A Lovely Old Spinster, Virgin No More!

[Gerald Morris]

I am so glad for you... my contributions were few, and as to sanity... well, be careful slinging that word around here.

Because there was some coolant in the crankcase at some point, I'd recommend you test her out for the next several days and then give her a fresh oil change... coolant tends to attack the bearing surfaces... should not be a big deal, but would be worth investing in the new oil/filter to be sure it's clean. Small amounts for long periods are worse than large amounts for short periods.

Glad someone from my generation was able to contribute at least a little to helping you past all of the tragic events the cell phone obsessed member caused you

I changed that oil 3 days ago Jeff. I WAS NOT ABOUT TO ALLOW COOLANT TO COMPROMISE THE LUBRICANT! NO WAY! I never even turned her over until I had drained that crank case well and good, AND flushed the cooling jacket!

We've both lived enough to know how subjective sanity can be. One mob's delusion is another's Truth. I fear the matter will be resolved with a terrible body count, as often occurs, with Victory being the sole criterion for Right. May they enjoy their graveyard if that comes down, for that's all the victors will get. Domine, miserere nobis!

MUCH of my typing here is meant to benefit the youngsters, those wise enough to look beyond rigidly controlled corporate venues anyway. The Internet I loved now gets called the "Dark Web" by these corporate monsters. To THINK I actually once found an NOS steering arm for my 1959 International on Amazon, back when THAT functioned much as e-Pay now does......

I changed the dirty Lucas oil with fresh NAPA-Valvoline petroleum oil I copped for $2.39/qt! I'll run THAT for a week or 2, then flush the crank case AGAIN, with a kerosene/diesel mixture that does that job well, then, depending on other circumstances, will either run more Valvoline for a bit, then purge one more time, and restore the Lucas stuff. The oil's already sitting here for that purpose. Babushka insisted.

 

[Gerald Morris]

...

Glad someone from my generation was able to contribute at least a little to helping you past all of the tragic events the cell phone obsessed member caused you

You're WISE Jeff, and THAT transcends generational bounds! Mere intellect runs out our orifices but oft enables folks to build more elaborate funeral pyres or mausoleums for themselves. Thus have I seen, and once lived even, and only by Divine Grace even escaped the least consequence of my folly. For this, I'm thankful, though probably not enough, if that can even BE.

And thus I bless you. Wisdom surpasses all other possessions. This has been written, which doesn't take the lustre from the gem.

 

[Gerald Morris]

Progress! Flushed the coolig system again yesterday, and for the first time since buying this car, was able to drive it to and fro my wife's workplace and eldest daughter's elementary school; about 11.2 miles in morning traffic! This came mostly of the advice of one of this Forum's MOST sagacious members, who just CAN'T FLIP a Mopar, may he be blessed forever!

So, I flushed the system yet AGAIN, and THAT improved engine cooling almost to a stable operating temperature around 200F!

Having reached this state, I opted to carry out the second Thermocure "enema" on the cooling system this Friday morning, and will retain the cleanser in the cooling system at least through Sunday, and maybe longer, depending on how many hours of runtime I get this weekend.

I also put my venerable 1965 2524984 radiator in a shop for a rod cleaning job, and then for some leak sealing. This radiator has at least DOUBLE the capacity of whats on that convertible now; 4 rows of 1/2 inch copper tubes in a core twice the thickness of the '68 model. Its rated for AC on the mountains of Hell while towing lead sleds uphill, all in a 22 x 18 inch package. That should do for south Tucson. I liked the cheap aluminum radiators for their price, but their asiatic builders have left them on the docks. The american front companies who vend these get none of my sympathy. I will have a GOOD radiator rehabilitated for less money than even a "Champion" costs. Mathilda never overheated with this radiator in her. I expect neither shall Gertrude

 

[detmatt]

What do you do for a living Gerald?

 

[Gerald Morris]

What do you do for a living Gerald?

