What did you do today instead of working on your Mustang?

[Bentworker]

Been tinkering with the 1967 Toyota pickup with the 18RG / W50 swap. Machined a shifter out of titanium

 

[giantpune]

Who wants to play a game?
I'm posting this here, since its not really a 71-73 mustang question. The 350 I pulled from my truck, I started tearing it apart and have found a few little metal chunks in the cylinders. #1 piston definitely took a beating. There is evidence on top of some of the other pistons that they also were running and smacking into these chunks, but nowhere near as bad as #1.

Initially I though the chunks were parts of piston. But they stick to a magnet.
Engine has a cast iron block and heads. Aluminum intake manifold, and edelbrock carb.

Any guesses as to where these chunks came from? I'd prefer to figure it out before putting a bunch of new parts into the engine and running it.

 

[tpj71mach]

Yesterday I got one of those gantry cranes and assembled it. Today, I used it to pull the 350 out of my C-10. Inspection inside the oil pan shows I broke a piston.

View attachment 87318

That's a shame about the piston but I love your new crane hoist, I wish I had the ceiling height or at least a flat driveway to be able to use one of those. Back in the day, I worked in a shop with one of those on a built in I-beam across the ceiling, they are awesome to use.

 

[tpj71mach]

Who wants to play a game?
I'm posting this here, since its not really a 71-73 mustang question. The 350 I pulled from my truck, I started tearing it apart and have found a few little metal chunks in the cylinders. #1 piston definitely took a beating. There is evidence on top of some of the other pistons that they also were running and smacking into these chunks, but nowhere near as bad as #1.

Initially I though the chunks were parts of piston. But they stick to a magnet.
Engine gas a cast iron block and heads. Aluminum intake manifold, and edelbrock carb.

Any guesses as to where these chunks came from? I'd prefer to figure it out before putting a bunch of new parts into the engine and running it.

View attachment 87443

Any chance someone dropped something down the intake? I had a buddy who wanted to swap his intake himself (even though I offered to do it) and then had an engine noise on restart. I tore it down for him and found a screw in the cylinder that beat the snot out of the piston. He claimed he shut it down as soon as he heard the noise. He admitted to me that he knew he dropped the screw while the intake was off, but he couldn't find it. He said he thought it couldn't have fallen down an intake port, it must have fallen in to the frame. Ever the eternal optimist, he just reassembled and hoped for the best, haha. Just an idea, unfortunately I don't recognized the pieces as far as what they might have been a part of.

 

[ROCKET70]

My guess are the heads 624 heads have weak castings and are prone to cracks. Just a guess.

 

[Bentworker]

What do the chamber side of the heads look like / spark plugs?

 

[giantpune]

What do the chamber side of the heads look like / spark plugs?

Spark plugs looked ok for 8yr old plugs. Except #1. That one took an impact. The porcelain was smashed and missing. The gap was completely hammered closed.

I did not notice anything amiss with the underside of the heads, aside from some marks matching the ones on the tops of the pistons where some material was getting smooshed. I will take a better look at the heads now that I know the material in question is not part of the piston and could have come from the heads.

 

[Bentworker]

Wild- I’d look over the carb with a fine toothed comb

 

[giantpune]

Wild- I’d look over the carb with a fine toothed comb

I took a gander at it. It looks like its mostly aluminum and brass. I didn't notice anything broken.

 

[c9zx]

Looks great! However, I have to ask why titanium? Chuck

 

[Bentworker]

Looks great! However, I have to ask why titanium? Chuck

Honestly I don’t know, been a while since I machined any and I wanted to brush up on it. Took about 5x longer than if I would have used aluminum and twice as long as stainless.

In the end the 12” shifter weighed less than the 7.5” steel one out of a Celica. Got it up high enough to feel right in the pickup. Was a little less than 12oz

 

[basstrix]

Who wants to play a game?
I'm posting this here, since its not really a 71-73 mustang question. The 350 I pulled from my truck, I started tearing it apart and have found a few little metal chunks in the cylinders. #1 piston definitely took a beating. There is evidence on top of some of the other pistons that they also were running and smacking into these chunks, but nowhere near as bad as #1.

Initially I though the chunks were parts of piston. But they stick to a magnet.
Engine has a cast iron block and heads. Aluminum intake manifold, and edelbrock carb.

Any guesses as to where these chunks came from? I'd prefer to figure it out before putting a bunch of new parts into the engine and running it.

