Low compression

[jim lee]

Well, that's right I could make up new ones. Hmph, I'd need to get a tubing bender and things of that nature..

I'll have to chew on this.

-jim lee

[RMS]

We custom bend our own from correctly sized stainless steel tubing

what kind of flaring tool do you use on your stainless lines? how long do the dies last?

sorry for the thread jack just been thinking about stainless brake lines

[MSeriesRebuild]

Good question!

I've had a $500 hydraulic tool; biggest piece of junk I ever owned in tooling. Problem was dies. Manufacturer finally took it back and refunded purchase price.

Right now I'm using a $70 Imperial double flaring kit of the common sort, purchased from McMaster-Carr. It has worked great for years and does just fine with the stainless tubing. We also use a commonly available tubing bender from Imperial. I must absolutely praise these tools, I guess I'd say that for the very modest cost, the Imperial tooling has been tops. It has done thousands of flares I'm sure. We are of course using it in a commercial type of application here, so certainly I would highly recommend it to the do-it-yourselfer.

I'm constantly looking at other options with tooling, but have not seen anything to date that I think will work better than the common stuff we have.

[jim lee]

Took a bunch of rusty bits to be sand blasted and some to get powder coated. Then went in to see how the block & crankshaft cleaned up.


These bits to be sand blasted and powder coated black. Kind of a semi gloss black. Nothing fancy.



Bell housing to be blasted and left bare for paint later.



This box is full of rusty bits to be blasted and left bare for paint later.



Dave Tatum's shop. The place that's doing the engine work. Or at least most of it. Some is being subbed out here and there.



Hot tanking didn't do the trick. So, they used something similar to a de-burring tank. At least that's what I gathered from the description. Cleaned up nice, so I guess that worked.



Another shot of the block. They checked it for cracks and it passed. No cracks, good block for rebuilding.



Crankshaft has been turned and cleaned up. The mains were machined down 10 thou. The rod bearings needed 30 thou. to clean up the spun rod bearing damage.



A couple of the engines being built in Dave's shop.



Another view of the block.



I didn't really feel like crawling down there. So I just held the camera under the engine and clicked.



Its now been bored 30 over. From what they found they think that at one time this engine had a valve job and the exhaust valve seats were replaced.



Nate, buddy of mine and owner of pro-volks chatting with Dave Tatum. Funny how different people from the same industry dress so alike.

So that's where everything stands today. Parts have been ordered at a ghastly price. I started thinking I could just grab another M37 cheaper.. Then thought. No, I'd be just back where I started. With a worn out engine. Now at least we should have a nice foundation to build on. (And drive all over.)

-jim lee

[T. Highway]

Jim Lee,

Thanks for posting up the pictures. Make sure to remove all of the studs and seal up all of those threads to save on headaches later on.

Bert

[jim lee]

FINALLY..

The M37's engine is back getting assembled. There's talk about having it completed by the end of the week. We'll see..

But at least its back getting worked on again.



Crankshaft's back in, as are the timing gears. Pistons and rods are together and sitting ready on the shelf. Hopefully they'll be going in today?

-jim lee

[MSeriesRebuild]

Just a quick question about an issue I don't understand. Why on earth would this block be allowed to rust like that after being bored, valve seats being worked etc. I can't see evidence in the pictures of the seats being replaced; but it may be the rust hiding it from view. This doesn't look good at all. I'm just way more particular obviously, we don't let blocks get into that shape before reassembly here. In fact we would treat them so surface rust doesn't form, and seal it in a plastic bag. Going back after the fact to clean all that up will mess with the machined dimensions.

[Monkey Man]

It looks all cleaned and oiled in the latter pic, maybe the other pic is simply post machining process prior to working on it Charles....

MM

[MSeriesRebuild]

It looks all cleaned and oiled in the latter pic, maybe the other pic is simply post machining process prior to working on it Charles....

MM

I wondered about that also, but the text along with the picture that has rust indicates work had already been done if I understood correctly. Not sure.

[jim lee]

Yeah, the rusty pic is after it was bored and before being honed. And yes, it looked pretty clean to me yesterday when I was looking at it. But then, I was pretty happy to just have it moving forward again.

-jim lee

[jim lee]

Lets see if photos linked from Facebook work..


Valves going in.

