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Hacked III: Third Time's The Charm (M90 940 Edition) (prev. Hacked II)

In mass production, machining can vary a little when boring a block so they make pistons slightly under and over size in order to keep tolerances within spec. The blocks are measured after machining and stamped with the letter of the correct size piston to use. The matching letter pistons are then installed.
 
In mass production, machining can vary a little when boring a block so they make pistons slightly under and over size in order to keep tolerances within spec. The blocks are measured after machining and stamped with the letter of the correct size piston to use. The matching letter pistons are then installed.

Huh. You learn something new every day. Thanks!
 
I've been working little by little on the car for the last few months, and I decided this week that I was going to finish up (or at least write down) everything I needed to do to get it running.

For now, that includes;
  • Swapping the camshaft (performance upgrade, but zinc wasn't run in the engine for a while and the cam lobes are flat.)
  • Replacing the points in my distributor with a pertronix unit (probably unnecessary for now, but since I've already had to take it out anyways...)
  • While the cam's out, I'm swapping to steel timing gears (Just kinda had them lying around)
  • I need to actually mount and wire the starter
  • Replace the timing cover (see below)
  • Modify my DCOE manifold (Pierce sent me the wrong heim joints for the linkage, and refuse to respond to my emails, so I'm just gonna drill it out and tap it myself)
  • Maybe figure out the kinda sketchy wiring?
  • Otherwise put the rest of the motor back together

Have I done most of that? No. Instead here's a bit of a status update of what I've done since May.

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I pulled my carbs off and cleaned them up a bit. They open and the chokes work now, but I'm mounting a header and a different intake, so I'll probably list these in 'for sale' at some point.

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I had a look under the car and at the front end. Probably going to need new brake rotors, calipers and backing plates, but that's to be expected. I should probably clean up the rest of the suspension too. In the background you can see that I had to saw the front of the exhaust off to free the factory manifold (the bolts were completely seized).

Taking the timing cover off - A fun debacle.

Taking the water pump off was pretty annoying in its own right - someone had previously forced the fan clutch onto the adapter and kinda gooched it on there. Had to tap it out with a hammer.
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The water pump in question functions, but is pretty crusty, and I bought a new one for like $50, so who cares. I should probably also mention that my alternator is rusted stuck, so I should probably address that around the time I buy a new radiator (the cores have all fallen out).

Once I got the water pump off, there was some weirdness with the crank pulley. I got the bolt out fine, but found this. Looks like someone soldered it on or something.
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Had to tap that one out, too.

Now onto the actual timing cover situation. Fun times.
Someone had pretty much glued the bottom half of the cover on with rubber silicone or something like that. I could NOT get it off. Still can't at the time of writing.
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I tried tapping it with a chisel, which did actually move it a little bit, but also broke the corner of the cover. This is one of those "shut the garage door and stop working on it for today" moments. I'll get back to it tomorrow, probably. I need a crowbar or something.
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EDIT: I also need to buy some patch panels for the floors, because I was very wrong about it being 'rust free'.
 
I see them now. I guess I didn't look at the pan bolts at all. I should probably drain the oil before I try taking this off, but I don't have a 1" wrench or socket on me. Guess that's on the shopping list.
 
You don't need to drain the oil to remove the cover but you'll definitely want to get a wrench to remove the drain plug eventually.

Once the cover is off stuff some paper towels in the opening between the pan and front main bearing cap before scraping the gaskets. You'll probably need to cut the pan gasket flush with the block face and splice in a piece of thick gasket material unless you get lucky and the gasket is re-usable. The other option is to pull the pan and replace the entire gasket.
 
Don't use the 3 piece gasket that comes in the set. Get the 1 piece gasket from Volvo. It's the same gasket for B18/B20/B21/B23/B230.
 
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Alright, got the timing cover off. One of the lower bolts was broken, so that's fun.

The gears turn out to be steel - I was expecting fiber. I'm still probably going to replace them anyways.
Not sure if I'm looking at this right, but the timing marks don't match up at all. They're 180 degrees offset.

I'm sure I have to get some kind of fancy tool to remove these.
 
Not a lot done to the engine since the last post - I've bought a new radiator and timing cover, but I'm still waiting on some special tools to take the timing gears out. Once those show up, I should be able to throw the engine back together pretty fast.
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Anyway, I figured now was a good time to try to convert my distributor to breakerless ignition (with a Pertronix unit)
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Yeah, I just straight-up bought the wrong kit. I bought one for a cast iron dizzy (this one is), but it's just not for this application. The screws don't line up at all.
At this point I became mildly depressed but quickly decided that now was probably a good time to learn about points (kryptonite to me and probably most other younger enthusiasts).
I whipped out my manual, checked and cleaned up all the contacts and threw it back together feeling at least a little better about myself. I got to learn all about how points function and how to service them, so that'll be useful.
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Been doing more engine work on/off for the last little bit. Getting hung up on parts, mostly because of my own oversights.

