Glinda's Re-sealed Engine Almost Road-Ready

Victoria and I were back in the garage yesterday evening to finish our efforts to re-seal Glinda’s engine. I had her thoroughly inspect the crank seal comparing it to the new one I’d just received from the Corvair Ranch. We agreed that it was undamaged and still quite flexible – acceptable to continue using. I selected the better of the two GUP-worthy harmonic balancers and handed it to V to clean up the sealing surface with Scotchbrite. After applying white assembly grease to the same surface and the bore, she slipped it over the end of the crank. Oh yeah, we also verified the key was in place. Since Glinda’s engine has been de-smogged, there’s no need to keep the second pulley wheel. This change, however, meant the bolt that came off the end of the crank was too long and there was now no large washer to retain the balancer. If we’d chosen to reinstall the pulley wheel, we’d have to go back to the 90 degree oil filter adapter that I’d decided to do away with. So, to the GUP part’s stash I went and, lo-and-behold, on the end of the crank that came out of Heidi’s original engine were the correct washer and bolt. TYL. With some anti-seize slathered on the threads Victoria drove the bolt home with my impact wrench. Next, she mounted the engine mount bracket with the four nuts. We then cranked up the tranny jack lifting the engine back into place. With the two engine mount nuts torqued on, the engine was back in place.

Now it was time to replace the gaskets on the oil pan and valve covers. Victoria had the pleasure of removing all the screws and having oil drip on her while I cleaned the parts off and made sure the flanges were flat. A surprising discovery was the lack of a gasket on the oil pan – just a lot of RTV. Cleaned and with new cork gaskets held on with a very thin coat of RTV, the pan went back on first, followed by the two covers. BTW, no RTV was put on the joint between the gaskets and the engine. Screws were torqued per the manual, and it was time to install a new filter and fill the crankcase with oil. After double-checking all the joints and fittings, I poured some gas down each carb and turned the key. It took a few tries, but she finally stayed running and settled into idle. I carefully looked all over the engine to find any leaking joints, and all looked good. TYL. There is an annoying puff-puff-puff noise coming from cylinder #6. I just did a quick search on the CorvairCenter forum and had my memory confirmed - it’s a leaking head gasket. Fortunately, the fix may be to just re-torque the head bolts/nuts, but it needs to be done before running the engine again. At least I know the valve cover will come off easily, but I will need to re-orient the car on the jackstands so all the oil runs to the opposite side before I can remove the cover.

The last project we attempted was replacing the four-inch heater hoses that run from the engine to the heater box. Sadly, we were stymied by rusty screws on the clamps. I soaked the threads with my penetrating concoction and will re-try tonight.