rattle_snake's random shop projects v0.1

[rattle_snake]

You're going to need to develop or adapt a quick change tooling head for that table.

Yes. I see that I can put a drill chuck into the 1/4 die grinder collet and use it as CNC drilling machine.
The laser, would need to figure out how to control on/off. Add a relay. Needs an air system too.

What he said!! I'm continually impressed by your willingness to tackle just about anything!

I like the challenge. Learn something. Build capabilities.

CO2 or Fiber?

No experience retro fitting, but 5w CO2 seems on the very low end of usable power? 30w gets 1/8" ply cutting ability, 100w gets you 1/4" ply cutting

Yes low end engraving. Diode laser. Cheap. I think I need to start at 10W, $200. Can do multi-pass. No planning on cutting wood, just foam and fabric.

Generally speaking, foam from an upholstery supplier will work well with adhesives. For a dash pad you want either XLPE (cross linked polyethylene) or closed cell landau top foam. The later is definitely at any upholstery distributor. On the landau you want to scuff both sides with 80 grit. It has a skin on it and the adhesive won't bond to the skin. A few passes with 80 grit sanding block does the trick. Either foam can be shaped with round over router bits, sanding, etc. The denser XLPE has very little give, like an OEM dash.

Anytime the material (vinyl/leather) won't lay flat on its own you will need a seam. Materials will stretch some of course. This is a good way to sort out when and where you need seams. You can use masking tape as a pattern should you decide to add seams. Always happy to help. I don't have as much time on the forum these days, but I'm happy to help nonetheless.

Thanks for the info. I did use the masking tape approach for a pattern. I saw it applied to making curved sheet metal but process is the same. Appreciate the offer.

 

[rattle_snake]

Finished out the dash project. I did about 4 rounds of filler. The overall shape of the pad is distorted wherever it was cracked, so no hope of getting it flat or straight. So just move forward.


Next step was making a pattern. I knew the corners would be better sewn so I made a template out of painters tape. Marked the cut line.


Extended the template to the center of the pad to be able to located the two ends relative to one another. I made the pattern 1" shorter than the width of the dash so it fits tight enough.


I started on one half and did glue in 3rds, because only get one try. The second side was a bit to short and it is what it is.


Not completely happy with seam ends, but pad is wrapped up.






I think the dash ties the pieces together. The doors and seat only didn't go with black dash.


Cut some defrost vent rings on plasma. 16 ga.


adhered with thin 3M double sided tape, 1mm.

 

[rattle_snake]

Power switch in one of the amplifiers started to fail so found a suitable replacement.


The original switch was glued in with lots of potting and wasn't going to come out the front without cutting it out from the back. Cleaned all the dust and dirt out while it was open.

 

[rattle_snake]

Spent Friday helping a friend with boat trailer brakes. New axles, line and hoses. The coupler/brake actuator was full of rust, so had to cut it off and install a new one. The old was welded on, then plated over the top, and then booger welds covered in bondo. Lots of bondo. And a jack welded to one side and a winch tower to the top. So cut everything off down to original frame, and bolted the new one on. Blead the system and make a makeshift winch attachment. Needs a bow bumper to secure against.

 

[rattle_snake]

Puttered on little projects Sunday. Made some metal hangers for cordless blower and sawall.


Tools hanging out together.


Bump out to clear the battery and have the right angle/CoG.

 

[rattle_snake]

Drove the 76 F100 yesterday in 110+ heat. A/C did OK, but coolant temps go up quick if stopped. The engine chugs at 600 RPM, which is too slow for fan, alt, a/c. I ordered an idle stop solenoid to cobble onto the carb to bump it up when A/C is on. For max performance the HVAC box needs to come out for reseal. Perhaps an aux fan if there is room, now that I upgraded alternator.

 

[WoodsTruck]

I rebuilt the heater box on my Bronco recently and the hot ticket is to upgrade to a bigger blower motor/fan.
Curious if that would benefit your HVAC if you drop the box to reseal.

 

[ntsqd]

Cross check the OE motor p/n's, wouldn't surprise me if they're the same motor. Which means that the EB upgrade motor might work.

