Imperial Heart Surgery: Freshening the Motor, and Some Other Stuff
September 26, 2013: The best of intentions.
So it's been about four months since I got the Imperial and there are a few jobs I frankly just don't feel like tackling myself. One was fixing the leaking heater core, and another closely related was the leaking A/C system. Also, the car had a pretty prodigious oil leak which needed to be stemmed. Finally, it has the tendency to run pretty hot and I wanted to address that as well. As you will soon see, this job of fixing an oil leak has become a classic example of mission creep.
I took the car to my good friend and mechanic Tyler Beutler, the owner at DeWitt Service Center, knowing that it would be out of my hands for awhile.
After looking the car over, we learned that in addition to leaking a lot of oil, the oil pan had a pretty bad dent in it. If we wanted to get at this, we were probably looking at pulling the motor, and I was game, so it is there that our adventure begins. Photos on this page are courtesy of Ty unless otherwise noted.
Here we see that the motor has been pulled. With the motor out we can see the motor bay a bit better. Ty's comment to me was that this car was clearly a good buy at $3,500. One thing that jumps out in this photo is the new torque converter.
There is a lot of grime to clean off on the crossmember, especially on the left side.
And, hey, look what coincidentally enough is sitting over here on the engine stand! Fancy finding that here.
Blue intake, black valve covers, factory original turquoise block...not exactly as it left the factory. This may need to be rectified.
Here's another view of the powerplant, this time from the front.
And a right side shot:
Here, the motor is rolled over so that degreasing can be done.
Another shot of the bottom of the motor. You can see how the oil pan is caved in. We think that this was the result of someone trying to jack the car up by the crossmember and using the oil pan instead. I have ordered another oil pan but it remains to be seen whether it will work in this application. I think I may have goofed on that one because I am unsure whether it has the relief for the center link you can see behind the drain plug.
Here is a picture of the driver's side of the motor. Slowly being degreased....
Ty says that there was a bunch of goop, probably Stop Leak, caked on this freeze plug. All of the freeze plugs will be replaced.
You can see in this picture how coolant leaking from the freeze plug in the head ran down the side of the block and rusted it.
One of the exhaust manifolds, cleaned up and painted. Ty isn't happy with the color so it will get another coat of paint.
The intake and the valve covers have been removed. Things look pretty clean but it was discovered that a number of the exhaust valves were leaking. We originally planned to just replace all of the valve seals while were at it, but now it looks like time to rebuild the heads.
Apparently there was a large bolt just rattling around in the valley. Fortunately it wasn't able to get in the cam or the distributor gear. This additional part will not be reinstalled when the motor is put back together.
Here's a view of the front of the motor. While we're at it we are going to replace the timing chain because now is the time, right?
No pictures on this one, but after the heads were pulled Ty says the exhaust valves were sunk up into the head. I'm becoming more glad that we decided to do this. I also have Ty looking for a new oil pump and while he's at it he also wants to find a fuel pump. So just to recap, at this point fixing the oil leak has grown to replacing the water pump, fan clutch (the one I got from Auto Zone was bad), timing chain, oil pan, oil pump, freeze plugs, thermostat, fuel pump, all the gaskets, probably hoses and belts, rebuilding the heads and a motor repaint. No mission creep here.
Given what we are finding, though, this is all probably a good thing. I think I should have a strong-running motor when we are finished, and a much more reliable car. Not so sure how the motor would have fared had we not gone this route.
Next: The motor spills its guts.
Imperial Heart Surgery Home Page
Other links:
My Imperial Story: Why I needed another tank
Data: info on the new yacht
Instrument Panel Restoration: adventures in pain
Norman C. Witte Personal Web Page Command Center