I rear my children, and care for our home now. My wife gets the paycheck here. My best gig since we wed 9 years ago this month has been political canvassing, which, alas, is not QUITE a full time gig. I substitute taught English to a charter high school nearby, but that turned out to be such a sick joke that I wouldn't touch such work again for thrice the pay. I also have worked at mismanaging a trailer park, repair and maintenance on the same, repair and maintenance for another scum slumlord, a janitor at the University I graduated from with a BS. in Electrical Engineering before the Bush regime blackballed me. I worked as a multi-disciplinary Engineer for Raytheon at that time. I didn't show sufficient zeal for murdering innocent Arab children or grandfathers with high tech toys contrived by idiots and perverts. FWIW, the actual "product" of the military aerospace racket in this country is PowerPoint slides, not hardware. Thus the Congre$$ gets bilked, to their pleasure.

That blackball still is in effect, BTW, as I found when the University supervisor asked me to apply full-time. After that, they wouldn't allow me back on campus to work, though in theory I'm still an alumnus. No great flattery in that. That place became an utter conformity mill right around the time I graduated in 1999. Not many fellows even then were near 40 and able to pull off a BSEE, and this got resented in the quarters of the Oafish-ially Stupid, who went to work then on preparing the Dossier that would rival the Yellow Pages in mass.

Fatherhood by FAR surpasses anything else I ever found in this country as a Vocation. Both of my daughters show plenty signs of Dr. Asperger's Syndrome, just as I did. Of course, back then, they just beat you more to treat autism.....

 

[Gerald Morris]

Hmmm new Thoughts: Drove Gertrude downtown and back this eve, without her getting over 210F after late Sunday afternoon flush. Flushing HAS helped, somewhat. Noticed that so long as I keep my big heavy foot OUT of that damn carburetor, she doesn't heat up so. Also noticing deteriorating power brake quality. This comes as NO surprise; that booster looks original to the car.

Sooo, I hate power brakes to start with. Can't feel the street with them. Mathilda did fine without them too, even after putting the Bendix clone dual pot master in last summer. Soo, I reckon its time to delete that booster! Nothing but good can come of this. I HAVE the direct connection rod, in Mathilda, but I can remedy that OR get another one maybe. Think I'll pull what Tilly has first. THEN, I can delete the leaky booster and see how much better the engine behaves without that huge vacuum leak!

In the worst case, I'll just have to muscle the brakes, but I prefer to do it so anyway.

 

[Gerald Morris]

Note for this Day, 11/08/21: First Day I haven't regretted buying this car! She actually ran without going over 210F, and best of all, COOLED some while running! My frequent flushes have removed almost enough coolant jacket debris to let her run normally. I also am keeping a LIGHT foot on that gas pedal until I can remove that stupid, dangerous brake booster! Once I effect THAT AND install the GOOD radiator toward this weekend, I'll THEN expect a little more normal temperature from the engine. I set a distance record this morning with a 16 mile round trip. Definite improvement!

 

[cantflip]

Good new Gerald!

Research the power brake delete carefully, you may find a lot of stuff is different... pedal, cylinder bore sizes (master and/or wheel)... but at least you're in a place where used stuff may exist for any challenges.

 

[Gerald Morris]

Good new Gerald!

Research the power brake delete carefully, you may find a lot of stuff is different... pedal, cylinder bore sizes (master and/or wheel)... but at least you're in a place where used stuff may exist for any challenges.

Bless you Jeff! I bought a 1967 Bendix MC for Mathilda which should serve in Gertrude quite admirably, IFF the NAPA rebuilt one in Trudi now doesn't take to the straight manual piston rod for the 65-66 machines. Sadly, even Tucson, and even the junk yard just up the avenue from me which I first brought my custom to 24 years ago no longer abounds in old Mopar goodies. (EXCEPT FOR POLY V8s! ) The past 5 years have cleared a LOT of THAT treasure trove too, alas!