 

[rattle_snake]

The HVAC fan doesn't move that much air. Blows soft on high. I'll have to look into that when the time comes.

 

[PugetDude]

Drove the 76 F100 yesterday in 110+ heat. A/C did OK, but coolant temps go up quick if stopped. The engine chugs at 600 RPM, which is too slow for fan, alt, a/c. I ordered an idle stop solenoid to cobble onto the carb to bump it up when A/C is on. For max performance the HVAC box needs to come out for reseal. Perhaps an aux fan if there is room, now that I upgraded alternator.

But it's a dry heat....

 

[phred]

Post up the idle stop solenoid modification. I 78 and as missing this part when I bought it. The OP deleted a few things like that and I’d like to add it back to help idle speed like you are doing.

 

[SMOKEYBEAR]

The dash came out perfect. A friend and I discuss this frequently. He makes custom knives and I mess with everything as it surfaces. The manufacturer, you, knows every inch of the project inside and out. You know where the leather had an imperfection, where the cut was a smidge off the mark, the stitch landed not precisely where you desired, the filler didn't sand to your standard, it didn't seat perfectly symmetrical when you mounted it, one fastener didn't pull in in tight to the location you desired....and in the end, the one who made it is the only one who can see those finite imperfections.

The seat, door panels and dash came out great.

We now make it our version of humor / sarcasm / ball busting - something like " the lack of symmetry/ distinct variations in color ect really give it that handmade/ custom/ 1 off ect look" even when we can't find an imperfection in each others work.

 

[ntsqd]

I read it somewhere years ago and I've repeated it time to time.
"The difference between and Amateur and a Professional is that while both know where the mistakes are, only the Amateur points them out."
No idea who said it first, I'd give credit if I knew.

 

[PugetDude]

I read it somewhere years ago and I've repeated it time to time.
"The difference between and Amateur and a Professional is that while both know where the mistakes are, only the Amateur points them out."
No idea who said it first, I'd give credit if I knew.

I was at Home Depot a while back, the cashier asked me if I was a Professional. Told her, " No, I fix my mistakes instead of trying to hide them..."
She replied " That sounds about right."

 

[PhantomEB]

Who needs AC…..when bronco is drivable I will just run no doors Or half doors.

AC I consider a must have in both of my fully enclosed black vehicles!

 

[ntsqd]

AKA "4-40 A/C"

 

[rattle_snake]

Installed a sway bar on the '76 F100. Not a direct fit or OEM type, had to drill some holes.


At ride height. Made a huge difference in body roll as expected.

 

[rattle_snake]

Was shopping around for some cylinder heads to raise CR so a larger cam could be installed. Somehow that lead to a conversation with Scott J and then this happened.


At least everything is clean and doesn't need to be reworked. OK well the right header wouldn't come out. Trans cooler lines in the way.


Off with your heads. D8EO casting with huge 69cc chambers, small valves. In decent shape, just not a performance friendly casting.


Need deck height to know static compression ratio, so measured the four corner cylinders at 0.025.


Pistons are +0.040 so this block isn't a build candidate. Bores look OK, very slight ridge at top.


I measured one piston dish at 20 cc. I put a piece of foil tape over the dish and filled with water from graduated cylinder.
This makes SCR 8.15:1 with 69 cc chamber, std gasket.


Pulled a rod cap to inspect bearings.


Pulled one main cap as well. Crank is cut .010.


Main bearing has some wear.


Pulled the cam out to inspect, it and bearings look fine. Then started block prep. scraped gaskets and hit seal surfaces with sanders.



Plan is to leave rotating assembly alone for now. Install budget Promaxx 185 aluminum heads with 58 cc chamber to get SCR up to 9.0. This will support a cam with 213/219 duration, and should have a higher stall converter. The vavletrain isn't cheap, as much as the heads cost. HFT Cam/lifters, roller rockers, push rods, timing set.

 

[zmotorsports]

Dash turned out great Justin and don't you just love those Bondo welders.

