I really am down to the detail bits on the engine now.
Exhaust Manifolds
As you may know, I had the exhaust manifolds ceramic coated to help keep the heat out of the engine bay. I have read that you shouldn’t use freshly coated manifolds on a new engine as they will get too hot during the initial cam break in which can make the paint flake off. Unfortunately right now I don’t have another option. 😦
I tried to cure them some more before installing them by baking them in my gas pizza oven for a number of hours at around 350 degrees Celsius (660 Fahrenheit). Not sure if it will make difference, but it was worth a try. I will also break in the cam in 10 minute increments to try and make sure they don’t get too hot too soon.
I bought some new stainless studs with brass nuts for the exhaust pipe flange as the original ones were a rusted mess, however when I went to install the studs, one of the threads on one manifold was loose – upon further inspection it was clearly damaged, possibly from corrosion.
I decided to install a heli-coil to give me a nice new thread. Pretty straight forward process now that I have done one. I installed the studs with some copper grease to make sure I can get them out in the future if needed.
Lower Pulley
Next was the lower drive pulley which bolts to the harmonic balancer and drives all of the accessories.
I ran a tap though all of the threads as they were all a bit dirty and grungy. Once this was done, I lined up the pulley and washer ring. It is interesting that the holes are drilled at different spacings, so there is only one position where all 6 bolt holes line up. Once I had established the right orientation, I placed a drop of Loctite 243 Threadlocker on each thread and then screwed & tightened them to spec. I really am liking the contrast of the cast iron bolt on parts against the burnt copper engine.
I would be interested to know what others think……please respond to the poll and let me know….
Temperature Sender
The temperature sender was next. Not a big deal, but vitally important. A smear of Aviation No. 3 and a couple of turns, and it is all done!
Other Bolt On Bits…
I am now starting to think about the bolt on parts. I grabbed the Water Pump Pulley, the Power Steering Pulley and one of the brackets. First step was to let them soak for a couple of days in the Simple Green bath. When they came out, they were looking a bit drab. I spent more than an hour with a wire brush in a drill cleaning them up and taking them back to bare metal. The picture below is before I started.
I proceeded to prime, paint and then clear coat all of them. The results were excellent IMO.
That’s it right now. I am away for the weekend with the family, so not much action on the Cadillac project.