Worry not though. If I MUST, I can use one of these "universal" rods for the pedal, though I suspect from my initial examination that the 66 rod should do well there. Provided that is so, the amount of "throw" or master cylinder volume will be identical, especially if I don't change the actual cylinder. The flipper made a genuine effort on the brakes and wheel bearings. He used NAPA parts, which probably are the definition of Best Quality Available to the poor fellow. I know Texans fairly well, as an ex-patriot native of the place. I just have to watch myself for projecting too much onto other refugees.

GOOD NEWS TODAY! The morning commute went BETTER THAN EXPECTED, DEO GRATIAS! With ambient temperature at 56 F, just like yestermorn, and then a slightly protracted warm-up to 160F, which has been necessary to assure safe operation in traffic (minimum temp 120F), I then was able to make the entire round trip, 11.2 miles over ~ 45 minutes, which allows for boarding and offloading my three precious passengers, with running coolant temperature STAYING BELOW 200 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT THE ENTIRE TIME!!!

In other words, the engine ran NORMALLY this morning!!!!!

I won't change my scheduled procedures on the basis of ONE good performance though. The heavy duty radiator will still go in later this week, as the normal environment here requires something of its order to assure safe operation. Likewise, an extremely leaky brake booster is just a pure-dee HAZARD, and I might have to remove that thing as early as tomorrow. Brakes still work after the engine has warmed up AND pulled a GOOD vacuum for some distance running, but I wouldn't entrust driving to anyone but myself with it like this. Millennials were SPOILED with stuff like power brakes, automatic transmissions, air conditioning, power windows et cetera as STANDARD and while my Babushka means well and WANTS to learn how to drive a "real car" such as her grandparents drove, NOW is NOT The Time to commence THAT Re-education Program.

BUT, given a few Providential breaks, maybe before the month's end, I can leave off these issues of the cooling system, and get that RAG TOP PROPERLY INSTALLED! Things look pretty hopeful here now.

 

[70bigblockdodge]

Make sure you secure the push rod into the master (done by small rubber insert) so it does not pop out.

 

[Gerald Morris]

Make sure you secure the push rod into the master (done by small rubber insert) so it does not pop out.

GOT the little rubber ring, along with the push rod today! All I lack, if I care to wait for the stuff, is the boot and the piston stop plate. I CAN re-use stuff I have. I made sure to get that little retainer when I first thought this job through. Much Obliged!

 

[Gerald Morris]

TRIUMPH! The old 3 row 1965 #2524984 came home from the shop up the road from me, BETTER THAN EVER! I NOW assert I can RACE UPHILL in HELL, towing lead ingots all the way, and never overheat! I took Gertrude for a test run once I had the freshly rodded out, painted and sealed old treasure installed. Let the pictures do the talkin'!

After 3 miles, ambient temp, 74F, rush hour traffic, temperature rose to just about 162F. I plan to reinstall the thermostat this Saturday. Idle around 700 rpm.

At trip's end, temperature rose to just under 180F after stopping. At NO time did I engage the pusher fan on this test run. Coolant consisted of

distilled water with Rislone's wetter. Come Saturday, I'll add 1.5 gallons of Zerex Green, to create a 50% glycol solution for the winter and to preserve the cooling system from corrosion. The shop did a nice job restoring Mathilda's original radiator to a useful state.

Tubes nicely cleared for good coolant flow.

The Magic Number! I'm looking for another of these folks.

 

[Gerald Morris]

One FINAL Note:

The old Stant radiator cap wore out a bit around the edges of the rubber cap gaskets. CLEARLY OVERDUE for replacement! So, in keeping with the rarity and vintage of Gertrude, I found her a WORTHY radiator cap! Ecce!

