That is a good article. I've read it a few times. Sure would like to find that 215 CID V8 from the 1951 LeSabre Motorama dream car and the Buick XP-300 roadster in a barn somewhere.

 

March 7th 2021 The jagged, sharp casting flash at the bottom of the lifter bores had never been smoothed on this nailhead block so, I used my newly rediscovered burrs with the electric die grinder to take the edges off. Nothing fancy, just enough to eliminate small bits from breaking off. Background music was Rolling Stones Hot Rocks Volume II.

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March 11th 2021 Made the first pass at cleaning the flat machined block surfaces with scotchbrite "cookies" in the air-powered angle grinder. I know this method is controversial but I don't have the gumption to do this by hand and I'm a sucker for shiny metal.

After watching Matt on Iron Trap Garage clean sheet metal, I decided to take a pass with the Eastwood SCT Surface Conditioning Tool with the 120 grit drum (the finest grit I currently have) instead of the Scotchbrite cookies as an experiment.

The experiment was a success. Only took ten minutes for one bank, including a short time out for a gasket scraping. Advantages of the SCT drum is that it is five inches wide, runs at a slower speed and is electric. I also ordered a finer grit drum for future ops.

Meanwhile, I'm still struggling with the oil galley plugs. All I've managed, so far, is to drive two of the little buggers in deeper. Beer of the day was Nebraska Brewing Company's Cardinal Pale Ale.

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Yeah, I have a Starrett 36" straight edge, the most expensive chunk of bar stock I own

 

March 15th 2021 Finished the first pass with SCT and angle grinder tools. Went on to deal with the pesky oil galley plugs that are giving me conniption fits. Concentrated on the one threaded pipe plug first. I got a 5/16" pipe plug socket last week and was able to break the plug loose with a 24" breaker bar after heating up the plug with the MAP torch and quenching with penetrating oil.

Several of the press in plugs were drilled with a small hole and pulled out with a self-tapping bolt and claw hammer. The press in plugs at the opposite ends of the galleys were tapped out from behind by placing two steel rods in the galleys and tapping from the opposite end. These rods were from my teenage days for locating the '59 Ford transmission I was changing so often.

The last press in plug was a 1" dia plug at the back of the block. Its purpose was to give access to the smaller press in plug at the end of the lifter galley. I pulled and pulled without luck until I realized that I could drive it in and it would fall to the floor. I'm a little slow sometimes.

Professional mechanics deal with these plugs on a daily basis and think little of it, but for me, this was an epic struggle. I had to go into Deep Ponder Mode after each failure and there was a lot of that but, it's behind me now. Onward. Background music was Steve Miller Band's Brave New World.

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March 22nd 2021 Continued the nailhead block cleaning operations. Used a ball hone on a drill motor to refresh the cylinder bores and get the 45 degree cross-hatch. Marvel Mystery Oil provided lubrication.

Did a final pass of the machined surfaces with a 320 grit drum in the SCT tool. Cleaned the cylinders, lifter bores and oil passages with nylon bottle brushes, Oileater and Hoppes number 9 passes.

Chased all the bolt holes with thread straightener taps after cleaning with telescoping magnet and compressed air passes. The block is now ready for its hot soapy water cleaning. Background music was Eddie Cochran and Friends One minute to one, Vol II.

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March 25th 2021 Need to free up the engine hoist by getting the 302 Jimmy to a better storage location than on its side in the middle of the floor. It's current position is a good one for access to the clutch, however, so I decided to try to extract the clutch before moving the engine. I want to find out if the Hays clutch will fit the nailhead flywheel and Trans-Dapt HC-25 Adapter bellhousing.

Turned out to be easier than I anticipated. It was out and on the workbench in about fifteen minutes. The Hays 11" Street/Strip pressure plate mounting circle pattern is about 1/4" too big and the flywheel will have to be re-drilled if I use the Hays clutch. It looks like it will work but drilling a flywheel is beyond my experience and I need some Deep Ponder Mode musing on this.

Good news is that the Jimmy's ball pivot for the throw-out bearing fork is a direct bolt-in for the Trans-Dapt bellhousing. Beer of the day was Wooden Cask Brewing Company's The Scotchman Scotch Ale.

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Flywheels for the older nailheads are getting hard to find since most nailheads of this vintage came with Dynaflow transmissions. The flywheel and bellhousing were the first items I searched out when I purchased the engine years ago. I will probably go with a 10-1/2 in clutch instead of the 11 inch I have to keep it easy.

 

April 8th 2021 Started setting up a DIY hot tank for the engine cleaning. Cleaned a plastic trash can the landlord's contractor left behind when he absconded with my fourteen foot step ladder. Found a hole in the bottom which was probably the reason he left it. Ordered one off the intarweb.

Filled it with water and lowered the nailhead block into it. Placed a submersible spa pump for circulation and a submersible heating element, digital thermometer and a small amount of Dawn dishwashing soap and watched a bit to see that the suds didn't get out of control. Background music was Stone Free, A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix.

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A little bit of Dawn is quite the grease cutter. I use it in my Ultrasonic cleaner as well. 130 to 140 degrees F as I didn't know how much the plastic tub could take. It didn't take away very much of the water jacket rust. I used Evapo-Rust for that later on.

 

April 12th 2021 Took almost thirty-five gallons to submerge the block. Had to monitor the operation closely as the heating element would have the water boiling if left alone. No switch or thermostat on it. The pump turned out to be more of an aquarium pump than a spa pump. I kept the heat between 130 and 140 degrees as I did not know how much heat the plastic tub could take. The water moved in a slow circular pattern without suds. When the nailhead was pulled from the dirty soup, it was blown dry with my electric weed blower and an air hose.

And then the wheels fell off. The hydraulic ram on the Carroll and Taylor engine hoist malfunctioned and quit working. I settled into Deep Ponder Mode to sort things out with the beer of the day, Florida Beer Company's Sunshine State Amber Lager.

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May 5th 2021 When the engine hoist broke, I sidetracked into a lazy streak for a couple of weeks but I think I'm back on track now. Onward to the nailhead derusting ops. The water was drained and replaced with twenty gallons of Evapo-Rust for the waterjacket derusting. Since I didn't have the quantity needed to completely submerge the block, the operation has to be a two-step dance, front half first, then the rear half of the block, two days in the soup for each. Beer of the day was Bent River Brewing Company's Undercurrent IPA.

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Great. It was worth the effort, even at twenty bucks a gallon. Got 95% of the rust in the water jacket. Might have gotten it all if I had let it sit for more than two days. They also have a product called Thermocure specifically for the cooling system but it needs a running engine. I plan to use that when I get this thing on a test stand at the end of the build.

 

May 28th 2021Sidetracked again, this time by a nearly immobilizing, nasty, oozing rash that had me feeling sorry for myself most of the time I wasn't at the office. It has pretty much run it's course and now I'm back at it again.

Cleaned up after the derusting operations and began preparing the nailhead block for painting. Plugged threaded holes and started masking off machined surfaces for the first stage of painting. My masking Kung Fu is not strong and it's tedjus work. I did use the trick of trimming the masking tape at sharp edges by using a small brass ball-peen hammer to make a cut line in the tape.

Beer of the day was Florida Brewing Company's Hurricane Reef IPA.

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