International Harvester 122 series restoration

Summer in beautiful Saskatoon is a time for outdoor fun, hanging with the kids, festivals of every sort and of course, time to enjoy the cars that can only be enjoyed in the summer-time!

But, even with all the fun-in-the-sun, it's not like work in the E-tek Rod Shop grinds to a halt. I've been plugging away at tearing down the International Harvester, the Comet Caliente and even managed to get the 240Z off the rotisserie and continued tweaking on the 1968 Camaro.

Of course with all that extra activity, something has to take a back seat - right? Of course - and what has suffered is my blog postings! Who wants to spend time on the computer with all of that other stuff to do?! So, my apologies for getting so far behind in the posting of my work, but let's catch everyone up here:

After removing most of the body, including fenders, hood, inner fenders, running boards and the rear fenders and tailgate, it was time to tackle the engine and tranny....



....which you'd think would be fairly straightforward....but in a 1956 IH 4x4....it was not to be so....

The front mounts, no problem:

But the rear mounts - under the bell-housing of sorts - where a bear to remove...

Largely due to the way the trans mounts in the cab,

 including a toe-pan and several cross members being in the way- 

The 3-speed gear box was separated from the bell-housing....

Then - with a ton of pulling, prising, yanking and hammerin'..... finally.... out she came!

Then I hooked up the Pullz-all to the tranny and yanked it in the opposite direction, setting it on its own trolley to be pulled apart and inspected later:

The 4-wheel drive linkage attaches to the levers you see here (now flipped upside down):

The right tool for the job (steering arm nut) -

And here she is - the 227 Torque monster straight - 6. First produced by American Motors, they also sold their straight-sixes to International Harvester for powering International's "Light Line" of trucks, as well as their Scouts and Travellalls.

But before I can tear into the engine, the body - including the cab, what's left of the box, the fenders and inners, tailgate as well as the frame and suspension components, will have to be sent off to the sandblaster. And I can't wait to see them back - as clean as the day they left the foundry! And so everything was loaded up and the entire mess was loaded onto a flatdeck  hauler from AstroTowing.

Via www.E-tekRestorations.googlepages.com !

390 FE teardown - a TURBO mill for the Galaxie

This winter the E-tek Rod Shop will be a rarely seen "clean zone", meaning there will be no bodywork, sanding or painting going on and all the projects will either be in build-up phase (Camaro and 240Z), or clean-up and detailing phase (Porsche). So what better time to also tackle some of the mechanical projects I have in mind, in addition to putting together the projects that have - or will have -  fresh paint on them.

Two such mechanical projects are the flatead I have slated for the E-Rod  and the boosted 390 FE I have slated for the Galaxie. The key then will be in getting both mills ready to go the machinist. so that they\ll be back in the shop - ready to go together - before the snow flies.

390 FE teardown:  I bought this complete engine from a great guy whose name is Morris, who is also the SK modertator of the FordTruck.com site.

Overall, the engine looked reasonmably well-kept on the outside, with little evidence of leaks or exterior damage. It had spent a winter (or several) outside tho and in SK that can alwasy be an issue...so lets see what lies inside -

Above - little sludge insode the valve covers and a clean valve train was the first good signs.
       Below - all the parts removed looked healthy, with no visible wear marks or evidence of  heat damage.

 Above - though the parts were easily removed, the rotating assesmbly took somewhat more torque to move than normal
         Below - a ton of slack in the timing chain often signlals some obvious wear and likely high-milage

Below -  Most of the pistons where relatively free of carbon build up and the cylinder walls where smooth.  Some flash rust is evidence of moisture settling on the cylinder walls over years of storage, which would have caised the increase in rotating torque I saw ealier.

Below - bottom end looks clean as well, with previsuly numbered rod end caps,

 signifying at least one previous rebuild.

Once everything is off the block, the crank will be shipped off to my machinist, 

along with it's 30+ year older brother, the flathead, where it will undergo all the work deemed necessary to renew it for another term at the buisness end of a fine automobile!

Via www.E-tekRestorations.googlepages.com