Nice NOS stainless steel #3781830 Mopar cap, dated March 1975, w Chrysler Pentastar authentication. I always run cooling systems at 16 p.s.i., and retired the 13 p.s.i. cap that came on this radiator over 5.5 yrs ago very soon after getting the car it came with. But not until today have I ever installed a genuine MoPar cap. For all practical purposes, I think the matter of runaway overheating on this engine has been solved, and thank all contributors to this happy circumstance.

 

[Gerald Morris]

Today I replaced the 180 degree Carol 92180 thermostat, put in 1.5 gallons of Zerex Green concentrate, bringing the 3 gallons in the cooling system to 50% ethylene glycol and took Gertrude for a test drive with the proper mixture and all the cooling system installed. She ran along at about 197 degrees Fahrenheit, with the thermostat opening just enough to give the engine some sips of well cooled coolant from the radiator as needed. When rolling down the street, one could watch the temperature drop from 200 to 185 when the stat would open, then see the temperature climb back to about 197-200F. When idling, it just sits right under 200F. I'd say this engine now has a working cooling system!

 

[Gerald Morris]

Lovely Old Spinster, Now SEVERELY ******!

This evening, I drained the crankcase of the NAPA/Valvoline 10W-30 I'd run for a couple weeks after first putting the upper motor back together. It looked pretty foul for just a couple weeks, but there was MUCH overheating still until this past Friday, when I put the good old '65 radiator on, after getting it rodded out and patched.

I filled the crankcase with just over 4 quarts of Lucas Hot Rod/Classic oil, with the high zinc. Then, I started her up to,

ZERO OIL PRESSURE!!!!!

I wondered if the pickup wasn't pulling oil in well after the change, and planned to top up as soon as I got it off the ramps, onto level ground.

The crankcase showed it to be OVER A QUART OVER FULL...... of Something.

I looked in the radiator, and, surely, LAMENTABLY enough, its over a quart DOWN, and this, just after I had got the coolant all nicely mixed with antifreeze.

By cleansing the crankcase zealously, I made a small leak a catastrophically big one, and dumped 1-2 quarts of coolant through SOME DAMNED LEAK into the crankcase!!!

I'm BEAT, AND KNOW WHEN TO DECLARE DEFEAT!

I'll have to hire a shop. I don't have the energy to attempt another head gasket job right now. the last ordeal wore me out, and didn't work. Worse, it's possible this engine has a CRACKED BLOCK, which I've not yet seen overtly, but now have good grounds to suspect, if this leak isn't just a consequence of a botched gasket job.

I'm too tired to care just now. It's a reminder to never feel too sure of anything in this world. I can thank God I already have plenty education of that sort. Time for a forgetful sleep.

 

[cbarge]

That sucks. Sorry to hear Gerald.
Yanking the 400 seems to be the best plan B??

 

[detmatt]

Very sorry to hear this Gerald. Time for some more lemonade!

 

['66 Fury I]

"The best laid plans of mice and men....." So very sorry to hear this latest trouble! Very disapointing and discouraging. Keep the faith, brother! Keep us posted. we're all pulling for you! Lindsay

 

[Gerald Morris]

That sucks. Sorry to hear Gerald.
Yanking the 400 seems to be the best plan B??

Its actually a '66 383. The 400 needs a rebuild. That's Plan C. We have a good, reputable, Moparian shop in town for that. Aside from some sticky lifter/valve issues TRIVIAL compared to Gertrudes current mess, that engine has run without fail for 5 years of careful care. I liked the way Gertrudes motor ran, but I now am more apt than ever to suspect CRACKED BLOCK. and the problem didn't magically mend itself either.

 

[Gerald Morris]

"The best laid plans of mice and men....." So very sorry to hear this latest trouble! Very disapointing and discouraging. Keep the faith, brother! Keep us posted. we're all pulling for you! Lindsay

Oh I WILL keep y'all posted. 'Tis good to log my work this way too. Other's with similar levels of experience can follow the trails I blaze, and benefit from them, while I do likewise with the advice of the more Learned Elder Moparians.