I haven't posted for a while because the 1940 Ford and 1971 Datsun are both in the primer and sanding stage and there's little to show. I did, however, do some metal work that may be of interest, so I thought I'd post that up!

..and the sanding....

Don't forget to check out my website at www.E-tekRestorations.com !

Just had the spoked 32 Ford wheels sandblasted. They'll be powder coated a creme color.

With the major metalwork done on the 240Z body, I spent some time on the engine rebuild:



A good friend and fellow car crafter gave me this Kleen-Flo parts cleaner. Although he had finished with it, it still had a lot of use left in it. It also smells BAD, so he brought it over for me to use!

The short block was in great shape, so I left it as is. The cylinder walls were perfect, with no carbon ridge and very little buildup on the cylinders. I cleaned what was there and went ahead with the new gasket rebuild:

As the engine has sat for nearly 15 years, a squirt of WD40 into each cylinder will ensure we don't get a dry start. I had previously rotated the engine to ensure nothing was stuck.

On the top end, I tested the valve seals earlier by squirting  gas into the intakes with closed valves. Not a bit of it leaked  after weeks of sitting on the bench!

The valve relief pockets, valve bottoms and the mating surface were all cleaned and prepped for re-assembly:

After using scrapers and wire brushes on any head surface, I've learned it's a good practice to go over it with a hard block and 180G then 220Grit papers - in a cross-hatch pattern. This shows up any imperfections and gives a clean - and flat - surface to ensure a good seal.

A good cleaning with compressed air ensures there's  nothing left to contaminate the engine.

Just before installing the head gasket, I apply a sealant to any join areas, just to ensure a leak-free build. Nothing worse that a pesky leak on a freshly rebuild - and detailed - engine!

With the head carefully lowered onto the block, the hex-headed head bolts ( that's a mouthful) were coated with anti-seize, then hand threaded to start them. Finally, they were torqued in three stages: 25, 35 and 47 foot pounds, starting from the center two and working outwards and alternating sides until all were torqued. Once I have them all torqued, I like to leave them for a while before re-checking them once prior to buttoning up the valve cover.

Getting closer!!

With spring finally springing, I was easily distracted and decided to get my summer cruisers out of their cold storage and into our attached garage so they'd be ready to go whenever the mood strikes!

This is were all that work pays off -  next year I hope to be able to put the 240Z into my fun-car rotation!

With the 1940 Ford gone for paint at Graveyard Custums (www.graveardrestorations.com) I've turned my attention back to my Datsun 240Z project - 

Polished the intake manifold

Painted the intake heat shields - 

Treated Exhaust manifold with POR15's Manifold High Heat coating- 

Painted fuel rail with heat reflective coating - 

Renewed clutch fan and plastic fan- 

All dolled up!

Don't forget to check out my website at www.E-tekRestorations.com !

PART II - Finishing the install of a B&M shift Kit and new filter in the Ford AOD transmission

Before the valve body gets re-installed, the accumulator valve on the tranny-side gets a heavier, shorter spring and a spacer to make up the difference -

Once that is installed, the valve body goes back on, using some alignment pins that come with the kit -

 Critical here is to get the gear-selector levers fit into the actuators as you seat the valve body - 

Once they are positioned and checked and the valve body is seated flush, 

the 20 shouldered bolts can be installed hand tight - then torqued to 90 lb-inches,

Next came the new filter -

Everything getting torqued to 90-100 lb-inches and triple checked.

 Last came the pan gasket an bolts, again torqued to specw, which was ACTUALLY stated  as 72-124 lb-inches - as if any torque wrench even had those markings! so I used a mid-way amount of 100.

So that's it! The keys to doing it? Cleanliness, acute attention to detail, reading and re-reading the instructions over and over, checking off the steps and studying the pictures in detail. You CAN do it.

Don't forget to check out my website at www.E-tekRestorations.com!

B&M Shift Kit Installation in Ford AOD transmission - PArt I

The 1940 Ford Rod is on it's way to Graveyard Customs this week for prep and paint and while there, I'll be turning my attention to engine and tranny upgrades and detailing, plus doing some work on the trim and some other pieces that need to be ready for re-assembly.

Today I got started on the B&M shift kit installation. I've done two of these before - in much older trannys (1967 and 1974) - and it made one hell of a difference. This trans is quite a bit newer (1989), but I'm sure it will still have a very  positive and very noticeable effect on shift crispness and overall speed by holding the RPM's longer, then changing harder, in each gear.

Up and onto the bench -

 Removing the pan and draining the oil.

Loosening one side of the pan allows the fluid to be drained slowly from one corner.

Once the pan is off there's about 20 - 10 mm bolts that hold the valve body in.

After removing all those bolts, the valve body and separator plate was removed to be worked on first -

 Here's where the magic happens:  the valve body, separator plate and torque plates.

 Gaskets top and bottom are removed and modified ones will be used in their place.

 The torque plates are then removed -

Here the gaskets and separator plate is removed and the check-balls (8 to 10 in all) are removed:

Below - the check balls and pressure springs - 

Next, replacing the springs. The shift kit has heavier springs designed to hold the shifts longer, at a higher RPM, before allowing the tranny to snap into the next gear -

 Here you can see the old black spring being replaced by the new, heavier,  red spring -

Another spring gets changed out - 

Once those items are changed out, the separator plate is slightly modified by drilling out a couple holes to a slightly larger (1/8") size. This allows more fluid to flow through to the accumulators.

 There a re a lot of holes and slots in the plate and one wrong move renders it useless. I carefully measured and went over the directions several times before proceeding!

 The instructions include a diagram showing which holes need to be enlarged, but there are a lot of dots, circles and slots! I went over it no less than 5 times - from various angles - to ensure I got them right.

 Again, this part is critical - the plate was marked and compared back to the instructions several times.

As per the instructions, the marked holes are to be drilled out to 1/8" inch (0.250") 

As shown below,  two of holes were already the correct size so only 2 needed to be changed.

The drill bits point to the two that needed to be drilled out:

After drilling, I took the edges off with a fine file, then removed any burrs with another, larger drill, twisted by hand over the holes.

Check balls go back in - 

Pressure springs go back in - 

Then the separator plate and gaskets are ready to be replaced.

 Then the torque plates are re-installed and torqued to 90 inch-pounds.

The valve body is now put aside and work begins on the actuators, shown below....

Stay tuned for Part II - 

Don't forget to check out my website at www.E-tekRestorations.com !