Today is March 4, 2013.

A few things got bought, and a few things have got done.

Let's start with the buying of stuff.  The first thing was a carburetor rebuild kit.  It's part number is from Walker, and it's 15306A.  It's made in the USA, and it's just a very basic rebuild kit, mainly consisting of gaskets, new inlet needle/seat combo, and accelerator pump assembly.  It cost $16 from O Reilley.

I also figured I'd get a new condenser for the distributor.  It's part number is from BWD Engine Management Technology, and it's G136 (also MO9167 on box).  It cost $7  from O Reilley.

I was unable to remove the busted stud from the engine block where the center exhaust manifold bolt hole is.  So.....Helicoil to the rescue.  I bought a kit for $22 from O Reilley.  It comes with the tap, and a bunch of inserts, so it seemed to be reasonably priced.

So, $16 + $7 + $22 = $45 more spent so far.  Add that to the previous total, and it's $121 total spent so far.   

I got a bit lazy these last couple of weeks, so progress slowed.  Or, more likely, progress slowed because my favorite saying is true.  "It's a lot easier to break shit apart, than it is to put it back together."  I'd add that it's also a bit more time consuming putting it back....

So, I went with the newer carburetor and rebuilt it.  It was simple, and oh my gosh, using the gopro camera on the head mount works fantastic for stuff like this.  I can literally talk my way through the disassembly as I'm taking it apart, knowing that I'm the one who's going to be watching it again to see how it gets reassembled.  I also think that because I'm verbally describing the take down process, it's making me remember it more regardless if I were using the camera or not.  

Here are some stills of the rebuild.

There were more videos taken, than stills, so that's about all of the pictures.  I tried to be organized, and it worked out well.

It should work well enough to get the engine to start?????????????????????  hahaha

The distributor was a nightmare to remove.  I didn't plan on even pulling it out, but I noticed that there was nothing securing it to the block.  The two bolts that were supposed to be holding it were gone, and so I tried to wiggle it to move it.  Nothing.  So I hammered, and I hammered, and I hammered, and poured tons and tons of oil, and about a week later, I was finally able to get that son of a bitch to pop out.  I thought for sure that I was going to crack the case, or break it somehow, but other than being a bit deformed on the bottom where I was hitting it, it still looks good, and it's bearings feel like glass.  I cleaned up the dirty mating surfaces between the block and the distributor, and it slips in and out just the way it should now.  I don't know what I would have done if it's timing needed to be changed and I hadn't freed it up out of the car.  I mentioned earlier that I got a condenser for it, and I'll try to run the points that came on it as is (a little sanding).

Now the engine is ready for a another bath before the Ospho.  Ospho is like Naval Jelly, or any other rust inhibitor except that it's more like water than jelly in it's consistency.  It can be brushed over rusty metal, and it converts the rust to a hard black paintable surface.  All I know is that people who use ships use it, nuff said.  

And a coat of Ospho.

That's enough for now.

Hopefully it'll be painted, and .....................well, hopefully it'll be painted by the next time I post.............oh, and that helicoil.................yeah, that too.  haha

Today is February 16th.

The head is back on, and I am very hopeful that it's going to run when I go to fire it up which is still a ways a way.  I took a look at the starter, and it's model number appears to make it an original for 1950.  It's an Autolite MZ and it's been repaired with a nice weld........................I hooked it up to a 12v battery charger, and I get some buzzing from it, and it starts to spin ever so slowly.  I've got to hook it up to a real battery to see if I can get it to really spin!  If I can't get it to spin on the battery, I'll look into rebuilding it myself, or have someone else rebuild it. I called around, and there is a place in town that rebuilds alternators/starters and they quoted me a rebuild for it starting at $120, and up to about $200 depending on what needs to be done.  For the upper end, I believe they can convert it to work on 12v, and supposedly it will be as good as new.   Same for the generator, about $200 to rebuild it, and convert it to 12v.  He says they're like "artists" and they specialize in rebuilding antiques, "as a matter of fact, I've got a Model T unit on the bench right now...".  I love salespeople.............not.  I'm not sure if I'm going to go with a modern alternator and the bracket Willy's Works sells, or if I'll keep the original, and have it rebuilt.  It's one of the last things I'm worried about right now, since it's not essential to get the engine running.

Here's the generator and starter.

I've got to figure out which carburetor I'm going to use.  The Jeep came with two.  One, which I'm sure is the original WO Carter, was still hooked up to the gas cable linkage on the Jeep, and was laying on top of the replacement motor that had been installed.  The replacement motor already has a Carter YF carburetor on it that looks to be in much better condition than the original WO.  By sight alone, the YF would be my choice to reuse. It's probably at least ten years newer since the motor that it's on was  probably produced in the sixties, and I'm guessing so was the carb.  I'll ask the CJ3A page what they think.

The carbs, and the manifolds.  (The orangish more rusty stuff is original to the Jeep, whereas the better looking cleaner stuff is from the newer L134 engine that is probably mid sixties?????)

Today's project.  Broken exhaust manifold bolt in the block, and of course, it's broken INSIDE with nothing to grab on the outside.  It is the EXACT same problem this guy had, http://mightymo.org/Proj_BrokenStudRepair.htm

Here's the engine with the broken stud.

I'll try to follow what he did, but it's unlikely I'm going to be brave enough to tap the block.  I'm more likely going to drill a hole through the middle of the existing bolt, and then work on getting it out with some heat, some oil, and some time.  At some point a hammer is going to come into play as well.  :)  Maybe it'll get videotaped.

This is another really cool song about Stack O' Lee from Beck.


