B52bombardier1

Sorry to see the Engine Masters show has ended. I learned a lot watching it. Rick

Hello Again, Another productive day. Everything that needed paint stripping got finished and the parts cleaned up nicely. I was worried that the plastic in the headlight fascia would be brittle and delicate but it turned out to still be quite rugged. I also got the small areas of rusty metal cut out of the lower rear corners of each front fender and nearly replaced. The driver's side repair is nearly complete and the passenger side welds still need to be ground down. Rick

Hello, Today was paint stripping day for those things either too delicate for a media blast treatment or the blast simply didn't work. The items I'm working on are the plastic headlight bucket fascia, the two rubber pieces between the front bumper and the fender and the rear marker light metal plates. I started off using one of the citrus stripping products and I was very happy with its initial results. It really bubbled up some paint. But alas, this was only the more recent, top levels of paint. The deeper, older lacquer paints are lots tougher and are coming off much more slowly. Even with using a small wire brush to loosen this deepest layer, it is still slow going. Hitting it with a 3000 PSI pressure washer helps but its not the final answer. I'm now switching to some Aircraft Stripper that I previously used on this car and didn't like its results. We shall see tomorrow morning how this goes. I will also likely start cutting out the small front fender rusty areas tomorrow that the blaster revealed. I have to get these metal repair and paint stripper things done so that they can go with the car in November to paint jail. Rick

I have them rebuild for longevity and durability., not necessarily snappy shifting performance. You might consider having them plumb in the lines for an external stacked plate transmission cooler and install the cooler to keep radiator water out of your trans and transmission fluid out of your radiator coolant. This occurs with failures inside the radiator sub tank of trans fluid and will never be considered as a warranty repair item by the shop. For my El Camino 4L60E rebuild and for my upcoming Catalina 4L60E rebuild I told and will tell them that I will pay extra for any wear items that are questionable. Always, always get the torque converter cleaned out internally and rebuilt - make sure the TC "neck" is not grooved - she's a leaker, if grooved. Rebuilt transmissions should be run on a dynamometer if the shop is well equipped. Get their warranty in writing up front. Get what they are actually going to perform during this rebuild written down up front. There is a big chance of variability in what constitutes the rebuild of a transmission. Will they ream the valve body for bushings if it needs it? Whose manufacturer rebuild kit - Sonnax and Transgo are well known choices. Any hard parts replaced and will these cost extra? Stock steels and friction disks or Kolene upgrades? Do they recommend "hardened" hard parts for the shell, the planets, and input shaft - maybe even other upgraded hard parts? I'm probably missing something but at least this is a start. Rick

Hello, The last three days were a lot of work. Sanding of the places that the blaster missed took most of Saturday and half of Sunday. Taping and papering up the vehicle also took a while. I got started on spraying two coats of catalyzed epoxy primer about 5:30 PM and got done about 8 PM last night. It is not going to rust anymore but the blaster did reveal where the tin worm has dined - the lower rear corners of the front fenders. New metal will go in and these will be easy patches to create in 18 gauge cold rolled steel. Rick

If you ALWAYS have the self-discipline to never ever tempt fate using your right foot with the TH350, it'll be fine. But then, what's the point of having a 455? Rick

Ames Performance Engineering has some of what you are looking for - pg 69 of the current catalog. Amesperf.com And then there's always these places: Rick

Any numbers for cylinder compression or oil pressure during cranking? Any receipts from the machine shop that rebuilt the engine? Cam specifications - roller or flat tappet? How much of an overbore on the engine? Were the crank journals turned down and by how much? Forged pistons? New oil pump and timing chain / gear? New water pump? Heads / valves / seats and seals redone? Transmission rebuilt? What got replaced? Shift kit? Valve body need reaming? Hard parts replaced? So many questions here. Rick

The TH400 driveshaft would need to change - different spline count and yoke up front. Your 200-R4 tranny would also need a "throttle valve cable" and special bracket for precise geometry control of the cable into the R4 case - the cable controls increases in line pressure as torque increases during vehicle acceleration. Get the mounting and adjustment of this TV cable wrong and your 200-R4 clutch pack friction disk material will be waiting in the fluid pan for the transmission rebuild that will very shortly commence. Rick

Hello, Media blast is complete and I must say I'm surprised at the amount of body filler - even some brass brazing filler rod. However, the Bondo is not at all thick or applied with a shovel. My working theory here given the number of small and large area filler locations is that this was a previous minor restoration by a proud owner. No major body damage was revealed and relatively minor rust. The black squarish areas at waist height along the body is heavy tape to keep the blast media from going inside the doors. I'm still in shock the blaster didn't instantly shred that tape. The remaining body filler is still in a good enough condition that we decided to leave most of it on the car and I will skim coat over the top of what we left behind. But somebody knowledgeable in old school filler and new school filler is gonna have to tell me if old body filler and new body filler are compatible with each other. I have left the Cat out in the sun to dry out and my oldest son and I will drag the car back into the shop later today. The car will still need small areas sanded with an 80 grit disk but this went so much faster and thoroughly than whole car sanding or stripping. The downside is that I will likely fill up my shop vac cleaning blast media out of the car. All in all, this took about 5.5 hours. Rick

We are too far west here in Louisiana to be affected by Helene but we got a bit from Francine a few weeks ago. I am more concerned about heavy rain into Kentucky as Helene moves north. Rick

Hello, Its dustless media blast tomorrow morning bright and early. Depending on how tough this paint is, it will be glass beads for the easy areas and garnet media for the more difficult areas. Mixed into one hundred PSI water, of course. Rick

I certainly understand the pump noise being less inside the tank and the pump living longer. Yes, I'm the same as you running an in tank Walbro in my El Camino and the Catalina - using the Corvette regulator / filter assembly. Have you thought about the link below? This would modify your wagon tank to accept an in tank pump. I consider it expensive but useful as a last resort. https://aeromotiveinc.com/products/phantom-340-stealth-fuel-system?srsltid=AfmBOoq8CV6HrgfoxPGd4pSqg6n4W17tf2ZcSF6QPPqkazBuDoxeWlW8 Rick

As in how the flushed toilet bowl water flows in the backwards direction in the Southern Hemisphere, do you need some oddball backwards fuel pump in the Southern Hemisphere that Tanks, Inc doesn't stock???? LOL . . . . . Rick

It works from here . . . . https://www.tanksinc.com/ Rick