 

[rattle_snake]

Dash turned out great Justin and don't you just love those Bondo welders.

Thanks Mike.
Bondo welder. Haven't heard that one.

I pondered the types for the job. Kitty hair, actual glass and mat. The regular/quick stuff worked well and provides the support it needed.

 

[zmotorsports]

Thanks Mike.
Bondo welder. Haven't heard that one.

I pondered the types for the job. Kitty hair, actual glass and mat. The regular/quick stuff worked well and provides the support it needed.

For some reason I saw more Bondo on welds on boat trailers than anything else. Not sure why, but it never failed that when I had to remove something on a boat trailer there was a high probability that the welded joint would have Bondo on it to smooth it out. Never understood that for a boat trailer. I mean I've applied body filler to welds on street rods where the chassis will be detailed with paint and clear then cut & buffed for show, but not on a boat trailer. I found just getting a properly penetrated weld on the components and then a couple coats of paint was usually enough to almost render the weld undetectable alone without the addition of body filler. Didn't see this process anywhere else but in the boat trailer industry for some reason.

 

[rattle_snake]

Boat trailers are cursed. Always have wiring problems too.

 

[zmotorsports]

Boat trailers are cursed. Always have wiring problems too.

Yep, wiring and wheel bearings seemed to be the most common repairs I did when I had my business. The trailer modifications and welding was less common, but the bondo seen was very common amongst those modifications.

 

[ntsqd]

Boat trailers taught me to use 4 conductor SOOW cord for the wiring, adhesive lined heat-shrink over the joins, and 3M Self-fusing tape over all cord junctions. Lighting grounds are floated, which is why 4 conductor cord.

And used small block Chevy wrist pins for the drag rollers at the rear.

EDIT: Haven't had the occasion to try it, but I long ago switched to using Redline CV2 grease in packed wheel bearings. I wonder if that would be a good call for boat trailer wheel bearings?

 

[zmotorsports]

EDIT: Haven't had the occasion to try it, but I long ago switched to using Redline CV2 grease in packed wheel bearings. I wonder if that would be a good call for boat trailer wheel bearings?

I too learned a LOT about wiring repairs working on those damn boat trailers. Got really good at corrosion protection and curing issues that plagued the owners for many years.

As for wheel bearing grease, I switched over to Phillips 66 Multiplex EP2 grease about 25+ years ago and wheel bearing issues dropped dramatically for my clients. Although, I can only partially credit this to the grease, much of it was insisting they repack their wheel bearings more frequently than once every 10 years. But I have been very impressed and pleased with that particular grease for wheel bearings on all trailers, not just boat trailers, so much in fact that I purchase it by the 35 lb. pale (5-gallon) and have my Alemite bearing packer affixed to the pale.

 

[rattle_snake]

I pulled two pistons out of the 351w and measured the ring gap, well because nitrous of course. The gap is way off, huge, 0.070 top, 0.040 2nd. Should be 20 or so. My engine guy said they are likely std size rings on the +0.040 pistons. So going to address the issue, new Hastings rings and ball the cylinder walls. I measure the ring gap on the ridge and it was .006 less, divide by pi and diameter delta is +0.002. So piston to wall is +0.001. I was told to leave the ridge instead of wallowing out the bore. Should improve the cylinder sealing.

 

[rattle_snake]

awhile back I had posted a fan clutch mod. It was not correct. I noticed my spring mod to the fan clutch was opposite of the other on my 460. both are clockwise. Heated the spring and it rotates the valve counterclockwise, so I had it backwards. Might explain the truck wanting to run at 220. But just moving the spring out of captive groove (in the right direction, CCW) allows the valve not to open and unload fan when it cools. So it really needs to be captive to apply force to valve in both directions. I bent the end of the spring to preload it more closed, as heat would do. Now it takes less heat to fully close/lockup.

The mark at 9:00 is original position of the valve, cold, open, 20% lockup
The mark at 8:30-ish is new position when cold
The mark at 7:00 is valve all the way closed, hot, 80% lockup

 

[rattle_snake]

Farting around with prep work while waiting on parts.

