Maybe this is a dumb idea but I figured I'd start a "build" thread on my spare 360. I dropped it here because it will involve me and some of my classmates taking it apart, checking it all out and hopefully putting it back together ok. Depending on what it looks like when we open it up will tell how far this thread goes. I won't have money to send it to be machined or bored out if it's needed so at best I can hope it goes together well and I can use new whatever minor stuff I can afford. I do have a new edelbrock performer and summit cam & lifters already squirrelled away. Beyond that I'll have to skrimp and save. The only downside is this is on a short (relatively speaking) timeline of 4 weeks. The motor has to be back together by then to get credit on it for the semester.
Things this will involve:
Disassemble the motor down to bare components. Measure specs and tolerances. Clean the block/heads etc as much as possible.
Hopefully do a valve job. Hopefully do the oil mod. And then, Hopefully, assemble it all correctly with all new seals/gaskets etc. I'll be taking pics as I go so if I get stuck, I'd greatly appreciate any of you motor gurus chiming in to offer some thoughts!
What it is:
As far as I can tell the motor is a late 80s ^ 360. Isn't stamped as a 5.9 so it's not from the last year's. The motor was given to my by my former storage yard friend as he was moving out. He's the same guy that fave me the Chief. This motor was supposedly running when pulled but I have no idea on mileage, condition, etc. Hence the crossed fingers.
Day 1:
Started today by heading to storage to try and load the motor from the back of my 67 commando half cab. Being that it's all dirt and sand, that was a bit of an effort. Had to use the suburban to pull the jeepster from between the two shipping containers. Then I had to find all the parts and wrestle my engine hoist out of the container. I reassembled it, hooked up a chain, had to add fluid and bleed the hydraulic ram, then got the motor lifted out of the Jeep. I then had to hook several recovery straps together and pull the commando back forward. Once that was done I was able to back the suburban towards the hoist and set the motor on the tailgate. It took a lot of struggle to get the motor pushed in enough to close the gate. My back isn't happy with the exertion but such is life.
So I rush home, change clothes, and head to school. After some tests etc we finally got out to the shop. Had help so getting it out and hung on the hoist went much easier. Unfortunately we wasted almost an hour looking for bolts to mount the engine stand bracket.
Once we got it on the stand we set to pulling stuff off. Much of it is junk, hoses cut or dry rotted, wires all worn and cracked. And some stuff just not being reused (like the smog pump).
One interesting thing was this weird thing I guess is some sort of block heater?
it has a male end 110 plug on it as well as some heater hose? I also saw this strange freeze plug with some kind of receptacle in it??
As there are 4 of us wrenching on this it goes fairly quickly but I seem to be the one with the most experience, certainly the only Jeep motor wrench time. We do tend to stumble over each other in a search for tools more than anything... Haha.
So we get most of the misc. Stuff off the motor and can see some tales of condition. Lots of debris/rat leftovers on the intake. A peep down the thermostat housing was scary. As we get the Alternator, AC compressor, and PS pump off I noticed how rusty looking the water pump is. A brief effort trying to spin it shows its completely frozen. At this point I'm a little concerned. Decide to move to the next big unknown and drain the oil. My fear being it had been left uncovered before I got it and it was a boat anchor. Pull the drain plug and nothing but used, black oil comes out. YEA! No empty oil pan and even better, no water! Maybe there is hope.
So as we are running out of time I can't resist pulling the valve covers. After the recent efforts on my waggy Walter and seeing the horrific build up of sludge, I wasn't expecting much. For reference, here's what Walter's head looked like:
And here's what crossed fingers heads look like:
Holy smoke!!!
kinda scary how clean they are.
Unfortunately that's about where we ran out of time. Cleaned up our mess and rolled it out of the way. Monday we should have the heads off and see more of what I got. Wish me luck.