In order, then.

Got ready to take the cam out, and it sure took me a while to find the correct 36mm socket at my local hardware stores.
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Naturally, the screwdriver was a little bit too much. It was suggested that I use a rag to hold the timing gears. I didn't do that. Instead, this happened.
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Broke the gear! Fun times. Fortunately, it being broken almost in half allowed me to turn it over and get at the bolts holding the cam plate on.
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Don't forget the oil pump drive...
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... and I managed to slide the cam out. I was a little confused, since the cam read 'K' on the side. After posting a little bit and reading some older forum posts, it turned out that the engine in the car isn't a B20B or D as I'd originally thought. It was actually a B20F that someone had converted to carburetion. Neato.
Anyway, I'm a bit too lazy to try and figure out how to get the cam gear and all the hardware off the old cam (I'm swapping a D cam in), so I just ordered a set from CVI. While waiting for that, I started work on the cylinder head.
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Pretty much totally disassembling it here so I can take it to a local machine shop and have them put some hardened valve seats in (it'd be nice to be able to run regular unleaded gas), and well as machining for bigger (37mm) exhaust valves.
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(You can see my boring VW daily in the background)
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I also went ahead and did a light polish job.
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So that's all for now. I still need to get some cam hardware, and also modify my gear puller to actually engage the bolts on the crank gear. It's like 1mm off. Some hackery may be required.
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Alright, been a while since I last posted.

Since last post, I was able to modify CVI's tool and pull the crank gear off. I had a set from Cloyes lying around, so I figured I'd install them.

Spoiler alert: Didn't go that well.

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My first mistake was thinking that I could get it on without heating it at all, and I got it about 3/4 of the way engaged onto the woodruff key. Note that I was hitting it with a hammer and a bushing, as per Nordicar's instructional video, except I was trying to do this in the car.

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This is about how much hammer space I had to work with. Not really enough to make meaningful contact with the gear. I was hoping I could remove the whole front end, and get rid of the lower radiator support (which was in the way), but then learned that it's integral to the frame.

So then I waited another week or so for the correct tool for the job, which I got from CVI.
The cup fits correctly onto the snout of the crankshaft, but the actual bolt included doesn't thread in at all.

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I figured "Okay, great. I bought the wrong tool", but then I became extra confused. The bolt that held the crank pulley on (that came off this engine) had the exact same thread pitch, and it wouldn't thread back in.

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Looking straight into the crank snout reveals what looks like a small ridge just before the threads. It looks like it's machined, not gacked. At any rate, I don't understand how the crank bolt went in the first time anyway.

At any rate, at this point I'm pretty sure I've bashed my crank gear too much for it to be usable, and I've ordered a larger puller to take it back off. I'm just going to have to reinstall my OEM gear, which didn't really have anything wrong with it to boot.

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Cat picture to make me feel better.

On a more positive note, my cylinder head is back from the machine shop, and I finished it up by installing new valve stem seals, and installed the valves myself.

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Can't forget... whatever - whatever these are. They go in the intake manifold, but I have no clue what they do.

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I was originally going to go with DCOEs, but I'm going to settle for a 38/38 DGAS for first time startup and street driving - and then ruin my car with DCOE 45s. Got a used manifold from a fellow TBricker today.

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That's all for now.
 
Update: Lots of drama, very little progress. Many parts though.

Let's get started, then. First thing I wanted to address were the destroyed threads in the crankshaft's snout, which was preventing me from actually threading the assembly tool in.

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I was able to find the correct tap, but ran into a small problem; there isn't enough space for me to get my tap handle on there. It just hits the sway bar. Once again, you shouldn't be doing this while it's in the vehicle.

My solution? A 10mm wrench that I somehow hadn't lost. Turned it carefully, using cutting oil and being sure the back it out every so often to break up the chips.

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Voila. Fixed. Now I'm able to thread all my bolts back in. With that done, I was able to get the crank gear all the way on.

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With the gear now in all the way, I figured now was a good time to put the camshaft in. The cam in question is a Volvo 'R' cam, which is probably totally wrong for this application, but whatever. Idling is overrated.

