- Joined
- Sep 2, 2013
- Messages
- 5,418
My boy and I built this car for him 16 yrs ago. Last year while driving it it started making bad noises, and by the time he found a place to get off the road it had locked up solid. He was in the process of moving into a new home and had no place to put it, so I went down with the trailer and hauled it home. Didn't have anytime to work on it, and while I don't mind helping out, I work on the "you broke it, you fix it" school of thought. it has sat out side, waiting for him to find time to work on it. So he came up for five days with his girlfriend, and we got it rolled into the shop and on the lift. Pulled the trans and drive shaft, all the accessories, radiator, wiring, etc.. Got it on an engine stand, and pulled the pan plug and got about a gallon of antifreeze, and then oil. Not a great sign. Pulled the spark plugs to check for any signs of contact, and got coolant out of #4 cyl. but all the plugs looked good. Pulled the intake and cyl heads, and #4 hole was full of coolant, but no damage to the piston tops, valve train, or combustion chambers, and now the engine would turn over. Spun it 180 on the stand and removed the pan and windage tray, and found a bent rod on #4. Hydro-locking will do that. Pulled that rod and piston, piston and rings look fine, rod bearings and crank throw looked good, . Was unable to find any obvious cause for the coolant leak, #4 cyl still has nice crosshatch, no sign of cracked cyl, and no obvious sign of head gasket failure. Could have easily been much worse, so all's well, that ends well I guess. The Galaxie has 70k miles of good times on it, including several 3k+ mile road trips, with us sharing the driving. We are going back to Denver with the kids Friday to spend a few days with our granddaughter, and then off to the beach for the winter, so the car will have to sit until I get back in the spring. I have a fresh 434ci FE short block that we will install When I get back, and he has a few free days. The block out of his car is an original 428 CJ that I bought for his project, so I will be pressure testing it, and if it tests good, which I believe it will, it will get a 4.25" stroker assembly, and go into one of my projects at some point. Was fun working together again with my son after so many yrs. Wish he was a little closer, and we could do it more often. Cheers, Mike
Nice to have a 7 body trunk to store all the parts.
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Nice to have a 7 body trunk to store all the parts.
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