Hey all, it's been a while and for that I feel quite guilty. I feel guilt primarily because I have not really done anything on the Se7en, the weather is turning pretty harsh in terms of temperature and I feel like working on the car requires some level of dexterous mobility with the fingers, whereas working on the jeep requires a hammer and a sawzall.
I think the Se7en is a summer car, it has that kind of a feel to it, so it's been sat there, watching me use 1" drive sockets and big heavy hammers on the ol' jeep. Soon I shall either put it into indoor storage that my buddy has reserved for me for the winter months, maybe pull it back out in March to get it finished up in time for auto-x season, or maybe I shall move it to the side and burrito it in tarps, I feel that indoor (somewhat) heated storage may be the best bet.
The jeep project is coming along though, I had the motor running and managed to drive the old thing up and down the drive a bit, then looked at the tailpipe and saw ridiculous amounts of black oil coming out, pulled the head and saw that all the rings were past their best, plus #2 piston had a hole in it.
Dropped the head off at the shop to get it skimmed and a light valve job. Saw that the block had already had exhaust seats done, so ordered up some new valves,rings and a piston, pulled all the pistons with the engine in situ from underneath with the car up on ramps. I've never done that before! Also ordered up some big end bearings and a hg set. Rockauto has absolutely everything in stock for these things at a decent price.
Then it was time to get rid of the rusted through tub, half an hour with an angle grinder and sawzall made light work of the tub, and made it so that I could get rid of it by myself. Now we are at the chassis, lots of wire wheel work to be done, however under the peeling paint and rust spots the chassis is still pretty solid for almost 60 years old. I'm going to look into media blasting it or dustless blasting to get at the bits where a wire wheel doesn't, but that finance depending.
It's pretty crazy inder the skin, with the super tall motor, big gearbox/transfercase/pto setup, it really reminds me of the Massey Furguson 135 tractor on which I learned to drive when I was 9 years old.
Any way, time for a photo dump:
Replaced the starter with a Yota Land cruiser model, drilled the mounting holes in the starter to 5/8" and it mounted right up! #restomod
Head pulled, lots of oil from a makeshift low pressure leakdown test
The hole in the piston is at 11 o'clock-ish in the image
Super long conrods
Pulling the exhaust valves
Teardown of the tub begins, dash is removed
Windshield and frame pops off
Trans cover out
Wonderful rats nest
First cut, seen at the lower portion of the image
The 'firewall' section is definitely the heaviest
And that's where i'm at, off to HF to get some more wire wheels and waiting for Mr Fedex to deliver me some engine bits.
Greek giro's for dinner last night!
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