT of the things that did not go as
planned. If I included those this update would never get
done.
This is my son out in South Dakota.
I have learned a new law in
physics. It you do not work on a project for a period of
time it becomes a magnetic and attracts all kinds of
junk. When you go to work on it again you have to spend
the firs hour finding the project.
So there has also been some
progress in the back ground on the Jeep
This is what it looked like in the last update (see
below left). I did not like the Plastic valve cover both
for looks and they seem to always leak. I
picked up an aluminum valve cover off e-bay, stripped it
and repainted it the color of the engine (AMC Metallic
blue (I really like the color)).
I went to put it on and found that although there are
holes in the head for the bolts they are not threaded.
On top of that they are not deep enough to tread. I can
get about four treads cut before the tap bottoms out.
Turns out that the water jacket is only about 1/2 below
the surface.
I borrowed a 5/16 tap from a
freind and cut the end off it to make a blind hole
bottom tap and was able to get the whole hole tapped to
the bottom (don't ever loan me any tools (Frank told me
I could cut the tap).
Turns out that a 3/4 inch bolt is just perfect with
the thickness of the gasket and valve
cover.
Also in the back ground the car nuts sand blasted the
exhaust and intake manifolds, the exhaust manifold was
painted high temp aluminum pant and baked in the oven to
cure. The intake was powder coated with new powder from
NIC which is an close match to the engine paint but not
a perfect match.
So now we are pretty much up to date. This weekend the
car nuts got together and the first thing we did was try
an figure out which way the exhaust manifold gasket goes
on. (shinny side to or away from the block). After much
research with no information provided in the manual it
was discovered that stamped on the gasket is the word
"this side away from the block" and we were able to
proceed.
The engine block surface was cleaned.
The manifolds were bolted and torqued into place. Note
the difference in the color of the intake to the block.
It is more noticeable in the photo then when you stand
there and look at it. The intake is powder coated and
the engine is painted. The paint has much more depth to
it.
Frank, put the phone down and pick up one of the tools
on the fender.
We also added
the new emissions control to make the Jeep run much
cleaner.
Catalytic converters are designed to burn unburnt gasses
in the exhaust, EGR valves are designed to suck unburnt
gasses back into the intake manifold when deaccelerating
to reburn raw gas that is dumped into the exhaust when
deaccelerating.
With this new set up of running a reburn spark plug you
accomplish both these things and it is not to obtrusive
looking.
If you believe the above
statements I have a bridge in Brooklyn that I would like
to sell to you. Please contact me.
