what's the best way to clean up an aluminum intake? and where the gasket is going to connect the heads to the intake? it's kinda dirty, i used some elbow grease to get the best of it off, but i want it clean as i can get it with no residue so that when i put the RTV black on it it'll stick for sure and i'll know i have no problems...
Since it sounds like you have left the carb on the intake, I'd say the best thing to do would be to take a wire wheel attachment, chuck it up in your hand drill and **LIGHTLY**, with as little contact as you can manage against the actual aluminum, wire brush away the gasket residue and old silicon. Just be careful with that wirebrush and keep in mind that most of them have steel bristles scratching up and maybe gouging a bit on that much softer aluminum manifold. Stick some rags in the valley or a used blanket that you can either hide or throw away to clean up the heads/intake ports and the block mating surface. Remember, clean is what you are looking for, not necessarily shiny. I always use 'just enough' of the gasket sealant to be sure it all holds together and doesn't leak. Just a personal preference but I hate seeing that orange/blue/black/red crap oozing out of everywhere. Besides, it's most likely oozing on both sides. The one you see, and the one you don't! I'd hate to get this stuff to drip into my lifter valley or worse, into an intake port!ou: Kyle, I'd seriously consider draining and refilling that oil pan before you start the motor after you get the intake back on and everything buttoned up. If as much antifreeze got into the pan as you seem to think, consider this: That stuff is just murder on engine bearings. Better safe than sorry man.:Smarty: I'm sure I speak for several of us who have been in your shoes when I say we will keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best when you light 'er up again. BTW, that is one beautiful ride!:laugh: Mine is on hold and I can't even begin to work on it the way things are with this new house right now!:ball: Hot August Nights is coming and I'll be all dressed up and nothing to drive!ou:
Bob- I have a question then- I could have sworn I read that the whole reason the t-stat closes it to make sure the coolant stays in the engine long enough to draw out heat, and having no t-stat defeated the whole process. Since I seem to be in error, what's the real reason that running no-t-stat is a bad idea?
Kyle Car looks super! :beer :TU: All I gotta say is you da man! That's seriously one tough looking ride. If you do ever get really discouraged and wanna get rid of her, I'm sure I can make some room in my garage.:laugh: ~Mark
Think about being at a kids slide on a playground. The bigger the difference between a slide being horizontal and vertical, the faster you go. Kinda the same thing in heat transfer- the bigger the difference in temperatures, the more heat transfer occurs. So ideally you want to keep it bathed in a constantly circulating pool of fresh, cooled liquid. If the liquid stays in there and heats up, now you have less of a temperature difference between the two, and the less heat will be transferred to the coolant. Make sense? If you run without a thermostat, you will have no temperature control at all. On a 60 degree rainy day, you'd be lucky to get the engine temp above 120 degrees (water is GREAT at taking heat away from a radiator). Also, your car will take forever just to heat up. If you don't heat up, then the engine won't be running at the clearances it was supposed to- remember that things expand when they heat, and the clearances we set when building an engine aren't the same where the actually run because of heat. The cooling system may not build the proper pressure, either, which will also affect heat transfer (think of a frying pan- if you push your hand against it hard, your hand will get more burned than if you just brush lightly against it). Since this is kinda off-topic, feel free to email me at bobc@gnttype.org . -Bob Cunningham
ya, i have people stop at my house when the garage is open, or stop me at lights and at car shows to ask me if it's for sale... they gimme some random number and i tell them it's a nice down payment... lol... i've got about $12,000 into it... and a new interior to go yet... it needs bumpers rechromed or new bumpers, grill needs cleaning up... not sure if i want to keep it black like that or do the whole chromy shiny look like new... looks kinda mean there with it being black.. it needs a bigger radiator, only running a 3 core now from the 350-2 that WAS in it from the factory... new seat covers front and back, new door panels front and back, new carpet, and probably a new headliner (it's fine but it was dyed, thus might not be near as "black" as it should be to match... and i hope to get to the brakes before the centennial... stupid drums... they need help right now but i can't afford the disc conversion.. and it needs atleast disc's up front to say the least... i'd also like to have the heads ported and polished to beyond stage 1 specs, port matched with the intake, and a TA413 cam put in with roller rockers.. i'll be happy pushing 550hp.. should be around 400hp now with the simple comp cams RV cam, intake and headers/exhaust... i love the look of the poston headers hanging low on it.. i'll have to snap some pictures next time i have it outta the garage my uncle is coming over .. i hope.. today to help fix the car... i gotta get the intake cleaned up and stuff, and hopefully it's a simple bolt right on... a friend of mine at work.. some of you may know him, Gary Minch, he's head of the transportation board for the centennial, says that he didn't think it "needed" the RTV black ... but you guys seem to be using it, so i'm gonna stick to using the stuff rather than taking his advice and not using it... anyway.. off to get it cleaned up...
