I like the idea of dropping out the whole sub-frame, but since I am doing this at Luke AFB auto hobby shop. I think that is a bit too much. And the steam pressure washer just went down Friday night. The pressure washer part of it is still working but with out the steam, that 33 years worth of crud just won't completely go away and I am too lazy to get in there with degreaser and a wire brush. On the way in Saturday morning I tried plan ahead and stopped by Auto Z to get all new freeze plugs in advance. But the kid there couldn't tell me what size and how many plugs I would need, even with his know it all computer, so I would have to pull them out and bring them in to compare.
I also stopped by China Freight to get a leak down tester to determine just how tired the engine was. Once I was back to the shop I opened it only to find the wrong gauges were on it making it worthless, went back to the store found an opened box with the correct gauges and did a swap got back to the truck and thought that was too easy and did a inspection of the new tester and discovered one of the gauges was stuck at 40% reading went back in and unwrapped the last box and hopefully I now have a good unit.
Pulled off the valve covers and oil pan to check out the internals and to reseal the motor, a bit dirty but no obvious problems yet. I had been driving it around and the engine seems tired but has no real problems considering checking and maybe throwing in new bearings when I change the rear seal.
would love to junk the lean burn carb and go 4bbl but since this has gone beyond my initial plans the jury is still out on that decision. The Hobby shop is closed till after Christmas so I took the engine home hopefully to clean up the engine, inspect bearings, finish cleaning and painting and install all new brass freeze plugs if they are not too expensive.
It always amazes me just how long it takes me to complete tasks I am working on, and just how complicated the job gets. I started of just changing the trans then I found bad freeze plugs, the steam cleaner craps out and I can't get parts I need when I want them and tools I bought won't work and I have to drive back to the store to replace them.
So, how is your day going?