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With the help of some cam grease, it slid in without any problems at all.

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Predictably, I had a massive problem right afterwards.

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The cam gear wouldn't slide on nicely, or mesh correctly with the crank gear. I took it off, dressed down the gacked teeth on the crank gear, heated up the cam gear in the oven, and managed to get it seated all the way.

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I'm glad I checked this before I torqued the cam nut down, but the teeth at this point are so mashed that the gears won't turn at all. At this point, I pulled the cam gear back off, and I learned that I needed to get a new crank gear. Kind've a bummer, but serves me right for thinking I could just smash the timing gears without anything in the way of consequences.

More drama and stupidity ahead, don't worry!

The next day I found myself trying to get the drain plug off the pan so I could change the several-decades-old oil out. For whatever reason, it just wouldn't give, so I got a picture of the bolt for closer inspection.

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It's glued to the pan.

Great...

I'm leaving it in there, my logic being that it's probably stripped and would cause a massive oil leak if I didn't address that. Instead, I got one of those cheap oil suction pumps to try and pull oil out from the dipstick tube.

That went well. By 'well', I mean terrible.

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See, the hose was a little large, and got stuck in the dipstick tube. I tried pulling it out and was rewarded with a bit of broken hose stuck in the tube. Fortunately, I was able to push it all the way down into the pan with an oversized nail, and I was able to remove it.

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For attempt #2, I stuffed the drain hose down a hole in the side of the distributor boss, which goes straight into the oil sump. Oddly enough, I was only able to get about a quart and a half of oil out before I got the 'straw on empty beverage' sound.

Parts cleaning and ordering

The body on my 144 is pretty straight, but the underside... eugh. The floors are falling out in the front half, so I went ahead and ordered two new front floor pans as well as a full carpet kit.

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I also ran the numbers and figured out that a new set of Corbeau seats would cost a fair amount less than getting my stock 144 GL seats reupholstered, so I bought a set of those. I think these are for a Mustang or Jeep or something, but they resemble the stock seats close enough, and feel pretty nice. They cost twice as much as the car's appraised value, so that's a verified oof.

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The best part of aftermarket parts? Decals.

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I also ordered a new steel timing gear set (to replace the boofed ones), as well as a head and intake/exhaust gasket correct for my B20F head.

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I also acquired a genuine Weber 38/38 DGMS synchronous carb with the manual choke, trying to match what I thought were 38mm bores of the original SUs.

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Speaking of the SUs, I went to clean them up today (in anticipation of selling them)...

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But now that the tag is visible, I've been told that these are HIF6 carbs, with 44mm bores. So maybe (if I don't end up selling them), I can put them back on the car. For now, I'll stick with the DGMS, just because it'll be a bit easier to tune and I won't have to synchronize it.

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I stopped short of polishing them clean, but I'll definitely revisit them as soon as I can get my hands on a sand blaster and a gasket set.

Anyway, that's all for now. Apologies for the really big post, I just forgot how many images I was sitting on.
 
I started reading on the second page so apologize if its been covered... why not just pull the block out at this point? Just waiting until you have a replacement pan to swap on now?

great work plugging away and not getting discouraged by setbacks.

What model are those corbeaus, they are going to look great!
 
I started reading on the second page so apologize if its been covered... why not just pull the block out at this point? Just waiting until you have a replacement pan to swap on now?

great work plugging away and not getting discouraged by setbacks.

What model are those corbeaus, they are going to look great!

In order:

1) I have a very small garage, and my driveway is on a fairly steep incline. I'm not sure I'd be able to get a hoist up to the garage, let alone safely remove the engine without sending it into my neighbor's truck down the street. If I could take it out and had somewhere to put it, I'd have done it a long time ago.

2) Thanks! I'm at a point where I'm so emotionally invested in this car that I kinda have to finish it. Plus, my previous two project cars didn't really go anywhere, so I'm trying to redeem myself here.

3) The seat model is "90010PR", which came stock in some late-model Mustangs.

Thanks for the reply!
 
Interested in those carbs if you do decide to part ways with them.

Complements to you on your perseverance, but please no more prying things with screwdrivers and bashing things with hammers! It's not a jeep! There are very few of these cars left, so be nice
 
Interested in those carbs if you do decide to part ways with them.

I'll probably post them in 'for sale' once I've established what other parts I have no need for.

Complements to you on your perseverance, but please no more prying things with screwdrivers and bashing things with hammers! It's not a jeep! There are very few of these cars left, so be nice

I have no idea what you're talking about. No hackery here. Sh.
 
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