I read an interesting cooling system hack from an old timer when he worked at ford someplace hot. They would return the heater core coolant to the radiator instead of the water pump. Seems easy enough. 1.5x.15x.625 T adapter in upper hose.
Then I got to thinking there are 3 coolant paths out of the heads. Thermostat, bypass and heater. Only T-stat goes to radiator, other two loops go back into water pump.
Why not just delete the bypass, effectively forcing it's flow through the T-stat/radiator? In my case a high flow T-stat, so it actually can flow more.
Originally the truck had a 'pinch off' type of control valve in the heater loop. They don't work very good and heat soak the heater core eventually due to pressure differential across the core. This configuration needs another bypass path, aka manifold to pump elbow we all hate. I switched to a bypass type valve that allow full flow in either position. Given that the heater loop is always 'open' it is effectively a bypass path when T-stat is closed. So I don't need the elbow bypass. Seems easier to delete bypass than T into the upper hose.

So I cut the ****** off the bypass port and tapped to 3/8 NPT. Can plug, go back to a ****** for elbow bypass, or use for temp sender. I plan to use for sensor as it is on the engine side of the t-stat. Will have to block off the corresponding inlet on water pump.


I also opened up the manifold water ports. The early 351s had extra bolts that necessitated material partially blocking the water port. I cut that out, as the heads do not have threads there, and is opened up instead. Same for gasket, large rectangular water port.


The rear water port on head deadheads into manifold. The PO decided to fill this rough casting cavity with water soluble filler and paint over it, like the water neck. Luckily the goo balls hadn't gotten into the system yet. I put the manifold into the bask cabinet and removed all the filler.

I cleaned up the port opening at the head flange. Not making them larger, just uniform. Chased threads on all the holes. Ground the bolt head surfaces flat and chamfered from as-cast. With all that done I cleaned and painted the manifold a different color, aluminum.


The exhaust crossover is not going to be used. No passage in head or gasket. Don't need the thick cover, and don't really want different bolts for it so made a thin version.


Pulled all the pistons out of the block for new rings and brush hone. All the rod bearings were ok.


Removed the rings and cleaned up the piston crowns and ring lands. Could definitely tell where the oversized ring gap was, the channel was caked in grime. A few were worse than others starting to get stuck. Took awhile to clean.


Wrapped up the block

 

[ntsqd]

On my old Ranchero I messed around with "jetting" that by-pass in pursuit of better hot weather cooling. I don't recall what it did, but it was clear that restricting that port was not the good idea that I thought it would be. I ended up removing the jet. Then I put a Stewart Components coolant pump on it and all of the various little bad cooling behaviors it had went away.
1967 Ranchero with a 302 in it and a fully functioning heater. I do not recall there being any sort of coolant flow control valve in the heater system, and I don't have any pictures to review for it. t must have had something to control the temperature, but what it was I don't know. Whatever it was, it didn't live in the engine bay because the hot out came from the rear water jacket port in the right side cylinder head (I modified the intake to flow coolant from both of those coolant ports up to the coolant manifold behind the t-stat), and the heater return went via a SS tube up the fender liner to the coolant pump.

My '73 Square Body returns to the pump, but my '79 Sub returned to the radiator itself.

 

[rattle_snake]

why allow hot water out of back of head, as apposed to having it flow through the head to cool it?

 

[ntsqd]

I'd read that, and later confirmed with my own experiment that the rear of the heads run 10°F - 20°F hotter than the front of the heads. The coolant at the rear of a cylinder head has already passed thru the cylinders and past the combustion chamber & exhaust port of at least the rear cylinder. When you get detonation under extreme load it is typically the rear cylinders that do it first. That was the reasoning for the rear to front plumbing, trying to even out that thermal gradient. It did do that, but the gain wasn't worth the effort. Maybe it would have delivered more if I'd been pulling something heavier than the avatar?
All of this was based off of really looking at how a purpose designed medium duty gasoline fueled truck engine had its coolant jackets arranged. I couldn't easily duplicate all of its features, but I could use some of them.
During the times when I needed heat or defrost it took a very long time to get it when the hot supply was at the front of the engine. I moved it to the rear to see if that would speed up getting cabin heat. It did, marginally.