View attachment 87443

Take a close look at the end of each valve guide inside the port. It's pretty common for those to crack when a replacement guide is driven in. Maybe one of the chunks was missed and broke loose. Cyl #1 would seem to be a good place to start.

Other than that, I'd say something was accidentally, or otherwise, dropped into the carb/intake/intake port at some point.

 

[Rozz]

I just sat there and stared at them, and with utter amazement that they are in my garage.

 

[basstrix]

Yesterday, today, and probably sometime mid-week, will be spent working on pool pumps and motors. I went to do the periodic water test and acid dose and saw the filter pump wasn't running. Often it's a quick fix, but this time, the pump's seal plate and motor's end cap/mount flange were badly corroded and damaged. I also had a water feature pump that I knew had a problem, so I pulled it and worked on both. Today, I'm hoping to get one pump back up with spare parts and the rest of the parts should be here on Wednesday. This is my first, and last, home with a pool.

 

[Sheriff41]

Yesterday, today, and probably sometime mid-week, will be spent working on pool pumps and motors. I went to do the periodic water test and acid dose and saw the filter pump wasn't running. Often it's a quick fix, but this time, the pump's seal plate and motor's end cap/mount flange were badly corroded and damaged. I also had a water feature pump that I knew had a problem, so I pulled it and worked on both. Today, I'm hoping to get one pump back up with spare parts and the rest of the parts should be here on Wednesday. This is my first, and last, home with a pool.

Pools are great until you have to maintain them, and maintaining a pool is a never ending job.

 

[basstrix]

Pools are great until you have to maintain them, and maintaining a pool is a never ending job.

This home is just over 20 years old with original pool equipment. I've had to go through a variety of repairs, but this floor cleaner header was the most difficult to get right. The 7 pipes had to be cut down and extended, then glue up all 7 to the header at the same time. I even bought the slow setting pipe dope and still wasn't able to get it fully engaged. Luckily, it didn't require a second try.

I take it you've had your share of pool maintenance enjoyment? lol

 

[Sheriff41]

This home is just over 20 years old with original pool equipment. I've had to go through a variety of repairs, but this floor cleaner header was the most difficult to get right. The 7 pipes had to be cut down and extended, then glue up all 7 to the header at the same time. I even bought the slow setting pipe dope and still wasn't able to get it fully engaged. Luckily, it didn't require a second try.

I take it you've had your share of pool maintenance enjoyment? lol

View attachment 87480

My parents decided to have one put in 1971 (Patio Pools in Tucson) when I was an early teen. Their rules were my friends and I could use the pool but I had to maintain it. It was a good deal for my parents! Me? Not such a good deal.
When my sisters and I had moved out my parents sold the house. We all vowed we'd never have a pool again
I'm sure pool equipment and technology has improved significantly since 50-odd years ago, but the experience jaded me to ever owning one.

 

[giantpune]

Pools are great until you have to maintain them, and maintaining a pool is a never ending job.

I had a 15k gallon one at my last house. Sand filter and salt system. As long as you kept an eye on it, I put in about 1hr of work each week keeping it clean. The only time it was more is when something broke, like the power went out or a GFCI tripped, and the pool went south on me.

That 1hr was me manually vacuuming it. If it would have been a nicer pool, I would have ponied up for the pool roomba that cleans while you sip on your drink with the umbrella in it.

 

[Bentworker]

The thing with pools/spas is just because the water looks good does not mean it is. When I was in the business we made a lot of repair calls to people who tuned their pool water “by eye”. If you get the PH and total alkalinity way off the pool can look clear but be eating your heater heat exchanger alive, some times pump shaft seals too. On the other end of the spectrum it can start clogging up the heat exchanger or filter elements with mineral deposits. Unrelated, cyanuric acid builds up from stabilized chlorine use, if it gets to high the only thing to do is a pool water exchange. Hell, some folks on a well were better off hiring trucks to haul in water that had a lower TA if their well water was funky.

If you have a pool buy new test kit chems every season and actually test everything once every week or so. Ignoring the PH, TA and Cyanuric acid and just focusing on the sanitizer is a sure fire way to end up with a bill.

All that being said, after being in the business I do not have a pool…

 

[giantpune]

In the latest chapter of that chevy 350, its back running. I ended up doing a back yard rebuild on it. Honed the cylinders out with a drill. Installed some flat top pistons. Aluminum heads. Its a 4 bolt main block and came with the L-46 corvette cam. With these pistons, 64cc heads, and the head gasket, its 10:1 calculated compression. Maybe somewhere north of 350HP.

Thats more than enough power for the little C-10 farm truck.