Now that the engine is getting close to being completed its time to get everything else ready.


Grungy fuel pump. As good a starting point as any..



Danny is going to learn the art of dissasembly & grunge removal. He don't know it yet..



Clean, splash, scrape. "Is this clean enough?"

"No"



Mostly cleaned up.



This bit stumped me. This is the vacuum side and I can't figure out how to get the diaphragm out. The diaphragm seems fine, but it looks like the shaft seal is shot so its filling with crankcase oil. Also we found the fuel side diaphragm was cracked all around. I doubt it would have lasted much longer.

We have a box of bits that need to be cleaned up. Hopefully I can get the kids out there today to do some more cleaning.

-jim lee

[jim lee]

Little update..

Engine reassembly stopped here. Every time #4 rod/piston went in things got tight so it was pulled back out and checked. Turns out Rod #4 has a little bend in it. Possibly why it failed in the first place?



Fuel pump going back together. I had more parts than instructions so this got a little tricky. I didn't get a picture of the vacuum chamber coming apart, so it was a bit of a head scratcher trying to figure out all the bits and what directions the check valves should go in.



Well, hopefully I got all the bits in the right places and in their right orientations. I plumbed the vacuum section so that the "outer" chamber pulls from the wipers and dumps into the intake manifold. Then the "inner" chamber pulls from the outer chamber and dumps into the crankcase.

I used a mix of old parts, Midwest military and Now & Then automotive kits. The midwest kit had most but not all what looked like NOS check valves. I liked the NOS ones better than the new ones now & then supplied. But Now & then had more parts along with the vacuum shaft seal I wanted. Also Now & Then diaphragms fit really well.

We'll see..

-jim lee

[T. Highway]

Hi Jim Lee,

I was looking at the picture above and wondering if the oil pump that is installed, is a Military oil pump.
The pumps that I've seen have a smooth steel bottom plate. Are you running a Civy Dist or Military. (The pump looks like a Melling M37) which is a civy pump.

Is the dist drive an offset type or is it centered?

Bert

[jim lee]

The engine builder tells me its off center. He bought it from Vintage Power Wagons. That's his favorite supplier of old Dodge truck parts.

-jim lee

[jim lee]

We shut the boat factory down 'till September. Now the focus is on getting the M37 back up and running.

The motor is promised by the end of the week so we're scrambling to get things ready. The plan is to rewire from the cab forward and simplify the fuel system a little. Its a bit of a mess. Trying to keep the project manageable, I do NOT want this to turn into a frame up restore job.



What Shelby does much of the time when she's supposed to be working on Theodore.



I gave the PCV system to Alex n Shelby to disassemble and clean. First though, take pictures so we can figure out how to put it back together.



Alex's reaction to the PCV system.



Shelby's reaction. Mostly a reaction to disassembly of said PCV system.



Dan learning to apply Teflon tape to plumbing fittings. He got the job of reassembling the PCV system.



The PCV system all reassembled. Took a few tries and a lot of squinting at the pictures.



Dan's holding the power take off shaft for the winch. Pulling this was an absolute nightmare! We've been working on this on and off from the beginning of the project.

In the end we had to knock the forward U-Joint apart so we could get a puller on the coupling to pull it from the shaft. The forward coupler was frozen to the shaft locking the shaft between the frame & the winch.

Oh and, how in the world do people pull the winches on these machines? How do you get at the nuts that are hidden below the frame rail? Crazy sauce!


Can anyone tell me what this box on the left does? I can't figure out what it is. Looks like a microwave junction, but I doubt that's what it is..



Random bits of PO wiring that's being chopped out. Aftermarket blinker your seeing there.



Allie pulling old wire & connectors out. That's the original connector to the headlight/blackout light switch block.



Instrument cluster almost removed. The original and the PO's headlight switches are removed. I ordered a new original headlight switch from Midwest military.

We should pick up the U-Joint tomorrow. And hopefully this will complete the PTO project.

I'm stuck on the intake manifold. One of the studs that holds it to the exhaust manifold is stuck in there. I can't make it budge and I see the corner is cracked. I wander if I should give up and just try to locate a better one somewhere?

And the exhaust manifold, it had to be welded up in two places. And someone busted off the screw that holds the heat riser flap. Lovely!

Anyway, that's where we sit today.

-jim lee