So, the first money has been spent on the Jeep.
I'm really going to try to keep a real world record of how much I spend on this project.  The goal is to keep it under $1,000 total.




Six cans of dollar store oven cleaner for a total of $6.
Roll of dollar store paper towels $1
A pack of dollar store sponge paint brusheses $1
A head gasket set for the l134, Felpro #HS 7285 B $27 (O Reilly)
Copper spray a gasket from Permatex $8
A bottle of something called Osph (more on that later) for $13(Hurst Ace)
Three cans of paint (I couldn't find all three colors I wanted in the same brand)
        high heat engine primer $8 (@ Lowes)
        high heat low gloss black $5 (@ Lowes)
        high heat Hemi orange $7 (@ O Reilly)

Also, a big thanks to O Reilly Auto Parts for having an awesome loner program for tools.  You go in, you buy the tool you need, and you have two days to return it.  If you don't return it within the two days, you own it.  Seems fair and reasonable to me.

So, up to this point, O Reilly's has let me use (for free),
      Big gear puller (for pulling the steering wheel..................I got creative, and it worked great.)
      Pitman arm puller (removing pitman arm from steering box)
      1/2" drive torque wrench (for the head)
      Thread restorer/tap and die set (for the head bolts, and cleaning other misc. bolts/holes.)

Okay, so that's a grand total of $76, as of February 13th, 2013.

Oh yeah, the fucking frame is bent.  :(  and it's bent pretty badly.  I called the body shop in town.  (Okay, it's weird that in this tiny, tiny town I live in, there is a full on body shop two blocks down from me, in a totally residential area with no other businesses around.  The owner built a mansion of a home right behind the body shop.  Oh yeah, and two of my closest neighbors work for body shops (one at the place down the street, and the other at the Buick dealership in town), and another neighbor literally runs a bit of a auto paint shop out of his garage doing custom stuff, I think.)  So..............like I was saying about calling the body shop down the street, they said they've got a frame machine and that for an initial $100 to rig it up to the machine, and for and additional $40 per hour labor they can straighten it out.  He said that if I brought it in, ten hours labor would probably be a worst case scenario, but it could be more.  (damn, how I don't trust estimates from people..................)  Okay, that would put it at $500 for a frame that's not really all that great, but is usable.  That's a tough call to make.  Considering the jeep didn't cost me anything, that's cheap.  Considering I have a BFH, a come-along, a high-lift jack, some chain, and another Jeep with a winch....................and the fact that it's a 63 year old frame that's only going to see very light duty service for the rest of her days..... I should also mention that my awesome neighbor (the guy who works at the Buick dealership) said he knows a frame guy, and that he would hook me up, or something.  I'm waiting to hear on this still.  No rush, I'd rather not think about it anyway.

Pictures of the tweaked frame.  All I can say is that there aren't any "bends" in a factory frame.  It should be perfectly straight from front to back.

So onto the Engine I went.

Yeah, the engine won't spin around two times.  Apparently that means that a valve is probably sticking.  Great.

Another reason to love the internets, atf and acetone.  Why have I been using anything other that atf and acetone for breaking old bolts loose?  Best stuff I have ever used, and it was so obvious how well it worked compared to pb blaster.  I did a bunch of side by side tests using pb blaster, and this atf/acetone mix, and almost always the atf mix was easier to break, and to unscrew through it's entirety.  I highly recommend it for penetrating oil.  It's 50% acetone and 50% automatic transmission fluid.  You have to shake it before every use because the two don't mix well.  I used a paint brush to put it on everything on the engine/frame/body.  It was really wasteful to do it this way, but I wasn't being conservative on this part.  It was worth it.  I didn't have any major problems with bolts on this whole thing.  Of course there were many that broke while I was taking things apart, but the ones that were important all came out okay, so far anyway.

Here's the problem.

So the sticking valve gets a treatment of atf/acetone.  Let's call it facetone, it's got a pinkish hue?  Thanks to the board at the CJ3A forums (particularly Bill) for getting me to pull the head.  I didn't want to, but I'm glad I did.  It needed to come off.  Here are some pictures of what it looked like.  It was a bit dirty in there.

 Weird how the valves are in the block.

Here's the video of how not to free a stuck valve that I made.

and here is the test I did to see if they're sealing up or not.  (I was later told that I should have been blowing, rather than sucking, and using soapy water on top of the valves to look for air bubbles.)

So, as far as I'm concerned, the engine is tip top.  hahahaha.  I've already cleaned the outside of it, and plan on putting the head back on today, or tomorrow morning by the latest.  (I've got to return the torque wrench by tomorrow morning.)

Also, in between fooling with the frame and the engine, I had a chance to test the strength of my newest purchase from craigslist, and maybe my all time favorite buy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  A steal of a deal at the amazing price of $25 for this all steel table.  Awesome.  I did not even haggle on the price.  The guy wanted $25, and I was more than happy to pay it.  It is so heavy, and it's even got an all steel back piece for hanging stuff off of, but I had to cut it off when I brought it home because it wouldn't fit in the 4Runner.  It works great as a stand to work on a transmission and transfer case, but I bought it because I thought it would make an awesome welding table.

 I just love this head.  (that's what she said!)

 I found these inside the water chamber of the head.  Pistachios.  I'm assuming a mouse or chipmunk was living in the head, or at least hiding his stash in it.  Pistachio trees grow here.

 It looks as though a serial number or something got filed off of the head.  This is not the original engine for a CJ-3A, but is more likely from a mid sixties DJ-3A.  (Thanks again from the CJ3A board for letting me know!!!!!)