 

[rattle_snake]

I see. Thanks for sharing the info. Many engines have the same issue and when pushed hard enough the back cylinders get hurt first. There are kits for my 4.6 S/C cobra that allow the 2nd head to have an outlet. The heater is supplied from right head at the back.

 

[rattle_snake]

Finally replaced the cowl on my cobra. It has been broken a long time from accessing nitrous purge plumbing. I bought an OEM ford piece. Every part I have replaced on the car is OEM Ford unless its obsolete. A/C has been working great glad to be past all that.

 

[rattle_snake]

one of the few times I have ever needed the entire vertical range of my drill press.

tapped a few shallow threads into the back end of 351W cam. I used the drill press to start the tap straight. Oddly, I have never thought to do that. Works good on lathe why not?

 

[rattle_snake]

On with my cooling system saga. RTV ***** to clean up. All gaskets should be rubber over steel, dry. Felpro reusable t-stat gasket is $32. Put one on my 460. But I can buy an o-ring housing for $22. I could machine an o-ring groove in the neck I have, but lots of time and I would probably screw it up.
So just bought a o-ring version.


It doesn't have the the extra port on the radiator side of the t-stat, oh well not a good place for a temp sender. And the only color the cheap ones come in is chrome, so had to un-do that. turd polished and blasted.


And there is not enough meat in the casting to drill the bypass and tap to 3/8 NPT. Instead I hogged out the neck's bypass as large as I could and chamfered. Plan to use the bypass ****** to feed the heater core instead of the -10AN elbow setup. Use another 90* molded hose. Put the mechanical temp probe in the 1/2 NPT hole.


High flow t-stat. This truck has the supercooler radiator which includes larger diameter hoses in and out. I bought a 'high volume' aluminum water pump. The idea is maximize coolant flow.

 

[rattle_snake]

Custom Cam and Johnson notched lifters showed up. came in at 214/220 at 0.050. 107 LSA. .300 lift on both, with 1.6 rocker that is .480. I thought lift would be more, but looking at the flow rating of the heads, I don't think it would help much. at 0.500 lift the promaxx 185 flow 285 cfm. So at 480 they are around 275 which is huge.

 

[zmotorsports]

Nice choice on the cam spec's. I think that will run well and I agree, any small amount more lift will be negligible based on what the heads are flowing.

 

[rattle_snake]

Cam was spec'd for this engine by my engine guy. I trust his experience. More lift will just require more spring in this case, which won't help anything. He has swapped in the appropriate HFT springs onto the new heads. The heads come with back cut valves and pocket cleanup, so they flow really well at low lift.

 

[ntsqd]

I've backed away from the high flow t-stats because they flow so well. Part a t-stat's job is to be a restriction in the coolant system so that the pump can pressurize the block well above the cap pressure. An EB owner friend of mine up in WA did a test on block pressure. I think that I've mentioned it here before? At peak RPM he was seeing something like 40 psi in the engine.That pressure is what keeps the coolant from flashing to steam around the really hot parts in the cyl. head. My Ranchero (data point of one, so clearly everything will behave the same way, right?*) actually ran warmer with the high flow t-stat once I had all of the other cooling issues sorted out. Not by a lot, but enough. On the suggestion of a mentor I pulled it and put in a std flow t-stat just to see if it made a difference and it did.

One of the borderline turd polishing tricks that I like to do on aluminum intakes is to replace the t-stat housing bolt threads with at least a Heli-Coil but better would be a Time-sert or a Keen-Sert. Just head off that problem before it can happen.

*can you hear the self-depreciating sarcasm there?

 

[rattle_snake]

Interesting about the pressure. The pump I bought claims '300% increase in pressure'.

Thermodynamics indicate that more coolant flow = more heat transfer. Deleting on of the bypass paths kinda balances the high flow stat, but with different pump, who knows.

The fan and airflow are also a big part, will have to see how the system as a whole performs. Probably have to re-jet the carb also.