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Sunday. Cool but warming to mid '60's today Sunday. Working on the motor. Probably something I should not have done today. OK, here goes.
Decided to assemble all of the finally finished adaptors, clutch, and bellhousing assembly today. Planned supper at sons house at 5:00 pm so figured even with last minute assembly mods, I would plenty of time. Eveything went great, got bellhousing centered, clutch all in and bell on. Got out the engine cherry picker, using it to sling the trans up into possition to see if anything was amiss with it going into place, (I'm too old to swing that heavy mutha up into place anymore), all looked great. OK this went too well. Reviewed everything to make sure I didn't miss anything. All's good. I've got time, my roller lifters have been soaking in oil for 4 days, lets put in the lifters. Assembly lube on everything, lifers in, assembly lube on the pushrods, drop them in, all's good. Bring out the roller rockers, assembly lube everything that touches anything, Badda Bing, Bodda Boom. Everything in place. Pull out the extra long stud poly locks for the stud girdle, put on first side and the phone rings. SCREECHHHH, all the good stuff comes to a screeching halt. Hands all full of oil and assembly lube, I lay down the poly locks in my hand (about 4 of them) on the head next to the rockers and go answer the phone. Friend having problems with installing a clutch fork in a bellhousing during a trans swap. Talk him thru that, then back to work. I look at the poly locks and I have one missing. I know there were about 4 that I layed on the motor (head) before answering the phone. I know there were 16 when the package came, I counted them. I counted them when I took them out of the package today. I start looking. Here's the "Monkey Move". Pontiacs have the lifter valley tray that covers the lifter valley. Putting on all of these parts I left it open (Monkey Move) because I would eventually be setting the valves and is much easier to watch the cam lobes to make sure your on the base of the lobe for setting the lash. My heart starts pounding, I'm thinking somehow one of the poly locks dropped down into the valley and down into the motor. So I finish installing the rest of the poly locks just to make sure they are all (but one) accounted for. I do everytihing from the top to look for the missing one. I crawl around on the floor, moving anything and everything around my work area to find the one poly lock. At this point I've assumed that it is in the motor. I slowly turn the motor over listening for any noise or anything that may stop the assembly from rotating. Nothing. Nada. So I start the floor search all over again. I looked and looked. Nothing. Ok. Tear off the clutch and all the adaptors/starter. Get out the cherry picker, lift the motor up off of the steel table it's been on, and pull off the oil pan. Nothing in the pan. With the motor open, I rotate the assembly again and stop every 1/4 revolution, take the work light and look up at every rod, piston, and counterweight. Nothing no Friggin' poly lock. Not anywhere. I keep hearing this Twilight Zone--do do do do--do do do do--playing in my ear. I know without a doubt I had 16, now I have 15. There is a pan bolt that was never on the early blocks/pans that is on the late pans (which I'm using), so I take this opportunity to drill and tap the block for that bolt. Of course, "Monkey Move" I break the tap off in the hole???? Never done that before, "Monkey Move" right? The tap was just starting and the hole went into the bellhousing rear area so I was able to knock the tip of the tap back out. Drill hole to next larger size tap and tap it out. OK, that's done. I'm reasonably sure the poly lock is not in the engine. One more look around inside, nothing, start to reinstall the pan. With the engine hanging from the lift. Add some silicone to help reseal the pan gasket, get all the bolts back in place except one that dropped out of my hand on to the floor. That bolt hit a 12 foot piece of angle iron for another home project that is laying along side my car, and it rolls under the car. I'm laying on my back on the floor, looking across at the little bolt about 5 feet away, and I see a glint of shiny metal, way over against the far garage wall. This is at least 12 feet away to the opposite garage wall. There it is. The &%^* ^%$#& *&(*&)*&&^% poly lock. It must have fallen off the motor, hit the angle iron, and rolled all the way to the garage wall. I don't think I could throw it that far (lol) but it rolled all that way. Damn. I not going to keep my floor so clean anymore. If there had been just a little dirt or dust it probably would not have rolled that far. But it must have really been moving because it had to jump a seam in the cement too. I have a hard time rolling my jack across it. Geezzzz. At this time I'm mad as hell but happy that it's not in the motor. Then my wife comes in and reminds me that it's late and we could be getting late for my son's dinner. Good thing my son never has dinner ready at the time he says it will be, LOL.
So, that's my "Monkey Move" for the week. All that time wasted and now I still have to reinstall everything again. It's late, I gotta go cry myself to sleep.