I just ran into this problem with the convertible: When I rebuilt the heads, I put the motor back together and fired it up. The t-stat stuck closed. So I pulled it out since I didn;t have an extra. When I drove on the highway...or really anywhere, my coolant boiled over when I parked. Reason: The coolant did not have enough time to cool in the radiator before it got circulated back into the engine. So, make sure you at least have a restriction plate in there...I am running a 160 t-stat with NO problems at all now.:TU:
Try setting your CLEAN & BARE intake down on top of the CLEAN heads, and LOOK very closely at the GAPS. If the intake bolt holes are all lined up with the holes in the head, you should be able to look and see how all of the machined edges fit together. At least the end seals anyways. Always use some type of sealant around the water ports, and in the four corners where the rubber end seals touch the heads. ALWAYS use a brand new gasket!! The more oil-free the surface and the better the prep, the better your chances are of NO-LEAKS!! Some people say not to use rubber end seal gaskets and just lay down a BIG, FAT BEAD of silicone instead. Me personally I like to use them, but I use VERY SMALL wipe of silicone on them. Silicone is DEFINETELY NOT recommended around the intake ports because of its incompatibility with gasoline. Use High-Tack, or Gas-ga-cinch instead. Several coats, letting dry in between. Try to use as little silicone as necessary! You REALLY DON'T WANT ANY silicone WORMS going thru or getting stuck in oil passages. I once found one inside a rod journal on a crankshaft....shortly after replacing a timing chain and using that exact color of silicone!! :jd: ou: ou: I'll give you one guess why I tore that motor down... :spank: :error: ou:
ok ladies... i took the car for a spin.. though i used the silcone as i did not read the previous post before i did this.. anyway... i was fairly generous with the silicone and made sure i wipped up around the edges to make sure to the best of my knowledge none of the silicone would end up going into my heads... up next is an oil change, the oil seemed fine we ran it for a few minutes, and checked it... not milky or discolored, so i took it for a spin... upon pulling the intake i stupidly managed to get coolant down one of the intake ports on the heads.. ooops... anyway, started the car up.. and it smoked and smoked and smoked and smoked and smoked.. you get the idea until the coolant was gone... but now she purrs like a kitten and no smoke to beat it was indeed the intake that caused the smoke my car was getting.. ah.. thank you all for your help... i appreciate it, and i now have a wonderfuly working engine... again... wait till the next problem i guess
oh, you'll see me in flint alright.... every day as long as it's not raining baby.. oh ya.. and guess what? my friend is coming friday to Milan with a DV cam... and i'm bringing my digital camera... we're gonna be at the race track early.. and i'm buying a crap load of dv tapes for this thing... you can bet i'll have a nice big video of all these cars racing.. also, i plan to take thousands.. and i do mean THOUSANDS of pictures with my digital camera... so... if you want some nice digital pictures of you and your car or something please let me know, i'll be happy to take some and email them to you or something similar
