-By Eric Fantin – As the rebuild process of the upper engine continues at a glacial pace, I am happy to report that some progress was made, as per previous articles, it became painfully obvious that the head had to come out of the engine to investigate the reason why one of the exhaust valve was not opening making the car running poorly accompanied by a horrendous pigging sound as if someone had dropped a washer in the intake manifold, a low point in the refurbishing of the car questioning my sanity on the project.
Once the camshaft and the lifters were pulled out, the reason for the failure became crystal clear, one lifter was stuck in the bore of the engine and had ground down the already weak camshaft, the car had sat for many years in the field and despite several oil changes, I am sure some of the lubrication was not the best.
After cleaning everything and honing the lifter bores I installed new lifters and camshaft with the upgraded timing gear with a liberal amount of pre-oiling compound. With the various seals accounted for, a new water pump, and a head that had been rebuilt by a machine shop, it was all ready to be installed. Both intake and exhaust manifold were also fastened with assorted gaskets and such.
Installing the head required help from a friend as it is cast iron and weights a lot. Once sitting on the block with a new head gasket, I proceeded to torque the bolts follow the proper procedure, next task will be valve lash adjustment and re-oiling the whole block and installing the ignition. Progress has been made!