Markus O'GeeezzzDumbassious
Decided to assemble all of the finally finished adaptors, clutch, and bellhousing assembly today. Planned supper at sons house at 5:00 pm so figured even with last minute assembly mods, I would plenty of time. Eveything went great, got bellhousing centered, clutch all in and bell on. Got out the engine cherry picker, using it to sling the trans up into possition to see if anything was amiss with it going into place, (I'm too old to swing that heavy mutha up into place anymore), all looked great. OK this went too well. Reviewed everything to make sure I didn't miss anything. All's good. I've got time, my roller lifters have been soaking in oil for 4 days, lets put in the lifters. Assembly lube on everything, lifers in, assembly lube on the pushrods, drop them in, all's good. Bring out the roller rockers, assembly lube everything that touches anything, Badda Bing, Bodda Boom. Everything in place. Pull out the extra long stud poly locks for the stud girdle, put on first side and the phone rings. SCREECHHHH, all the good stuff comes to a screeching halt. Hands all full of oil and assembly lube, I lay down the poly locks in my hand (about 4 of them) on the head next to the rockers and go answer the phone. Friend having problems with installing a clutch fork in a bellhousing during a trans swap. Talk him thru that, then back to work. I look at the poly locks and I have one missing. I know there were about 4 that I layed on the motor (head) before answering the phone. I know there were 16 when the package came, I counted them. I counted them when I took them out of the package today. I start looking. Here's the "Monkey Move". Pontiacs have the lifter valley tray that covers the lifter valley. Putting on all of these parts I left it open (Monkey Move) because I would eventually be setting the valves and is much easier to watch the cam lobes to make sure your on the base of the lobe for setting the lash. My heart starts pounding, I'm thinking somehow one of the poly locks dropped down into the valley and down into the motor. So I finish installing the rest of the poly locks just to make sure they are all (but one) accounted for. I do everytihing from the top to look for the missing one. I crawl around on the floor, moving anything and everything around my work area to find the one poly lock. At this point I've assumed that it is in the motor. I slowly turn the motor over listening for any noise or anything that may stop the assembly from rotating. Nothing. Nada. So I start the floor search all over again. I looked and looked. Nothing. Ok. Tear off the clutch and all the adaptors/starter. Get out the cherry picker, lift the motor up off of the steel table it's been on, and pull off the oil pan. Nothing in the pan. With the motor open, I rotate the assembly again and stop every 1/4 revolution, take the work light and look up at every rod, piston, and counterweight. Nothing no Friggin' poly lock. Not anywhere. I keep hearing this Twilight Zone--do do do do--do do do do--playing in my ear. I know without a doubt I had 16, now I have 15. There is a pan bolt that was never on the early blocks/pans that is on the late pans (which I'm using), so I take this opportunity to drill and tap the block for that bolt. Of course, "Monkey Move" I break the tap off in the hole???? Never done that before, "Monkey Move" right? The tap was just starting and the hole went into the bellhousing rear area so I was able to knock the tip of the tap back out. Drill hole to next larger size tap and tap it out. OK, that's done. I'm reasonably sure the poly lock is not in the engine. One more look around inside, nothing, start to reinstall the pan. With the engine hanging from the lift. Add some silicone to help reseal the pan gasket, get all the bolts back in place except one that dropped out of my hand on to the floor. That bolt hit a 12 foot piece of angle iron for another home project that is laying along side my car, and it rolls under the car. I'm laying on my back on the floor, looking across at the little bolt about 5 feet away, and I see a glint of shiny metal, way over against the far garage wall. This is at least 12 feet away to the opposite garage wall. There it is. The &%^* ^%$#& *&(*&)*&&^% poly lock. It must have fallen off the motor, hit the angle iron, and rolled all the way to the garage wall. I don't think I could throw it that far (lol) but it rolled all that way. Damn. I not going to keep my floor so clean anymore. If there had been just a little dirt or dust it probably would not have rolled that far. But it must have really been moving because it had to jump a seam in the cement too. I have a hard time rolling my jack across it. Geezzzz. At this time I'm mad as hell but happy that it's not in the motor. Then my wife comes in and reminds me that it's late and we could be getting late for my son's dinner. Good thing my son never has dinner ready at the time he says it will be, LOL.
So, that's my "Monkey Move" for the week. All that time wasted and now I still have to reinstall everything again. It's late, I gotta go cry myself to sleep.
Markus O'GeeezzzDumbassious
